When creating a project I feel its important to address to yourself and any partners what your vision is. And the reason you want to do said project. With a set focus,  any task that faces you should be finished much more efficiently only resulting in a better end product.

With this in mind below i’m going to address my vision of what the product is aiming to accomplish and in what fashion:

Aim’s

1. Expose vulnerabilities within the internet
2. Show the basic information regarding modern day internet (Social media sites, Google etc.)
3. Piracy data ( to try and show how much damage people are causing)
4. The unknown side of the internet which is larger than the ‘internet’ people see daily. This being the ‘Deep Web’ which traditional browsers cant access. this side allows for almost anything to happen hit men, drugs, human trafficking, weapons dealing and much more.
5. An overall explanation / exposure of what could go wrong and to educate both our target audiences.

How?

1. By producing an info graphic which is animated to get specific points across in a more entertaining matter. 
2. The use of flat themed vectors as seen in the example at the bottom of this post.
3. No voice over just the use of fitting theme music from royalty free sources.

 

Where could this project end up / what do I want from it?

Obviously once the animation is complete it would be submitted as part of the university course, however the area of which we have driven the product could lead to schools around the UK to help raise online awareness with the upcoming generation of teens and adults. From past experience schools don’t touch upon much internet safety. Sure they put up posters and tell you to not give out personal information but what about the rise in piracy and younger people getting caught out and made an example of.

 

As our aim is to educate the widest range of people we can reach we cant simply have a single specific audience therefore we’re going for both a primary and secondary audience. As seen within our proposal we have defined the two as the following:

Primary Audience:

The younger generation of teens and above who have been brought up with this new technology but take it for granted. Not knowing what power they really hold online and the implications of online piracy. As this audience would be subjected to the realities of what they’re using on a daily basis.

 

Secondary:

The older generation of adults which grew up with the initial emergence of the Internet and had limited access until now. So they may not be as fluent with the use of Internet services and the rules in place to govern the activities which are legal and illegal. This audience would gain more of an insight into how the technology they saw developed into what it is now.

 

Although these do give an insight into our intentions I feel more of a description and reasoning needs to be given to full understand the outcome of the info graphic. We don’t intend to scare these audiences into not using the internet, rather make them aware of the issues they may be contributing to weather they realize this or not. With regards to the primary (younger) audience i feel this could reach more people simply because schools should be introducing internet safety within ICT classes to prepare the future generation of adults for what may develop.

With this in mind if successful we could approach schools with the final product and see if they’re interested in using it for a brighter more entertaining method of getting the key lessons / facts across without loosing the attention of the more younger and easily distracted.

What is the intended idea / concept behind the proposed project or animated short?

With the growth in accessibility of content within the Internet the concept is to create an info-graphic which shows how the Internet itself has liberated the modern day user within multiple platforms. Leading onto the growth of copyright material and battles with p2p sites such as the pirate websites such as TPB (The Pirate Bay). This is idea is formed around the knowledge of users who take advantage of what they have at their fingertips and the power they may not know they have / the consequences they could un-knowingly create. The Animated video would be accompanied by a static info graphic image highlighting the major topics and stats covered within the video. And depending on the time scale an interactive website could be created to house the video and image with an interactive questionnaire which once finished shows what percentage of people know the same amount of information as you.

Describe the intended audience:

With the aim to educate we will have both a primary and secondary audience.

Primary Audience:

The younger generation of teens and above who have been brought up with this new technology but take it for granted. Not knowing what power they really hold online and the implications of online piracy. As this audience would be subjected to the realities of what they’re using on a daily basis.

Secondary:

The older generation of adults which grew up with the initial emergence of the Internet and had limited access until now. So they may not be as fluent with the use of Internet services and the rules in place to govern the activities which are legal and illegal. This audience would gain more of an insight into how the technology they saw developed into what it is now.

How will this project extend your or your team’s creative and technical skills?

With the use of both After Effects and Illustrator the skills needed will extend from those learnt via first year and second year workshops. Focusing more on shape manipulation and animation of text and images within after effects, giving the info-graphic effect.

With the major use of Adobe Illustrator this project would require high quality graphics to help with fluidity within the final production, this is where the project will demand more technical skills within all programs. As for creativity the info-graphic is heavily based on the research gathered and the way it is presented, otherwise the audience would become less focused within a short period of time.

However, if an interactive website was to be made to house the video more creative and technical skills would need to be adapted for us both to have the knowledge to execute a well-designed and working product. These new skills being the possible use of Java, Flash and web coding.

Outline how the practical work will be carried out by you / the team (division of labour) and the time-scales involved for each task:

• The creation of graphics via Adobe Illustrator for use within Adobe After Effects.
• Animation of all graphics within after effects.
• Potential creation of web-page to contain the animation and possible questionnaire/poll.

Division of work throughout the semester:

Phase one:

• Use gathered research into the chosen topic to write some sort of script for how the animation will go and to push a specific visual style for the graphics.

• Creation of graphics within Adobe Illustrator for use within after effects. Graphics to be split 50/50, however we will work together to maintain a consistent visual style and smooth flow of visual identity.
• Design a rough layout for a web page using a similar colour scheme as the video.

Phase two:

• Collate all graphics together to prepare for animation.
• Preliminary build of website and design.
• Split the animation into key segments with reference to the script to be divided out 50/50, working closely together to maintain the fluidity of editing and style.

Phase three:

• Ryan to collate completed segments, to create fitting animations to merge them together completing the video.
• Jordan to advance with the web site later followed by Ryan after completion of the animation.

[Extra: If time allows additional features / content may be added.]

What other work (by animators, designers, film-makers, writers, digital media producers, etc.) is relevant to your project? (This work may either be relevant for its conceptual or technical similarity):

When it comes to info-graphics the range of existing products is quite large, some poor yet some excelling with creativity and visuals. Some being housed on websites such as:

• Behance – Stills & Animations
• Pintrest – Stills & Animations
• YouTube – Animations
• Vimeo  – Animations

A few animators have in fact made similar conceptual work along with the technical similarity which relate to the work to be carried out by ourselves. Below are a few examples:

• ‘Rightcolours’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsPlhwA-ick) this informs people on the air traffic around the globe similar with the presentation but the topic completely different to ours, however the technical work used to create is similar to how we would do it.
• ‘Kinetic Typography’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEIm9pxr5_E&spfreload=10) A great method of animation for displaying text within a short video production.

List any critical texts that are relevant to your conceptual intentions:

• From Word to Image: 2nd Edition: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, Marcie Begleiter, Michael Wiese Productions; 2nd Revised edition (2010), ISBN-13: 978-1932907674

(Help to plan our concept and animation from scratch)

• HTML & CSS: design and build websites, Jon Duckett, Wiley (2012), ISBN-13:978-1-118-00818-8 – (Relevant for the production the possible web page to house the video)

• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-education-programme-launched-to-combat-online-piracy

(Research information/education on piracy)

• http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/ipr/ipr

(Research information about Piracy)

• Stanciu, V, & Tinca, 2014, ‘A critical look on the student’s internet use – An empirical study’. Accounting & Management Information Systems, 13, 4, pp.739-754, Business Source Complete.

[Available from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a1e8a145-7fab-42df-aeb9-9822545f2074%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=124]

• Rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web. By: Dobrow, Stephen B., Salem Press Encyclopedia, January, 2013
• Be Creative with Info-Graphics Teacher Librarian. Feb2011, Vol. 38 Issue 3, p48-50. 3p.

Any other information not covered previously.

With a solid concept in place both me and Jordan have been working on developing the idea, as a script is needed before any development / animation takes place. As the whole concept revolves around educating the audience about the internet and the power each user possesses wether or not they know this. Below is an order of which I believe topics could flow:

• Introduction to the web
• Few small facts people may not know
• Introduction to how people can manipulate the web (online security)
• Fun facts
• The Pirate bay / Copyright
• Fun facts
• The Deep Web
• Future of the internet – Light hearted to bring up the video, rather than finish with something dark.

As this is my current idea for the fluidity of the animation, however this is to be negotiated with Jordan before set in place.