After a lot of research, planning, blood, sweat and tears, I have finally finished!
Here is my final concept:
Early Design – Scuba
I am currently in the stage of transferring my sketchbook ideas to the computer. I have been designing different aspects of my project on Adobe Illustrator, the reason I have decided to work on this program rather than Photoshop is because I find the use of vector graphics to be much more appealing to the eye.
So far I have designed by scuba diver, who will almost take on the role of ‘superhero’ in my animations. I am pleased with the outcome of this, the masked face creates a sense of mystery and power; similar to a superhero. I have tried to keep the colour scheme fairly bright and varied because of my target audience, however for the design of the scuba diver, I decided to keep the colours more realistic so that the figure is easily recognisable. Unfortunately the quality does not come out on this blog, but the actual file is great quality.
Inspiration: Children’s TV
Throughout the research stage of my project, I decided that looking into children’s television would be a good place to start. I will be targeting my project to a mixed gender, 9-11 years old demographic so looking into the way in which this particular group should be addressed is very important to my project.
CBBC
When I was thinking about where to look, I remembered back to my childhood and how I would come home from school and watch CBBC on tv, and years on, it is still one of the industry leaders in its field so I decided to look into it further. The show that really caught my attention is Newsround, this is a child friendly source of news aired daily on CBBC, I have taken a lot of inspiration from.
I will continue to take pointers from their approach to children and use it to help me with my own project.
Learning Styles
One of the key elements of my project is ensuring that I design it in the best possible way for my target audience; children. It is essential that I get this right, so I have been doing some research into what works and what does not.
The visual learner:
- Takes in information best by visualisations, this type of learner finds it much easier to absorb details with the help of illustrations and demonstrations. Simply reading or being spoken to can prove difficult for the visual learner, and this is something I am keen to address in my work, my animations will be heavily based on my designs to ensure that this group is able to get a good understanding of the message I am trying to present.
The auditory leaner
- This type of learner finds it much easier to gather information by being spoken to, or having something explained to them verbally. This is an group that again, I would like to ensure gets the most out of my project, although the animations are visual, I am in the process of writing a script to go along with the narrative I have created. This script will be recorded and played alongside the animations, providing the auditory learners with an in-depth, (yet child friendly) explanation of events.
These two learning styles are incredibly common and that is why I am going to do all I can to ensure that both groups can engage with the product as best as possible. I am hoping that the combination of both styles will provide a strong educational experience across the board.
Research Opportunity
Over the last week I have been making quite a lot of progress with my project. I took it upon myself to contact the Marine Conservation Society – the UKs largest organisation concerning looking after the oceans, to ask if they would be able to help me with particular topics that they believe to be key and crucial to involve in my animations, I received a reply within 24 hours from their educational officer who was very keen to get involved and help with my project, so I will be discussing these ideas with her this week.