Production reflection of My Final Major Project

1. Production Reflection
Harvey-Hyde

2. Process
• First I applied an appropriate
landscape background found
on Google images and saved
and inserted.
• This first layer is the basis on
which I will build my product. I
believe even from the
background the audience will
immediately identify this as a
suicide squad background as it
fits in with the conventional
colours scheme. I was happy
with this as it showed promise
to stay true to the conventions.

3. Process
• I then carefully
collected foreground
images (Using
Google images)
• I.e. Logos and
Character Skulls
• These are essential
to the product due
to convention and
content.

4. Process
• Using this method I added
the Top 3 voted characters
from the quantitative
survey which adds
familiarity with the
audience. The images had
their own individual
backgrounds as they were
part of existing posters.
Using the “magic wand”
tool I had successfully
removed the backgrounds
and used the images as
individual layers.

5. Process• I then proceeded to add the Song
artists from the top voted songs on
the survey (Heathens, Sucker for
Pain, Purple Lamborghini and
Bohemian Rhapsody) in their Suicide
Squad Character Skull form. Twenty
One Pilots has a target audience of
15-22 teens an audience very similar
to my own which may be why the
teenagers on my quantitative survey
have voted for “Heathens” my
qualitative research reinforces this.

6. Process
• This was not enough however as I decided to
make an animated poster so I opened Adobe
After Effects. I had saved each individual layer as
a PNG file using Photoshop and loaded them into
After Effects and reorder the characters in order
to have this product be unique and in this I had
ordered the characters in their groups broken up
only by the Suicide Squad.

7. ProcessIn after effects the animation began with the logo, from the forefront of the screen the logo had down scaled to fit
into its final position in the centre of the screen by selecting the location and keyframing it in at a certain point then
dialling the timescale back to set a scale for it to come from using the transform: scale tool. And the first character
animations were the Twenty One Pilots trilogy consisting of the two main artists and the Twenty One Pilots logo
fading in to the screen I did this by keyframing the opacity tool at 100% and dialling back the time scale and setting
the opacity to 0% so over time it fades in, following this the Panic! at the Disco skull had spun into the screen by
keyframing the size tool, rotation tool and position tool where I wanted them to be and changed the position further
to the left out of frame and resized it to be larger after dialling the timeline once again and changed the rotation to
spin 360° 7 times and keyframe them all so it would fly in from the left and do multiple spins as well as fit into
position to give another effect of flying in from the forefront of the screen. I believe so far that my product is visually
appealing and that it would appeal to my primary target audience through visuals and character.
Stopwatch = Key-framing

8. Process
Using the position tool I had set the key frame of the location of Wiz Khalifa and set his location elsewhere after dialling
back the time frame and setting his location off screen, I had rapidly brought him in his location to look like he had smashed
onto the screen and to add to this effect I had moved the other skulls and the logo using the position tool moving them ever
so slightly between each frame creating a shaking effect. I had then set the layer centre of Lil’ Wayne to the centre of the
animation using the “Layer Options” and downscaled the layer and set a single key-frame by pressing the stopwatch icon
and set the rotation to 90° as to spin into position and size up which would make the icon rotate around the frame, as Lil’
Wayne stopped moving, Imagine Dragons had immediately began getting larger using the scale tool as I had set a timeframe
using key-frames in which the skull would be visible and scale larger from its point of origin and be scaled down
immediately but not as much and then scaled it back up to its regular size to give it a minor “Bouncing effect”. Following this
I had created a solid white layer, and set the opacity tool to zero and key-framed it, I then proceeded to set the opacity to
100% the next frame and key-framed but set the Opacity back to zero but a few frames down the timeframe so it would
fade out seemingly naturally to give the animation a healthy flow. In this brief window I had set the opacity of X
Ambassadors to 100% from zero during the appearance of the white layer so it would seem that the white was like a flash of
lightning and so appears the skull. I was really happy with all the animations so far as they were all original and unique to
one another and had a healthy flow in animation thus far.

9. Process8 seconds in, logic fades in by key framing the opacity tool over a long time whilst also rotating much like
the warner brothers logo on the “Ballroom Blitz” Suicide Squad Trailer and using the rotation tool, rotating
anti-clockwise and key-framing in the process and frequently rotating slightly clockwise whilst fading in.
After this I had Ty Dolla $ign fly in from the right of the frame with great speed using the position tool, I
had also key-framed the rotation tool to spin into his final position. Then with Skrillex I had used the scale
tool to do a similar effect to Imagine Dragons but only it stays at the same size except for little palpitations
to the beat of heathens as Skrillex fades in. Finally of the music artists was Rick Ross who fades in with a
“time machine” effect where by the skull spins rapidly whilst fading in but slows down at the end, I had
achieved this effect by key-framing Rick Ross’ final position further in the time frame and set the rotation
tool to do multiple spins until the final position but to slow down at the end I had left space for a short
period where by the skull spins slower into his position whilst also having the opacity tool from 0% and
over a long duration settle at 100%.

10. Process
• The next stage was to find unique ways to involve the actual Suicide Squad film characters so first as
an individual, Deadshot flies around the empty spots of the animation as to add mystery in regards
to his final position, using the position tool I had set his location to the bottom left empty spot and
then key-framed it as well as key-framing the bottom right further down the time frame and finally
key-framing the top position as to rest there for the duration of the animation. During this from
when Deadshot sets off the opacity tool slowly rises to 100%. Finally I had the idea to have Joker
and Harley appear together to make it fairly clear that they are a couple (to appeal to my target
audience of females in a relationship) and to keep the animations as original as possible, the way I
achieved this was to have the characters pin wheel from both sides using the rotation tool and the
position tool in the transform menu and as they join in the middle they bump heads showing their
extremely dysfunctional relationship, they then rotate the opposite ways to knock back into their
final positions which are parallel to one another.

11. Process
After this, I had decided to reverse the effect on the logo by creating a mask and covering the characters as the
logo enlarged using the scale tool, and the create mask tool as well as mask transforming to change the points
between frames. This idea was flawed however as the mask I had created affected the rest of the skulls earlier I
the animation as whenever they cross the mask border they get stuck behind and it looks sloppy, we avoided
this problem and removed the mask effect and found an alternative, this was that we would recycle the flash
animation from the X Ambassadors animation and re-use the white solid layer. After the flash animation all the
characters had disappeared and presented “Coming august 5th 2016” whilst travelling upward fading ain and
fading out again using the opacity tool and position tool by key-framing from 0% opacity as the position tool has
the layer drift u as the layer is half way up the page the opacity is key-framed at 100% and when it reaches the
top it fades back to 0%, finally again reusing the white solid layer, setting it too 100% opacity and having the
“Warner Brothers Records” Logo fade in using the opacity tool to present the audience with information on who
owns the rights to the sound track fitting in with the advertising convention. The animation was then complete I
believed it looked good despite set backs and I was happy with my work so far.

12. Process
All that was left now was the music, and I had decided “Heathens” by Twenty
one Pilots was the way to go as they are featuring artists on my album cover,
they were voted highly on my quantitative survey, as well as being a personal
favourite, I believe the song is up beat and suits the chaotic style of my
animation well. After saving the animation as an MP4 I had loaded it into
Adobe Premier and found an audio version of “Heathens” on YouTube and
inserted the URL into a MP4 to MP3 converter online I had then loaded the
song into premier parallel to the animation. My task at this point was to make
the music go with the music as best as best as possible. The animation is only
so long and the intro is rather quiet and slow so my decision was to remove
the intro using the “Blade” tool and skip all the way to the chorus which
looked good as there was a brief period where the logo hits the middle of the
animation at the start which when the chorus or “drop” happens. In the lead
up to this were the mumbles of Tyler Joseph, one of the artists, through
backwards messages hidden throughout the song by copy and pasting
selected audio. The chorus follows through until the Warner bros logo as the
music then fades out using the “Gain” tool by lowering the decibels over
time. And finally saved it all an MP4.

13. Process

14. (If in slide show press Play)

15. CD Cover

16. Process
• The CD Cover
started with the
dimensions of the
cover and my task
was to utilise this
space to fulfil
convention and
make an
entertaining and
realistic depiction
of a suicide squad
album cover.

17. Process
• Firstly I had put the
character skulls
together in their groups
to cover the front
changing to a new
background yet keeping
the logo in the centre. I
kept with the same
colour scheme and skull
art as these aspect are
conventional and iconic
to the Suicide Squad
brand specifically in
advertising.

18. Process
• I had used Google
to determine the
order of the track
list for the album
for the back of the
CD cover contents
and as I used the
information to
cover the side, but
this seemed to
empty so I added
two characters to
fill up the space.

19. Process
• My plan was to use my
Suicide Squad and
varying backgrounds to
use up the space in a
realistic attempt of
designing a CD cover
and in this I felt I had
used the space to my
advantage. I had
adjusted the jokers
position to make him
suitable for the actual
CD design as well as the
design behind.

20. Process
• Finally I had decided it was
necessary to fill out the space
with some
“Underappreciated” and
under credited from the cover
so I dedicated a whole page to
them, although this still
seemed really empty so from
Google images I had added a
“Joker Laugh” and resized it
using the transform tool, so it
would fit the page of the
inside, following this I felt it
seemed slightly “Unofficial” so
I inserted a Copyright
Message using the “text” tool
and a “Warner Brothers
Record” Logo, the company
that the Suicide Squad
soundtrack falls under.