This whole project was based around charities and how we can catch the viewers attention for 60 seconds. We all chose different charities and my one was the "Make-A-Wish Foundation".We had three different outcomes that we needed to do:
Poster:
I wanted to do a digital illustration for this one, because I found it easier to do, then go and take pictures of ill children looking out of their windows at the night sky.
I did some research into Make-A-Wish and saw how they made their posters eye-catching and what their posters were like. I wrote out a mind-map, containing all of the different poster ideas and I liked them all, but especially idea no.5, because it gave me that wishful feeling and out of all the ideas, it showed more of the charity, as the wishing star in it resembles making a wish and the thin child resembles how sick and weak they were. After choosing no.5, I developed it into 5 more ideas. All were fine, but I chose the first idea, because it had fit all of the criteria that of what the charity is like: wishing stars, ill child... etc.
That was when I started to make the poster.
I made it all on Photoshop CC 2015 edition and sketched out the layout for the poster. As I had stated before, making this poster on Photoshop is much easier for me, because I am more used to using Photoshop than the other programs. I'm also illustrating this poster, because I'm more into illustration than photography, because it would be difficult for me to go and find a very sick child, especially one in a hospital bed and looking through the window, so I'm illustrating my poster on Photoshop.
First, I did a sketch of where each object/character is going, then I drew the outlines of each thing, making sure that they were the right measurements and proportions. I did mainly three layers, bottom being the background, then the second being the window, city and sky and the last being the child. Finally, I coloured it all in, using dull colours for the hospital room and bright colours for the window, city and stars. And I also wrote in "Can YOU make his wish come true?". I used write, gold and blue colours for the writing and I wanted to make it look like a child's written it, because the audience for Make-A-Wish are children, and blue and white are the charity's main colours. The gold symbolises the wishing star, which works with the charity logo. I also wrote "Donate at worldwish.org" in child's writing too, using blue and white as the writing's colours.
I slightly improved it by taking away the cancer poster, because I didn't like it there, because it was too much type and cramped. Also, if I were to improve it in anyway, I would firstly add in some shading and then maybe put in some more drawings.
Webpage:
The brief/unit had said to make an interactive webpage, but the UAL examiners said that it didn't have to be interactive/completed, as long as you show what is meant to be interactive.
I did research into the main Make-A-Wish charity webpage and saw which icons they had and what their main colours were (white and blue). Their webpage is very interactive and easy to understand, so I had to design one like their webpage, but different. I did a mind-map, containing all of my ideas for the webpage for each icon idea and wish types.
After that, I started to design my ideas. I drew six ideas and developed one of them, doing more designs from that one design. Then, I chose the one design and began working on that.
Then I started working on the webpage on Photoshop. Because Photoshop is easy to use, for me, and putting together things on this program is easier, because I prefer it.
I searched on google images to find some icons for the webpage and found about seven. Five for each type of wish subject that the charity does, one for information about the charity and one for donations. All of them were blue and circular.
I found a charity image showing a wishkid swimming with dolphins and used it on my webpage.
I started placing the icons and image together on the webpage, whilst changing a few things over.
Finally, I added some text to it. After searching on DaFonts.com for a font that looked like a kid's written it, I found a font called Make a Wish, which I thought was coincidental because of the name of the charity and the name of the font were the same.
I used the font to write out the names of each icon, so that people knew which icon went where.
The colour of the text was blue, like one of the main charity colours.
The whole webpage was white and blue, matching the charity's main colours.
If I were to improve this, I would make it less blank, more colourful and add some illustrative icons and images.
Advert/Animation:
To be honest, this part of the project was meant to be a film, but since it would be hard for me to film a sick child, I decided to do an animation instead.
I researched different Make-A-Wish videos on YouTube and they only showed the child getting their wish and the videos were mainly documentary styled. So, I decided to improvise and use my creative imagination to make up my own animation.
I started out by drawing out a mind-map full of ideas for the animation, such as the charity theme, the audience and the symbol of the charity. Then, I drew out storyboards, changing little bits here and there, in my sketchbook. I wanted to start in a hospital room, because it shows that the child in the animation is sick. To help show the audience (which I thought would be every age group, as shows them all what Make-A-Wish can do to help seriously ill children) that the child is ill, I drew out cards saying "Happy Birthday, Ben" and "Get well soon" and also had to child take medicine, with a sad look. Then, The child would see a wising star through a window, so I get him to go out of bed and walk to the window. As he gets closer, he starts to become more happy. Then, he dreams about himself being a singer (which symbolises again what Make-A-Wish do). Then, I finish with a message that's directed to the audience.
Then, I began to draw the animation onto Photoshop CC 2015 Edition, because I find it easier to use than Flash or Blender. This took me a while to draw (about a few days). I made the first two parts back and white, except for during the second part when I had coloured the wishing star gold and that I coloured the boy's dream in bright, happy colours. Then, I coloured the whole of the third part in bright, happy colours, symbolizing that the boy was happy, whilst looking up to the wishing star through the window. I had coloured the city in bright colours to as a symbol of escapism, that the boy wanted to escape the hospital and fulfill his dream as a singer. I had written the message in child-like writing, saying: "Can YOU make his wish come true?" for the first few frames, then I wrote "Donate at worldwish.org" for a few more frames and finally wrote "Thank you. Make-A-Wish"
Then, I started with the sound.
Sound:
I wanted the sound for my animation to be like a cosmic star noise (I don't know how to describe it). I made my sound on GarageBand, as I'm more familiar to it than other programs. GarageBand had a limited source of instrument and sound effects. I tested each instrument out and didn't like any of them, because none of them fitted the sound that I wanted for my animation. The first attempt didn't work well for me, because it sounded too dark and noisy. And the instruments weren't very good either. So that didn't work. Finally, I went on Synthesizer and looked through that category and when I clicked on Bells, I found the sound that I liked: Delicate Bells. Now, I'm not a very good musical composer type of person, but I tried my best. I started the music with slightly low, single, minor notes as the boy was in the hospital bed. Then, I decided to make a chime like noise for the wishing star's introduction. I scaled the notes to a higher, major, happier sound as the boy got out of bed and walks to the window. I made a melodic sound as the star shined with the music notes and as the boy was dreaming his wish.
Finally, I made a jingle at the end: "Can you make his wish come true?" with the same notes. I added a new music layer with the same instrument as before and made a series of musical notes to go with the happier ones from the first music layer. I listened to it as a whole and I must say that it made me feel sad at the start... then happier towards the end. And that's how I want my audience to ffel when watching the animation and hearing the music.
After finishing that, I went to put the sound and the animation together.
Putting the Sound and Animation/Advert together:
I used the program Adobe Premier Pro to put the sound and animation together. First, I exported my animation parts from Photoshop as Gifs and placed them onto Premier Pro in the right order. Then, I placed the sound with it and finally, exported it as a MP4 Video file, so that it would be easier to put it onto this blog and also easier for me to watch it on QuickTime Player or Windows Media Player.
I had finally finished my animation/Advert.
If I were to improve this in anyway... I would have have the boy actually moving, rather than still, comic-like drawings of him. And that I would have improved the sound a bit more, such as making it sound perfect rather than good.
Games Design:
As an extra outcome for the charity project, we had to design a game for the charity. I researched different style of games, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Legend of Zelda and so on. But what caught my interest the most was in the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, where the cut-scenes and extra games were all in 8-Bit styles. So, I decided to do an 8-Bit style game and a point and click style game (an example of this would be the game Fran Bow).
I drew a mind-map for ideas and went on to designing the game and its characters, levels/areas and sound.
First, after designing the main character, which is based of the boy from my animation and my poster, I made him on Photoshop. I drew out a 70x70 canvas and went on to trace over a screenshot of my animation. After tracing it out, I did different images of Ben (which is the name that I chose for my character), for example, one standing still, one with his head lower down, on with his left leg up and one with his right leg up. Then, I copied these images and flipped them horizontally so that the gold belt pouch was on the left side of the image. The, I made the images look like that Ben was facing the other way, his back facing us instead of his front.
Then, I went on to make a little animation if pixel Ben with all of the different images. After placing them all in different frames, I went on to export it as a Gif, so that it would be easier for me to use in the future. Then, I went on the drawing the buildings and the areas/levels for the game.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to finish them, because of all of the other things that were happening. And I didn't get to finish the advert for it too. And also, the computer decided to delete my buildings and levels...
If I were to improve this, firstly, I would finish it. Also, I would improve the drawings and the sound for it.
This concludes the Project of this term.
