Independent Project Look Back

Looking at my written brief I feel that I have written a brief that guides the student because I have guided them to look at Aaron Koblins ‘Flight Patterns’ as a starting point. By doing this I feel that this will plant an idea in their head of how transport data is visualized. Also looking at the brief I have written I have looked at past briefs and copied and modified some of the features of aims, learning outcomes and evidence of study. By doing this it provides the brief with a lot more guidance and shows what should be done for the project.

Looking at my research I feel that I have done the right research because I found out how flight patterns was made. Also by looking at how other transport visualisations have been made I could make mine different and not look like the rest of them and therefore make mine unique. I feel by finding my data the way I did I got all the data that I needed because I started by going to Seaford and Lewes train station and asking for the leaflets of the different route and by doing this there was only 15 out of 33 route leaflets. Therefore by finding the digital versions I have a copy that I can print time and time again and draw over should I find repeats and merging routes in the timetables.

Looking back on my working methods I feel that it all went well because I feel that be researching into how flight patterns was made I could combine my skills in different software to create one piece. But first by analysing the data and editing the map to the stations that are stopped at I had a better understanding of what was needed to be used for the animation. Then by finding out that processing was used to create the data points in flight patterns gave me the idea of taking the edited map into processing and use my knowledge of processing to plot the stations of the map. Then by taking the end result of this into Photoshop and creating the track outline then gave me guidance when it cone to animating the trains in after effects. Therefore looking back on my whole project I feel that I used all the right methods to create my end result that I wanted to.

Finally looking at the final outcome of my project I am happy with it and I feel that I have done what I set out to do. I feel that if I had only shown the map animation the viewer might not make as much of an impact as of showing the map animation and the trains only animation. This is because with the train only animation you have less to visually analyse and it shows how many trains that are running at the given time. Also I feel that by adding the banner bar adds more character to what I am trying to portray because it keeps the animation along the line of the southern rail company by using their company colours. Also I have learned more about after effects because I have found out about the use of expression to create animations of digits.

Compleated Animation

This is my completed animation of the train times, where i have combined six hours of train schedules into a minuet.

Class Crit

After showing the normal passe animation and speed up animation at class crit I got these comment...

• Normal passed one is two long
• its better to use the fast one
• make the outline map solid
• all together very interesting
• add a clock in the corner

Therefor i am going to take in these comments and make changes

Before Class Crit

Due to personal issues i have a extension but i still need to show work at the class crit. So with a number of routes still left to animate i have created an export because enough has been animated for class mates and teaching staff to see what i have created.

Without Track

Considering i am a third of a way through the routes i need to animate i wondered what the animation looks like with no map behind it and i think that it looks interesting. This is because i was inspired by Aaron Koblin and Flight patterns and i think that this is interesting because viewing my animation like this you dont know what the route is so it adds some mystery to the animation,

Creating a Clock

After getting to a point with my animation and deciding that it is symbolizing six hours i have realized that I have not got a clock to show this so i need to find out how to create a animated clock in after effects.

After researching how to do this i found a tutorial with some code here...

Universal Up/Down After Effects Clock

with in this tutorial it shows this variable code

rate = -2;
clockStart = 3604.999;

function padZero(n){
if (n < 10) return "0" + n else return "" + n
}

clockTime = clockStart + rate*(time - inPoint);

if (clockTime < 0){
sign = "-"; clockTime = -clockTime;
}else{
sign = "";
}

t = Math.floor(clockTime);
hr = Math.floor(t/3600);
min = Math.floor((t%3600)/60);
sec = Math.floor(t%60);
ms = clockTime.toFixed(3).substr(-3);
sign + padZero(hr) + ":" + padZero(min) + ":" + padZero(sec) + "." + ms

 and the code works by this analysis

Animating The Wrong Way

Looking back on how i have been animating the routes (which has been one route at at time) i realize that this is taking a long time. So i now plan to go through all the routes and animating the trains once so when it come to doing the whole time table i already have the route animated and all i have to do is adjust the timing of the animated train.

Duplicate Routes

As i have been animating the routes I have realised that even though there are thirty three routes there are a few routes that are within each other, so this shows that there may be loads of routes but there are routes that merge and cross over with each other. Therefore the animation has not have as much as i thought there was.

Time Period To Animate

After spending a week animating train routes I have realised that looking at the time I have to compleate the project i have decided to animate a time period of six hours because by animating twelve hours it would take too long to animate a thirty three routes.