concept
The exhibition called “Werkschau” is the end of year exhibition at my college – more specifically, my faculty. The faculty of design includes the study programmes interface, communication and product design. This is a trailer to promote this event.
The theme for this trailer was a fictional user interface – but the challenge were functional requirements. It was shown in trams and busses on small screens without sound.
As a recurring element I used the semicolon, which is part of the corporate design of the exhibition and our college as well. In the beginning my plan was to animate this icon in different styles and jump cut between those. Later in the process, I wanted a more mysterious impression – which is why I decided to reveal the semicolon more and more during the video.
I produced a animatic to check my first concept on readability and flow.
style
I wanted the trailer to be modern and a bit old-school all at once. That's why I designed and animated futuristic looking elements to reach the modern look. After that, I experimented with different overlays, glows and scratches to break the clean visuals with the 80s style.
In the past, glitches stood for errors – now, they are used as modern and futuristic elements. Combining elements of those two styles work together really well. 👌🏼
my first style test
moodboard
Below you can see four pictures of my moodboard and underneath there are my final frames.
by Resistance Ibiza
by Lasha Brodzeli
by Davison Carvalho
by SHRBR
something cool in 3D
To expand my skillset for motion graphics I used the connection of Cinema 4D and After Effects to learn more about the 3D workflow. I wanted to integrate a 3D model of the university building.
My first approach was the use of Google Earth Studio. So I set up my camera inside this tool and recognized that this won't work. The quality of the 3D models did not meet my needs.
So I made a screenshot on maps to redraw the shape of the buildings. With a simple extrude and alpha material I created a holographic looking 3D model. Actually it took me some time until I was pleased with the material.
Google Earth Studio
sound
Although this trailer needs to be working without sound in the tram I decided to finish this project as a whole. So I teamed up with the German musician Felix Räuber to create a soundscape that fits the mood. After he produced the incidental music I fine-tuned it with some sound effects of glitches and vhs recordings.
This project was developed within the course "MotionBasis08: Fictional User Interface“ by Prof. Klaus Dufke at the UAS Potsdam.