WARM UP INTRODUCTIONS TO LEARNING UNITS - For English Units
Brief: Create 22 unique Flash animations with audio sounds and background music.
Aim: To stimulate & encourage learning english. Designed as an introduction to each unit.
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds each
Worktime:Each intro would take 3 to 4 days to produce. Some aslittle as 2.5 days, others 5 days.
Applications used: Storyboard / illustrator / Photoshop / Flash / Sound Forge & Quicktime

Project Overview: Given an initial guideline to follow, covering each units storyline, activities and goals - I would then proceed to develop concepts with a start / middle / finish. From there I'd create a theme using rhythms and beats from a keyboard and place it as the backing track with the intention of producing animation / motion in sync. Audio sounds were collected, created, sampled and edited to suit. Sourcing images and creating animation were the most time consuming activites as was conceptual development towards the end of the project. Timing and synchronisation was a constant challenge with better solutions sought after. Producing complex animations to synchronise, across a wide variety of computers with different specs was always goiing to be difficult. Its an area which I'll endeavour to refine in the future.

View the intros on the Animotion page >

FLASH PAGE LAYOUTS - For English & Math Units
Applications used: illustrator / Photoshop / Flash / Lightbox & Scanner

Project Overview: Given a theme for the unit, myself and another designer would then go about setting out the pages. Using stock photography, I would modify clipart or create additonal illustrations depending on the need, time and suitability. Aimed primarily at 8-12 year olds, they were also required to be entertaining for adult education. This group were the last of a series which was about the farm, dreams and horseriding. Some of the pieces were drawn within illustrator using mediocre clipart as reference while the other pieces were drawn with the aid of scanned in drawings of mine. As with my other cartoonish examples, some of these images were handrawn first then scanned in, touched up, colour and filter effects added. Others were drawn straight within Illustrator and finished in Photoshop. Its interesting to compare the two styles against eachother and seeing how some images are better suited to certain media. Using traditional drawing skills, 2-3 drafts on the lightbox, scanning in and then adding colour and effects within Photoshop. Although pencil linework can be scratchy, it has a sensitivity which can often be lacking within vector drawn characters. I learn't many new techniques as I strived for the best results. Using pngs instead of gifs resulted in much better quality for the layouts where file size wasn't such an issue.