Evaluation!

Since the project has been completed, I've had time to think about what went well, and what I would do differently in the future.

Overall, I was happy with the final submission for the project, however there were some things that I could have done better. In all honesty, I feel like I left the animation phase a little too late, meaning that some of the animation was not as smooth or polished as it could have been given more time.

The website was also something that could have been improved, however I didn't feel confident enough to code the website so that it was actually functional. In future projects I will endeavour to learn the skills to be able to actually create the websites, rather than simply design concepts. That said I was happy with the concepts for the website.

Moving forward to future projects, I've learnt the value of time. Spending as much time as possible on the animation, to ensure polish and overall improved presentation, is something I will definitely do. I will also look into the feasibility of learning HTML/HTML5 coding languages to develop my coding abilities and create the possibility of actually writing and creating the websites I want to.

Website Concept Design & Project Complete

The final stage of the project is to create the concept design for the website.

I knew from an early stage that the website would need to reiterate the design style from the advert, to maintain the illusion until the reveal is made. Using the same grey, and the same vignette around the edges, I designed a front page that would lead the user to 'enter'.

At the bottom of the page I added 'lifelens.com is part of the Arcon PLC', in reference to the Arcons that used to protect the archives in Ancient Greece. This also furthers the appearance that the website is a legitimate product. The 'e' letters are taken from the logo, with the eyelids filled in. 

The main page was then designed using the same basis, background and vignette. The 'e' was taken as a motif of the logo to sit at the top of the page, above the text that reads. 

'LifeLens is not real.

Do not dwell in the past.

Enjoy each day.

Make life memorable.

Live it.'

The text is all centered underneath an underline, to construct a minimalist stylisation for the website. 'Live it' is in bold, to apply emphasis that this is the main message of the website.

And with that, the website and project is complete. All elements have been placed on a USB stick and submitted for assessment. 

Animation Phase

With the script, sound and logo all created it was time to animate the advert.

Using Photoshop I designed the artwork that would then be animated in After Effects at a later date. Some artwork was designed from scratch, and others were inspired by clip art style design. Having a consistent, almost cartoon-like, design across the advert will ensure that nothing seems out of place or different.

The screen shot you see above was constructed by combining 3 frames of artwork, using masks in After Effects. The blue, yellow and green scenes were all separately animated, then layered with animated masks to reveal the scenes one by one. This is my favourite part of the animation. 

I continued animating the advert in the same manner, keyframing the positional information of the artwork to ensure there was a constant sense of motion and kinetic energy within the piece. Combining all the artwork with the recorded audio and the readily designed logo frames meant the animation came together almost exactly as intended. 

After a few weeks of animating and amending all the keyframes and other effects, the advert was ready to be rendered. Once this was completed, I checked through the final film to ensure there were no issues with the render. I fixed a few issues, and rendered again for the last time. The advert was now finished! 

Feel free to watch the advert below: 

http://youtu.be/tjwzg-wKAus

The final stage of this project will be to design the LifeLens website, which in reality would be the site that informs users that the advert is a hoax, designed to make people appreciate life, and not dwell in the past.