Illustration and Visual Narrative | Task 2 - Decisive Moment
24th August 2021 - 22nd October 2021 / Week 5 - Week 9
Name: Isaac Yaw Wai Zac (0343197)
Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Module: Illustration and Visual Narrative // Ms. Noranis & Ms. Jennifer
Task 2(Decisive Moment)
In this task, we were assigned to create a poster of an iconic scene that best represents a movie that will be chosen for this task but we cannot give any spoilers or showing the ending scene through this poster illustration.
To kick start my progress for task 2, I already had an idea about which movie and which specific scene to illustrate as my poster design because it is one of my most favorite scenes, movie, and element(s) used in this scene. It is the 'Fast & Furious 7' movie and the scene that I will replicate is the part where the 2 main actors (protagonists) Vin Diesel and Paul Walker stole the Lykan Hypersport car from the owner at the secret bunker in a very tall building/skyscraper. I really love this scene because I love cars and this is one of the rarest cars in the world in which only 7 units of this car model was made in the entire world. It got me very excited because Vin Diesel and Paul Walker stole the car and crashed it out of the building to enter another building to escape from the owner of the car and also to obtain a valuable item in that vehicle. The exact scene that I want to replicate is the frame where the car is flying in mid-air in between the 2 buildings while the sunlight in the background will shine onto the car to bring more focus onto it and make it the main subject. Figures 1.1 to 1.5 below show the frame of the scene through visual research online. This moment is a very important moment as it made the ending scene better and it is the reason why we get to enjoy the ending scene (a positive one!). Therefore, it is an impactful decisive moment in this entire movie.
Figure 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5: Chosen scene for task 2
Figure 1.6: Task 2 progress (sketch) (as of 25th September 2021)
Figure 1.7: Video progress # 1 for task 2 (as of 30th September 2021)
Figure 1.7: Task 2 progress using Adobe Illustrator (as of 30th September 2021)
Figure 1.8: Task 2 progress using Adobe Illustrator (as of 30th September 2021)
Figure 1.9: Task 2 progress #1 (as of 30th September 2021)
With this current progress going into week 7's consultation session, some feedback were given and taken into consideration before progressing from the current state. As with all the detailed feedbacks documented in the feedback section down below, A few changes were tested and made to see how it would turn out through the trial and error method. According to the feedback, the most significant changes needed to be made are the use of fonts for the title and the overall colour scheme/theme. The current progress 1 is good enough, but it can be further improved by a lot with these changes.
Figure 1.10: Task 2 progress using Adobe Illustrator (as of 1st October 2021)
Figure 1.11: Task 2 progress #2 (as of 1st October 2021)
Figure 1.12: Task 2 progress - using the perspective tool to modify buildings (as of 4th October 2021)
Figure 1.13: Task 2 progress - creating the buildings (as of 4th October 2021)
Figure 1.14: Task 2 progress - placing buildings and changing some colours (as of 4th October 2021)
Figure 1.15: Task 2 progress #3 (as of 4th October 2021)
As seen in Figures 1.12 & 1.13 above, I tried many different types of fonts that were either very similar to the actual font used in the movie or any other fonts which fit the look of this poster. As for the other elements, I did not like the way the buildings were done because these tall buildings are of a perspective seen from the top and need to be very precise. With the current progress going into week 7's consultation session as shown in Figure 1.15 above, I will be asking both Miss Jennifer and Miss Noranis for suggestions to improve the font, and also the layout of the buildings. All the specific feedback gotten in this session were documented in the feedback(s) from lecturer section down below.
Figure 1.16: Sample building perspective layout suggested by Miss Noranis (8th October 2021)
Figure 1.17: Task 2 progress - changing buildings' layout using Adobe Illustrator
(as of 8the October 2021)
Figure 1.18: Task 2 progress #4 (as of 8th October 2021)
Figure 1.19: Task 2 progress #5 (as of 12th October 2021)
As shown in Figure 1.17 above, I used the background of the buildings as a reference to be used for my poster background. Although it looks similar to the one suggested by Miss Noranis, I used very different buildings but with a similar colour scheme because it looks relatively dull but somewhat looks appealing, and therefore, it is perfect to be used as the background to obey proper visual hierarchy. As seen in Figure 1.18, it is already looking way better when compared to my previous progress. Then, I tried to play around with different effects so that I can create a better depth effect of the buildings from the top view whilst maintaining a simple and minimalistic design. With that, I thought of just creating a gaussian blur effect to cover the roads to symbolise clouds.
Figure 1.20: Comparison before and after adding 'clouds' (as of 12th October 2021)
Before exporting into the Adobe Photoshop software, I had to rearrange all the elements by layers so that the process of animating it would be way simpler. The strategy is to group all the smaller elements which would either move together in one piece or are static/permanent. For the elements which were needed to be moved such as the building fans and gears, they were set as individual layers to be animated individually.
Figure 1.21: Overview of all the layers for one frame (as of 12th October 2021)
Figure 1.22: Video progress # 2 for task 2 (as of 14th October 2021)
Figure 1.23: Video progress # 3 for task 2 (as of 14th October 2021)
By using the artboard duplicating tool, I then proceeded to make the animation for first draft, and then made 19 frames. I went with individual frames format for the animation instead of using the timeline tool in Adobe Photoshop because I needed to animate many different frames for the movement of the broken glasses. The process of animating this poster in Adobe Photoshop software is documented below in Figure 1.25 and then, the first draft is shown in Figure 1.26 below.
Figure 1.24: All the frames made as the first draft animation (as of 14th October 2021)
Figure 1.25: Task 2 progress #6 - using timeline tool in Adobe Photoshop (as of 14th October 2021)
Figure 1.26: First draft of poster animation (as of 14th October 2021)
There were no classes in week 8 and therefore, we did not attend any consultation sessions. However, I was not happy with the animation for the first draft as shown above. In my opinion, it feels weird to have the car stop and then disappear in the middle of the poster. Other than that, I did not like the way the glasses were animated because it does not feel realistic. During the self-learning week, I spent some time reanimating the poster to make a few changes:
- Making the glass pieces move/shatter in a more realistic manner
- Making more frames for a smoother movement
- Correcting the aspect ratio based on the given rubrics (800px by 600px)
Figure 1.27: Second attempt in animating the poster (as of 16th October 2021)
Figure 1.28: All the frames made as the second draft animation (as of 16th October 2021)
Figure 1.29: Task 2 progress #7 - using timeline tool in Adobe Photoshop (as of 16th October 2021)
Figure 1.30: Second draft for poster animation (as of 16th October 2021)
At this point of progress (second draft), I am very happy with how it turned out for both the poster design and poster animation. With that, the only thing left to do is to add a short descriptive tagline to be placed onto the poster. I use the tagline 'I don't have friends. I have family' because it is just too famous and iconic that it became a 'meme'. Not only that, but this entire movie series revolves around this tagline, about FAMILY! (spoken with a deep voice). After adding the tagline, I am complete with task 2, and both the final submissions were documented down below.
Figure 1.31: Overall illustration of the poster design process
Figure 1.32: Final submission for Task 2 - Poster (as of 17th October 2021)
Figure 1.33: Final submission for Task 2 - Poster Animation (as of 17th October 2021)
Decisive Moment Poster Description
I have chosen this scene as my decisive moment in the movie 'Fast & the Furious 7' because it is a very important role/scene that creates the highlighted climax. It is a very important scene because anything that happened in this scene changed the outcome of the ending scene. Without trying to give out too many spoilers, I will try to explain why it is important. This scene was when both the protagonists, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker secretly broke into the villain's secret bunker in his private clubhouse at the top of a skyscraper. They went into the bunker to obtain a very important microchip to save the world. However, the villain found out that they broke into his bunker and tried to hunt them down, to no avail, they immediately got into the car and drove it out of the building, crashing onto another skyscraper to escape. What makes it more iconic is the car used in that scene. It is the million-dollar 'Lykan Hypersport' in which only 7 of them were made in this world. That definitely caught many people's attention. It is definitely a very important moment, not to forget, a decisive moment that created an interesting story plot in this movie.
The reason why the animation has a slight 'pause' is not because of the problem of animation with frames, but it is rather intended to create a slow-motion effect from the glass shattering, similar to the original scene. In this animation, I used a combination of 36 frames to create a very smooth movement of the elements and we get to see the tiny glass components moving and spinning out and I am very pleased with the outcome. Although I initially intended to use about 40 or 60 frames but sadly, my computer cannot handle too heavy workloads under the Adobe Illustrator software. However, I managed to export all the 36 frames in the right quality of 800px by 600px but that took way too long. I am very happy with how it turned out in the end!
Feedback(s) and Reflection
Week 6 (feedback) - In week 6's class consultation session, both Miss Noranis and Miss Jennifer agreed and gave me the green light to continue with the selected movie and decisive moment. However, there were a few changes that can be made to further improve in terms of colour selection, composition, and elements used. They suggested that I should play around with the movie title because it does not look like it stands out as the main subject (progress #1).
Week 6 (reflection) - This is a challenging yet fun week because this new task got me very excited to explore around different movies and think about a specific decisive moment with a good composition. However, I already knew what movie and which scene o be used for this task the moment when this task was announced and it got me motivated to work and complete it. I was overall very happy this entire week in the process of developing the poster for this task.
Week 7 (feedback) - In week 7's class, both Miss Noranis and Miss Jennifer gave a few comments and suggestions based on my progress on this task. For the buildings, Miss Noranis suggested making it simpler by converting it to a top view type of perspective and so that I can use roads in smaller forms to enhance the depth effect. Other than that, the title can be changed to use the exact font used by the original movie poster and the colours can be changed to use chrome colours so that it would stand out.
Week 7 (reflection) - This week is pretty overwhelming because Miss Jennifer demonstrated the second part of this task, which is to animate the poster and that part of this task needs a lot of new features to be learned and used in Adobe Photoshop software.
Week 8 (feedback) - This week was a self-learning week/mid-semester break and therefore, all of us were working on finishing the poster, and most importantly, finalising the entire layout of the poster before proceeding with the animation.
Week 8 (reflection) - As a reflection for this week, it was really challenging because I have no experience in digitising an artwork, and also animating it. I personally felt a little left out because all my peers are doing so well and have very competitive poster designs. However, this gave me the motivation to constantly improve in my work.
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