Time Taken- 1 month
Role- Animator
Tools and Software Used-Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe InDesign
Brief – Develop a final project by selecting from one of the three focus areas: design, media, or screen. Draw upon the knowledge, techniques, and skills acquired throughout your foundation studies to shape and inform your work. Your project should reflect the principles and methods learned during this foundational stage, showcasing your ability to integrate theory with practical application in your chosen field.
Process, Challenges and Solutions – The Spalding animation project opens with a fluid motion design water animation that sets an ominous tone, immediately pulling viewers into the eerie world of a dystopian town. The title "Spalding" emerges, crafted with custom typography in Photoshop and animated in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. Achieving the realistic, organic movement of water presented a unique challenge, requiring extensive experimentation with After Effects’ turbulence effects and layering textures to bring depth and a sense of foreboding to the scene.
Following this, the animation cuts to a close-up of an eye staring directly at the viewer, embodying the ever-present surveillance theme. A robotic voice then begins a chilling announcement, enforcing curfew regulations on Spalding’s citizens, emphasizing the town’s oppressive control. The audio effects were carefully edited in Premiere Pro, with pitch adjustments and reverb added to give the voice a lifeless, mechanical quality. The timing of the voice and eye movements had to be precise to create a realistic, unsettling atmosphere, a process that involved multiple refinements in the audio-visual sync.
The animation continues with a series of glitching government propaganda posters, revealing graffiti symbols of rebellion left by those opposing the regime. The glitch effect was created in Procreate and Premiere Pro, designed to feel raw and erratic, capturing the chaotic resistance brewing beneath the town’s surface. This sequence was carefully edited to blend layered sound effects with sudden visual distortions, creating a sense of tension between control and defiance.
In the final scene, men multiply across the screen, symbolizing the enforced conformity and loss of individuality in Spalding. This effect, crafted in Procreate, involved careful duplication and slight blurring adjustments to maintain visual quality while emphasizing the overwhelming and eerie repetition. Every scene, from the fluid water motion to the glitch effects and robotic audio, contributes to the dark, oppressive atmosphere, immersing viewers in Spalding’s haunting, dystopian world.
Target Audience- Television advert, small advertisement
Tutor Feedback- This is well constructed, communicates clearly, is engaging to read, and the consistency of typographic styling is considerably improved – font size, leading, line length, positioning etc.
Secondary research is good with relevant film/media references and reflective annotation, but for both secondary and primary research, there could be more depth and detail.
There is now more evidence of iterative development and the thinking process that informs your decisions.
OUTCOMES ‘Spalding’ movie
This explores and communicates your themes very successfully. Once again, you have evidently made some technical breakthroughs. Pacing and scenes work well. Kinetic type and TV-style noise and glitches are effectively implemented. Perhaps the zoomed-in version of the Guy Fawkes mask could be better quality – still be pixellated – but sharp and not anti-aliased around the edges?
Project Gallery
