DESIGN BEHIND
IDENTITY THEFT QUARTET
A series of four short videos, each ranging 1~3 minutes, made during working for Georgia Tech Cable Network to broadcast in the school TV channel. I designed ALL the elements, animations, and sound effects, mainly in Illustrator and After Effects. This series educate about what is Identity Theft and how to prevent from it. This page talks about the design behind the series.
To view the complete videos, click here to the Animation Series Page:
Style
First of all, I was to decide the style of the overall episodes. Since the videos would be broadcasted to students in Georgia Tech dorms, I would like the animations to be simple but catchy and fun. The color choice was bold because bold color is researched to leave great impression in audiences' minds, such that the information of the animations can get across better. Each episode differs in their contents, so that I depict each episode in different moods and settings, which will be introduced more later.
The introduction parts of the four videos are of similar formats as shown below, to show resemblances of the episodes.
spot1
spot2
spot3
spot4
Plot
I was given the scripts of the episodes beforehand. Then I would brainstorm what visuals to show along with the scripts, both in words and in story boards, like shown below. I would also try to experiment with more techniques of After Effects in each episode.
scripts of episodes and brainstorms
storyboard of spot 4
The first episode "When It's Stolen"
has a tense and suspenseful feeling when talking about when does identity theft happen and how to survive identity theft. Thus, the plot is designed to be a video game that the audience is invited to play to survive identity theft, hoping to incentivize the audience to avoid identity theft.
The second episode “Costs”
discusses about the cost identity theft brings to the society. This video is made based on a humorous and goofy setting, hoping to catch the audience’s attentions. This particular spot was also the winner for the both the Judges’ Prize
and the Audience Prize for the 2018 AHECTA Student Production Award for Social Impact.
The third episode “Paper Trails” talks about how identity theft can catch up on you if you are not careful. Since it was close to Halloween, the production theme was creepy Halloween, with the identity theft becoming a bad witch, hoping to invoke fear in the audience to become more careful towards identity theft. I used reflections of objects to demonstrate shadows on the ground.
The fourth episode “Prevent”
discusses about how to prevent identity theft from happening. I was going after the mysterious black and white minimalistic approach, with great inspirations from some black and white animation films, such as “Fears of the Dark”. I was especially paying attention to the transitions and visual impacts. I personally really enjoy black and white minimalistic approach since the information conveyed is strong and requires much care in details.
Elements
I would discuss the plots with my project leader and friends. Then I would start creating elements and characters. The elements and characters may show up in multiple episodes, since (I'm lazy) I want to show a sense of connection and familiarity between my spots. Below are some of the characters.
Alice
Eric
Peggy
the Green Witch
Crystal