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Collaboration : BBC Radio 4

Britain and the Sun

Introduction : 

A life brief project with BBC Radio 4 for their weather series programme. We were given few script to choose in this project, the brief that I decided to challenge is "Britain and the Sun". The brief is about how the cultures changes iin the history of British summer from the 17th century to the 21st century. (Script is protected, please refer to the script send by the BBC in the email) I had read through all the brief and was thinking either to choose "Britain and the Sun'' or "The Weather Indoors". In the end I have decided to go for Britain and the Sun as the brief remind me of home and I would like to challenge and exposing myself to the British history of summer. 

 

Project Objectives: 

  • Produce a video, complete with sound fx/music and speech (if they like) inspired by one of the weather programmes.

  • The video should feel inspired by one bit of weather so either sun or wind or apocalyptic weather.

  • It shouldn’t try to represent many

  • The video should include some text.

  • At the end of the video the viewer should feel they learnt something – history, science or language fact, saw a great quote, got a handy tip.

  • The video should make the viewer feel something – mood or emotion driven.It should be no more than 2 mins long 

  • Be as daring as you like with your creativity. It will have to go a BBC site though so taste and decency etc!

 

 

Subject Knowledge

In the collaboration unit we are supposed to learn to collaborate with client, student from other courses and students with different skills.

For this time, as a generalist, I would like to challenge myself and take the brief individually while colaborate with sound design and music design. In order to make a head start, I did research, sketches, idea, and mind map. ​

Initial mind map and breakdown of the script. 

My initial idea was having a character to travel back in time and experience the British summer history. After the first pitch, feedback given : be realistic, try to get have no character in the animation as time consuming, think of action that represent the hot, shadow on the ground to indicate hot sun.

 

I want to create the mood of hot summer in 2D painting style or 2D vector. In preparation for practice pitch, I had my storyboard changed.

As a generalist, I develope my own style with the moodboard that I had. Because I am doing it on my own, I had the opportunity to create something that i like and make it more special artpiece. 

There are certain style that I am aiming for, 2D, minimalistic and textured vector. Hence I did had few illustrator artist that I like.


1. Jimmy Liao : http://www.jimmyspa.com/

2. Dick Vincent : https://www.instagram.com/dickvincent

3. Carmen Saldana : https://www.instagram.com/carmensaldana_illustration

4. Heng Swee Lim : http://www.ilovedoodle.com

 

I have always wanted to create some illustration but i did not find some time to do it, as now i have the chance, I wanted to use it to create my art. 

I planned to start off with painting and scan them into computer, but it is more time consuming than I expected. So I decided to do it in Adobe illustrator first and transfer into Photoshop as I wanted to create and layer them faster and connected to After Effect easier. As they link together so I can work on them simultaneously if I wanted to change anything, I can just go back to Photoshop and change them without worrying the workflow in After Effects.

 

Tips on working between Photoshop and After Effects.

  • name all your layer in Photoshop properly before importing into After Effects

  • After importing to After Effects, make sure to make changes in Photoshop file in the file you imported in. In this way, whatever you change in Photoshop layer will be directly change in After Effects.

  • When importing Photoshop file to AE, remember to retained layer size and make sure it is editable.

  • change the pivot point for the layer if needed in AE

 

There are tutorials that I looked into to experiment with the design illustrated. 

 

1. Add Depth and texture in Illustrator : http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/add-depth-and-texture-illustrator-5132626

 

2. Add Grit to design in Photoshop and Illustrator : http://hoodzpahdesign.com/how-to-add-grit-texture-to-designs-in-photoshop-and-illustrator/

 

Improved storyboard for the practice pitch with Abigail and Mike on 13th April 2016.

 

Feedback from the overall pratice itch.

  • Include text in animatic - it was given in the brief

  • Be professional when presenting the slide, sketches will not be acceptable

  • Reorder the slide - animatic last

  • What does the story or message deliver from your idea?

  • Ending of the slide

  • Leave behind?

  • Sound design

After the feedback, above was my slides prepare for pitch to BBC RADIO 4 on 18th April. 

 

I took the feedback seriously and work my best to prepare the pitch. Due to some circumstances, the sound designer that suppose to work with me is not available before the pitch so I manage to get help from Beth Luckhurst, sound design student to create a piece for my animatic. Therefore I manage to have sound on the day of pitching

 

BBC RADIO 4 Feedbacks: Text is too small. Think about the audience where they watch in on mobile device.

​

Finalizing my storyboard below. From my point of view, I do think that my narrative is not strong enough but it is the easier way to approach audience to bring out the informations. I should have look into developing more storyboard in the future. 

​

Technical Competence

 

From the beginning of the project, I manage my project folder well so I could access them easily. In just 4 weeks time I had to create the concept to the final animation. I had my project workflow as below,

 

1. Sketches - during this stage i had all my sketches in hand in my storyboard and I used them as reference when I started to draw using     illustrator. I created the colour pallete at this stage before I jump into the next stage.

 

2. Adobe Illustrator - I used pen tool and brush overall to create quick shape. Adding strokes with artistic effects make it more soft for         some of the elements. Grouping the element make me easier to readjust the position of the composition. 

 

3. Adobe Photoshop - Importing the files from AI and arranged them in layer and renamed them. This make your workflow easier in           post production. I decided to use photoshop in this stage because I found out that texturing in AI takes long time to render even just       adding some grain. In Photoshop I am able to play with the noise, brushes, strokes to create more depth. Overlay the layer for               shadows. Opacity for some of the element, especially for the fade I am creating for the title to be more readable. 

 

4. Adobe After Effects - Importing files from Photoshop and set the composition for each sequence. Because my animation was meant to     be mood piece, not alot of animation is going on. To make my piece more lively, I added subtle movement to indicate wind and           emotion. Next, I had all the sequence exported individually to be import into Premiere Pro.

 

5. Adobe Premiere Pro - In this stage, I had all my footage ready and sound to make it into final piece. Once again all the link between     AE and PP works simultaneously. I can change easily the text size/ opacity in AE and it will link directly to PP where the changes           made. 

Above show the process how I work from sketches to Adobe Illustrator and to Photoshop. With the illustration ready, I exported an animatic without sound as the sound designer had not finish the sound yet. So as to prepare for the BBC progression check on 4th May, I used the previous sound piece. Due to changes that I had made in the latest animatic, the sound does not match the animatic. I told the BBC representative before the presentation so that they are aware of it. Below is the animatic but without audio file.

Experiment

 

Pre Production Stage

 

My final idea was to produce a mood piece animation from the point of view of the audience to bring them through the transition of the British summer history providing them to learn something from the animation. During pre-production, I work along with my timeline to make sure I could finish on time as I have to create 11 shots in total including (highland and Hyde Park in the end)

With the help of the timeline, I work effectively and manage to submit the animation on time. I experiment with ways to start my illustration at first, which be later shown in the technical competence tab below. I changed my mind from hand painted illustration to 2D vector illustration where it really works out in the end. 

 

Firstly I had to produce still image for BBC Radio 4 before starting the animation as they need it as soon as possible. I submited this 2 images. 

Fortunately for me, my image had been chosen as the brand page for the programme : A British History in Weather.

 

I realised it was updated even before our dateline approach, and manage to grab the screen shot as celebratory of success in first step.

Still in the pre production stage where I have to create all the illustration. Next importing them to Photoshop to touch up. 

 

Post Production Stage

During post production stage I had to work seamlessly with the sound design student, Sean Miller and sending files back and fro. I made a sound list where I wish to have in my animation to him and he manage to create a wonderful piece. After having the sound piece along with my animation, I find that it is still too static and not lively. 

I found out that I should really have a music piece to enlighten my animation. In a short 3 days towards deadline, I had no choice to seek help from my friend in Malaysia who is an artist,composer and art director, Colbie Ong. I am glad that she works for me and created an amazing music piece with my animation. 

 

Given feedback from BBC, text description has to be added to inform the audience why they will see the image, standardize title appearance length, grammar, and highland scene seems no objective in the animation.

Therefore I had decided to drop that shot out to make my life easier. 

 

Having all my sequence ready in After Effects, I linked them to Premiere Pro where I could work on both simultaneously. In Premiere Pro, I am able to add video transition, audio confidently rather than in After Effects.

 

Given the feedback from BBC on 4th May, we only have 12 days left for the deadline. There are quite a few changes in test and title require by BBC in the end of production.Last but not least, I am required to create the BBC Radio 4 logo according to my illustration style. I managed to make the changes professionally and finally accepted and published on the BBC Radio 4 Website. After the publication of the animation, I received encouragement email from the BBC Radio 4 stating they like my animation and also featured on BBC Homepage.  

Communication and Presentation

 

In preparation fot BBC Radio 4 brief, we are required to get our pitch idea ready to be presented and win the pitch. Mike andAbigail had us practice for 2 times before presenting to the BBC.

 

On the first Initial Idea pitch, idea and storyline seems not clear and encouraging. Mood have to be enhance with audio. Animatic had to be ready for next practice pitch. Sean approached to collaborate in sound design. 

 

During the practice pitch, Abigail gave final tips to make us ready to present to the BBC. The idea of leave behind is a really good approach to catch the attention of the client even after the pitch ended. 

There are few points for me to improve in order to proceed to the final pitch.

  • Include text in animatic - it was given in the brief

  • Be professional when presenting the slide, sketches will not be acceptable

  • Reorder the slide - animatic last

  • What does the story or message deliver from your idea?

  • Ending of the slide

  • Sound design

 

Mike idea and feedback:

  • River Thames looks like sea rather than river. - improved illustration and added current

  • Camera angle and camera movement - improved and fix - tips from Peppe using null object and parent the camera to the null object so that you can control the movement easily.

 

18th April : Pitch to BBC 

Feedback given.

  • Text is too small for the audience in mobile device.

 

4th May : Progression check by BBC

Greg and Rhian feedback :

  • Text size is alright at this stage

  • Sound have to be seamlessly with the animation

  • Include extra text for the audience to know why they are seeing the illustration - use active text, check grammar mistake, make sure it is readible and long enough on screen

  • Why there is undated "Highland Scene"? - taken down after consideration

  • Camera movement to be smooth

  • Why there are Hyde Park shot in the beginning? - I explained that it should stay where it is as it is part of storytelling.

 

Finally, the animation is accepted and published!

 

Throughout the project, I learn a lot and gain confidence. At first, I did not think that I would even make it for the pitch as my idea seems to be weak to myself and it seems to be an information piece more than animation. As the more practice in pitch , I did pitch my idea in front of BBC in the board room calmly at the same time nervous as well. I could say all the tips from Abigail in presenting does help a lot.

 

After the idea was approved and chosen, I had the motivation to keep going in the project. Juggling between work and studies had always been my challenge. Working for client is not my first time but this time it is a huge client where artwork will be publish and accessible internationally.

 

Keep practicing and producing the illustration in the pre production stage and make it until the illustration is chosen as brand page is a success that I never thought of. I appreciate the opportunity and acknowledgement given by BBC team. Their response on my final animation is overwhelming and I am glad. 

 

Collaborating with sound and music. In any animation, sound and music do play an important role to bring the animation to live. Once again I am lucky in music where I am able to get help from professional whom is my friend in Malaysia. I am thankful for her help. In the future I had to plan my sound and music for my animation earlier rather than leaving it to last stage of post production. 

 

In conclusion, the project had been very successful and I get a lot of compliments and I feel all my hard works pay off in the end. I had never been that happy working in a project which turn out to be successful in the end. 

​

What I have to take note for future reference?

  • stronger narrative

  • how can I go further with 2D illustration?

  • communication 

  • colloboration with proffesional. Is it worth it to take risk?

 

 

"We are delighted with it Foong - well done on such a beautiful piece of work. This is what the programme presenter Alexandra Harris said ' O this is utterly wonderful. What a charm and beauty it combines, right through to the floral '4' logo. My absolute favourite is Swift's feet, but I adore every moment, so quiet and yet all moving and alive. Thank you!"

by Rhian Roberts, Editor, Digital, BBC Radio 4 

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