22/09/2025- 04/01/2026 (Week 1-Week 15)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Design Exploration | BDCM | Taylor's University
Final
Project
LECTURE
Week 1
We were briefed on the tasks for this semester.
Week 2-Week 13
Consultation sessions were held every week during class.
INSTRUCTIONS
For this module, we are tasked to either deepen or
expand our skills based on the industry research that we have
done. The outcome is up to us as long as it supports our industry
research.
A. Progress
1. Proposal
Before doing the project, we were to compile our past works and do a
research and analysis on our job position's criteria, skill
requirements, job scopes and more. We were to analyze which of our past
works and our job position's criteria matched and which ones
didn't.
For my job position, I chose graphic designer. I browsed through
various platforms to see what the job scope, skill requirements,
criteria are for this position. I also took note of anything they
mentioned that could be a 'plus point.'
After gathering data, I compared my past works to the research I had
collected and found that most of my projects have aligned to the
criteria and job scope mentioned. I saw this as an opportunity to
explore, expand, and try out new skills I haven't dabbled in before as
it could be a plus point during job applications. The two skills I was
interested in was motion graphics, specifically in
kinetic typography and 3D.
Both are areas I have only tried once or twice on a surface level,
never the main objective, but I have been keen on trying to learn deeper
on these two aspects. So for the idea proposal, I thought of an
idea; Branding Identity + Motion Graphic + 3D. The idea was to start a brand identity from scratch and expand it to
motion graphics and 3D.
Fig 1.1 Proposal Slides
After I showed Mr. Asrizal my research and proposal, he advised me to
expand on an existing brand identity, since I have a few of those
in my compiled past works. Starting a brand from scratch would take up
more time, so it was suggested to just focus on the two main things I
wanted to expand on. I also agreed with Mr. Asrizal's advice as it is much
more efficient. With this, I moved on to executing this project.
2. Execution
i. Creative Direction
Kicking off this project, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. On week
3, I came to class empty handed because I cannot find any idea whatsoever. I
was too busy thinking about all the different outputs I had in my mind that
all had different directions. During class, Mr. Asrizal then advised me to
start off with a mood board.
Since the brand identity is set already, I decided to compile a mood board
for the effects I had in mind, effects that I would try and explore. I also
planned my three deliverables of this project, even though at the time, it
was still tentative.
- Short social media ads with kinetic typography in 5-10 seconds
- Digital ads with motion graphics and 3D in around 30 seconds
- Logo motion (tentative)
I wanted to focus on doing motion graphics, kinetic type, and 3D so the
logo motion wasn't really my priority at the time.
Fig 2.1 Moodboard Inspiration on Week 4
Afterwards, I immediately jumped into my attempt of recreating some of
these inspirations, following online tutorials. This proved to be a mistake
when I showed Mr. Asrizal my progress on week 5, he was confused with the
overall direction and thought it looked very rough. He told me I should have
drawn a storyboard first before digitizing it.
Fig 2.2 Week 5 attempt
Because of the feedback, I was also able to see that my progress was
pointless because I was still confused with the content direction. So for
the next week, I created my storyboard. He also told me to finalize the
stylization and the effects I would be using.
I compiled the effects in this Pinterest board: link
Storyboard
For the storyboard, the first scene would be the year changing and then continued with three set of texts and then the 3D scene. The initial idea was to make the frame slide in and out entirely, not just the text, but also the background. I also envisioned to solely rely on the typography to fill up the entire space. I also planned to have some text relating to the brand or the product animated behind the 3D model.
Fig 2.3 Storyboard on Week 6
After the storyboard was approved, I started editing the video.
ii. Motion Graphics
For this project, I used Adobe After Effects since it's the one software
I see recruiters label as a 'plus-point' skill to have. And I thought I
could also deepen my technical skills in this software.
In the past, I've only used this software once or twice and for a very
short GIF. This time, my challenge was creating an output with longer
duration and a lot of different effects. To guide myself, I also
referenced multiple online tutorials.
Week 7-9
Starting off, it was quite slow, I spent two weeks doing the first half
of the video, which was the kinetic type frames. Truthfully, there were a
lot of things I changed during the process, which was not recorded as it
was part of an unplanned exploration. I ended up entirely changing the
frames for the year change scene.
I also changed the transitions. At first, this was my main reference. I
wanted the transition to look like this GIF: GIF Reference
However, after trying it out, it just doesn't suit my content direction
because there's more different words than the reference had. And I felt
like it would be dizzying for people to see this for around fifteen to
twenty seconds. So, I explored on the transitions.
Fig 3.1 Week nine's progress
Thankfully by week 9, I was somewhat halfway there. Mr. Asrizal
advised me to start looking for music because I would have to make sure it
aligns well and it suits the video. From here on, I started looking for
suitable music. Finding the right audio was something that didn't really
cross my mind before so I had no idea what music I was searching for. All
I knew was that the music has to be a fun, upbeat music.
Progress was a lot slower from here on because truthfully, I've ran out
of ideas and I wasn't satisfied with my weekly progress.
Week 10
On week ten, I let Mr. Asrizal listen to the audio I've chosen and he
approved of it. In the meantime, I also kept working on the
video. I sourced the audio from Youtube, ensuring it was a copyright-free audio.
This week was one of the hardest ones because I had no idea which
direction I'm going for and the progress I've made didn't reach my own
expectations and vision. So, I impulsively explored another direction,
which, at that time, I had preferred over the current
progress.
Fig 3.2 Week ten's progress exploration
The stylization was completely different, it didn't feel as playful as
the brand identity suggested and it feels a bit 'in your face.' I told Mr.
Asrizal during class that I didn't like my current progress and I
restarted the progress with a different stylization.
He told me that by this week, I shouldn't be restarting the video at all.
If I didn't like it, I should keep on refining it. He also suggested me to
actually settle and decide the tone of the video, the style. I told Mr.
Asrizal that the current video looked empty and plain. He suggested adding
graphic elements so that each of the frame isn't dependent on the text
only.
Week 11-12
The feedback proved to be useful but it also stalled my progress again
because I couldn't think of a good idea on how to incorporate the brand's
existing element seamlessly into the motion graphic. After many trials and
errors, I finally found something that would work.
Fig 3.3 Week twelve's progress
With the graphic element, it honestly looked more polished and more
complete. However, the frames inside were still heavily dependent on the
text and to me it still looked lacking.
Week 13
In the next week, I kept on refining.
Fig 3.4 Week thirteen's progress
By this week, I was running out of time because other deadlines were
coming and this deadline is in two weeks. I decided I'll deal with the
rest of the refining process later on and start my Blender.
Refining the Motion Graphics (Week 14-15)
Extra refinements were done simultaneously with the 3D rendering since one animation takes me one hour to render. I used the
waiting time to refine and work on what graphic elements I could incorporate
into my motion graphics.
I decided to use trim paths effect on these lines. It seems pretty abstract
but the element itself is traced based on the brand's main graphic element:
the letter 'E'.
Fig 3.5 Trim path effects in progress
With the 3D mockup, I felt like it would be useful to add the name of the product in
the frame, just so that it's clearer for the audience. For this one, I
decided to add the text on the top area of the composition and let it be
pushed upwards once the 3D mockup came in from the bottom.
Fig 3.6 Adding the text
Then for the final scene, to make it feel more whole, I added two more
scenes: the closing line and a very simple logo motion. By this point, I
knew that a full scale logo motion wasn't possible because of the lack of
time left, so I decided to still put a logo motion but only a simple one,
using trim paths effect.
Fig 3.7 Process on logo motion
On the last part of refining, I made sure the audio has a smooth fade out
effect on the end of the video and finally added ripple effect and noise
texture on the video to avoid the video being too flat.
iii. 3D
For the 3D, I did two products: a planner and calendar. Even though I really wanted
to focus on the design itself, I decided to focus more on executing
the 3D modelling instead, since it's the my main project objective.
a. Planner
I started doing the planner mockup first. I used cube for the cover and the
pages inside. I initially wanted to use a plane for the cover but when I
tried it, it doesn't look like nice, it looks flimsy. So I decided to start
with a cube.
Fig 4.1 Planner using the plane for the cover
For the pages, I used one block of cube and used the UV editing. The UV
editing is to place an image on the 3D object. I found a book image from the internet and used it for the UV
editing. It's my first time using the UV editing so it took quite some time
and a few online tutorials to get the hang of the basics.
Since the planner shape is simple, this one didn't take too much time.
After the modelling is done and I've already put the shader and material in,
I worked on adding textures to the model. I added roughness and I ensured my
image was textured first before importing it for the UV editing.
The UV editing had minor issues like being flipped around so it took some
readjustment.
Fig 4.2 UV editing progress
Then, I worked on the camera angle and the lighting. Which proved to be so
much trickier than I thought. I struggled with making the lighting look more
realistic so for the lighting, online tutorials showed that adding HDRI
improved the lighting a lot, making it look much more whole and realistic,
so I tried adding an HDRI to see if it also applies on mine. It proved to be
a good decision because instantly, the lighting felt a lot more
realistic. HDRI was sourced from PolyHaven.
Fig 4.3 HDRI Shader
Onto the animating, Blender has a similar concept with After Effects,
utilizing keyframes. I wanted my 3D object to move to the frame upwards and then it'll spin in all X, Y, Z
axis so that it's more dynamic. Then it would leave the frame by going
upwards out of the frame.
Fig 4.4 Animating the planner
A problem I saw was that the rendered animation had this glossy surface. I
did not mean for the planner cover to be that material, it was supposed to
be matte and a bit textured. I looked up on ways to fix it through the
internet which thankfully worked. This is also the same problem I faced with
the calendar 3D, which was fixed the same way.
b. Calendar
3D modelling the calendar was a bit harder than the book. I roughly
followed a very sped-up process video on Youtube and so I struggled quite a
bit. This calendar taught me how to use different modifiers, especially for
the rings.
For the pages, I copy and pasted planes and changed the rotation bit by
bit. Because I don't have the actual calendar design, I made each plane a
different color to make it look like it has an actual design.
Fig 4.5 Calendar model
Once the modelling was done, I ensured the texture is added. Similarly, I
also textured my image before using it for the UV editing, so for the
textures, I only added a lot of the roughness from Blender's
shader.
Same thing with the planner, I worked on the camera angle and lighting. I
also added the same studio HDRI to this.
Animating the calendar was so much harder. At first the rings' anchor
wasn't the same with the calendar itself so they moved on a different axis
and moved differently too. To fix this, I had to ensure the rings were
assigned to a parent-child with the calendar. There was too much
modifiers used so the playback was so laggy that I couldn't see the end
result at all. My first render took an hour and it was a complete
fail.
Fig 4.6 Animating calendar
After figuring the problem, I hid the modifiers and thankfully it worked. I
continued animating it and rendered it. Another problem was that the
lighting in the rendered animation was different to the portview in Blender.
I rendered it twice and the rendering result was so dark. I spent quite some
time finding the problem and turns out it was that the lighting layer was
under the 3D object layer, so it just didn't show up in the rendering.
Compiling
Once all the 3D is done and rendered, I compiled it with the motion graphics. When
placed in the motion graphics, I felt it was a bit too dark but I do not
want to spend another hour rendering for a tiny lighting change so I used
After Effect's brightness and contrast setting on the two animations
to make them look brighter.
B. Final Outcome
Fig 5.1 Final Outcome
FEEDBACKS
Week 2
Don’t waste time to create a branding from the beginning. You already have a developed branding (referring to Volume Nineteen – a project from Brand Corporate Identity module), just use this branding and develop the motion graphic and 3D
Week 3
You need to create a mood board of the creative direction you want to go for.
Week 4
Not much to see in terms of reference but yes ok.
Week 5
What's the content direction for the kinetic typography? For now, it looks very rough. I'd suggest you prepare a story board for it first before even composing it digitally. Together with that, try out the effects that you intend to execute digitally.
This will then settle 2 things:
Provide clear direction of the whole video.
Finalize the stylization of the digital concept and effects
Week 6
Ok, continue.
Week 7
Be aware of the timeline, try speeding up your progress so it finishes in time.
Week 8
No Class
Week 9
The selection of music will be crucial for this project as it will determine the tempo of your motion graphics. So while you're progressing on the type effects, you also need to finalize the music so that the final video is tailored according to the music
Week 10
Music is ok, continue.
Week 11
You shouldn’t be restarting the project by now. Just work on refining it. If you think it’s empty, try exploring using other graphical elements instead of just relying on the text only.
Week 12
Music is good but maybe try editing the audio so that it’s a bit quicker, right now it feels a bit too slow.
Week 13
I think the previous audio is better, so revert it back to its original idea. Add more colors and elements to your frames, if it’s only text, it looks plain. Incorporate more elements and maybe add one other color into it.
REFLECTIONS:
Throughout this module, I believe I have gained a valuable experience.
This module allowed me to expand my skills, broaden my knowledge, add
to my experience. Though it isn't my very first time handling After
Effects and Blender, I have never done something as complex as this
with the two softwares, so I really do feel like I have learned a lot
in terms of technical skills. The learning curve was difficult but the
results were worth it.
Aside from technical skills, I personally also gained knowledge in
developing an interesting narrative for audiovisual media, which I
don't usually dabble in. This experience taught me how such medias are
created and what goes on behind the scene and it is definitely a
valuable lesson.
Looking at the final result, I did have a higher expectation. I felt
like it could've been a tad bit better but nonetheless, it is a part
of learning and so it wasn't going to end flawless and perfect as it's
my first time too. Either way, I learned a lot of different skills and
knowledges from this experience alone. Though it was hard, and I
questioned my decision to tackle this project few times, I kept on
pushing myself to work my best on this and so finishing it up was very
rewarding since it felt impossible at first.
Overall, this project didn't just teach me the technical skills of
softwares and developing a motion graphic, but also resilience and
diligence. Multiple times I had wanted to change the entire course of
my own project but I also learned that no learning process is smooth
and easy. In the future, I will surely be working on honing my skills
on motion graphics and 3D modelling. Through this module, I have explored other design skills I previously had little to no experience, so it was a humbling learning process, yet I also believe this experience teaches me a lot of things.
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