Instructable Poster
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
PROJECT
Instructable Poster
For the final project of this module, we were instructed to work on
a recipe video based off an existing video from the Youtube channel,
Pasta Grannies. But before that, we had to work on an instructable poster as a
base first. To start, I looked up for some videos first and decided
to go for a recipe on how to make pallottes.
I then looked up some references on Pinterest, and these were the few that sticked out to me. As for the colors and style, I liked the first 3, but for the way the elements of the poster will be structured, I want it to follow the 4th as it is quite a unique approach that I don't see anyone else is doing.
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| Fig 1.2 Reference Chart / Week 5 |
I then started sketching the idea I had in Photoshop. The main idea is to have several stations at different levels to showcase the stages of preparing the dish. The instructions will then be linked to each step.
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| Fig 1.3 Sketch / Week 5 |
Afterwards, I immediately started working in Illustrator to make all the assets. To save up time, I used the roughen effect to create texture for the dough and pallotte itself. While working, I also considered the parts of each elements that is under another element. This is so that when animating, I won't have blank spots if the element on top is moved elsewhere.
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| Fig 1.4 Assets / Week 6 |
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| Fig 1.5 Roughen Effect / Week 6 |
With all the elements ready, I began assembling everything following the layout I planned in the sketch.
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| Fig 1.6 Poster Assembly / Week 6 |
I then continued coloring the elements, using colors that mesh well together. I also applied gradients here and there so that the design doesn't look bland.
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| Fig 1.7 Base Color / Week 6 |
For the dough, pallotte, bread, and soup, I used the ocean ripple effect so that the gradient isn't just flat, but have some texture. Because of the white edges bleeding in, I did this effect on a rectangle, scaled it up, and used clipping mask so that it follows the shape of the elements.
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| Fig 1.8 Ocean Ripple Effect / Week 6 |
For the cheese garnish, as it would be tedious to just place each piece one by one, I made a custom scatter brush with these settings to create grated cheese with just lines.
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| Fig 1.9 Cheese Scatter Brush / Week 6 |
For some finishing touches, I added some more shadows to the bottom of several elements using a radial gradient, and some gradients at the base of each platforms to visually separate them and create a sense of depth.
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| Fig 1.10 Final Instructable Poster / Week 6 |
Animated Instructable Poster
To start this project, I had to first turn my file into the the correct dimensions and prepare each elements so I can animate them separately. I did this in Illustrator by making a new file, then transferring each parts I think would be animated independently into a separate layer one by one, and finally arranging and naming each of them to ease me while animating and managing all the layers.
Fig 1.11 Illustrator Preparation / Week 7
With the preparation complete, I started working in After Effects. I first precomposed all the elements following which scenes they will be in. Some general things I applied throughout the whole animation are motion blur for each elements, typewriter effect for the reveal of each text, easy ease and some form of rebound for each motion, as well as high speed transitions between scenes using with speed ramps.
Fig 1.12 After Effects Preparation / Week 7
Throughout all the scenes, I tried to keep the essence of the poster rather obvious. The transitions between the platforms follow the flow seen in the poster. The positioning of each elements also stay the same, with some additions here and there of course to visualize information that is not shown in the poster. For example, in the first instruction, I animated the ingredients being thrown into the bowl which was not visualized in the poster.
Fig 1.13 Ingredients Thrown In / Week 7
For the second instruction, I had to figure out a way to show how each pallotte is rolled out. To visualize it, I made it so that the dough in the bowl would shrink every time a pallotte is made (pops out off the bowl).
Fig 1.14 Dough Shrinking / Week 7
When transitioning between each platforms, I want to make it so that each new layer appears from below while the previous one flies up. However, because the bottom part gets cut off after importing, I had to prepare an extra layer for the bottom part of each platform. To make the transition seamless, I also put a mask with a high amount of feather too.
Fig 1.15 Mask Feather / Week 7
One new thing I also learned while working on this animation was how to use the track matte feature. I used this on the fifth instruction where the raw pallotte is thrown into the pot. If they just went in without the mask, it would look weird as they won't really land in the soup. So, I made a mask for the path of their fall and the point where it will make contact with the soup. All of this is so that I can make them sink and rise with the sauce covered version.
Fig 1.16 Track Matte / Week 7
Lastly, for the ending sequence, I decided to have all the platforms laid out somewhat like how it was in the poster. This is to show the process that went through to reach the final point.
Fig 1.17 Final Scene / Week 7
There were many more things I did to make the animation come out like this, but it is either very basic things or just variations of the things I've already explained. To finish this project, I added in some Italian cooking background music I found on Youtube, and added that into the video in Premiere Pro.
Fig 1.18 Background Music / Week 7
Final Results
FEEDBACK
Week 6
Make more progress on the poster to get a clearer picture on the direction of the design.
Week 7 -
REFLECTION
I had lots of fun working on this project, but this was quite a time consuming one. Although I mostly used simple tools to animate each of the components, making the movement and timing look good and natural takes a long time. It was unfortunate that I didn't have more time to introduce new elements that's not in the poster to help visualize certain scenes better, but I think I was able to relay the information well enough with the animation I did.