Information Design / Project 1 & 2

19.02.25 - 07.03.25 / Week 3 - Week 5 
Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
BDCM
Information Design (DST61004) 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PROJECT 1 & 2

Project 1: Infographic Poster

Instructions

For project 1 we are to redesign and refine any existing infographic poster we find online into an A4 size based on visual hierarchy & typography.

Research

Before redesigning the poster, we first had to pick a few for Mr Fauzi to consult on to determine which one would be the most suitable for redesigning. After my consultation, Mr Fauzi and I settled on the butterfly since it was the most unrefined out of all my poster choices and I had more opportunity there to make it better.

Infographic Poster Choices

Fig 0.1 Atomic Theory Infographic Poster

Fig 0.2 Orion Constellation Infographic Poster

Fig 0.3 Sirius Star Infographic Poster

Fig 0.4 Butterflies Infographic Poster (Chosen Poster)

Process

First, Mr Fauzi asked me if there is a way I can combine the sketch with the butterfly anatomy and life cycle diagram as feedback. So, I decided to make the sketch combining those two by having all of the stages on one flower.

Fig 0.5 Butterfly Life Cycle Sketch

However, during the next class, he said to try and follow the poster more closely than the sketch so I was confused and it was a little contradictory to the first feedback. I then tried to combine both of these pieces of feedback because I didn't want to waste the sketch already made, and so I still vectorized the initial sketch in Adobe Illustrator. For the initial vectorization of the life cycle flower, I referenced pictures of what a monarch butterfly looks like to closely follow and built the shape of the butterfly using the pen tool, line tool, and shape builder.

Fig 0.6 Butterfly Reference

I decided to put the vectorized version of the sketch at the bottom in the middle and since I planned to have the diagram circles on the right with the text on the left to have the vectorized butterfly life cycle centered. For the vectorized flower, I made the different life stages from youngest to oldest - Eggs, Larva, Pupa, Adult - from bottom to top and removed the baby larva on the stem in the vectorized version as it seemed redundant.

Fig 0.7 Vectorized Butterfly Life Cycle 

I went with more pale/pastel colors as the original colors were dull-looking and doesn't seem to fit the butterfly theme, so I used a light yellow for the background. I still wanted to incorporate a semblance of the original blue and it was complementary to the yellow, so I used a lighter blue for the circles. The circles act as a base for the butterfly and life stages to sit in when I insert them later on. I curved the arrow and diagrams more as well as I think it fits better with the size of the poster and it looks more visually appealing rather than the linear curve in the original poster.

Fig 0.8 Adding Base Elements

Then, I took the vectors of each stage and I resized them to fit into the circle diagrams on the right and used the shape builder tool to cut off the excess pieces of the vectors that didn't fit in the circle. I then vectorized the anatomy diagram butterfly of the same design to match the life cycle butterfly below it.

For the wing veins of the big butterfly I used the line tool, and then I applied a gradient for both wings and made them slightly transparent. I used a salmon to orange color for the wings gradient; it uses the same color from the life cycle stage butterfly. I also used the line tool for the antenna and adjusted the start and end point to be sharper to match the real butterfly.

Then I took the skeleton of the butterfly wings (the part without the color gradient), lowered the transparency, rotated it a bit, and added it as a decoration to the top left, middle right, and bottom left of the page to fill the excess negative space in the poster.

Fig 0.9 Adding Life Cycle Stages, Butterfly, and Background Decorations

Next, I added in the titles "Butterflies" and "Life Cycle" in black using the font High Tower Text, the description of what a butterfly is and the family it belongs to, and a further elaboration on the life cycle of butterflies since the original poster did not include it. All other subsequent text is in black as well using the font Chinese Fine Black. I also labelled the anatomy of the butterfly with lines and text. 

Since there is no bold version of Chinese Fine Black, I added a stroke to some text to create the bold text effect which i applied to the words "Lepidoptera", "metamorphosis" in the life cycle description as it is a key point in the life cycle of a butterfly, and the 4 stages in a bullet point list. Then I made the text for the text "Lepidoptera" and "Of a butterfly" the same color as the circle on the diagrams to create contrast with the black text.

Fig 1.0 Adding Text

I felt something was missing, so I added a soft gradient behind the skeleton wings to tie everything together.

Fig 1.1 Adding Gradient

Final Outcome

Fig 1.2 Final Butterfly Infographic Poster

Project 2: Minimal Animated Infographic

Instructions

For project 2 we are to animate our infographic poster into one static loop animation page with a duration in between 15-30 seconds and a size of 1080 x 1920 px, then upload it as a video to yt. Before I started animated I first made a 1080 x 1920 px version of the poster which I imported into After Effects to animate.

First I animated the butterfly wings. I selected each butterfly wing, defined their anchor points, and then applied the 3D feature onto the wings. Then, I moved them by adjusting the Y-axis number and in one keyframe I would move it closer to the screen and then on the next keyframe I would move the wing further from the screen to produce a visual animation of the wings appearing to flap in sync.

Fig 1.3 Butterfly Wings Flapping Animation

To make the leaves and flower grow, I fixed the anchor point to the start of where they grew from, then scaled from small to big - 0% at the first keyframe to 100% at the last keyframe using scaling - so that they appeared as if they were growing.

Fig 1.4 Flower + Leaf Animation

To make the stem grow, I used the stroke mask preset. I first defined the skeleton of the stem, and then made a stroke line on it following the curve of the stem, and lastly used the mask so it appears to reveal upwards like its growing.

Fig 1.5 Stem Growing Animation

To sway the plant from side to side, I used CC Bend It. I defined the start and end points of the plant, applied CC Bend It, then entered a keyframe between time gaps. At one time point I bent it slightly to a negative degree, then on another time point I would bend it the other way to an inversely positive degree and repeated this several times to product a swaying back-and-forth effect.

Fig 1.6 Flower Swaying Animation

I applied the Inky Linear Wipe animation to the title and for the subtitle, I applied the Linear Wipe animation.

Fig 1.7 Butterflies Title Animation

Fig 1.8 Subtitle Animation

For the scientific name label of the butterfly, Lepidoptera, I set the first keyframe to 0% opacity and the last keyframe to 100% opacity to product a fade-in effect. Then, I applied a mask on top and I moved the position of the text to hide it to the left of the mask so that it slides in from the left to the right to give it a revealing and fading-in effect.

Fig 1.9 Lepidoptera Animation

I made the butterfly anatomy diagram circle start small and increase over time with a 0% to 100% scaling effect, and applied a 0% to 100% opacity effect here just like with the "Lepidoptera" text. Lastly, I applied the Wobble and Pop-In animation preset.

Fig 2.0 Circle Animation

I wanted the butterfly to appear after the circle was done animating so i made it fade in using opacity from 0% to 100%

Fig 2.1 Butterfly Fade in Animation

I used the generate stroke preset for the line strokes by using the pen tool to line over the labeling lines and define where the animation should be following, then I used the stroke animation preset which creates a mask so that the line comes out of the beginning of the pen stroke that you made for the label to reveal and go out of the circle. The words on the butterfly anatomy diagram had a 0% to 100% opacity effect applied after the label was finished animating on each one to create a fade-in effect.

Fig 2.2 Label Animations

The same revealing and fading-in animation applied to the text "Lepidoptera" was applied to the life cycle diagram title for both the "Life Cycle" and "Of a Butterfly" components. The only difference between them is that the latter part of the title starts its animation slightly after the former part of the title to create more space and contrast between them.

Fig 2.3 Life Cycle Of a Butterfly Text Animation

For the text below the title, I made a mask and then used the linear wipe preset so that it looks like it's writing out. The four stages bullet points had the same reveal and fade-in animation as the scientific name label and the life cycle diagram title.

Fig 2.4 Text Description Animation

Fig 2.5 4 Stages Animation

Each of the four life cycle diagram circles on the bottom right of the poster pop in and fade in the exact same way as the large circle for the butterfly anatomy diagram with the Wobble and Pop-In presets. The images for each stage of metamorphosis inside each of the circles fade in as soon as its circle animation has finished too through adjusting the opacity.

Fig 2.6 Life Cycle Circle Diagrams Animation

For the curved arrow next to the life cycle diagram, I used the pen tool, defined the skeleton so that the animation has node points to follow on the arrow, then used the generate stroke preset and applied it onto the line so that it looks like the arrow is drawing out. I put the first keyframe of the arrow starting where the first "Egg" bullet point appears on the left, and the last keyframe of the arrow is synced to when the "Butterfly" bullet point appears so that the arrow animation matches the stages of the butterfly life cycle text animation.

Fig 2.7 Arrow Animation

The text under each life cycle diagram image fades in with 0% to 100% opacity (fades in at the same time as the image in the diagram circle), but these both fade in after the circle animation.

Fig 2.8 Life Cycle Diagram Text Animation

Each stage of the butterfly life cycle  on the flower fade in at the same time as their respective circle diagrams on the right too using 0% to 100% opacity.

Fig 2.9 Butterfly Life Cycle Animation

Lastly, the background wings come in from the side and fade-in from 0% to 100% opacity. On the first keyframe, it's 0% opacity and starts from outside the boundary of the poster, then it slides in to come back into the original position in the poster with adjusting the X-axis. For each wing, they come one after the other very slightly after the previous one in time from bottom to top.

Fig 3.0 Background Wings Animation

Final Outcome

Fig 3.1 Final Minimal Animated Infographic

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FEEDBACK

Week 3

Proceed with the butterfly poster, try to find a way to combine the butterfly anatomy and life cycle diagram into one visual.

Week 4

Try to follow the posters original visuals more similarly, but in a refined version.

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REFLECTION

For these projects, I was able to apply what i learned in the lectures about the types/proper structure of infographics. I learned that typography, layout, and visual hierarchy were particularly important when creating one, and adjusting these can drastically improve the readability and understanding of the infographic. I also learned many new animation techniques as I was not as familiar with animating in after effects, so when I was able to figure out the correct animation for the vision I had for an element it was satisfying to see it actualised. The end product was the most satisfying part since I got to see my infographic "come to life" in a sense, and it turned out exactly how I planned in my head, so I'm happy with the result.