ILLUSTRATION AND VISUAL NARRATIVE - Task 4: ANIMATED VIDEO WITH CAPTION

 ILLUSTRATION AND VISUAL NARRATIVE - Task 4: ANIMATED VIDEO WITH CAPTION

29/10/2025 - 26/11/2025  (Week 6 - Week 10)
Nur Adila binti Nazary (0377352)
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor in Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Lectures
2) Instructions
3) Process
4) Feedback
5) Final Outcome
6) Reflection

LECTURES

No lectures for this week, just focus on the Task 4.

INSTRUCTION



PROCESS
Assignment 4 (Part 1) Overview:
Focus: Script

CHOOSING SCRIPT
For task 4, we needed to do an animation based on our script that we chose from the slides given by the lecturer.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
For the script, I wanted to choose something that is heartwarming and happy because, my main inspiration comes from Anna Laura Art. She usually focuses on sharing inspirational words and life lesson but with a very comforting illustration to go with it.

Figure 1. Anna Laura Art's Instagram

Figure 2. Anna Laura Art's post

My main goal is to make people happy and comforted through my art and her as for my main inspiration is perfect for this task since it creates a warm and happy feeling while still carrying emotional impact.

IDEATION
So from there, I tried to find something that is light and heartwarming script in the lecturer's slide.

In the end, I chose this for my script:

Figure 3. Script chosen

I feel like this script fits so well which what I'm trying to achieve since I am going for a positive and warm vibes.

Assignment 4 (Part 2) Overview:
Focus: Creating illustrations and storyline / rationale

ILLUSTRATION SEQUENCES AND RATIONALE
The next part is to create the sequences. The sequences MUST be a height of 1920 px and Width 1080 px with a Portrait / Vertical orientation. But before that, I needed to make a storyline / rationale to make the sequences.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
Since my inspiration comes from Anna Laura Art, I tried to focus to make the illustrations feel warm, comforting and meaningful but I try to emphasize to make the storyline/rationale to be a simple life moments with life lessons.

Anna Laura Art examples:

Figure 4. Inspiration #1

Figure 5. Inspiration #2

Figure 6. Inspiration #3

IDEATION
From the Anna Laura Art inspiration/research, I created a story:

"The story is about a light hearted moment during a birthday party celebration, where the main character (a cat) make a sandwich in a messy and chaotic way. In the midst of it, she didn't realized that there a leaf stuck on her head. A friend notices and helps to remove it. Instead of feeling embarrassed by the incident, they all laugh it off and continue celebrating together. This moment shows a strong friendship and how small mistakes can turn into happy memories."

From there, I wanted to show that not every moment has to be perfect and that the most meaningful memories from us comes from a simple and imperfect situations with the people we love and care.

With the story finished, I started on my illustration in Adobe Illustrator.

Sequence 1:

Figure 7. Line art sequence #1

Explanation of sequence/scene: The birthday cat is making a sandwich in a chaotic and messy but playful way.

Sequence 2:

Figure 8. Line art sequence #2

Explanation of sequence/scene: The birthday cat shows her creation to the party but didn't realize there was a leaf stuck on her head which the lion character proceeded to point the situation out.

Sequence 3:

Figure 9. Line art sequence #3

Explanation of sequence/scene: The lion decided to help the birthday cat and remove the leaf from the birthday cat's head.

Sequence 4:

Figure 10. Line art sequence #4

Explanation of sequence/scene: Everyone laughs off the incident and continue to celebrate together.

WHAT TECHNIQUES I'VE USED:
For the line art, the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator was used. A 8 pt rounded stroke was used for all of the sequences for consistency throughout the whole animation and illustration. All of the strokes and paths are combined together using the Shape Builder Tool and are grouped together.

Assignment 4 (Part 4) Overview:
Focus: Colouring the illustration sequences

COLOURING SEQUENCES
With the line art produced, we can start on colouring by using the techniques the lecturer as taught us from the first week. Shadows and highlights are advised to be added into the colouring.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
Since my main inspiration is Anna Laura Art, I followed her colour palette which are more to the warmer and lighter colour tones. But other than that, I also searched on animal colour palettes since there was a few animal character in each of the sequences. 

Here are some of the colour inspiration used:

Figure 11. Inspiration #1

Figure 12. Inspiration #2

Figure 13. Inspiration #3

IDEATION
By following Anna Laura Art illustration, I tried to use lighter colour pallets to somewhat match with the watercolour that she has in her works. 

Highlights and shadows were also added into each of the sequences to give depth and contrast to it.

Here are the coloured versions in Adobe Illustrator:

Sequence 1:

Figure 14. Coloured version sequence #1

Sequence 2:

Figure 15. Coloured version sequence #2

Sequence 3:

Figure 16. Coloured version sequence #3

Sequence 4:

Figure 17. Coloured version sequence #4

WHAT TECHNIQUES I'VE USED:
To colour the illustrations, I used the Pen Tool and filled in the shapes. All of the colours were referenced by Anna Laura Arts colour palette with a lighter and yet warm tone to fit with the whole storyline. Then highlights and shadows were added. Everything are grouped together to fit into two separate layers which are line art and colour.

Assignment 4 (Part 5) Overview:
Focus: Animating sequences in After Effects

ANIMATING SEQUENCES
Animating the sequences must be done in Adobe After Effects. Tutorials were given in the slides for us to watch.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
SETTING UP THE FILES

To animate the sequences, we needed choose what element/thing that we wanted to animate and separate them into their own grouped layers then, transfer all of the Adobe Illustration files into a Photoshop file then move the Photoshop files into After Effects.

Sequence 1:

For sequence 1, I wanted to animate the movement of the flying ingredients of the sandwich which was the cheese, meat, onion piece, tomato piece, vegetables and a leaf. To add with the flying effect, I added movement lines to show of the direction of the movement more.

Figure 18. Layer arrangement sequence #1

Sequence 2:

For sequence 2, I wanted to move the leaf and the 3 lines on top of the cat, to really let the viewers eye direct to the leaf on top of the cats head to show the incident. Other than that, I wanted the cat to proudly show her sandwich creation by moving the sandwich to side to side. Lastly, I wanted to make the 2 characters hand move to show that they noticed the leaf on the cat's head. 

Figure 19. Layer arrangement sequence #2

Sequence 3:

For sequence 3, I wanted the lions hand to move to show that the lion is taking out the leaf from the cat's head. Then at the back I wanted the dog character to clap his hand to show appreciation for the lion for his kind act.

Figure 20. Layer arrangement sequence #3

Sequence 4:

For sequence 4, no movement was done since I wanted the whole sequence to be like a fixed memory.

IDEATION

ANIMATING THE SEQUENCES

To animate the elements/objects I have chosen, I watched a tutorial in Youtube on how to do it step by step using the Pen Tool where basically, any path I have made the objects can move along the path.

Youtube tutorial link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ5wqg10x_I 

1) Make a Path
A path was created using the Pen Tool and it was angled in the direction if the intended movement.

Figure 21. Process picture #1

2) Path Placement
The Path was copied and pasted into the Position property of the vegetable layer.

Figure 22. Process picture #2

3) Adjusting Rotation
For some of the objects, the rotation value was adjusted to make sure that it did not move out of frame. Two keyframes were added. One at the beginning of the movement and one at the final position.

Figure 23. Process picture #3

WHAT TECHNIQUES I'VE USED:
To animate the sequences, motion paths were created using the Pen Tool in Adobe After Effects. The paths were copied then pasted into the Position property of each object so that they could follow a smooth movement. The rotation keyframe were adjusted where needed to make sure that the objects stayed within the frame and move naturally. The same techniques was applied consistently for all of the other sequences.

Assignment 4 (Part 6) Overview:
Focus: Editing in CapCut

VIDEO EDITING
After all of the sequences and animation has been rendered. The files has been move to the editing application called CapCut. 

What we needed in the animated video:
- The text script with the authors name
- A song in the background
- Must be 15 - 20 seconds

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:
1) The Script
The first thing we needed was the script. I chose a script from Kerry Washington which was this:

Figure 24. Script chosen

In CapCut, the Text tool will be used to add text into the video, which will be edited later on.

2) The Song
I chose "Creek is Beautiful!" by Bluey and Helena Czajka to follow with the happy, friendly and positive mood throughout the whole video since this whole project is inspired by Anna Laura Art.

Figure 25. Bluey album

IDEATION

EDITING TO CAPCUT
After finishing the animation, I exported it and rendered it into a MP4 file just like how the lecturer show in his tutorial video.

1) Adding and Cutting Video
The full rendered video is added into CapCut and the last video was cut into 3.18 seconds since the authors name needed to be added towards the end.

Figure 26. Process picture #1

2) Adding AI voice
An AI voice generator was used to read the script then the audio file was imported into CapCut.

Figure 27. Process picture #2

3) Adding Text
The Text Tool in CapCut was used to add text to follow the script audio.

Figure 28. Process picture #3

4) Adding Song
The song "Creek is Beautiful!" by Bluey and Helena Czajka was downloaded through a website called y2mate.nu then the song was added into the video and has been cut to fit with the video nicely. 

Figure 29. Process picture #4

5) Adding Filter
The entire video was covered with an old vintage filter called Rtro Sparkle to create a nostalgic, memory like feel.

Figure 30. Process picture #5

6) Finished
The video was later then exported into an MP4 file.

WHAT TECHNIQUES I'VE USED:
After completing the animation, the video was exported as an MP4 file and then edited in CapCut. The footage was trimmed and cut to fit the duration the lecturer gave, and an AI voice generator was used to record the script and sync it with the visuals. Text was added using the Text Tool, along with background music adjusted to match the timing. A vintage filter called Retro Sparkle was applied to give the video a nostalgic, memory-like feel before exporting the final version.

FEEDBACK
All designs were sent to the lecturer for some feedback and some improvements.

VIDEO EDITING:
The audio of the word "imperfect" needs to be split away from the word "messy" (meaning to be delayed a bit more) so that it doesn't sound too close.

Before feedback (video editing):

After feedback (video editing):

WHAT I IMPROVED
In this assignment, I would say improved my storytelling by selecting a heartwarming script and making it into a meaningful illustration sequences all thanks to the Task 3 I had to do last time. I also gained confidence in Adobe Illustrator for line art and colouring and now in After Effects for animating smooth movements. I also improved on my video editing skills in CapCut with the text, music and the filters as well to create a good animation.

WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER
Next time, I want to make the characters expressions and body language more expressive and experiment more on different compositions and angles to make the whole animation more interesting and dynamic. I will try to main more detailed textures to make the illustration more immersive as well.

FINAL OUTCOME
ANIMATED VIDEO WITH CAPTION:

REFLECTION
Experience
I really enjoyed this task because it felt different from the previous assignments and it also gave me more creative freedom. I liked being able to control the project based on my own interest and ideas. However, animating was a challenge since Adobe After Effects was very new to me. At first, I felt overwhelmed by the tools and buttons it had. With the help of Youtube tutorials and the lecturer's slides, I slowly can navigate through it. Editing was easier for me as I already had some experience with video editing before.

Observations
While working on this task, I realized how time consuming animation can be. Even animating a small movement takes a lot of effort and patience. I also noticed that understanding the software tools is just as important as having a good idea because without properly knowing the system, the animation would not look smooth or nice.

Findings
From this task, I learned to appreciate the amount of work that goes into animation. It helped me understand the importance of patience and planning. I also gained more confidence in using Adobe After Effects and realized that with more practice, I can explore even more with the things After Effects can offer.