THE BRIEF
Design a storyboard with a 10 second (or more) motion graphic visual narrative rollout with audio, and subtitles/speech bubbles where appropriate.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
I wanted create a simple, flat, clean animation that had the potential to loop (like a GIF), while maintaining a strong narrative. I was inspired by lofi music videos, kawaii anime and the retro mascot aesthetic.
I was reflecting on the coming of Spring, which brings about a sense of optimism — but in my case, irritation — since I suffer from seasonal allergies. I wanted to communicate this juxtaposition in a sweet and humorous way. The animation features a personified flower that is swaying to a lofi beat, but is interrupted with the urge to sneeze. As the flower sneezes, it loses its petals and feels embarrassed to be “bald”. To the flower’s relief, this is not a permanent state, and the petals regrow. The message is that we should not let small irritations ruin our good vibe, and that we have the potential to build ourselves back up.
I sketched out my storyboard, then put the sound design together so that I could animate to the timing of the audio. The VECTOR graphics were created in ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR using black outlines and flat colour.
I used the same flower design throughout, and made small adjustments to fit the flower’s emotional state. I applied the animation principle of squash and stretch to EMPHASISE the flower’s movement. The background was tweened so that it could appear to loop infinitely. ALIGNMENT was imperative to the animation process so that every graphic matched up along the GRID. BALANCE, UNITY, SIMILARITY and REPETITION were all achieved through the consistent layout and graphics. The animation was created in Adobe Animate, the subtitles were added in ADOBE PREMIER PRO and the sound design was edited in AUDACITY.
Concept: Andrea Liang
Illustration: Andrea Liang
Animation & Video Editing: Andrea Liang
SFX Editing: Andrea Liang
Audio: Merry Bay [Upbeat Summer Lofi] by Ghostrifter Official
Software used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects, Procreate, Audacity
ANIMATION VIDEO