JOURNAL 1/27: Weekly Progress & Process

This week I continued to create refined version of my storyboards. Following the process I previously laid out of working closely with my storyboards, then asset creating in Photoshop, to laying out the assets After Effects. During this week I also made a mental note of what scenes were going to be the hardest to make. When I had an idea of what sense looked to be the largest challenge I went ahead and started to tackle the most challenging scenes. One of the most interesting challenges this week became how to present the idea of the dandelion transforming from a yellow flower to a white flower.An additional note: During this week's class it was very helpful to see and hear my project through the projector. It allowed me to more clearly see the texture and how it affected the quality of the final film. I will most definitely be adding this process of projecting my working film as I get increasingly further in finishing this project.

As I said before, a challenge this week was the dandelion transformation scene. I spent a lot of time going through many iterations of patterns and looked for the background of the scene. From my storyboards I had drawn a pattern of small circles, however, moving forward, I knew I wanted to use the silhouette of a dandelion leaf in some sort of pattern instead. Using photoshop as a prototyping tool; I started first by making a leaf using the pen tool. I then started playing around searching for the best possible pattern. After many hours of failure I ended up going with the simplest option of using no pattern at all, but just using one leaf on each side of the screen framing the circle found in the middle of the composition. During different iterations of the background, I found the backgrounds pulled focus away from the main idea of the scene. The action happening inside of the circle is meant to pull the most focus.    Another challenge this scene presented was how to “show” the idea of change happening. How to show the dandelion going from a yellow flower and becoming a white flower. The imagery of change was to be presented within this circular window in the center of the screen. After long consideration I remembered a past project I had done using the kaleidoscope effect in After Effects. The theme and look of the kaleidoscope effect became an amazing idea for this moment, and fit perfectly within the circle. The dynamic transformation was able to draw purposeful focus immediately, and the look was extremely 1970’s.Transformation Scene Background Projection