Brainstorming- Process of Production

The animated commercial 'Brainstorming' is my first motion graphic design work. I have made great progress on 3D animation learning during the study this year.


Since the whole project is also a commercial package for Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design which include the Poster, invitation and the TV commercial. The requirements and suggestions of my clients are also crucial parts of my project.




My client didn't restrict the style and content of the commercial. The time should lasts approximately 1 min. And the objectives is to encourage general public, art collectors, employers to attend the show, and to make DJCAD as a creative hub in Dundee.




Although I have handed in my final video and all prints I still not satisfied with part of the video. Due to the reason that I have to finish the final video before 7th of August I can't achieve some effects.




The completion of each section.
1. Modeling                              80%
2. Animation                            80%
3. Compositing                      100%
4. Special Effects                    90%
5. Audio & Sound effects      100%


My original idea is not only modeling a character with a still pose, but also rig the character and animate it with several simple movements. However, It took me more than half month to develop the character I want to use. It exceeded the time I arranged for modeling. So I gave up the idea of making character animated. Instead, I add some facial expressions like blink and smile.


The inspiration of the character design is the video called 'Kill Your Co-Workers'.
The character in this video was made with geometric shape and textured with sketch style.

character in 'kill your co-workers'

1st character I designed I found the view seems like too clean and it's difficult to animate this character with some movement, because the geometries are not enough. Besides, compare to the original video I chose which have plenty of characters, I only got one character with different props.there is another inspiration for modeling and character design is the character made by Mcbess, an illustrator and director. The characters he designed have curve figures and looks cool. 

After I decided to use this character in my video, I started to animate and compose the first and last shot, which are the only two shots with character.

I separate my video into 5 parts:1. Character's body fill up with liquid and then his head opened.2. Some colorful object popped up from his head and the camera zoom into the 'eye'.3. The motions of the brain.4. The grid world(all objects textured with sketch tag).5. Camera zoom out from character's eye.I gave myself one week time for each part, so I could clearly know if I already behind schedule.Since I made the video with sound effector so the scene is exactly accord with the beats, It's easy to compose all the sequence together because the sounds have restrict the time for each part.It's already the end of July after I put all sequences together. My client ask me to hand in the poster before August since the promotion start earlier. She suggested me to design a poster has same style with my video and the title should be conspicuous. I can't pick up a proper frame for poster, so I added some elements which appeared in my video in the poster. At the same time, I start to render the hi- resolution pictures and working on special effects. Reece Morton helped me with special effect and I also adjust the effects in the joints of each section. It's now seems like connect with each other naturally. Reece also helped me modified  the audio.