Week 1 - Week7
QIULIHUA/0365036
Design Research Dissertation / Bachelor of Design (Honours)in Creative
Media
major 1
Major1—The Light in the Wind
Project Process
week1：
Conceive and establish a complete story concept, initially outline the
story's theme and basic plot, and present the core idea of the story to
the teacher to obtain initial feedback.
Reflect：
This week's creative process mainly involved conceiving a general story
direction. The initial idea wasn't perfect, but through continuous
refinement and simplification with my teammates, a relatively complete
story direction gradually formed. After showing it to the teacher, I
realized that the story's theme needed to be clearer, and the logic
between plot points needed to be more coherent. This would better
highlight the characters' personalities. This stage made me understand
that establishing a clear core concept at the beginning of a project is
crucial, as it lays the foundation for subsequent visual design and
narrative development.
week2：
On the basis of the concept of the story in the first week, further
improve the content of the story, sort out the complete story
structure, including the start and turn of the story, and show the
teacher a complete narrative framework.
Proposal:
Reflect：
According to the previous experience, in the process of improving
the structure of the story, I tried to sort out the story
according to the inheritance to make the plot development clearer.
By adjusting the order of part of the plot, the logic of the story
becomes more natural. However, at this stage, I also found that
some emotional turns were still slightly sudden, and the
expression needed to be further strengthened through subsequent
pictures and frames. The teacher's feedback helped me re-examine
the rhythm of the story and made me realize the importance of
narrative structure to the whole work.
week3：
According to the determined story structure, draw a preliminary
storyboard to present the development of the story through visual
frame, so that the rhythm and structure of the story are visually
clearer.
storyboard：
Reflect：
In the process of drawing the storyboard, I began to transform
the text story into visual expression. By splitting the frame, I
can see the development and rhythm of the story more intuitively.
However, when actually drawing, I found that the connection
between some shots was not smooth enough, and the information
expression of some pictures was not clear enough. Therefore, I
constantly adjusted the camera sequence and picture composition at
this stage to make the story visually clearer and lay the
foundation for subsequent animation production.
week 4：
My team members and I began to design the characters and
environment, determine the image characteristics of the
protagonist, design the environment and scene elements of the
story, and establish a unified visual style.(The design of the
character comes from Qiu LiHua)
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heroine
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male lead
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Front courtyard
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Reflect：
This week's focus is on character and environmental design. When
designing characters, I try to keep the character image consistent
with the overall atmosphere of the story, while maintaining the
simplicity of the modeling for subsequent animation production. In
terms of environmental design, I began to think about the
relationship between the scene and the mood of the story, so that
the scene can not only be the background, but also help express the
atmosphere of the story. This stage made me realize the importance
of the unity of visual style.
week 5：
Make a dynamic storyboard (Animatic) on the basis of the existing
storyboard. Through simple animation and time rhythm adjustment,
the story narrative is more fluent, and the overall narrative
effect is preliminarily tested.
Reflect：
In the process of making dynamic storyboards, I began to pay
attention to the transition between the rhythm of the story and the
camera. Through a simple animation test, I can more intuitively
judge whether the story is smooth and whether the emotional
expression is in place. This process also made me find that the
rhythm of some lenses needs to be adjusted, and some lenses stay too
short or too long. Through continuous revision, I gradually
optimized the overall rhythm of the story and accumulated experience
for the subsequent more complete animation production.
week6：
I created the dance video of the characters and colored the
characters from the previous sketch animation. My teammate then
used After Effects to stitch these elements together and create
animations/effects for the corresponding parts.
Reflect：
I saw a video of the character's dance choreography sketches shown
to the teacher. Although it's currently just hand-drawn motion
testing and character rigging isn't complete, I think rhythmic
control of the dance movements is crucial during production. The
movements need to be natural and fluid while also expressing the
character's emotions. Meanwhile, this week we also need to start
preparing for our presentation in week seven, including organizing
the project schedule and creating the PowerPoint presentation. This
has given me a clearer understanding of my design process and helped
us re-evaluate the project and prepare for the development direction
we need to take later.
week7：
This week, we presented our project to our teacher, showcasing
the current design progress, including story conception,
character design, and animation testing. Through this
presentation, we gained a clearer understanding of the project's
strengths and areas for improvement. The teacher's feedback made
me realize that we still have enough time to further refine our
work, such as improving the details of the animated characters,
enhancing visual effects, and strengthening the overall
narrative. This presentation also made me realize that we need
to more effectively plan our subsequent production schedule to
ensure a better final product.
REFLECTION
In this "Light in the Wind" project, I gained a lot and truly experienced the complete animation creation process. Secondly, the tacit cooperation of my teammates was indispensable. Initially, when conceiving the story, my ideas were somewhat scattered and the theme wasn't clear enough. Through the teacher's guidance and discussions with my teammates, I understood that a good work must first have a clear core story and reasonable logic; this is the foundation of all creation. Secondly, when drawing storyboards, I needed to transform text into visuals, and only then did I realize how crucial the transitions between shots, the rhythm, and the visual expression were. Many parts weren't smooth enough, so I constantly adjusted, understanding that animation tells a story visually, not just by drawing text. In the subsequent character and scene design, dynamic storyboarding, and animation production, I learned to maintain a unified visual style and paid more attention to natural movements and comfortable rhythm. I also realized the importance of teamwork; division of labor, cooperation, and mutual assistance are essential for the smooth progress of a project. Finally, during the presentation, the teacher's feedback made me realize that there were still many details in the work that could be improved. This experience familiarized me with the entire animation creation process, improved my professional skills, and made me more patient and meticulous. These gains will continue to help me in my future designs and creations.
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