Final Wixsite

During one of Sara's last sessions, we were told that we had to develop three of our Process and Production workshops and display them using either Persona or an alternative site. I chose to use Wix as I have used it before and it is less complicated than Persona. I added a separate page for each different development so that they are easy to distinguish between. I also tried to make the page interactive.

Due to the fact that some of my images have pixelated, I have added the blog link at the end of each page so that you can refer back to the original post if the images are not of a high quality. 

https://jessmountford97.wixsite.com/wixsite

After Effects Book Trailer Development

At the start of term one of the first sessions which we had with Sara was to create a book trailer. I decided to focus on a children's story - Cinderella. My first book trailer didn't go very well and therefore I wanted to improve it. I wanted to create a number of illustrations, which I would combine with my developed After Effects skills and knowledge.

Firstly I planned out what I was going to include in my piece. I figured out a total of five illustrations - Cinderella in her messy clothes, Cinderella at the ball, a pumpkin, an invitation and a glass slipper. These would all be recognisable aspects from the story and therefore making it easily recognisable. I then started to create them. They are all 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is the screen size what I used for the animation itself.

These illustrations were inspired by Hungry Sandwich Club and their Park project which was made for B4 Parking. The illustrations that they have created have no outline, and they are incredibly simple, which is something which I wanted to include within my work. The characters that they have created have minimal features, but for my work I wanted my characters to have no features, so that the audience purely recognised them for their colours and forms, this therefore making my animation more intriguing and interesting. I have enjoyed looking at Hungry Sandwich Club's work as it has gave me ideas for future projects, it will be a great reference for me to use in the future. 

This is the animation which I created next. The transitions of the illustrations work well. But I think it needs to be made simpler. From looking at other book trailers for children, they are incredibly simple with minimal information and mainly the same font. Meaning that they are clearly and easily understood. Therefore I developed this even further and created another piece.

This is my final animation, after much development and trial and error, I have settled on the font Futura to use throughout the piece, this is a font which is recognisable worldwide and it is also incredibly easy to read therefore making it perfect for my purpose. I chose to use various sizing techniques on the first part of text which appears within the animation, this makes the emphasis and the attention focus mainly on the title of the book "Cinderella", which is an important part of the trailer. I also added the type writer effect to this section of text as I thought it would look interesting and also build up a sense of wonder for when the audience is watching it. I added more text throughout, but instead of making it fly of the screen like in my previous piece, I decided to make it extremely simple so that it was east to read. Also, by having minimal text it makes it much easier to view the illustrations, which are the most interesting parts of the animation. The overall transitions work well within the animation and I am very happy with how it has turned out. 

Final After Effects Workshop

During todays session with Sarah we completed our final After Effects piece. This piece needed to have something in it which flew from right to left, it also needed to be something that was in the sky. My idea was a rocket, and therefore I created this using Adobe Illustrator.

I took inspiration from an image I'd seen online to create this image, which I then separated into different layers so that I could work more with it when I imported it onto After Effects.

                    I then created two further images which I would be able to use within my space scene. I used fade effects on both images when creating them on Adobe Illustrator in order to make them in-keeping with my rocket. I wanted to keep them still in my animation, which would make the rocket look like it was flying around them within the solar system. Therefore I would add a continuous effect onto each planet in order to make them bob up and down throughout the entirety of the animation. Below is my final animation, which I created using the skills which I had learnt in the previous workshops, I found this incredibly interesting and it also gave me the opportunity to develop my After Effects skills even further. 

Final Project - Rocket In Space from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

Once we had all finished, we sent our animations to Sara who then put them all into one large video, which can be seen below. This was incredibly useful and helpful as it gave us the chance to see other peoples work and what they had achieved throughout the previous weeks.

Group B Finale - 16:40 from Motion-go on Vimeo.

Type Transcription Final & Development

During the previous session, I created my final type face. I am completely happy with it as it reflects what I want it to - letterforms are simple. And that is all that they need to be. During the final session with John I scanned my work onto the computer so that I could work with it on illustrator. By doing this it shows that I have developed my work.

The inspiration from this type face has come from research on DaFont.com, I have used this website a number of times and I have found a number of different fonts which I think are incredibly interesting. My favourite section is the hand written section, which is where I came across the typeface "Vendetta, by Alif Devan R." it is obviously a handwritten font, which uses flowing connectors and forms in order to produce a type face which is a treat for the eyes. I have used this typeface a number of times in my own work and I wanted to create something which was similar but not too similar.

This is the original scanned image of my work, as you can see the scanner hasn't really picked up on the grey areas of the image, therefore when I work into it on Illustrator I will have to take this into consideration.

When I put the image onto Illustrator, I used a setting which made every letter individual images, therefore it enabled me to edit and change each one very slightly so that there were no rough edges. This also didn't pick up on the grey areas, therefore meaning that I will have to put in the coloured areas myself.

 Below, is my final edited version of my typeface, I have used the colour purple, in order to make sure that the areas I want to be coloured are visible. By using a brightly coloured section it also makes it much easier for me to change it again if I wanted too. I am incredibly happy with the outcome that I have produced, although it is rough and very simplistic, it used shadows and bright colours to make it more complex and interesting to look at.

In order to develop my work, I have decided to produce a blackboard wall, which will advertise a number of different events which will be happening at The Corner, which is located in the middle of Huddersfield town. I currently work there so this was extremely easy to access and to do.

Firstly I planned out what was going to go on the wall, and what information was required for me to advertise. I also decided that the shadows on the letters would be extremely difficult for me to achieve with chalk, as it is quite difficult to work with in the first place, so they were scrapped, this also made it much easier for me to actually produce the piece.

I decided to split the board up into three sections - a section for each piece of information i had decided to use. I also wanted the logo to be visible on the board, and i planned to put half of the logo at either end of the board. I also decided to put lines in between each section of information, so that it is clearly visible to the audience which pieces are which. I also used different colours in order to link pieces of information together, and to be in-keeping with the typeface which I have previously designed.

This is my final design, myself and my manager are extremely happy with my final outcome, as it meets all of the requirements which were set out in the first place. This also demonstrates my type face being used in a real life situation, and it shows how well it works as it is clear and easy to read, along with being visually interesting at the same time. 

Type Transcription

For my typeface, I wanted to create something which was natural, and looked slightly rough so that I could perfect it more when I went onto Illustrator with the designs (which would be the next session).

During todays session I completed my final design for my type face. I took influence from some of the blackboards which I have seen at work, due to the fact that I love some of the type faces which are used on a regular basis. I had also drawn on these boards, which means that I have demonstrated my typeface briefly.


Below is my final type face which I have scanned in so that it is ready to be used for the next session. I am incredibly happy with the outcome of the piece, and I think it will be very useful for what I have in mind for the development.

Kinetic Typography - 3D Space

This has been one of the most challenging workshops so far, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. During this session we were set the task of creating type which was 3D and therefore flew out of the screen. This meant that we would have to use the Z Space feature, which is triggered when the 3D option is set onto certain layers. Once this is selected you must change the anchor point and your ready to go.
The text comes in to line up with the lyrics of the song that I have chosen, and I have also included a short GIF which fills up some of the song which doesn't have any singing over it. I made the text move and resize, which is techniques that i have learnt in previous sessions.

Lyric videos nowadays are something which people watch regularly. Although they are just displaying words which are included in the song they need to be entertaining for the audience, therefore movement and resizing some of my letters has been a good idea, because it makes the video more interesting to watch.

One of my favourite lyric videos is Zara Larsson - I Would Like, as it is incredibly interesting to watch and the overall composition of the piece has been well thought out as well as it looking incredibly professional.


Overall i am incredibly happy with my final outcome, and it works perfectly. I found this session extremely helpful, and I definitely think that my skills are improving quickly.



Kinetic Type 3D Space - Drake, One Dance from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

Kinetic Typography - Advanced Motion

This workshop I found quite difficult, but once I had figured it out my outcome was quite good.
During this workshop we were set the task of creating a short clip to display a particular typeface which we liked. I decided to pick the font Futura, as I wanted to base the clip around 'what is the worlds most popular font', and therefore I needed a true answer.
The first thing i set out to do was create the title, which is the question "What is the worlds most popular typeface?", I wanted to create this so that it looked as if I was typing it on the screen whilst the animation was playing, I googled this and found a youtube tutorial where it instructed me on how to created that exact effect. I found this under the effect section and under 'typewriter'.
Once this was done i wanted the screen to flip and reverse the colours, I found how to do this on another youtube tutorial which showed me how to use the 'parent' feature and also the 'null space' layer, this came in very useful and it allowed me to make the screen look as if it had flipped 180 degrees. I then used the type writer effect again and I also made the final text grow that big that it looked as though it flew off the screen. I think my final outcome is good, but there are certain things I would change if i were to do it again.



Kinetic Typography 1 - Advanced Motion from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

Overall, I enjoyed this session and it gave me the opportunity to broaden and expand my after effects knowledge and skills in order to produce something visually interesting.

After Effects: Speed and Motion

During this session with Sara, we learnt about movement and speed within After Effects. Previous to this session we were asked to create a character, which had limbs on separate layers meaning that we could easily animate them however we wanted. I created an alien and also a background scene using Illustrator.

I wanted to animate my alien so that it pointed at something to the right and then moved over into that direction. I learnt how to use the position and rotation tool along, whilst considering the point on the timeline in which i wanted to movement to occur. I chose a space theme as I thought it would be something quite simple for me to draw on Illustrator, whilst it looking effective once I had animated it. Once I had figured out which parts needed to be animated and it ran relatively smoothly, I rendered  my ten second clip to the correct settings. The finished video is embedded below.



Speed & Motion from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

I found this session incredibly useful, and it taught me even more about the basics of after effects. During the making process i also added some stars which flashed in and out using the opacity feature. I found this by using a simple youtube tutorial which instructed me on how to do this.

Photoshop Experimentation

During this session with Rob we learnt about the basics of photo editing. We had a selection of images to choose from and then we made various effects apply to the image. I chose a picture of the empire state building and edited that as much as I could, these skills enabled me to learn how to use photoshop a bit more so i have gained the knowledge to edit photos a bit more professionally.

Cinema 4D introduction

During this workshop with Stephen we learnt about Cinema 4D and we got an introduction into the sort of things that it could create. We learnt that unlike other pieces of software such as After Effects and Animate, Cinema 4D enables the user to work within three different axis rather than just the standard two, this makes it even easier to create 3D animations. We also learnt about the visual aspects including lighting, sunshine, texture mapping and title, by looking at these aspects we were able to create something which looked realistic. We didnt create something in this session due to there being a lot of information provided. During the animate part of the session we looked at reveal titles and particles and physics , this enabled us to understand the basic information connected to how to animate different parts of the animation.

Helvetica Deconstruction on InDesign

During todays session with Rob we were set the task of creating a booklet on InDesign which was based on the Helvetica typeface deconstruction we did before Christmas in a seminar with Anna and Rob. All of the images were scanned in and we had to use them to create an interesting cover design and a minimum of four double page spreads on the font and how we achieved the outcomes that we did. We were told that this document was more visual than informative so that made it much easier to create.

This is the cover that I created, it didn't turn out as i wanted as I had to leave early to get to work on time. But this is what i created in the time that i had. 

Type Drawing with John

In todays session with John we looked at creating our own typeface and how we would go about it. Instead of jumping straight in and using our own ideas we took influence from a number of different sheets of images which he had prepared before the session. We were then given normal paper, tracing paper and graph paper which we used to create our designs. We also used a range of different materials and experimented with different styles. We had to use only five letters as they are the most visually interesting and most difficult to transform - A S E N G. I used pro markers, sharpies, greyscale markers, fine liners and pencil. Below is the result of this session which i thoroughly enjoyed.

Interactive PDF Documents

In todays process and production workshop with Rob we learnt about creating interactive PDF documents, this would mean that we would be able to attach buttons and videos onto the page in order to present it through a PDF and it would still work. 

Firstly we set up an InDesign document and we made sure that it was standard screen size which would mean that it would fit onto any screen, it would also mean that when placing media onto the page that we would maximise the amount of space we would have for displaying work. 

We then inserted a video onto the page and set it to start playing as soon as the PDF was opened, we then changed that and added focus points which we would use later. When placing the video onto the document it looked incredibly blurry but after previewing it we found that it wasn't actually blurry. 

The next thing we did was creating buttons, which would control the video. The first one we made simply played the video, which meant we had to turn off the automatic play. We then made a button which played the video from the focus point that we had previously created. And the final button was created using external images which we made on photoshop, this added an extra interaction to the button as it changed colour as the mouse hovered over it and also when it was clicked. 

We then exported the document and you could use everything that we had made and it worked successfully, i enjoyed this session as it has enabled me to find out different ways to present my work. 

Location Drawing: third session

During this session with John we looked at sculptures which had been created within the workshop with things such as cardboard boxes and items which people had created. I enjoyed this session as it gave us the opportunity to do live drawing again, we also had access to a number of different drawing tools which made the drawings even more experimental. We had about 40 minutes on each station and then we rotated. I enjoyed this session as it gave me the opportunity to do hand drawn type again.

Morpholo Tiles

In todays session we learnt about Morpholo Tiles. They are a set of tiles which link together in a certain order and they are generated by a code which is created using a certain formula.
Firstly we looked at different fonts which we found visually interesting, and then we picked certain aspects of the letters that we wanted to draw. Which is showed in the image below:

During the session we chose various numbers from a spread sheet and entered them into an online generator which showed us which tiles we were to create. This then generated squares which showed us which edges we had to touch with the letters that we wanted to create, it didn't have to be full letters, we were more just creating parts of letters. I found this sessions incredibly interesting and made me think of more ideas for my current project.

After Effects Workshop

During todays session we developed our After Effects skills from the previous session. We were told to come to the session with pre-made slides which we were to add to music. We learnt how to make fade effects through the slides and how to add key points within the timeline in order to know when to change the image or behind to develop the image with either an effect or a motion. We were instructed on what to do by steps which Sara had previously prepared. I will admit that my current slides need developing and making much simpler because I haver over complicated them and added too much writing. Below is my current trailer for Cinderella.



Book Trailer from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

Location Drawing - Second Session

Today we met up with John again for our location drawing session in the Process and Production module. Instead of going out into Huddersfield town we decided to locate ourselves in three different places within the Creative Arts Building at the University. Our group started in the Studio where we were able to draw live images of the outside world through the large windows. Unfortunately drawing isn't my strong point so i chose to just draw random parts of the outside without much consideration for composition or layout. I enjoyed drawing the spire which is located in the middle of the piece and i liked trying to draw some type which was located on the ground floor. Below are images of my work and the whole groups work.

Process & Production - Animation Brief

During this session we experimented using After Effects, we chose a short music clip from a free music site and then had to match colours to each beat. We used a Pantone Chip selection which we were told to bring with us, I chose mainly blue hues and then we were instructed on how to make the colour of the screen change to the beat of the music. Once this was created it we exported the video and uploaded it to Vimeo.

ColourClip from Jessica Mountford on Vimeo.

Location Drawing

During this session we were sent out into town to draw various iconic pieces of architecture within Huddersfield. Our groups was assigned the Train Station on St George's Square. It was designed by the architect James Pigott Pritchett, it is well known for its classical-style facade, with its six columns which dominate the square.

We were given a section of the area each and mine was the station building itself, I decided to use fine liners to complete my drawing with the addition of colour which came at the very end. I learnt how to use a fine liner to create crisp edges and lines which would emphasise various parts of the design of the building. We only had a limited amount of time for this piece so it had to be done quickly. My finished result is presented below.

After we had presented our work to the rest of the class and our individual groups, we stuck our work to the wall and arranged it how our area was set out in the physical world, almost mapping the places which we had drawn. This created a fantastic looking collage. 

After this session I decided to research into artists who mainly focus on locations and drawing them. 

Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes. He has a particular talent for drawing lifelike, accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. He was awarded an MBE for services to the art world in 2006. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College. His work is popular all over the world, and is held in a number of important collections. He is known for his ability to draw from memory a landscape after seeing it just once. 

His work is completed using mainly one form of drawing tool, such as pencil, fine liner or watercolour. This produces a rough finish, but the designs he creates are incredibly interesting. Below are some of my favourite pieces which he has produced, some being completely monochrome, whilst others have hints of colour which make the piece even more interesting. 

1977-79 Lincoln Continental Mark V 

Chicago River, USA

Bruges, Belgium

Philadelphia Skyline

St Pauls Cathedral, UK

I have enjoyed researching this artist as it has given me an insight for if I were to do location drawing again. I would be able to challenge myself and just look at the location once, taking in all of its features and colours, and then drawing it from memory. This would create an interesting finish as I think it would look quite rushed and the line markings would always be unsure. 

John Banovich

John Banovich (b.1964) is an American contemporary oil painter known internationally for his large, dramatic portrayals of iconic wildlife. Today, Banovich’s work is admired and collected globally by prominent politicians, entertainers, business leaders and art collectors. His work can be found in private collections, corporate offices and museums throughout the world.

Although, this artist mainly focuses on animals, the animals are all in different locations, and therefore the artist does somewhat produce pieces which are related to location. The images that I have found are in complete contrast to the previous ones as they are filled with colour and beautiful animals. 

Three Generations, 2008

Master of the Heard, 2016

Game Of Lions, 2014

Under the Hunting Moon, 2014

The Sentinels, 2014

As you can see, I have collected his work from the past few years, therefore demonstrating that he is still creating work which is incredibly interesting to look at. These paintings are also incredibly lifelike and the artist is extremely talented. I have enjoyed looking at this work and getting ideas about colours and settings.