The Irish National Digital Experience (INDEx) Survey was run by the National Teaching & Learning Forum in 2019 and looked at a number of things like digital engagement, experiences and expectations of students and staff who teach in higher education in Ireland. In Cork Institute of Technology (now MTU) our department, The Dept of Technology Enhanced Learning was responsible for the launch and running of the survey.
As part of running the survey, the TEL Department was responsible for setting up stalls across all CIT campuses with laptops, large print graphics and televisions containing a promotional video. For this occasion, I was tasked with animating graphics (created by TEL’s Christina Pinkaow) to create a loop animation that could be played on the displays at the stalls.
The Animation
The animation is made up of four key graphics from the print materials, plus an animation for the Index Survey Logo that was supplied by the national forum. Then inside Adobe After Effects, the Index Survey and each print graphic was prepared and turned into its own respective composition.
Since the video is intended to be played on a loop, a song called “Uncanny Similarities” by Alfie-Jay-Winters was purchased. The song was then trimmed down to 23 seconds or 8 bars, meaning that the song could be infinitely played on a loop without noticing.
Each graphic composition received some subtle animations and the Index Survey animation was split in two and placed at the start and the end. Then within 23 seconds, each composition is revealed using a swiping transition, except for the end which fades to reveal the Index Survey animation. Both the music and the animation ends and starts on the Index Survey logo to create the impression that the video is on an infinite loop.
The Display
Once finished, the video was placed on a USB-drives and plugged into the back of the promotional display where they were set to play on a loop. Additionally, the video was uploaded and shared with over 16,000 staff and students via email and uploaded to both CIT and TEL’s dissemination channels.