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Information Design - Project 1

04/03/2025 - 18/03/2025 / Week 5 - Week 7

Aquela Zefanya Soares / 0374377

Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INSTRUCTION

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DESIGNING POSTER

Moodboard

Video credit: https://youtu.be/4UTrEpVKhKM?si=-b1G5JTluD-XwGxH

Fig 1.1 Moodboard (04/03/2026)

Sketch

Fig 1.2 Sketch (03/03/2026)


Before Feedback

Progress

After importing the sketch to the artboard, I traced my drawing using a brush to create the lasagna (and all the other elements in the poster

Fig 1.3 Tracing my initial sketch (07/03/2026)

To make the elements more believable, I decided to color them according to my reference picture.

Fig 1.4 Coloring the element according to reference (07/03/2026) 

Here, I added more elements and steps. However, I decided to go beyond my moodboard, adding contrast and experimenting with the colors.

Fig 1.5 Making comparison to initial sketch (07/03/2026) 

Then, I decided to stick with my moodboard, as it looked more coherent.

Fig 1.6 Playing around with color (08/03/2026) 

I feel like the current poster looks flat, so I added an overlay to highlight the lasagna, since it is the main focus of the poster.

Fig 1.7 Adding overlay (08/03/2026) 

Result

Before finalizing, I added the ingredients and measurements to make the tutorial more complete.

Fig 1.8 Final Poster (Before feedback) (08/03/2026) 

After Feedback

Progress

Mr. Martin said that my poster needed adjustment, as it looked too simple and lacked effort. So, I decided to experiment with the composition and spread out the lasagna to make it easier to showcase the ingredients later.

Fig 1.9 Reconstructing the lasagna element (16/03/2026)

I created all the elements using a brush and colored them myself (refer to the earlier progress). Here is an example with my lasagna.

Fig 1.10 Lasagna layer (16/03/2026)

To make the composition more interesting, I decided to place the béchamel sauce on top, and put it in a pouring gesture. Then, I adjusted the previous elements and added a border in the colors of the Italian flag.

Fig 1.11 Adding more elements (17/03/2026)

After experimenting with the composition, I decided to do the same with the colors. At this point, I had been adjusting my previous elements, aside from the steps.

Fig 1.12 Playing around with the color and composition (18/03/2026)

After researching more references, I decided to stick with my initial sketch, where I added elements for the steps, and began creating new elements for the poster.

Fig 1.13 Creating more elements for the infographic (18/03/2026)

Lastly, I adjusted the positions to make the steps more visually engaging. I decided to present the elements as the "detailed process" and the text as the "general guide". Then, I divided the steps according to the three main lasagna layers to avoid crowding the composition. After that, I completed the poster.

Fig 1.14 Adding steps and elements (18/03/2026)

FINAL INFOGRAPHIC

Fig 2 Final Poster (After feedback) (18/03/2026)

ANIMATED POSTER (Group Project)

Progress

For this project, I teamed up with Celine (0374872). Her part can be viewed at this link https://celinepatdesign.blogspot.com/2026/02/information-design-project-1.html.

We decided to animate Celine's poster and split the tasks as shown below:

1. Aquela

  • Make Storyboard
  • Animate Step 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9
  • Make Flip page animation (cover and pages)
  • Add SFX and BGM
  • Add highlights
2. Celine
  • Make Brief Animatics
  • Drawing all the elements needed
  • Animate Step 3, 4, 5 and 6
  • Make Panning animation
  • Assist in finding SFX and BGM

Storyboard

Fig 3.1 Storyboard (04/03/2026)

Animatics


Fig 3.2 Animatics (09/03/2026)

Step animation

This is the expression setting that I originally used for animating egg shaking motion. However, in the later discussion I remove it as we need to make the animation fast with no unnecessary steps. So, I repurpose this expression for my whisk animation (same settings only difference is in the time).

Fig 3.3 Shake expression

Mr. Martin suggested that the egg cracks at the same time, so I tried to animate it just like how it is in real life with no additional animation and make it brief.

Fig 3.4 Animating egg cracking

Then as the step only required to use the egg white, I removed the yolk and tried to focus with it. Here, I used the liquid effect tutorial to make the pouring animation. I made this animation by referring to these videos: https://youtu.be/dTPXj6-54oA?si=OTZGLYCIQ-blc9nu for the liquid drop, and https://youtube.com/shorts/bd-MidD2Ads?si=3D9gqmkvpZ5_Ndbj for the liquid effects (mostly the color to match the animation style).

Fig 3.5 Pouring egg white

This is the settings that I used for the effects. I referred to the Youtube video link above and adjust it to the animation style.

Fig 3.6 Add effects to egg white

To animate the salt, I referred to this Youtube video: https://youtu.be/ArocA6yFAYQ?si=EI_jku1ADr2-BVGQ. Then I adjust it to make it looks like salt, as shown from Fig 3.8 to 3.9.

Fig 3.7 Animating salt

Fig 3.8 Adding details to the salt

Fig 3.9 Adding details to the salt (2)

In the last step, I duplicate the salt container drawing and mask the image. Then, I added multiply and overlay to make the effect of the salt inside the container.

Fig 3.10 Salt result

Recipe book animation

To make the recipe book animation, I mostly referred to https://youtu.be/jmwi_Fh33Ik?si=Gna5chTV8ciMDbn8. The process are shown in Fig 3.11 to 3.14. For the content, I made the placeholder first while waiting for Celine to finish her part. After every animation is done, I combined everything and put it into the recipe book.

Fig 3.11 Creating the front cover

Fig 3.12 Animating the flipping pages

Fig 3.13 Creating the back cover

Fig 3.14 Adjusting speed graphs

Celine said that the current video looks a little plain. So then, we decided to change it and add something like tablecloth as the background.

Fig 3.15 Changing the background 

Step placement and adjustment

After we finished everything, me and Celine reviewed the result and tried found some awkward animation with the placement. So here I just played around with the graphs and positions to make it as natural as possible.

Fig 3.16 Adjusting the position

Fig 3.17 Adjusting speed graphs (2)

Background Music and Sound Effects

In this step, our laptop unfortunately unable to render as this project consumed 98% of our RAM. So we decided to avoid adding extra animation and make a new composition only for the bgm and sfx. I mostly got the sfx from freesound.org and Youtube.

Fig 3.18 Adding and adjusting bgm and sfx

After Feedback

In Wednesday (week 7), we received our final feedbacks. Mr. Martin mentioned that the tutorial is too wordy and some words need to be highlighted. So, I added blue highlighter to make it easier to absorb the information.

Fig 3.19 Adding highlight to the text

Then, I rechecked everything to ensure everything flows smoothly.

Fig 3.20 Readjusting the panning and the transition

Final Result

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/l5T0MQ3dWJU

Fig 4 Final animated poster result (22/03/2026)

FEEDBACK

Week 5

Animation: The storyboard and direction are clear, so we can proceed to the next step.

Week 6

Personal Feedback: Fix and redo the final poster for Project 1.

Monday: Mr. Martin advised us to create the animatics first to understand the duration and direction. We also needed to change the table (background) and the bowl color, as it currently looks like a pet’s bowl.

Wednesday: We needed to synchronize the animation style. For my part, I focused on making the movements faster and avoiding unnecessary steps.

Week 7

Monday: The current progress is good, but we need to discuss the type of animation we want for the page flips.

Wednesday: We received several feedbacks:

  1. From step 1 to step 4, the eggs overlap
  2. For the “voila” part, wait for the spoon to go down before panning
  3. The “project by” should be zoomed
  4. Too wordy
  5. Animate the text (optional)
  6. Highlight keywords
  7. The number "4" is hard to read
  8. The parts that are too long are hard to follow
  9. There’s a glitch in step 4
  10. The ingredients part is too fast, zoom first then highlight the important parts

REFLECTION

In this module, I learned how to utilize After Effects and create more animations with it. I also learned how to do motion graphics in a group project, along with all the considerations needed to make sure we share the same direction and vision. Especially in this project, where me and Celine had to discuss every single animation we had in mind so the end product would look consistent.

Of course, even after discussing, we still made mistakes sometimes, and that’s where Mr. Martin would step in to correct us and ask us to further discuss our style and direction to ensure everything went well. We also faced difficulties when rendering the video since it consumed a lot of RAM. We ended up solving this by simplifying some of our process. Even though both of our laptops have around 32GB RAM, it was unfortunately still not strong enough to handle more complex renders.

However, we are still satisfied with the final result. Now I understand how important communication, as well as having a reliable partner and mentor to make a project like this go well.

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