Animated infographic: Streamlining how information is transferred
The Challenge
The task was to create a minute-long animation that would inform the viewer on a topic through use of animated imagery and text to mimic the infographic style in a video medium; For this I had selected the topic of space pollution.
Requirements
– Researched Information from reputable sources
– Create a storyboard, script, and mood board
– Create assets for the video
– Create a Voice Over from script
– Animate assets and voiceover into video
Preparing for production
Research
My research began with finding sources. My choices were NASA the national aeronautics and space administration as well as the Space Environment Statistics, Space debris User Portal; as these would have numerical data which is better for animation as well as allow me to cross reference information of the subject. Both sources have been updated within the last year and use accurate information and do not express explicit biases.
Storyboard & Script
I established the framework for the animation through the creation of a storyboard, script, and mood board which would determine the contents and feel of the assets, voiceover and animation style in the final.
Assets
In creating my assets for animation, I mostly made use of 3D objects with the exception of two background illustrations. The 3D assets were modeled to look low poly and simplistic to mimic the look of origami giving the animation a handmade feel. The 3D models all derived from shapes where the Phong angle was reduced to create sharper edges that lead to the low poly look and then are either constructed with other shapes as seen with the satellite, moon, and pollution models or are edited by polygons from the original shape as seen in the earth and cloud models.
Voice Over
For my Voice over i began by creating a simple scratch track to time the animation using the text from my script word for word. Upon having a more polished animation I then commissioned that an outside source creates the voice over. To this end I supplied them with the current video render and the script to ensure the proper verbiage was used at the proper times within the animation.
Animating assets
My first concern when animating my assets was having every model have natural orbits and rotations that could play throughout the animation. When doing this I would rotate the objects on their axis, starting with earth to then base everything off of that. This made it so that I could have the moon revolve every time earth completely rotated and have its axis rotation match its revolutionary rotation to create the effect of the side of the moon that always faces the earth. Following that I offset the cloud rotation to make the earth appear more dynamic and paired the satellite to a null in the same way as the moon to have it orbit and rotate. The collision works by simply taking two versions of the satellite model and swapping them as the collider touches it, making it appear as though there was an impact that damaged it.
I additionally made use of the text animators to have text change, grow into frame, and rotate to help deliver the information in a fun manner that aligns with the design of the assets and tone of the voice over. These movements also helped to create better timing for the text to appear, so the on-screen text was in time with what is said in the voice over.