In my final draft video, I decided to keep the same tone as my audio story. I enjoy the ambient, and intention feeling.

My timeline for this project was nuts, I used about 7 tracks each for both audio and video. I decided to have more interview style with alot of B roll, because I feel like it heightens what I am saying. I originally filmed myself for about 5 minutes just talking about where my head is at being so close to the event, but cut it down to just a minute and some change.

The days I decided to film were very bright and made the video very overexposed, so I add 2 adjustment layers. One was for all the B-roll and it simply was just a blend mood preset. The other was a full on color correction to the clips of me talking.

I decided not to use transitions much, because it would not have fit with the song I used, I did add one in the beginning. I went with a luma fade, because i was having difficulty trying to move from a river flyover to the hills. I figured a pretty fast and abrupt transition was the only way to go.

I tried to keep the video fairly simple, in appearance. I am a big fan of crazy timelines, but the final product appearing to have no crazy edits.

I used some text just towards the beginning to give some back story into the triathlon, I am participating in. Unfortunately due to time restraint, I did not add some at the end. I think it looks great without though.

So enough with the tech talk, enjoy the video and all my hard work.

https://youtu.be/Qxb5b3zndtE

My final draft is above. I used some of the critiques I received which included, add some heartbeats or breating, something to give it some life.

I really liked that idea, so towards the middle, right after I mention my wife, there is a subtle heartbeat sound, that goes for the rest of the clip. As I was looking through breathing noises, and searching through gross strange audio clips, I had an idea.

I had the idea of an old timey projector movie. So that is why I have the 2 second countdown, and then the audio of a film reel. I added this element, becuse it acts as a good introduction/ closing into the story.

The actually process of making that happen was quite difficult, because there is a thousands different tone and types of beeps. I actually had to find one and use it twice to get that sound.

I also found out that film reel noises are hard to come by, so that clip I found online from royalty free website.It apparently was a refrigerator starting, when whoever recorded it.

I keep the same story, and song, but I did tweak them a bit. The audio story I ended up making about 45 seconds from 30, by cutting it and putting some spaces in it, so it did sound so “put together.” I also made the song faded in differently that I once had it.

Finally, I really am happy with this. I tries to keep it light hearted, but kept that pathos appeal. This triathlon is important to me and means a lot, so I sound that it would be a disservice if I didn’t show my heart and emotion behind it all. I will cite my royalty free sounds below.

All these are from Free Sound and are available under Creative Commons license.

Beep noise- https://freesound.org/people/kwahmah_02/sounds/316854/

Film Reel- https://freesound.org/people/Josherman4/sounds/462263/

Heat Beat- https://freesound.org/people/frantramp/sounds/474656/

Bicycle- https://freesound.org/people/13gkopeckak/sounds/378900/

Song- https://freesound.org/people/toiletrolltube/sounds/475713/

I have attached my draft audio story. I decided have a more pathos- esque appeal. So I have recorded myself giving a brief description of my heart behind the triathlon.

Then as I list the events, I added some sound effects of the actual disciplines. I recorded the swimming noise on my IPhone and the subtle running noise as well. The cycling noise is a royalty free sound effect, and available under a Creative Commons license.

To really spice it up more, I used this dramatic melancholy song, that is also available through Creative Commons License. I feel as if it added a nice mood, I guess you could say.

On the actual mix, I kept it pretty simple. I overlapped most of the secondary track and changed the volume so it wouldn’t disrupt me speaking.

But as far as anything else, it was fairly simple. I would like to add more time and content to it for my final draft. I also have this huge idea, because of my obsession with This American Life and Ira Glass.

I would like to maybe record myself doing a dry run of the events and play it the background and make it feel as if the event is happening in real time. Like with a crowd cheering and a starter pistol. All that sounds like that would be a good background noise, so it doesn’t seem like I was talking into my Iphone in my car.

So we will see how that turns out, it might to ambitious of an idea.

I am not entirely confident that the embedding will work, so below I have listed the URL.

Counting draft

https://soundcloud.com/bailey-strope/counting-draft

Counting with music

https://soundcloud.com/bailey-strope/untitled-session-2-mixdownmp3-this-one

Vox pop

https://soundcloud.com/bailey-strope/vox-pop-mixdown

Editing an interview

https://soundcloud.com/bailey-strope/editing-an-interview-mixdown

Above is my final draft of my logo. After a ton of revisions, I have decided on this.

My draft had a lot textures and color, that made the image feel flat and it looked like the product of Microsoft Paint. So to alleviate that problem, I did a few changes.

One I made the arrows a shape with no fill, so it is just empty space. Then on each one I filled them with thing that represent each discipline.

Waves for swimming.

Bicycle tires for cycling.

Shoes for running.

Another thing was remove the text, this way is more of a logo that can be rotated in any direction and still be the same. For example, if this was a sticker, you can attach it anyway, because there is not a right side up. Which is think is a cool aspect in some logos.

The last thing I did was I made the lines heavier, and there wasn’t really a reason behind this except one. As the inside of the arrows got more and more filled and appeared “busy”, I just think there had to be definitive line that broke up the clutter a bit.

The last element, that I added was the primary colors. I think the primary colors make things feel jovial and youthful. I added this element, because most of the times endurance sports have an element of seriousness and grit. I think that doesn’t always have to be the case, I think it they can be fun. So I made it more fun rather than intense.

So to conclude… new logo, same try-athlete.

This is my draft for my illustrator logo. I like the simple look, that’s why the logo is pretty simple and doesn’t have a lot shapes.

I used the general concept of the recycle symbol to represent the 3 different components in a race that are all separate, but make up the race in total.

In each steam of the arrow, I used some layer effects to add the environment of each discipline. I believe it goes without saying, but I list it below. (From the top to the right)

• The blue with waves is for swimming.
• The road is cycling.
• the pavement gravel combination is for running.

The last component of the graphic is the lettering. I used single “T” instead of spelling triathlon, but I did add the disciplines, just to give it more of triathlon exclusive feel.

I go back and forth on whether or not it needs more of something. The one element I am not decided on is the color palette. I like the bright green and orange, because of a lot triathlon gear is bright colors like that. Although they are the only two colors without a filter or anything, so I am trying to decide if that looks weird or not.

Anyways, this to my draft for my logo.

This is my ROUGH logo sketch. I drew inspiration from the recycle symbol because I like how it moves from one thing into another, like a triathlon does. Like my graphics in the past I want to showcase each discipline as both an independent and connected activity.

The doodles on the right and bottom is my playing with the idea that each “arm” of the symbol is a different shape, as in a road, running path, and a body of water (somehow.)

The lettering is not set in stone, I may not even put it on there, maybe just a T or “Try”. It all depends on what looks good.

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I uploaded my tutorials, the only problem I ran into was the last tracing tutorials. At some point towards when you make it shape that can be resized, I went wrong. I was not able to click all three stroke, fill, line. That is why it is not correct.

Below is my new and improved graphic. I have decided to revise it and basically redo the whole thing from comments I received, which were completely spot on.

Such comments, included “not a lot of visual storytelling, could maybe use some movement.” and another one mentioned the background image does not having enough color. Shoutout to the great feedback.

So what did I change?

What I revised was I added a few adjustment levels on background image, to bring forward the trees and the colors in the sky. Now the photo is not as flat as it once was. I also used the healing brush to remove the moon. I felt like the moon was not necessary to the graphic. While it may add a subject to the photo, it doesn’t help the graphic. Another time and place maybe.

Next, I added a orange color overlay on the texture layer, this way I can add a little more color in the skyline. I also moved the text and clipart images above the texture, to really separate the foreground from the background.

Finally, I decide to delete the bike handles, for the reason, that is looked stupid. The blog is about triathlons not cycling…

That is why I added the clipart images of a swimmer, cyclist, and a runner. This indicates the disciplines; swim, bike, run. I added them in the order of the event, which hopefully adds some movement to the photo. Also I feel as speaks to triathlons more.

That’s enough… onto the most important part.

I present to you, the Try-Athlete graphic 2.0!

This image could be used a sticker or logo for a T-shirt. I am very confident this better than the last. The draft was intended for a sticker or T-shirt as well, but that sticker or T-shirt would have sucked on many levels.

The clip art images and texture image are free use under Creative Commons License and the links are listed in Updated: Image Collection post.