Client | Civic Nation
Role | Animator, Designer
Year | 2024
ALL IN TO VOTE
CHALLENGE
The challenge at hand here was to whip up and create an animation tailor-made for social media, aimed at a younger audience like college students essentially getting them hyped about the voting.
OBJECTIVE
Catch someone’s attention while they’re casually scrolling on their phone. I wanted it to be intriguing enough to make them pause, think, “Hold up, what was that?” and scroll back to check it out.
RESEACRH
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Demographic Research
So, before I dived into this project, I felt it was important to know who we’re reaching out to. However to really understand what I'd be up against, I decided to check out how many people within the Gen Z demographic are actually out there in the voting crowd. After digging into the numbers, I found out that in the 18 to 24 age group, less than half of them are even registered to vote!
Find out more here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/999919/share-people-registered-vote-age/
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Social Topics
Over the course of a few years there's been a ton of rallies that have taken place, with college students being at the center and coming together for a single cause. What's interesting is that every time this occurs, it has shown that it blows up on social media, and then even more people jump in and join the movement. So I'm thinking, why not do the same thing with voting? Let’s get everyone hyped and make it go viral!
CONCEPTS
UNITED IN VOTING
APPROACH 01
The inspiration for this came from research on social issues, and the goal was to highlight just how powerful we can be when we unite to make our voices heard. At the end of the day, we all have a stake in this, and each of us plays a significant role when we vote. That’s what motivated me to create something that could capture the true strength of a collective.
For this, I utilized 3D because the feeling of being connected is very real, and I wanted to convey that in its finest form. I opted out of live action mainly due to restrictions, but I also wanted to challenge myself with 3D character animation.
APPROACH 02
ITS THAT EASY
Phones we all love em, we all have em, so might as well use em. In an era where phones are an extension of ourselves and the internet offers endless possibilities, this concepts goal was to basically send a straight forward reminder as to what we have at our disposal by harnessing the power of technology and reminding people that they have free reign of the internet, after all, if you can do everything else on your phone, why not use it to make your voice heard?
SELECTED APPROACH - UNITED VOTING
DESIGN ELEMENTS
COLORS
#650606
#062063
#FFFFFF
To maintain the theme and color scheme of "All Into Vote," I chose to stick with the red, white, and blue palette, which feels appropriate for this project. Since "All Into Vote" is a United States-based organization, aligning with their branding and the colors of the American flag seems like the best approach, not only for consistency but also to reinforce the connection to the flag's symbolism.
DESIGN ELEMENTS
TYPOGRAPHY
I opted to use two typefaces for this design: Widescreen, a bold and striking font chosen to grab the viewer's attention, and Futura as a secondary font to provide balance for the supporting elements of the project.
TECHNICAL PROCESS
Cinema 4D
Redshift
After Effects
Daz Studio
TOOLS
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Phase 01 - Rigging
Rigging was a crucial step for this animation, especially because of the more realistic nature of the models I exported from DAZ 3D which I later ported to Cinema 4D for rigging. Fortunately, I only had to focus on the hands, which significantly reduced the time spent on rigging.
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Phase 02 - Texturing
After testing the rig it was onto texturing luckily UVs and base texture we're already in place however to get more variety I had to utilize Redshift color correct node to get the different hand variety in the final result
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Phase 03 - Shrink wrapping
Texturing and rigging aside, this particular part of the process was surprisingly the most challenging for me. The main difficulty was getting the text to stick to the hands. I chose to use an actual text layer instead of a texture to allow for more editability and freedom to manipulate the text as I pleased. This approach proved beneficial, especially after successfully getting the text to adhere to the hand using a shrink-wrap deformer node, which made the text wrap around the hand. I then used a surface deformer to keep it in place and finally attached the text object, along with all the deformers, to the wrist joint of the rig so it would follow the movement of the hand.
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Phase 04 - Animation
After I got shrink-wrapping to work it was onto animation and for the most part I would try to mimic hand motion and feel out if the hand was going into an unatural resting phase or postion but aside from that I also utilized the "vibrate tag" of Cinema 4D to help add subtle movements here and there.
STYLEFRAME ITERATION
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Iteration 01 Feedback
- The single hand against all the other hands doesn't convey a sense of unity. Try a more radial style to achieve a unified look.
- The "I Voted" text doesn't effectively convey a message at the moment and also doesn't feel unified.
- The text in the middle is too small for a phone screen.
- Consider trying a different hand gesture.
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Iteration 02 Feedback
- The messaging works better, but it's still a bit too much. Try simplifying it to be short and to the point.
- The fingers are spread too far apart, making it look unnatural.
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Iteration 03 Feedback
- The text is a bit difficult to read right now.
- Test having the hands hold the paper.
- Soften the lighting so it’s not so harsh on the edges.
- The composition is also a bit weak right now.
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Final Iteration
ANIMATION PASSES
OUTCOME
Throughout this project, I really got the hang of rigging and how it can be a powerful tool to communicate with different audiences. I learned a lot about being clear and concise, especially after the initial feedback reminded me that what something means to one person can be entirely different to someone else.
