Information Design / Final Project

03.02.25 - 23.03.25 / Week 1 - Week 7
Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
BDCM
Information Design (DST61004) 

---

INSTRUCTIONS

---

LECTURES

Infographic Video Animation

Instructions

Based on our FLIP group topic research, we must produce a basic video animation infographic report to present the given information to a ‘target audience’ with the purpose of:

• Creating awareness (such as Global Warming, Recycle, etc.)
• Explaining a process (such as "how to" video)
• Defining a concept (such as "What is Fast Fashion", "What is Color Wheel", etc.)

using any time based media and software using photography/vector imagery.

Design Considerations:

• Organization Principles – LATCH and Content Organization
• Aesthetic Principles – Animation principles
• Cognitive Principles – Principles of visualization

Output Expectation:

The presentation must be deliberated on, considering each assessment rubric of sorts to our final outcome:

• Show causality
• Multivariate graphics and visuals
• Integrate word number and images
• Content count
• Within eyesight
• Use multiple charts
• Do not de-quantify

//This blog will only be showcasing the tasks I've done for the project, for further information you may visit my other team members blogs//

Group Formation/Task Delegation

Firstly we had to form a group. I joined a group consisting of the following members:

1. Katelyn Tan Kye Ling (project manager/leader)
2. Chen Yuan Yuan
3. Chong Hui Yi
4. Iman Binti Kamarudin
5. Janice Marie Eng Chia Hui (me)
6. Johnny Lam Wee Zhe
7. Mercy Chong HuiZiun
8. Nausheen Nazim
9. Reema Arif Hamza

we had also been split into 2 groups, an animating team, and a drawing team, and then split into subgroups within those groups to focus on specific scenes in the storyboard. I was in the drawing team, and in a subgroup with Janice.

Drawing team:

• Creating the script (split with animation team)
• Drawing assets
• Creating the storyboard 
• Design direction 
• Developing Animatic Mock-Ups

Animation team:

• Animating
• Determine animation direction
• Compiling sound effects
• Editing and compiling video
• Inserting in the voice-over

There was an extra team, the voiceover team which included:

1. Iman 
2. Katelyn

Research

From there we then had to determine what topic we'd like to do. For this our group leader had a meeting where we discussed and researched ideas which would fit by finding infographic videos we could reference/improve upon. I found three videos:

• How does your immune system work? - Link
• How we domesticated cats (twice)  - Link
• How is a rainbow formed - Link

Fig 0.1 Brainstorming

In the end we decided on the topic of "How Ponzi Schemes Work?". After the topic was confirmed through a consultation with Mr Fauzi, he advised us to choose the most popular case of a Ponzi Scheme so we could derive infographic information from it to put into our video. Following his advice I carried out some research on the topic itself, and found out what the most popular and largest case of a Ponzi Scheme was, which was conducted by Bernie Madoff and shared my research with the team. 

While doing some research, I also found updated news that some victims from the Bernie Madoff case had recently gotten their funds recovered from the government- so we thought it would be a good opener to add into our script.

Process

Script

For the script, we were split into pairs to work on certain parts of the script. I worked with Janice on scene 2 which focused on introducing and explaining the concept of how a Ponzi Scheme worked. There were a few revisions of the script, but we eventually reached this final version.

 

Fig 0.2 Script

The flow of the story goes:

1. Introduction
2. What is a Ponzi Scheme?
3. How does it work?
4. Signs to look for
5. Outro

Once the script was finalised, we then started working on the storyboard to determine the visuals and visual flow of the animatic to provide a guide for the animators when animating, and when the storyboard was finished, we broke the script down into an excel sheet to determine the timing for each scene and match the storyboard visuals with the script to make a clearer guide for everyone when drawing/animating.

Storyboard

Fig 0.3 Storyboard

Script/Storyboard Sheet

Fig 0.4 Script/Storyboard Breakdown in Excel Sheet

Design Direction

For the design direction, initially we were going to do cartoon-style characters following this reference or something similar, so some of our group members made some sketches/characters based on it.

Fig 0.5 Design References

Fig 0.6 Character Design Test 1

Fig 0.7 Character Design Test 2

However, I thought it was not fitting for our topic and that we would then have to change our target audience as the character design is more geared towards children, and we were covering a more mature topic which is mainly aimed at adults since the majority of people who invest are adults or older. Thus during the meeting I came up with a more human design while keeping in mind simplicity so it wouldn't be too hard to animate.

Fig 0.8 Character Design Test 3

After that we had a vote and agreed that a human character made more sense, so Hui Yi refined the design and came up with the two final designs of the characters A and B.

Fig 0.9 Character A Design

Fig 1.0 Character B Design

We also finalised the design of Bernie Madoff

Fig 1.1 Bernie Madoff Character Design

Then we decided on other aspects of the art direction, like the fonts we were planning on using, colour, art style, character design and animation references.

Fig 1.2 Design Direction

Then following the art direction and utilising the art assets we had, I then made my part of the assets of scene 2 in adobe illustrator.

Fig 1.3 Scene 2 Assets I Made

The assets were then combined with Janice's part and handed off to the animation team to animate. We also created a mock-up animatic guide for the animators to follow when animating scene 2.

Fig 1.4 Scene 2 Mock-Up Animatic

I also attempted to animate a bit of the first scene of scene 2 on my own as well I was getting worried about the animators progress, however it wasn't used in the final video as the animator had managed to complete the animation.

Fig 1.5 My Test Animation of Scene 2 Start

Final Outcome

FLIP Presentation Slides

Final Infographic Video Animation

---

FEEDBACK

Week 2

Proceed with the How a Ponzi Scheme Works' idea as it has a larger target audience and could be interesting with the "raising awareness" topic.

Week 3

Try recording the voice-over first to see how long it will take to present everything

Week 4

Good progress on the storyboard, the transitions are very smooth and its nice that the ending went back to the first scene.

Week 6

Add audio and subtitles into animatic to make it more engaging and understandable

Week 7

Progress looks good so far and the design is consistent, but there are some minor errors, like Bernie Madoff having no legs/head in some scenes.

---

REFLECTION

Working with a team is very different than working individually since you must coordinate despite tasks being split among members, so in the beginning I had some worries and wasn't sure if we were all going to be able to, but in the end im happy with what the outcome managed to be. I learned that for a team to work, clear communication are a must especially when trying to gauge consistency between tasks, as even though we split our responsibilities between drawing, animation, and other tasks, all elements must fit together seamlessly to maintain a coherent flow in the final video. In general I also gained a deeper understanding of the topic we chose, and I'm grateful that our team managed to come out with such a nice animatic despite the short time constraints.