The Brief
Board 1
Selecting a philosopher throughly research into their ideas and philosophies then communicate this information in an appropriate visual way to display to an academic audience with an existing interest in philosophy. There should be a strong emphasis on typography supported by the accompanying use of sound with an aim to create a physical installation to be viewed by small groups. The animation should bring to life the words of the philosopher and provoke refletion in the audience with use of light, darkness, sound and projection.
OUGD603
Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
Research & concept
Board 1
The concept is based on the book Sophie’s World, which was aimed at introducing philosophical concepts to a younger target audience. It is uniquely told through the narrative between a little girl Sophie and the letters she recieves from a mystery writer. Adapting a previously set ISTD brief about presenting information in an interesting and unusual way, we wanted to bring philosophy to life through hand-lettering and animation. This was an interesting collaboration as it allowed us to take advantage of each other’s skill set and be exposed to different ways of working. The complete animation can be used as an academic tool, making use of light and dark to provoke thought and make people go on to question philosophy.
Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
Visual development & Experimentation
Board 2
We began the design process by experimenting with different styles of type using a range of different media and mark making equipment to achieve a suitable aesthetic. The animation is purely typographical so the type had to be appropriate to our message as well as visually engaging. The passages of the story we have chosen present different concepts and as such need to be portrayed differently. To highlight important points within the story, key words were also brought to life through more experimental imagery. This is intended to break up the animation and keep the audience interested throughout.
OUGD603
We each workedo n the typography. As this was a large brief we would each produce an animation based on the type we both created. we tok every opportunity to learn from the others skill set. I learnt after effects from Martin and Martin got to work manually which is unlike the digital approach he normally works win. Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
Creating the sound and animation
Board 3
The most time consuming aspect of the project was scanning and editing our hand rendered type. We wanted to maximise brightness and invert the colours so our animation would make use of white type on a black background. This would be more suitable for dark, projected environments. In order to prepare for the animation we had to extract each word as a seperate file and ensure that we were organised due to the high volume of words we had to include. We were keen on putting an emphasis on sound, creating a bespoke sound track and voice overs that would add to the uniqueness of the experience and allow us to guide the viewer through the stories by empahsising important sections in both type and sound. We worked in after effects to link the two
OUGD603
together with words only appearing as they were spoken following the rhythm of the speech. We both recorded the sound but as creating the music and editing the sound was more Martins speciality he produced the soundtrack while I carried on edtiting the type. Once these seperate elements were completed we both worked on using after effects to animate the type. This was at first a slow process as Martin had to teach me the basics as I was a complete amateur. However, I soon understood what I was doing and we could each successfully work on the two seperate videos. Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
Visual development & refinement
Board 4
Editing all of the type was a time consuming process as each individual word was a seperate image. We wanted to retain the types hand drawn quality so didn’t edit out the accidental paint marks and ink drips. This gives it a more personal, raw quality which fits with the concept and purpose of the animation. The type doesn’t follow a standard layout and instead is organised with the flow of how you would speak the words. The layout is matched with the voiceovers so the words with more emphais placed on them in the voicover are larger creating a connection and linking the two visually.. We developed
OUGD603
the type by re-brightening the text to create a stronger contrast between the words and the black background. It was also important to contiuously evaluate and listen to each others progress on the animations as it was a difficult process lining up the type to appear hen the words were being spoken. Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
Context & Final projection
Board 5
Our animation was deisgned to be shown in museum spaces and academic settings. It’s purpose is to educate and be thought provoking. In order to show how the animation would look in context we used the projector to showcase thee animation on a large scale and in the environment. A range of printed emphemera such as posters and desccriptive postcards were also created to highlight the questions asked further.
OUGD603
Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder
In Context
Board 6
The animation is designed for large scale spaces although we designed in consideration of smaller projection situations.. It is designed for academic situations such as museums or planetariums although would work over a range of environments and scales as the target audience isn’t limited to those in academia. The space has to be dark to experience the full impact of the animation and take in the full impact of the philosphical words and questions in the voice over. Our initial brief focussed on the idea of ‘awe’ so using projection in large spaces fulfills these requirementts and are appopriate to our idea.
OUGD603
Martin O’Dea & Hannah Watt
The Faculty of Wonder