The final NSS advert...

 

Heres the final NSS advert, all created using Adobe After Affects with imported designs created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop...

 

The advert so far...

Heres how the advert is shaping up so far- things might still change but i'm liking how it looks so far...

 

 

From here, certain things will be changed for the final film...

 

New storyboards for the NSS...

Now that the advert is designed, its just a matter of putting it all together, starting with looking at it in sotryboard form...

Now this can be transferred into an animatic to see how the timing is working and see if any changes need to be made before getting stuck into making the final advert.

The new design of the NSS...

 

I want the look of the final advert to have a cut out style, with sketchy edges- rough lines yet block shapes and colours, based on the look of the Monsters Inc intro...

The look of the final character is one that I am happy with- he can be moved easilly using the puppet tool on After Effects, and is simple, sketchy and hopefully stand out...

The other objects in the film have to match the sketchy and blocky stlye,  keeping simple and bold, and also carrying the NSS logo and brand throughout the advert, so that whenever someone starts watching, they will know what it is advertising...

A further new direction for the NSS

 

The idea has changed and will now focus on a student going through various stages of university, experiencing the good and bad sides of them...

The idea needed to be simplified, so after looking at various example of other NSS adverts, I wanted to focus on the main areas of the survey in a simple, yet bold way...

By making the seperate areas combine into the letters of the NSS keeps the idea simple and hopefully effective. I want to keep it sketchy and bold, using only details that are neccesary, so will bare this in mind when it comes to desigining the look and style.

Change of direction for the NSS...

 

The Harry potter idea turned out to be too difficult to reinvent for the project. By keeping the idea the same, it would have left little opportunity to work into it in after effects, and by changing the idea, it didn't seem as if it was working in the same way, so it may be better to start with a fresh idea altogether, tailored around using After Effects for it's creation...

With just a short time period to create the final advert, I'm going to have to stop myself from going overvboard and giving myself too much to handle- plus i need to make sure the information gets across in the best and most effective way possible in the space of time.

harry potter and the return of the NSS...

 

Now that pre- production is done and dusted, we moved on to learn After Effects. It was software I'd never touched before, so was daunting at first, but after a week of tutorials and teaching ourselves the basics, it turned out there was more that it was capable of doing than I could have ever imagined.

 

So to test our new found knoweledge, we had to take our NSS advert from the Flash project and revamp it, tweak it and add extra effects and features using After Effects, so it was back to the world of Harry Potter.

 

I was told to change certain story elements from the advert so began by storyboarding new ideas...

 

Harry Potter and the Final Film...

 

So here it is, the final advert. It ended up a little longer than I originally intended, and some changes were made for the client, but these were only very slight. The NSS light beam from the castle was added to make the NSS theme run through the piece, and the end slogan was changed from 'Problem with your tutors?' to 'How are your tutors?' so that it didn't seem like the piece was inviting people to think of problems with their tutors to give in the survey, more personal ones, and so it ended more positively and left them wanting to put any comments down- good or bad. But in the end I think it still became the piece I set out to make, if not better.

It still feels wierd and unreal that in just a week a 40 second piece has been made, but Im really happy with it, and hope that the NSS group are and possibly lead on to using it for their campaign...

 

 

Harry Potter and the Background creation...

 

These are the backgrounds that were used in the film, created in Photoshop before beign imported into Flash. Im really happy with the Hogwarts image- its got enough detail to show clearly what it is, but keeps it linear and basic enough to not over complicate the scene.

 

When attempting to create the astronomy tower background, I wanted to keep the basic theme going, using the same colour as a base for simple line work and slight colour shading. But here, it didn't seem to work. it seemed too basic, and the colours don't tend to fit the theme. So I kept as many of the original colours from the Hogwarts scene as possible for the final backgrounds and they worked alot better.

Harry Potter and the NSS animatic...

 

Now with the characterd designed, and the story developed, it was time to see it in action, but here in a simple animatic form to test that the timing and the shots work together, and that it is understandable to viewers...

 

Harry Potter and the National Student Survey...

 

The castle of Hogwarts that the films are based in is incredible- the detail and wonder of the building is striking. It seemed to lend itself to a nice establishing shot, with subtle cloud movments and lights to birng it to life...

 

I then wanted to use actually shots from the scene to lead up to the twist to make it more recognisable to viewers and to make the twist that much more unexpected...

I wanted to keep the characters simplified, but as they would only use simple, subtle movements, I wanted to make the most of the chance to give them a little more detail than usual...

The Magic of the NSS...

 

I decided on going for the Harry Potter scene, from 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', in which Professor Dumbeldore- the headmaster- dies at the hands of Snape, another Professor. I felt that it was a scene a lot of people know and love, and would hoepfully therefore grab the attention of those passing when they see an animated version of it.

 

I wanted to use shots from the scene itself to give more recognition for those watching...

 

...the scene then takes a twist when the falling Dumbeldore lands on an unexpecting Harry Potter doing magic tricks at the bottom of the tower. For the Snape and Dumbeldore scenes thoough, I needed to ake sure the relationship and status of the two was clear to those who don't know the characters, so decided to give Snape a reason to zap him- at first thinking that Dumbeldore was trying to fire him, but then it seemed to come across clearer if Snape was trying to fire Dumbeldore, leaving Dumbeldore to then smugly remind Snape that he is the Dean (changed from headmaster to give more of a link to universities) before he blasts him from the tower.

Its then revealed that the advert is for the NSS, and that this particular segment represents students problems they may have with their tutors.

There are some shots in here that I thought would work nicely in Flash- such as that with the full shot of Hogwarts Castle, working with floating clouds and flickering lights to use limited animation to create the best effect.