Esraa Al-Khafaji

MA Communication Design

Companion Hat project

The purpose of this repost is to reflect the efforts made and the role I
undertaken throughout the Companion Project.
Our team Companion contained five persons. After some researches and
brainstorming we came up with our hat/ring idea, Companion and all the
group members agreed with it. Actually, we considered this idea, as it is
educational and interactive.
Through out this project, we have continued working on this project and
contributed to the best of our ability in different stages. Additionally, all the
project process was distributed equally and each one of us used his/her
expertise in completing this project. Furthermore, I have conducted some
researches about the Augments Reality and Wearable Technology and how
they affect the human behavior. Also, since my background is Graphic design
and Moving image, I was in charge of the promotion advert and the branding
of our product.
Firstly, I have conducted some researches about some previous hat
advertisements, and from this point I started sketching my storyboard of the
video sequences, and gathering some information regarding the animation of
the hat and the ring. In addition, after all the images, 3D models (including
the hat and ring), the drawing sketches, voice over, music and logo we
collected, I started working on the advert using adobe after effect CC.
Initially, and before we get the final sketch of the hat, I have came up with a
simple logo for our product that looks like an onion, but this logo was
changed and improved due to changing in our project name from
CompOnion to Companion.
Moreover, the new logo inspiration was taken from the shape of our hat
sketch and layers of the onion. We wanted to use the words Layers and
Companion in our hat but we managed to do so in the logo. The logo was
created using Adobe illustrator and it was colored with grey scale in order to
keep it simple and matches the theme.
The still images were added in the timeline and they were quick-motioned in
order to match the script (voice over). After these images were animated, the
hat 3D model was added to the timeline and some animations was added as
well as some labels to show how the hat does function.
The ring 3D model was added to the time line after the hat and matched the
voice over and the logo was added after the ring as the end of the
advertisement.
Finally, the video was rendered as a HD video and uploaded to YouTube/
Google drive and the blog to be ready for our presentation.

Overall, all the elements that have been used in this project are balanced
enough to meet the requirements. I am very content with my role and efforts.
More effects could have been achieved, but there are some hitches occurred
such as short time. However, in this project my entire journey and experience
of working on the project was a learning process, which has enhanced my
knowledge and understanding towards completing the project.