#Grad504

[2022-504-aureliadebae]

References

Bold Fonts. (n.d.). Retrieved from Barlow Font Free download: https://boldfonts.com/barlow-font/

CDN Fonts. (2020). Retrieved from CND Fonts: https://www.cdnfonts.com/barlow.font

Google Fonts. (n.d.). Retrieved from Barlow: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Barlow

lifestyle, E. C. (2022). California through my lens. Retrieved from Famous roads for great drives in California: https://californiathroughmylens.com/famous-roads-for-great-drives-in-california/

Masters, N. (2015, October 27). KCET. Retrieved from What Does California's State Highway Shield Symbolize?: https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/what-does-californias-state-highway-shield-symbolize

Rhinocarhire. (n.d.). Retrieved from US Road signs: https://www.rhinocarhire.com/Drive-Smart-Blog/Drive-Smart-USA/United-States-Road-Signs.aspx

Tribby, J. (n.d.). Tribby. Retrieved from Barlow: https://tribby.com/fonts/barlow/

[2022-504-joshualowe]

Reflection

In my first year of Materials and Media, my design skills have improved expansionary. I have developed a deep understanding of design in general. I personally enjoyed the first half and second half projects being connected, this made me more confident transitioning into the second project. Overall, I really enjoyed these papers. I feel I have feathered my knowledge in my animation, publications and typography.

[2022-504-ethangeers]

The font assigned to me is Zilla Slab, a font designed by Peter Biľak and Nikola Djurek working for Typotheque, a type foundry and design studio located in The Hague, Netherlands. It was commissioned by the Mozilla Foundation in 2016 and is a slab serif font with smooth curves and true italics (source). A true italic is designed by the type designer. Each character is meticulously and intentionally created as an italic form, normally with calligraphic or cursive flourishes, and even changing the letterform altogether (source). 

[grad504madisonwolfgramm]

Rationale

GRAD504/52

Type Matters - Project 2: Social Media Type Animation 

Madison Wolfgramm – Rationale

After working on Project 2 - Social Media Type Animations for the past seven weeks, I can confidently declare that I can design one. I produced four outputs, two in GIF and MP4 formats, using Adobe Photoshop to build my Frame by Frame Animation and Video Timeline, as well as Adobe Illustrator to generate graphics. Because they were built to function together, these two platforms made my life easier by importing and exporting my work from programme to programme, which was really useful when done correctly. I am really pleased that I was able to work with the same allocated typeface, 'IBM,' and that I was able to experiment more than in my Type Specimen Book Project 1. By completing this, I had done additional research on existing animations on IBM Plex, mainly looking into various ways to include my typography and material in an animation. With so much study, I recall periods when I focused more on aesthetics, such as repetition and confusing transitions, rather than a unified design informing viewers about my typeface. I had several roller- coaster designer moments when I wondered if having so many readymade animations out there under IBM Plex made this designing process harder through a mental battle that I had to either live up to those standards or make it even better which made this process challenging personally.

By sketching out frame by frame with various annotations of transitions and text to be created, I was able to gradually overcome this hurdle. I accomplished this by categorising the information I had and choosing what would work best. Each Animation focused on a different component of my typeface, such as the Introduction, Glyph Matrix, Type Features, and History. Sorting them into sections made the design process go more smoothly.

Throughout the creative process, I became familiar with setting up my canvas with the proper dimensions and saving it as a pre-set. Working with RGB benefited me and my work because I was able to work with the vibrant blue that I had always wanted to use to highlight IBM Plex alongside black and white, and I finally decided to use these as my colour palette. I was able to use groups for my layers as well as rename them to make it easier to work with while generating frame-by-frame or video animations so that I didn't get confused and that I was working with a clean workspace before I used the timeline window after learning technical abilities. This method improved and worked best for my process because it did not require me to look at and click on every layer when I could simply read and tick or untick the layers to proceed. This was very helpful, especially when it came to adding transitions to my animations, whether they were gifs from one end to the other or keyframes for the video timeline to ensure it was smooth rather than jagged and delayed, making it difficult to watch.

I had very little experience with Frame by Frame Animation in the past for Semester 1 Design Studio Class, but I had no idea until these last few weeks working up to this project that you can do so much more. The in-class workshops were extremely beneficial in terms of watching, applying and revising the work completed. Along the way, I learned a new language and gained technical abilities and tools to help me improve as a designer and in this project. I took care to practise on my own to completely understand the tools utilised so that I don't fall behind and become comfortable with them when I make my own. I had some challenges with exporting the two different formats, dealing with keyframes in the video timeline, and motion tweens along the way, but I was able to resolve these issues with the help of one- on-ones, feedback, and recorded content to revisit. Receiving feedback this time around was very useful in this process, as was talking to my lectures about the ideas I had produced and evaluating what needed to be better. This assisted in the refinement of my work into better animations for my summative.

I've learned a lot during the last seven weeks of working on this animation project. Looking back at the work I've done in the past and now has made me the happiest person in the world with what I've created and turned in. Through the static arrangement of type and layout of generating 2D Type Specimen Animated Movies, this project has taught me so much about design. I'm excited to see what I can achieve with these skills in the future of my design career, as this project has given me the ability to create a professional-looking series of animations.

[2022-504-teya]

GRAD504

Final submission for GRAD504 - Video timeline 1

[brendanbekkergrad504]

Week 7 - Our First GIF

Week 7

For this week’s class, we got introduced to the next part of our grad504 assignment which is animation using gifs and mp4s. Learning what frame by frame is and starting our understanding of a Motion and starting our journey. The video that is on canvas showing and explaining different frame rates really show and express how much difference each amount of frame rate can either make the moving image look laggy or look smooth.

In class we did an exercise that started us off learning frame by frame. By drawing around a letter with the brush tool, duplicate the layers and keep drawing around. Finally merging the layers together for each frame and creating our first simple gif.

[504kathypark]

GRAD504  (Web view) - this is the link to my onenote, I cant seem to upload any videos onto my tumblr blog anymore and so I had to create a onenote for my further design process. I could’t add as much iterations as I liked as I didn’t know how to without causing to much confusion so please keep that in mind!! thank you

[2022-504-kayleigherwee]

Rationale - in progress

A rationale describing my skills and issues during part 2 of GRAD504 Materials & Media II. I decided to design my rationale and reflection this time because for project one I didn’t, and it was pointed out that everything should be designed. The envelopes, the rationales/reflections, and any other outputs from the designer that normally a client would receive. I took that to heart and agree with it. I used the T from Trirong as a background object, and Trirong as my header fonts, but found it was better with a sans font as the body copy to make it more legible.

[2022-504-georgiacampbell]

RATIONALE

GEORGIA CAMPBELL GRAD504/54 RATIONALE

Throughout this project, I have learned many things that assisted me in my creative process and my outcome. I learned how to do spot colour swatches on Indesign. I applied that technique to my front and back cover along with several pages in my book. Being able to create tints of colour was also a difficult process when trying to get the right balance of CMYK but I eventually got the hang of it.

Being hyper-aware of widows and orphans was something I implemented in my layouts. I also learned that having long line lengths is sometimes a strain on the eye to read. Something I had never really thought about until it was brought to my attention. Being made aware of new techniques I think is key, and slowly adds to my knowledge of design practices.

I started fine-tuning my tracking, leading, kerning, font size and grid skills. Although I am still aware they probably need some work but with the in-person tutorials, I’ve started to pick up what looks right. I also aimed to keep most of my text in one text box per page if possible. It was emphasised in class that we learn to do this as it makes our lives easier in most cases.

Active text and outlined text is something I hadn’t thought about either. I knew that you could create outlines but I didn’t realise it was something to do with an entire booklet. This was helpful when uploading my document to issuu.com. Which is another thing I learned how to navigate.

Memorising the printing settings is something I am starting to understand more. Making sure I have short edge binding, two-up saddle stitch etc. I am aware they would sometimes be different depending on the publication but I am glad I am starting to understand what setting is used for what and why.

My favourite shortcut I learned is holding down the ‘option’ key to duplicate things instead of having to copy and paste. This was helpful when getting things to line up. I also found the Pathfinder tool very useful on both Indesign and Illustrator. I didn’t understand what it did until I started doing things like Page 16-17.

I also watched this tutorial on Youtube about stapling booklets in the centre of the spine. I had my spreads all cut-out and folded but only a regular stapler. I watched this tutorial on how to do it by hand and I got them right in the centre which I was super pleased with. Last semester my stapling was quite dodgy and was something I wanted to improve on and I’m glad I did.

I am still relatively new to Indesign and didn’t think I had learnt that much. However, taking the time to look back on it, I have learned copious amounts of knowledge about the Adobe Creative Suite that I didn’t even know of a few weeks ago.

[2022-504-mathewhocking]

REFLECTION 1.0

“...If you can design one thing, you can design everything... a designer’s life - is a life of flight: A fight against the ugliness...” - Massimo Vignelli

In class this week we were introduced to the brief for GRAD504 and what is expected across both of the Type Matters projects. I will revisit that before our next session to highlight/annotate anything I have questions about or feel is important for myself to keep note of. Karol and Trajano will be taking this course and it was really great to meet both them. We had a quick rundown on how Canvas will operate during this course as well as the course structure, AUT values, and available resources - all super helpful and informative. As someone who is a big fan of typography, it was cool to hear some history and see some examples of work in the presentation.

We jumped straight into creating assets for the project by completing a few exercises in class which I've documented on my blog already. I was assigned the IBM Plex typeface to work with and right off the bat I had an idea of what it might look like based off the popular IBM logo. I don’t know a lot about them as a company but from what I understand they specialise in computer hardware and software. I will conduct further research to understand the relationship between the company and the typeface origin. Our SDL task for this week is to create a new (27th) letter for the Latin alphabet.

SDL 1.0 - Make a counterbrief - Review class presentation - Research assigned typeface - The 27th letter task

[grad504katywolf]

Brief:

This is the brief for the GRAD504 Materials and Media paper. I have highlighted the key points.

[2022-504-aureliadebae]

Famous State Highways in California

For the development of my videos/GIFs, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the most famous roads within California. I thought this could be useful as I could use them to showcase Barlow's numbers within my animations.

Tioga Pass (State Route 120) - 74 miles from lee Vining to Yosemite valley.

Highway 395 - 557 miles from Victorville to the Nevada border, East of Tahoe.

Route 66 - 315 miles from Needles to Santa Monica. Has a lot of historical stops along the way

Interstate 15 (road to Vegas, Mimics apart of Route 66) - 315 miles from Needles to Santa Monica.

Highway 101 - 805 miles from Los Angeles to the Oregon border

Interstate 5 - 769 miles from Mexico to the Oregon border.

Highway 99 - 424 miles from I-5 near Bakersfield to Red Bluff.

These would be some good interstates and highways to include in my design as they are well-known and recognisable as apart of California's transit landscape.

[2022-504-joshualowe]

Rationale

In the second half of semester two, our paper was to create four different social media-type animations for Instagram. Working on this project, this class has made me well-versed in creating animations in Adobe Photoshop. Using the skill learnt in my Design Studio class last semester creating my animatics, I found making these four animations easier and felt there wasn't a steep learning curve.

This project continues with using my assigned typeface ASAP and ASAP Condensed and the colour palette from my Type Specimen Book. In my four type animations I wanted them to be very simple but informative, it displays many of my specimen book assets, my first animation is a quick introduction to ASAP, the name of the developer and displays the type anatomy diagram from my specimen book, my second animation displays all the variations of the typeface, my third displays the glyphs and languages that ASAP supports and my fourth animation is dedicated to my 27th letter created earlier this semester and includes a type anatomy diagram from my book. They are a culmination of the skills learnt for the in-class task we have done. This is seen on my Tumblr blog with my SDLs.

This semester I have learnt many new skills from Trajano and Karol. The main takeaway I will be using from this paper is using Video timelines in Photoshop.

Overall making these animations was very informative and enjoyable. It has given me a deeper understanding of Animations and Gifs. I will be using these skills in future assignments and projects and will also further my skills. A criticism for myself is to plan more. I am proud of the work I’ve created and looking forward to the next year in Materials and Media.

[2022-504-izzymcbeth]

WEEK 1: LECTURE + LAB

The first lecture/lab for GRAD504 Materials and Media II served as a introductory to the paper and its contents such as brief, semester timeline, and learning outcomes. We were informed on the type and animation focus that this paper was going to have, coinciding with the two summative assignments based around type and animation. The first part of the brief we looked into was that of a project based on an assigned typeface and the creation of a typeface specimen booklet, presenting our research and studying of the typeface. The second part of the brief we didn’t look into too much as it would be occurring in the second half of the semester, however we briefly discussed how we would be focussing on motion and animation design for social media involving our typefaces again. 

After all of this was talked through, we were assigned our typefaces, I was given the Google typeface called ‘Spectral’  from Google fonts. This would be the typeface I would study and use throughout the semester and for both briefs. We then went through and downloaded the fonts to our laptops, did some brief reading into the typeface and its production, and then went into Adobe Illustrator to create a typeface specimen sheet. This included displaying all of the different weights, fonts, and specifications of the typeface.

[grad504madisonwolfgramm]

Reflection

GRAD504/52 Type Matters - Project 2: Social Media Type Animation

Madison Wolfgramm – Reflection

Looking back on my work for Project 2 - Social Media Type Animation I am confident in my ability to create animation and am satisfied with the work I have submitted. I was able to create two gifs and two MP4 animations with the help of research and in-class lab time.

This project was challenging because I wanted every line or transition to be perfect; when it came to handing in or presenting work, my OCD and perfectionist kicked in. I have a habit to overthink beyond what is required and complicate things for myself, such as when I spend more time on one idea to master it or ignore concepts that I make but do not refine. Over time, I discovered that brainstorming and planning out my frames were beneficial in gaining a clear understanding of what to do so that I was not confused and irritated with myself when the task was not completed, and I was able to overcome some of these hurdles. When using the motion tween or adding new layers, frame-by-frame animation caused problems at times. Making sure it's either at the back or in the front so my design is seen and flows through the tween. Frame Animation was more difficult for me than Video Timeline, however, it was a bit hit or miss at times because Video Timeline has its obstacles, such as making sure your layers are smart objects so they can be visible if you use transitions. When it came down to it, making the two MP4s was difficult, but I found it easier when I completed my movies in chunks and then imported them onto a new canvas via a new video layer. This contributed to keeping the workspace clean and organised while adding further transitions to smooth the movements between the video layers, which are all fused together when imported. I found this easier because I had a smaller screen than the ones used on campus where the screens are larger because you can see a clear view rather than zooming in and out and not knowing what you're doing on the canvas.

Looking back at my Project 1 - Type Specimen Book and Project 2 Formative for this project, the level of typeface experimentation has improved, and getting out of my design comfort zone has completely transformed the work I submitted as my final for my Summative. I was able to generate more creative ideas and refine them in order to create better material that is related to my assigned typeface IBM Plex. I've considered a variety of approaches to presenting information to our target audience that is both informative and entertaining while also connecting with my style. Even though this was a difficult assignment, I really loved learning new skills and creating my own animations. I can't wait to see what more I can achieve with these skills and maybe improve along the way.

[lioots]

LIOOTS - GRAD504/54

materials and media

lioots-grad504.tumblr.com