MAJOR PROJECT 1 - PROJECT 2: DESIGN PREPOSITION

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26/02/2025 - 17/03/2025 (Week 4 - Week 7)
Thanaphorn Daensaad / 0350930
Major Project 1 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 2: Design Preposition


List
Instructions
Project 2: Design Preposition
Feedback
Reflection

Instruction



Project 2: Design Preposition
This task builds upon the proposal development phase, requiring students to refine and expand their initial concept into a comprehensive design proposition. The focus is on design exploration, project planning, and technical research, ensuring that students effectively manage production workflows, explore innovative design solutions, and justify their creative and technical decisions using industry references.

Students must document their process through an ePortfolio, demonstrating iterative development, research depth, and critical reflection on design challenges and solutions.

Task 2 - Design Proposition Deliverables

Following our presentation for Task 1, we moved ahead and started Task 2. Adriena and Wan Qing wrote down all the tasks and then we divided the work among ourselves. We also set a deadline so we could finish our work on time and proceed to the next part.

Project Timeline

Research Tasks
  • Technical Feasibilities - Wan Qing
  • Technical Research - Wan Qing
  • Case Studies and benchmarking - Han
  • Characters (Industrial examples) - Chaoran
  • Characters (Proportions, color schemes, costume design, and personality traits) - Chaoran
  • Environment & Layout (Study professional layout techniques) - Adriena
  • Environment & Layout (Composition Studies & Lighting Setups) - Adriena

Research - Case Studies and Benchmarking
I was assigned to do case study research on the following components:
  • Analyze successful animated films, games, or immersive experiences.
  • Examine how professional studios handle storytelling, visual development, and production challenges.
  • Benchmark project quality against existing industry works.
First I started by analyzing successfully animated films in 2D, 2D+3D and 3D animation. This would help us determine what kind of animation we would like to accomplish in our final work. The case studies were done on Klaus, Spiderman Into the Spider-Verse and Toy Story, all of which are successful animations in its own style.

Toys Story (3D)
  • First fully computer-animated feature film
  • CGI technology transitioning from hand-drawn methods
  • Relatable story and characters, appeals to both kids and adults
  • Advancements in 3D character and environment modeling
  • Realistic animation with complex details (e.g. 700 facial motion controls for Woody)

Toys Story - 3D Animation

Klaus (2D)
  • Combined hand-drawn animation with digital techniques for a unique look
  • Enhanced shading and lighting create the illusion of 3D, while having the advantages of 2D
  • Detailed facial expressions and body language adds depth
  • Easier manipulation compared to 3D rigs (e.g. pointy elbows)
Klaus - 2D Animation

Into the Spider-Verse (2D + 3D)
  • Mix of hand-drawn, CGI, and different 2D styles 
  • Comic book aesthetic (e.g. Ben-Day dots, thick black outlines)
  • Pushed the limits of CGI to create complex sequences 
  • Each character is visually unique, reflecting their origin and personality

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 2D + 3D Animation

Next, I did research on how professional studios handle different aspects of animation in general. This will help guide us on any challenges we may face in the future and how we can learn from them


How Professional Studios Handle Storytelling, Visual Development and Production Challenges

I also did some research on animation pipelines and simplified it into a flow chart form. This shows the flow from pre-production, to production and finally the post-production stage of animation. I mostly focused on 2D+3D animation style since it is the style we plant to go for.


2D Animation Pipeline

3D Animation Pipeline


2D + 3D Animation Pipeline

After that, I found some existing industry works on YouTube to be our benchmark project quality. These animations were done either by students or other individuals and are not produced by professional studios. I tried to find videos that combined both 2D and 3D animations.

Existing Industry Works

Thumbnail Sketches 
After completing the research, I moved on to doing the thumbnail sketches, as shown below. This was done so we could play around with compositions and see which one we like the most before moving on to the final storyboard sketch.

Thumbnail Sketches

We got some feedback from our consultation and edited some parts of the scripts as well as the thumbnail sketches so it made more sense.


Finalised Thumbnail Sketches (After Feedback)

At the same time, I worked on a few designs for the dragon jade pendant that we would need to use in our animation. I went with a dragon for the pendant because as a protector of the pendant locket. In Chinese culture, the dragon is a powerful, auspicious symbol representing good luck, strength, health.

Dragon Jade Pendant

Storyboard
After the thumbnail sketches were done and improved on, we divided it among ourselves to create our storyboard. Each member took 4 boards 

Storyboard delegation:
  • Storyboard 1-4: (Chaoran)
  • Storyboard 5- 8: (Wan Qing)
  • Storyboard 9 -12: (Han)
  • Storyboard 13 - 16: (Adriena)


Overall Storyboard


Storyboard 9


Storyboard 10


Storyboard 11


Storyboard 12

Once the storyboard was done, we compiled everything into our presentation slides, Miro board and Google Drive.

Final Project 2: Design Preposition


Feedback

Week 5
  • Do character line up - can tell based on the silhouette
  • Yun
    • Taller
    • Skinnier
  • Summary of personality, physically, races, age
  • Find similar characters - observe - justify how you come out with the design
  • One board one aspect for presentation
    • Research on (/)
    • Krita - animation (/)
    • (Blender) Build in 3D, render in 2D (/)
    • Grease Pencil (/)
    • Rigify (/)
  • Visual Art - Sketch of concept art
  • Storyline - Thumbnail Sketches
  • Final - Concept, Technical
Week 6
  • Scene 5 - straight cut
  • Can write dialogue on the thumbnail
  • Need to show the name (Chinese + romanisation / subtitle) on the lanterns - audience can relate
  • Lantern - light slowly dim, and fall down 
  • Being transported to the human world with other ghost...? - being thrown to his own grave
  • Interact with people cleaning the grave
  • Kid running passed, follows the kid
  • Graveyard beside the park
  • Getting hungrier, show his form fades away more
  • Transition / show the spirit is fading? - opacity (need to be clear)
  • Show a blink (scene screen becomes brighter then back to normal) when Yun remembers his uncle
  • Show expressions of the kid when the tree grows
  • Transformation - use motion blur, light on lantern
  • Redraw the hair of the spirit like the human form
  • Can render in 2D for the bg
  • Work on the final concept art
  • Show the graveyard with Xu Chen's empty grave - timelapse?
Week 6
  • We can shorten some of the scene,
  • Showcase the unique point of our character better in the first few scenes
  • Go watch Spookiz, it is a good 3D animation
  • Can consider changing it into completely 3D
  • Play more with perspective
  • Needs to be solid to our demographic
  • Solidify it
  • We need to find more reference
  • study the effects and wow facters

Reflection

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