Collaboration Project: Storyboard

 For our collaboration project, we were assigned to create any piece of work. This was a very broad assignment which allowed us to think creatively and out of the box.

I was paired with Martyna Cygan and Klaudia Osinska. I was very excited to create this project as we had the opportunity to bond more and get to know each other. However, this was bitter sweet as it would have been so much better to work with these girls in person. 

Before creating our project, we decided to discuss a few possible outcomes. All 3 of us have different progression routes. I will be following product design, Martyna will be following graphics design and Klaudia will follow animation. For this project, we decided that it was a good idea to create something that combines all 3 of our progression routes.

The first thing that came to mind was to create a leaflet. However, we realised that many people were aiming to produce a leaflet and we wanted to create something more unique and personal. We thought about the storyboard class task we were assigned and we thought that it would be a good idea to create a storyboard.  This way we could incorporate animated character, products and the digital layout and design of graphics design.

We decided to brainstorm some initial ideas to see which one is more suitable for our design. At first we brainstormed what kind of storyboard this will be. It could be advertising a product, creating a product or a leaflet, manufacturing something or a 2D product that comes to life. Out of all these ideas, we decided to proceed with creating a product as we felt like it had more potential and we were very excited by it.

The second section of our brainstorming focused on the content of the storyboard. We decided that we want to make something unrealistic and not seen in real life. We wanted it to be magical and the characters like cartoons. This was a concept that all three of us liked and agreed on. We also wanted to create it digitally to make it look more professional. Additionally, we agreed that our main character would be a girl as this group only consisted of girls.

The following part was to expand on the theme of the design. We added some potential outcomes. We thought of a magic pencil that was inspired by the existing 3D pens. However, with this pencil you will be able to draw anything and everything.

We thought of a magic hat, magic lamp, magic gloves, and magic spells. We thought that the three themes that interested us the most were the pencil, the lamp and the hat. 

We decided to add very rough sketches of the potential outcomes.

This was the storyboard for the magic hat. We added subtitles as the sketches are very rough, however, we are still considering adding subtitles in the final or not. 

In this storyboard, it depicts a sad girl that wants a dog. She looks at the magic hat and runs towards it. She wishes for the dog and then one jumps out of the hat and she is happy.

Even though we liked this concept, we were not very excited with the execution of it. We could potentially create something much improved and better than this one. One issue we had with this design was that it did not showcase any products.

However, we liked the closeup shot on the hat and wanted to implement one of these shots in our final storyboard.

The second initial idea was inspired by Aladdin. As we wanted to create something unrealistic, we depicted a magic lamp falling from the sky. We added a closeup shot again as we really liked the emphasis it created on the product. The girl puts it in her bag and then wishes for flowers. They magically appear in her hand.

We felt that this storyboard was incomplete. It did not flow well and there were many unnecessary long shots of the girl which is very tiring. Additionally, we realised that we don't like dialogue in our storyboards. We want the viewer to perceive it any way they want to without concept. Lastly, this was heavily inspired by Aladdin which shows that it was not an original idea.

The last one was the one we decided to proceed with. This is the magic pen inspired by 3D pens. It shows a girl designing a chair and then using it to relax. It is a very simple yet straight forward story without any subtitles in need. She is using the pencil to draw the chair and then sleeps on it.

We like the fact that there is no dialogue or subtitles. We wanted to create something simple and easy to understand by the viewer without a lot of complexity. Additionally, we wanted to add many shots with the girl designing the chair in order to build tension.

Overall, we were very happy with this design and decided to proceed with it.

We decided that Klaudia and me would create 3 rectangles each and Martyna would create 2. It was not an issue that we had 8 rectangles as we all put in the same effort.

PLANNING: We decided that we were going to use one colour pallet, however, each one would adapt their preferred style in their assigned rectangles. This way, we could showcase each one of our personalities and how we like to work. This was a colour pallet designed by Klaudia for what colours we could potentially include.

We decided that we were going to proceed with the fifth row as it has more soft and pastel shades. After looking at colour theory in 2D3D module, we decided that it was a good idea to implement complementary colours to make sure that the final piece looks nice and coherent.

We decided that the only thing that would remain the same was the colour pallet, everything else would be our own styles.

These were the designs by Klaudia:

The next three were designed by me:

The final 2 were designed by Martyna:

What I really love about this storyboard is that we all implemented our own styles. Just by looking at it, it is clear that Klaudia focused on the character which shows how involved she is with animation.  I focused more on the chair as I am keen towards product design. Martyna created the details and the image perfectly which shows how well she knows the graphic software she is working with.

After designing the images individually, it was time to assemble them all together with titles and subtitles. This is the final piece:

I am very happy with how this turned out. I think it looks great and it gets the story across. I like the idea we had of implementing our own styles in this and I think it turned out great. We added a standard comic sans font in order to make it more appealing and simple. The colour is purple to complement the storyboard couch design.

Why did we not include subtitles? We wanted to make it simple enough for people to understand with subtitles. We added very exaggerated facial expression to convey how the character felt. We consider subtitles as an 'unnecessary' distraction. We want the viewer to perceive our storyboard in any way they want to without distractions of subtitles. We want the viewer to be 100% focused on the images. 

REFLECTION

How did we communicate? We communicated via messenger where we exchanged our drawings, ideas and feedback. Not going to lie, it was really hard to do so. However, the girls cooperated perfectly and we managed to create a well-though and representative outcome.  

Was this helpful? Did you enjoy it? This was probably one of the most enjoyable projects of this term. I had the opportunity to work with two great people and exchange ideas. This enhanced my communication skills and pushed me to cooperate and work as a team. Additionally, it was great to see how each person perceives a concept and designs it in their own unique way. Collaboration and teamwork is a very vital factor in the design industry. Therefore, I am glad I completed this. Additionally, I am glad I was paired with 2 more people of different continuation routes as we joined forces and combined all of our ideas. I enjoyed this very much and I would happily do it again.

What would you change? I definitely would not change anything. Although it sounds cheesy, I believe that we worked great together. I enjoyed the whole process. From the exchanging of ideas to the final outcome. Additionally, I believe that the final outcome looks great!!

What skills did you enhance? I definitely enhanced my communication skills. I learned how to communicate properly and work as a team. Additionally, despite the circumstances of working remotely, this taught us how to collaborate over social media platforms. This will be beneficial in the future where some business meetings might be held online. Further more, I am quite new to designing sketches digitally. This definitely challenged me and helped me develop them even more. 

Martyna, Klaudia, it was a pleasure working with you and I think we completed this project at the best of out abilities.

Their blogs are: 

https://klaudiaosinska.blogspot.com/ 

https://martinasarts.blogspot.com/