We discussed towards the beginning of this project about creating some kind of smoothie man character (mascot) and when the client said he liked the idea of this we decided to pursue and start on a small animation to introduce the smoothie.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Grace Parker Character Design (Smoothie man/Spinach)
Grace Parker Character Designs.
We discussed towards the beginning of this project about creating some kind of smoothie man character (mascot) and when the client said he liked the idea of this we decided to pursue and start on a small animation to introduce the smoothie.
I imagined him to strut across the screen and leave behind him bits of the smoothie that will form into Dream Green
Inspired by the Frubes advert and the Cheese String advert this is what i came up with..
I also did some designs for the spinach and how I imagined it to look. At first i could see it dragging itself across the floor, then I did a more "jabba the hutt" look, which I also liked. I wanted it to give the effect of its face almost drooping down its body, yet keep it friendly looking and appealing.
We discussed towards the beginning of this project about creating some kind of smoothie man character (mascot) and when the client said he liked the idea of this we decided to pursue and start on a small animation to introduce the smoothie.
Sunday, 17 February 2013
'Fruit at the Gym' Animatic
Dan Hodgson
Below is an animatic for the idea of 'Fruit in the Gym' mentioned in previous posts. The purpose of this is to provide a general idea of: how long the piece would be; the way in which the the idea flows as a whole; readability of primary concepts such as the health benefits of Dream Green smoothies; how effectively the piece engages with the intended clientele - primarily gym goers.
Below is an animatic for the idea of 'Fruit in the Gym' mentioned in previous posts. The purpose of this is to provide a general idea of: how long the piece would be; the way in which the the idea flows as a whole; readability of primary concepts such as the health benefits of Dream Green smoothies; how effectively the piece engages with the intended clientele - primarily gym goers.
The animatic was produced in a fairly basic cartoon style with minimal attention to backgrounds and props in order to allow an objective decision to be made as to whether or not key elements (narrative, timing, scene layout etc.) work together in such a way that key information can be conveyed while still engaging with the audience. As discussed previously, the completed animation could be produced in a range of styles including stop-motion and CGI. My major concern with this idea is that its playful and light-heated style may appeal mainly to teenagers and younger viewers, in contrast to Dream Green's intended age range of 25-40. However a great deal of very popular advertising campaigns have used a similarly unusual and zany concept to reach a more mature audience:
The advert above is also an excellent example of how animation can be composited over live-action in such a context - we discussed a similar technique whereby the fruit would be animated separately before being composited over a live-action gym instructor. Another potential area of weakness attached to this idea is the time-span of the piece. Adverts for television generally don't run over 40 seconds due to the cost of air time and that maintaining audience attention for any longer becomes difficult. As such the idea should either be compressed to a shorter time-span, or taken forward as a piece for online advertising through sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.
In all, I feel the idea has a lot of potential - it's concise, informal, conveys key information in an engaging manner and loosely targets the intended audience in a way which is not as potentially exclusive as explicitly focusing on one demographic. Though the weaknesses of time-span and age appeal of this idea seem fairly inconsequential, when it comes to the final decision of which idea to take forward, these factors could lead to one idea being chosen over the other.
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Initial Ideas and Rough Sketches for 'Dream Green Smoothies'
Dan Hodgson
Our initial brainstorming sessions took place prior to meeting with the client, as such these early ideas were only loosely connected to the product. While this gave us the freedom to run with any thoughts that came to mind, ideas were limited in terms of not being aware of information such as target audience and cost etc.
From our meeting with the client, my interpretation of what we should be aiming for is something which: is not too formal; explains the product's effect on health (particularly digestion); appeals to the sports market; and highlights the organic nature of the product. In this post I've included some of my basic sketches from our brainstorming sessions, along with some more refined concepts for two ideas which we feel could be taken forward.
This idea uses minimalism to convey the use of pure, natural ingredients in Dream Green's smoothies. We have discussed several possibilities as to how this style could be applied to a narrative. For example, as the line is being drawn across the screen, a voice over might summarise the general ethos of Dream Green, before going on to list the ingredients of a particular smoothie - which would emerge from the line when mentioned, as in the example below. A second line may then appear forming a cup, into which the ingredients merge before popping to reveal a photo of a real Dream Green smoothie, similarly to the way the apple pops into the video. For the video below I used Flash to animate the line, composited over stop-motion paper in After Effects, as this was simply the fastest method. However we came up with several ways this could be executed including the use of a whiteboard to animate the line through stopmotion and using claymation for text. The use of a voice over which only needs to be loosely synced to footage allows any information to be conveyed without necessarily having to produce accompanying visuals, however too much voice over could lead to a result which is less dynamic than having a fully animated narrative.
This idea is more focused on the target audience than the previous idea, however the style is informal enough to still appeal to a relatively broad demographic. The scenario immediately establishes a relationship between Dream Green smoothies and sport/exercise; concisely summarising the principle that these drinks are designed to help you stay healthy. A voice over would still be used to convey more detailed product information, although this time through the medium of a ruthless gym instructor barking orders at fruit, explaining why it's important to stay healthy for example. The sketch on the left shows how the general scene would be set, with various fruits and vegetables - all of which would be ingredients of a smoothie - working out on a kitchen counter while the instructor peers over. Eventually the fruit would begin to fly off gym equipment and break themselves up to the point that they all get squashed together - at which point the instructor tastes the resulting smoothie, commenting on it's deliciousness. We discussed the concept of using stop motion animation incorporating real fruit as puppets, however this could turn out to be too similar to the 'Violent Veg' series of greetings cards. Below is a piece of concept art I produced for this idea, giving a more detailed insight as to how I picture this idea.
Our initial brainstorming sessions took place prior to meeting with the client, as such these early ideas were only loosely connected to the product. While this gave us the freedom to run with any thoughts that came to mind, ideas were limited in terms of not being aware of information such as target audience and cost etc.
From our meeting with the client, my interpretation of what we should be aiming for is something which: is not too formal; explains the product's effect on health (particularly digestion); appeals to the sports market; and highlights the organic nature of the product. In this post I've included some of my basic sketches from our brainstorming sessions, along with some more refined concepts for two ideas which we feel could be taken forward.
 |
| Rough Initial Storyboard |
Simple Line Animation
This idea uses minimalism to convey the use of pure, natural ingredients in Dream Green's smoothies. We have discussed several possibilities as to how this style could be applied to a narrative. For example, as the line is being drawn across the screen, a voice over might summarise the general ethos of Dream Green, before going on to list the ingredients of a particular smoothie - which would emerge from the line when mentioned, as in the example below. A second line may then appear forming a cup, into which the ingredients merge before popping to reveal a photo of a real Dream Green smoothie, similarly to the way the apple pops into the video. For the video below I used Flash to animate the line, composited over stop-motion paper in After Effects, as this was simply the fastest method. However we came up with several ways this could be executed including the use of a whiteboard to animate the line through stopmotion and using claymation for text. The use of a voice over which only needs to be loosely synced to footage allows any information to be conveyed without necessarily having to produce accompanying visuals, however too much voice over could lead to a result which is less dynamic than having a fully animated narrative.
 |
| Rough Initial Sketch |
Fruit at the Gym
This idea is more focused on the target audience than the previous idea, however the style is informal enough to still appeal to a relatively broad demographic. The scenario immediately establishes a relationship between Dream Green smoothies and sport/exercise; concisely summarising the principle that these drinks are designed to help you stay healthy. A voice over would still be used to convey more detailed product information, although this time through the medium of a ruthless gym instructor barking orders at fruit, explaining why it's important to stay healthy for example. The sketch on the left shows how the general scene would be set, with various fruits and vegetables - all of which would be ingredients of a smoothie - working out on a kitchen counter while the instructor peers over. Eventually the fruit would begin to fly off gym equipment and break themselves up to the point that they all get squashed together - at which point the instructor tastes the resulting smoothie, commenting on it's deliciousness. We discussed the concept of using stop motion animation incorporating real fruit as puppets, however this could turn out to be too similar to the 'Violent Veg' series of greetings cards. Below is a piece of concept art I produced for this idea, giving a more detailed insight as to how I picture this idea.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Grace Parker
Grace Parker
Dream Green Drinks
Ideas we had on our first day 29/1/13
Smooth Man (i had an idea of him being a human like yogurt type look)
Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal song
Antibodies fighting, and smoothie helping them, a battle field in the body type thing
Questions to the client
Group meeting 1/2/13
Qs and As for Client 5/2/13
I'm an Idealist
From the questions the class asked
To start off with he had an ill family member, so he looked into healthy organic drinks to improve their health, and he found it worked very well.
His ingredients are all organic, nothing added to preserve. Rather than sugars he uses greens and herbs.
Hes been working on his product for 2 years.
His target audience are people aged between 25-40 and is going to be distributing his product in gymnasiums and sport markets. Its aimed towards people with poor eating habits and people that want a more healthier DIGESTION.
He is open to any style and likes the idea for it to be lighthearted and have humour, so long as it is still informative.
He likes the idea of short snappy clips of animations, and is open to all media types.
Starting Points
Initial Ideas 7/2/13 (Adam joined our group)
A seed being planted, growing into a tree then things coming off of the branches.
Lines morphing into objects like the direct line advert
I liked the idea of something that flows easily like the Robinsons squash advert where splashes of colour dance around the screen.
My ideas
Fruits being splattered on screen, then all coming together and dancing around the screen to tango music. Then going into a bottle and becoming the smoothie.
Different fruits gradually coming together (plum rolls onto screen looks around then a grape rolls on and they interact) reactions from the fruits, they all become friends, dancing and jumping around celebrating. the all suddenly get squashed, cuts to silence and put into a bottle. (Possibly some butch man saying something along the lines of "Nevermind them lot! Sort ya GUT out!")
Another idea i had was a big gym instructor making all the fruit work out in a gym, pushing them to their limits.
Spill from a smoothie bottle making mess on table, then faces form in the smoothie trying to tempt people to drink it.
Skeleton made of claymation, pulling faces when looking through the body. (Operation Board Game) smoothie helping the body and digestive system.
Group Meeting 8/2/13
Myself Dan and Elliot briefly met after class to go through ideas.
Idea 1
We all liked the gym instructor making fruit workout, this idea grew to a miniature gym for the fruit, the gym instructor sneaking up behind and shouting etc. fruit flying off of treadmill and other equipment, splattering onto the instructor him licking his face tasting a "revolution" of flavours, combined by the perhaps bizarre creations by the fruit? But showing that it is good and it does work and taste great.
Materials
Idea 2
Line appears on the screen and forms a shape, for example an apple, then suddenly it pops into an actual apple, then the line comes off the apple and goes into something else then again pops into the actual object.
Materials
We agreed to work on these ideas for next week and think of others for back up.
This could be something to look into!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sja8OTnMYxs
Dream Green Drinks
Ideas we had on our first day 29/1/13
Smooth Man (i had an idea of him being a human like yogurt type look)
Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal song
Antibodies fighting, and smoothie helping them, a battle field in the body type thing
Questions to the client
Group meeting 1/2/13
- Target Audience
- Formal or Informal
- Expectations
- Background info on Client
- Selections of Products
- Flavours
- Cost
- Design (Logo or slogan)
- Overall Appearance
- Availability worldwide or local
- How does it differ
- Contact info
Qs and As for Client 5/2/13
I'm an Idealist
From the questions the class asked
To start off with he had an ill family member, so he looked into healthy organic drinks to improve their health, and he found it worked very well.
His ingredients are all organic, nothing added to preserve. Rather than sugars he uses greens and herbs.
- Ginger
- Lemon
- Banana
- Melon
- Mango
- Cucumber
- Celery
- Grape
Hes been working on his product for 2 years.
His target audience are people aged between 25-40 and is going to be distributing his product in gymnasiums and sport markets. Its aimed towards people with poor eating habits and people that want a more healthier DIGESTION.
He is open to any style and likes the idea for it to be lighthearted and have humour, so long as it is still informative.
He likes the idea of short snappy clips of animations, and is open to all media types.
Starting Points
- Digestion
- Nutrition
- Organic
- Natural
Initial Ideas 7/2/13 (Adam joined our group)
A seed being planted, growing into a tree then things coming off of the branches.
Lines morphing into objects like the direct line advert
I liked the idea of something that flows easily like the Robinsons squash advert where splashes of colour dance around the screen.
My ideas
- Colourful
- Simple
- Movement
- Emotive
- Informative
- "Poorly" digestive system
- Create a character
- Some way to show variety of flavours
Fruits being splattered on screen, then all coming together and dancing around the screen to tango music. Then going into a bottle and becoming the smoothie.
Different fruits gradually coming together (plum rolls onto screen looks around then a grape rolls on and they interact) reactions from the fruits, they all become friends, dancing and jumping around celebrating. the all suddenly get squashed, cuts to silence and put into a bottle. (Possibly some butch man saying something along the lines of "Nevermind them lot! Sort ya GUT out!")
Another idea i had was a big gym instructor making all the fruit work out in a gym, pushing them to their limits.
Spill from a smoothie bottle making mess on table, then faces form in the smoothie trying to tempt people to drink it.
Skeleton made of claymation, pulling faces when looking through the body. (Operation Board Game) smoothie helping the body and digestive system.
Group Meeting 8/2/13
Myself Dan and Elliot briefly met after class to go through ideas.
Idea 1
We all liked the gym instructor making fruit workout, this idea grew to a miniature gym for the fruit, the gym instructor sneaking up behind and shouting etc. fruit flying off of treadmill and other equipment, splattering onto the instructor him licking his face tasting a "revolution" of flavours, combined by the perhaps bizarre creations by the fruit? But showing that it is good and it does work and taste great.
Materials
- 3D model for gym instructor
- Set- Paper? Flash? cut out objects? (Terry Gilligan Monty Python)
- Opening scene claymation
- We liked the idea of a mixture of styles
Idea 2
Line appears on the screen and forms a shape, for example an apple, then suddenly it pops into an actual apple, then the line comes off the apple and goes into something else then again pops into the actual object.
Materials
- White boards
- Flash paper background
- Scrunching of paper for opening scene (opening and closing)
We agreed to work on these ideas for next week and think of others for back up.
This could be something to look into!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sja8OTnMYxs
Another Advert I love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ8AFpCV60g
I found this one, which i though aniamation was quite good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_BUV91TLg
This was voted best advert in 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tCtM8UEQv8
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