Storytelling clues...

Here are some gems from Andrew Stanton's TED talk..

• knowing your punchline
• everything you're saying from the beginning of the story to the end leads to one single goal
• Make me care
• All good stories should start with a promise that this is going to lead somewhere good.
• it's going to be worth your time
• A well told promise is like a pebble being pulled back by a slingshot
• storytelling without dialogue - audience actually wants to work for their meal. purest form of storytelling.
• We deduct. Absence of information draws us in.
• We can't stop ourselves from wanting to complete the sentence and filling in.
• Unifying theory of of 2+2 ... don't give the audience 4, give the audience of 2+2
• Stories are not a widget, they are not a science
• Character = all well drawn characters have a spine. Every character has an inner urge.. to do something. Wal-E was to find beauty. Woody - to do best for the child. Every great character has this one main mission - inner urge. Wired a certain way.
• Change is fundamental in stories. Life is never static.
• Drama is anticipation mingled with anxiety.
• Liking your main character.
• Can you invoke wonder?
• Use what you know. Capture the truth from your experience. Personal appeal deep down from your core.

Brandpoint Epipheo

Observations

• Wow.. there's no main character, and it's still awesome! :)
• Plain white (slight pink) background works well
• Zoom in from computer
• Use a blur to fade out the parts of the screen that doesn't add value to the explanation
• Swoosh only for certain movements
• Most movement is just smooth without any sound - you don't need a sound effect for every movement
• Uses words like 'Right?' or 'Let's recap' to fill the screen, when there's nothing to draw after the point has been made
• Blinking cursor - awesome
• "There's strategy to this stuff too" - funny AND effective

Wavii Epipheo

Observations

• Simple character design
• Circle on the bottom left so that story can play out on the rest of the screen
• Cartoon images of celebrities - as long as they somewhat resemble the actual, it's quite funny
• Simple handwriting text
• Overlayed images that appear on the screen
• Smooth movements... random and then together. Makes it look very cool.
• The wordings on the animation distracted me from what the narrator was saying
• After watching the video, I can't remember what it was that the video was trying to say.
• Good animation, good illustrations, poor overall message delivery

Chris Guillebeau's six steps to establishing a new income

Step 1. First, Stop Killing the Dream
Step 2. Make a Plan By Focusing on What You’re Good At
Step 3: Create an Offer
Step 4: Get Your Offer Out to the World (ASAP!)
Step 5: Tell People About Your Offer
Step 6: Figure out what comes next

Read this awesome article here on Chris's blog - the Art of Non-Conformity.


He also outlines a few guidelines on having an Escape Plan

• Don’t worry about expenses; increase income instead.
• Never compete on price.
• Sell at more than one price.
• Ignore the competition.
• All things considered, some businesses are easier than others.
• Value means helping people.

Always go back to this article especially to remind yourself of steps 3,4 and 5 especially!
Also some good points on pricing.

Diagrammer: A great source of ideas

If you're looking for a better way to illustrate a concept.

You might find some ideas here on this awesome site called Diagrammer.

Read about it here on Nancy Duarte's blog.

Tips on building a portfolio

These tips are from Adrian Valencia.
Make the work you want to get hired for, and hit the pavement.

Twelve years ago I was very new in London and when I decided I wanted to test myself as an illustrator, I didn't know where to start. I spent two months building my portfolio ( let me tell you…it wasn't amazing ) and once it was ready I took notes of art directors' contacts from the magazines I wanted to work with. My English wasn't great and on top of that I was clueless about the industry but in a way I guess I had nothing to lose. I had a business card and a few printed pages with my illustrations to be remembered.  No website just a printed portfolio. I called every single publication in London and I was lucky that most of them agreed to meet me. My first editorial commission came from Red magazine, to draw a horoscope, from an art director that now I consider my friend.  Email was optional so I faxed the rough. I didn't own a computer so when the rough was approved I went to work on someone else's computer who kindly lend it to me. Since then I have been lucky enough to never stop working. 

Go to Draw Adrian, Draw to read the rest... but here's the gist.

1. Do mockups

2. Draw more than one character

3. Be style consistent

Building Dashboard Epipheo

Building Dashboard Epipheo



Observations:

• Characters: Just basic shapes with drawn in faces
• Simple objects with very few features
• Clean and minimalistic almost
• One main character
• Great use of shadows
• Plays with panning and zooms to make the animation move smoothly and quickly
• 0:56: Radar grid effect
• 1:05: Fantastic way to convey variation through graphs that emerge from the object/visual
• 1:07: Love the way they split the screen so that you can compare the main character with others

Flow

• What everyone is talking about 
• What does it mean really
• Most people think
• But actually...
• In fact....
• And the problem is...
• Think about it... if .....
• How great would it be to....
• Well, now it's possible
• Introducing...
• Lucid uses....
• Once... you can accomplish amazing things...
• Like... eg 1
• eg 2
• eg 3
• Hey, and that's the beginning
• Tagline
• Call to action

Wanova Mirage Epipheo

Notes to myself:

1. Character - Stick man figure with glasses. The glasses move wherever the eyes look.

2. 0:10 - borders - splits screen into multiple views. Great for conveying different scenarios.

3. Good use of symbols - the way 'stuff on the comp' is conveyed... it's like a visual widget, used in various spots throughout the video. The first time it is used, it is explained via the narration.

4. 0:35 - swish, spacing, nice flow... slow.. and controlled movement from one view to all the others.

5. 0:55 - the way the screen scrolls down is slow and controlled... and the cushioning is effective.

6. Sound - 1:06 the levitation effect

Flow:


- Mr IT Guy is you
- What you need to do
- What's your problem
- How do you do it?
- Simple
- Use 'Winova - Mirage'
- Here's how
- What the benefits are... visually
- IT Problem solved!
- 1 liner unique selling point
- call to action

About this blog

I come across heaps of interesting things everyday... things that make me go - hmmm... I wish I could store that somewhere so that I can get back to it if I ever needed to. Sure, there's an app for that. There are probably a hundred apps for that... somehow, not too keen on using any one particular app to do this though...

Actually, all I need is an online notebook. Somewhere I can jot down my observations on things that work.

And so that's why I've started this blog. Let's see where it goes.