Project 2: Decisive Moment

26/9/2020 - 18/10/2020 / Week 6 - Week 8

Lim He Yu (0340423)
Bachelor of Mass Communication (Advertising) / Illustration & Visual Narratives

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Project 2 / Decisive Moment

 Lectures 

Week 6
Movement can apply to a single component in a composition or to the whole composition at once. Visual movement is dependent on the other elements and principles of art. Rhythm, line, color, balance and space are all examples of elements and principles of art that can play a major role in developing movement in a work of art.

Week 7
Types of Comic Transitions:

• Moment-to-Moment
• Action-to-Action
• Subject-to-Subject
• Scene-to-Scene
• Aspect-to-Aspect
• Symbolic 
• Rolling Transitions
• Non Sequitur

Week 8

No Class.

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 Instructions 

The gist of what we were required to do is to pick a moment in history or fiction. 

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 Idea Exploration 

Idea #1

"A Diamond is Forever"

Back in 1989 to 2003, De Beers Consolidated Mines was charged guilty of funding conflict areas in Africa, in return to continue mining diamonds in the region of Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and Ivory Coast. Back then in the late 1940s De Beers ran an iconic campaign with the tagline "A Diamond is Forever", and the prices of diamond shot up for decades. However, when the Blood diamond crises came to light, diamond prices never went down, people were still buying the gems. The visuals of the artwork highlights the opaque diamond industry and to depict the ignorance of consumers. 

Figure 1.0: Rough Idea Sketch #1

Idea #2

"COVID-19 Toilet Paper Shortage"

In light of the COVID-19 situation, there was an incident earlier this year where people were fighting over toilet paper, which I though was really funny, so I decided that this was one of the most historic moments in COVID-19 history. The composition is similar to Idea #1. 

Figure 1.1: Rough Idea Sketch #2

Idea #3

"Yusuf Taiyoob"

One of the most iconic radio ads in Malaysia. Initially, I just thought this would be a good idea to have fun with but after sketching the artwork, I personally feel like there's not a lot of substance to it so I decided to not go with this one. 

Figure 1.2: Rough Idea Sketch #3

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 Idea Rationale and References 

In the end, I've decided to go with the first idea, because I feel like it's more personal to me. I personally love the story behind the whole case. From the genius who created an iconic tagline that changed the diamond market forever, to being corrupted. In the artwork, I wanted it to look like it was a magazine spread from the 50s, because that was when the industry was booming, but nobody knew what happened behind all that glamour and marketing. 

To depict the idea, a spotlight will be shone on the diamond with hands reaching out for it, while African laborers and an armed guard lurks in the dark background. Apart from that, the image will be put in a magazine page with the iconic slogan. To top it all off, textures of old paper and stains will be added to represent the shadiness of it all, and to represent the idea of "getting your hands dirty" when a consumer purchases the diamonds.

Shown below are the references and textures I found to illustrate the artwork. 

Figure 2.0: Reference #1

Figure 2.1: Reference #2 (Animation)

Figure 2.2: Reference #3

Figure 2.3: Reference #4 (Texture)

Figure 2.4: Reference #5 (Texture)

Figure 2.5: Reference #6

Figure 2.6: Reference #7

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 Progress 

Illustrating The Artwork

Shown below are my progress of illustrating the artwork based on the references above.

Figure 3.0: Illustration Progress #1

Figure 3.1: Illustration Progress #2

Figure 3.2: Illustration Progress #3

Figure 3.3: Illustration Progress #4

Figure 3.4: Illustration Progress #5

Animating The Artwork

I've decided to use frame by frame animation on Photoshop to animate the gif. I had to experiment on the frames in Illustrator first before importing the diamond illustration to Photoshop. So, I took out the diamond in the artwork first. 

Figure 3.5: Animation Progress #1

Figure 3.6: Animation Progress #2

Adding Textures

From the textures I found, I added them in the artwork using Photoshop with the blending modes. 

Figure 3.7: Adding Textures

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 Final Artwork 

Logline
"A Blood Diamond is Forever". The blood shed behind the immortalized symbol of love and glamour. 

 

Figure 4.0: Decisive Moment_Final.gif

Figure 4.1: Decisive Moment_Final.jpg

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 Feedback 

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 Reflection 

Experience:
It was fun to create something that I actually care about and to showcase a bit of history, especially a case that's revolved the advertising industry, where I'm pursuing my career. 

Observation:
Animating a rotating diamond is really difficult. After a lot of trial and error, I finally made something I find by the least, acceptable.  

Findings:
I have found that creating a composition that tells a story is quite challenging and I realized the importance of a good composition.