Hula Hoop Experience

DURATION

One Month

PURPOSE

Educating the UWB Community

TEAM

Individual Project

THE GOAL

To create custom hula hoops that were six feet in diameter. I chose this idea because the hula hooper would experience six feet in 360 degrees.

THE PROBLEM

The task was to create a fun and memorable visual representation of what 6 feet looks like that students at the University of Washington Bothell could interact with.

CONSTRUCTING THE HULA HOOPS

My first task was to research and create the hula hoops. After watching several tutorials on YouTube and a trip to Home Depot I was able to create 5 hoops.

I have to admit some of the hula hoops turned out "okay" but some of the hoops are warped atrocities. I think the only usable hula hoop is the red one. I suppose I am not a great constructor of hula hoops, but it was really fun and I'm sure I could do better the second time around! The first hoop I created was the blue hoop which you may notice is significantly smaller than the others. This is because I realized after making this hoop that when you stand inside the hoop there was not 6 feet in front of you. I then made the hula hoops larger to accommodate the space taken up by the hula hooper.

PROJECT ILLUSTRATIONS

After I used up all of the materials and produced as many usable hula hoops as I could I started working on graphics to accompany the hula hoops. I wanted to create some social media graphics to create awareness of the experience and a sign that would explain what the experience was and why it was important. The illustrations were created in Adobe Illustrator.

24in x 36in Poster for A-Frame Sign

I created a fun and friendly scene for the background. Then, I illustrated the main character who is wearing a t-shirt representing the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), because they would be sponsoring the event.

Motion Graphic for Social Media

Next, I created the following 15-second motion graphic in Adobe After Effects to promote the hula hoop experience on social media.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED

I am still very new to AE and this is my second video created in the program. I learned to select "continously raster" to make the vector graphics scale smoothly, to use "easy ease" on keyframes to make movements appear smooth and organic, and to use the graph editor to adjust the speed of movements between keyframes.

PROJECT NEXT STEPS

Unfortunately, this project never came to a reality on campus because campus re-opened without social distancing rules. However, if I were to move forward with the project I would together a booth, launch the project, and make a video about student's interacting with the experience.