Reading Summaries

Jon Krasner - Chapter 4 - Motion Graphics in the Environment

New technologies are playing a much greater role. Video Wall Systems which display large images without compromising screen resolution has become very popular. Benefits of video wall system is that it is scaleable, interchangeable, and allowing many screen sizes with both horizontal and vertical configurations.

LEDs unlike LCDs can be built to any size and aspect ratio.

Immersive environments shape a sense of place by providing order, ambience, comfort and insight to physical or virtual space. They are an assembly of architecture, interior design, images, motion graphics and sound that provide aesthetic and meaningful experiences and enhance social interation. They are designed to combine physical and imaginery worlds in which text, moving images etc can respond to humans.

In recent years, motion graphics has played an important role in interactive educational installments.

In retail space, immersive environments can be used to create branding experiences by putting guests into new exotic worlds.

Digital signage is one of the fastest growning marketing opportunities. They range from sports scoreboards, to giant screens which are placed in shopping centres.

Jon Krasner - Chapter 9 - Conceptualising

Assessment is the first stage of conceptualising. It begins with a clear objective. In then moves to targeting the audience which again, should be clearly defined. Next you do thorough research on your topic as it is the key to effective communication. When conceptualising, you have to be aware of the restrictions - what you can and cant do. There are limits such as on the use of material, equipment etc. no matter the dealine, you have to make sure your work is realistic.

Then moving on to image style. There are many types to choose from, such as, photographic, typographic, abstract etc. These can take on different visual styles. Techniques such as cropping, lighting, colour correction etc can all enhance the expression you are trying to create.

Formulation - Forming creative ideas

Brainstorming will allow you to explore ideas further and generate new ones. Sketch new ideas, write them down, record them as they come to you as they could make interesting work. Creativity block happens to a lot of people, when their mind goes blank and cannot think of any ideas. There are many ways to help your brain start generating ideas again such as games. Think of original ideas to make your work interesting and different. Look an inspiring artists to help you with your work. Take risks and be different. Experiment with different ideas to see what works best.

Once ideas have been formed, they must be cultivated through evaluation, selection, clarification and refinement.

Storyboards are the next step. They help establish narrative structure, shows when events will take place and unfold. Will identify editing and post production that will need to take place.

Jon Krasner - Chapter 10 - Animation process creating motion

Frame by Frame animation

Individual images that are displayed in a quick succession to create persistence of vision - the illusion of continuous motion.

Flip books were one of the first frame by frame animation techniques.
Frame by frame animations include two types of frames - keyframes and inbetween frames.

Unlike frame by frame animation, interpolation software can calculate intermediate data between key frames to produce linear or non linear uniform motions.

Spatial interpolation or path animation involves animating its geometry, colour, transparency or surface properties.
Temporal interpolation describes how elements move through time.
Velocity is a temporal property that can be controlled by governing the distance between keyframes as well as through the technique of time stretching.

Jon Krasner - Chapter 8 - The sequential composition designing in time

Forms of continuity

The application of continuity editing to motion graphics can allow you to be clear in your storytelling and delivery of information.

Spatial continuity

Used to create onscreen and offscreen space in a way that keep up the viewers subconscious map - in other words, the viewers sense of where things are in the frame and constant.


Temporal Continuity

Controls the timing of the action and contributes to the plots manipulation of story time.

Action Continuity

Action is carried smoothly across cuts and transitions to keep up both spatial and temporal continuity.


Forms of discontinuity

Discontinuity editing is guided more by emotion rather than story. Used to create anxiety or anticipation.

Spatial discontinuity

Allows you to reconstruct an environment that partially relies on the viewers imagination. Can be used to establish the characters viewpoint or intensify the emotional impact.

Temporal discontinuity

Allows you to create deliberate ambiguity, build tension and intensify emotional impact.

Montage

The technique of montage can be used to help audience connect or identify with the subject matter.

Conceptual - involves juxtaposition
Sequential - tells stories in short hand by condensing events.



Angie Taylor - Chapter 1 - Drawing

Drawing Materials

As i am a beginner when it comes to drawing, i have no certain preferences of drawing materials. Angie Taylor suggests beginners experiment with all different materials to see what is preferred and what materials give you certain effects. Its good to find your own style rather than being swayed by others choices.

Sketchbooks

Not many people find the time to practice drawing. Angie TAylor recommends that you should carry a small book around with you so you can practice in your spare time - a spare 5 minutes on the train will benefit you.

Pencils

There are many different pencils to play around with, its good to try them out to see what gives a better effect for what your creating.
The traditional woodencased pencils range from 6H to 6B. The lead of the pencil is measured by letters and the numbers indicate the hardness and blackness of the graphite thats used to make the lead. The letter H presents the hardness and the letter B stands for blackness.

Harder graphite creates sharper lines but the harder the graphite the lighter the pencil mark.
Softer graphite creates softer and darker lines.

Pens

Some people enjoy drawing with pens. There are also a variety of pens you can use to draw.
Marker pens can be used to blacken large areas and finer roller ball pens can be used to create detail.

Paints

Watercolours - water soluble, translucent.
Masking fluid - used to stop paint bleeding over white areas.
Gouache (poster paint)- applied using very little water. Opaque.
Acrylic - Flexible. Can be watered down and sponged or used very thick.

Erasers

Erasers come in very handy to undo the mistakes you have made but they can also be used as a drawing tool. You can use the eraser to 'draw' on a shaded piece of paper.

Basic Drawing

Each object can be broken down into simple shapes such as a square, rectangle, triangle or circle or a combination of these shapes. Start learning to draw by looking for these shapes and basic colours and patterns.

Freehand sketching

Its difficult to draw a circle free hand. To practise, lightly draw over an already drawn circle to get a feel to the motion used. Make sure everything's well balanced.

Adding depth

This can be done by use of shading and 'light'. It can make the object look more real and appear solid.

Directional lighting

To determine the direction of shading, you have to decide where you think the light source would be placed.



Angie Taylor - Chapter 5 - Type

What is Typography

Typography is used to describe a design concerned with type. It is the art of selecting typeface, sizes, colours and textures onto pages or screens and alignments of words and letters.

Fonts: styled collection consisting of the full alphabet, numbers, and various other characters such as punctuation.
Typeface: Collection of fonts
Character: single units that can represent letters or numbers.

Italics - used for supporting texts like captions and quotes.
Special characters - used to differentiate certain characters from the rest.
Ligatures - When a combination of characters forms an unpleasant shape.


Angie Taylor - Chapter 9 - Technical

Video Format

There are different video formats depending on the geographic location where the movie will be viewed.

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) - For Europe
NTSC (National Television Standards Commitee) - US, Canada, Mexico and Japan
SECAM (Sequence a memoir) - France

Each format had different rules regarding frame rate, aspect ratio, colour gamuts and field order which must be followed if you want your footage to look the same on any device.

Frame rates

Frame rates is the number of frames that are transferred every second of footage. The higher the frame rate the smoother the footage. Your frames rates should be based on your location.

European PAL used 25 fps
NTSC use 29.92fps
Film frame rate is 24fps

The choice of frame rate is based on the data transfer rate of the delivery medium.


Timecode

When working with animation software, time is measured in frames. The footage is measured by the number of frames it is made up of.
Most editing applications allows you to measure time in SMPTE timecode with lets you measure time easily as it is divided up into hours seconds and frames.

Fields and Interlacing

Footage shot on video cameras consists of two separate fields which as slotted together to make one image. These two fields are captures in sequences onto videotape and then combined when you capture the footage into your computer to make up one interlaced frame.

Deinterlacing

Programmes like Adobe After Effects can deinterlace and separate the fields.

Aspect Ratios

The two things to consider when talking about aspect ratio is Pixel and Frame.

Pixel Aspect Ratio

Pixel is an abbreviation of picture cell. The pixel aspect ratio determines the dimension of each individual pixel used to make up the complete picture.

Square Pixels

Computers display pictures using square pixels. Any footage created in programmes like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop etc usually consists of square pixels.

Non Square Pixels

Video monitor or television use rectangular pixels rather than square.

Frame Aspect Ratio

The frame aspect ratio describes the dimensions of the screen that the footage will be displayed on.

Standard Definition TV

Most TVs have either 4:3 frame aspect ratio or in the case of wide screen TV a 16:9 frame aspect ratio.

HD TV

HD uses square pixels and has a fixed 16:9 resolution of 1920x1080.

Computer displays

Computer displays resolution can be changed. They can be 4:3 but more commonly 5:4. Players like QuickTIme an Windows Media will resize to fit the content.


Digital Video Platforms

There are many different types of platforms which allow you to view and edit videos on your computer, such as Apple's QuickTime and Microsofts Windows Media Player.
Each platform supports a selection of different media delivery as well as QuickTime and Windows Media which are the standard ones on most computers.

Compression and Codecs

Codec is an abbreviation of compressor/decompressor. Codecs compress footage when its written to disk. Codecs are also responsible to compression the footage when you try to view it on a platform (QuickTime/Windows Media). The same codec has to be on the computer as the one you use to compress when writing to disc or the footage will not play.


Angie Taylor - Chapter 7 - Editing

Video editing developed from film editing, which was physically cutting the film at certain places and pasting it together to either change the time events take place in a story or to change the perception of the story.

Video editing was a similar process. Editing performed directly on tape had its downfalls as it could not be 'undone'. This type of editing is known as Linear Editing as the process is basically pasting clips one after the other in a sequence. Linear editing can also be mixing two videos onto a third tape.

Non linear editing allows you to work backwards, forwards or even randomly. It was a non destructive way of editing footage and viewing it in any order you like.

The principles of editing

Storytelling

Editing has been made simpler since the introduction of Apples Final Cut Pro and Adobes Premiere Pro. Cutting footage was not about just putting random footage together but its about telling the story.

Establishing Shot

Establishing shot is basically setting the scene. It tells the audience who the characters are, where the location is and any other important facts.

In abstract animation, an establishing shot may introduce the company logo and any important messages you want the viewers to think about.

Motion Graphics pieces arent usually very long so you dont have much time to make an establishing shot very clever.

Maintaining flow

From the establishing shot, you need to make it flow easily so the viewers are unaware of the technical process that has been done to achieve this. MTV famously broke this rule.

Pacing and Rhythm

PAcing refers to the speed of the sequence. Fast pace can be used to build tension or excitement. Slow pace can be used to create an uncomfortable or awkward feeling or they are also used in romantic films.

When editing you can create some sort of rhythm through the use of varied length of shots and transitions in a sequence.


Continuity

Continuity is when editing is so smooth that the cuts in clips go unnoticed by the audience.

Direction

Direction of movement can determine when to add the best cuts.

Match Cut

Match cut is when the editor matches the action from one shot to the other.

Jump Cut

Jump cut is when the editor switches between different views of the same object, usually to create a deliberate jump in editing.

Cutaways

Cutaways are used to break up a scenes thats too long or maybe boring.

L-cuts

L-cuts happen when the editor cuts the audio at a different point to the video.

Transitions

Dissolves

Dissolves are quite soft transitions, the slowly dissolve as the next clip comes in.

Wipes

Wipes pulls a new clip onto the screen while pushing the old one off. It is often used to symbolise a change in time.
There are different styles of wipes, just as a clock wipe.

Iris

An iris transition is similar to a wipe but instead of moving the clip of it brings in a new one from the centre of the screen.

Editing Tools

Ripple - allows you to trim a clip from its in or out point.
Roll - Trims adjacent clips.
Slip- Allows you to change the portion of footage in a clip while maintaining its duration in the timeline
Slide- Allows you to move a clip along the timeline




Jon Krasner - Chapter 11 - Motion Graphics Compositing

Motion Graphics compositing allows you to effortlessly incorprate many types of content into a uniform, mulit layered space to create unusual, visual relationships.

Blend - allows you to determine how the pixel information of images blend to create different effects
Keying - is eliminating a selected colour tone
Splines - allow a alternative technique of masking unwanted parts of an image
Colour correction - allows you to change and enhance certain colours to repair mismatched colours



Jon Krasner - Chapter 7 - The Pictorial Composition

Compositional principles can be used to express concepts and emotions to clearly and effectively communicate messages.

Design principles such as unity
figure and ground - surface area of a composition.
negative space - positive space being the areas occupied in a composition, negative being the unoccupied or empty space
hierarchy - allows you to direct a viewers attention throughout a frame on an informational and visual level
juxtaposition - placement of two or more elements that are un/related in close proximity to suggest a new meaning
and superimposition - overlaying one element on top of another
can be used to create space.

Space can be suggested rather be shown and defined by physical boundaries.



Jon Krasner - Chapter 5 - Motion Literacy - Choreographing Movement

Motion literacy invloves the understanding of spatial properties, such as positioning, scaling, orientation and direction.
These all determine the physical relationshop between the elements in the frame.

Jon Krasner - Chapter 6 - Images, Live-Action, and Type

Visual Properties

Form is the most basic element of visual communication. Graphic, photographic or typograohc form can be used to symbolise and suggest ideaas. It can provide certain emphasise on important information and can stragetically direct the readers eyes in all works.

Abstract form - Modern art was found on the exploration of pure, non objective abstraction and the basis of visual experience was the perceptual effect of form and color on the viewer.

3D form - 3d modelling and animation has been used in motion graphics since the 1970s. Today the combination of 2d and 3d works has become a practice in film titles.

Value and Colour

Value measures the lightness and darkness of an images tones or colours. It can help convey messages by creating focal points in a composition. Colour has the capability of creating a mood and atmosphere. It can symbolise ideas, express emotion to gain a desired response from an audience.

The components of colour are:
Hue - denotes colours with regard to their identification
Saturation - measures a hues purity and intensity
Value - describes the colours brightness

Each colour can evoke different emotions, such as red can indicate anger or passion, yellow can indicate happiness. Each colour also has its own culture association, for example white in India represents death whereas black in England represents death.

Live Action Considerations

Over the past decade, live action conent has had a greater presence in Motion Graphics work.

Factors that should be considered when working with live action:
form or context of project
filmic properties
cinematic properties

Type

Kinetic forms of typography can convey emotions through graphic impact and movement. Type can now be perceived as physical shapes that create complex semiotic experiences through metaphor and emotion.

When choosing typeface, be sure to choose a type that appropriately conveys and expresses the message you are giving.



Jon Krasner - Chapter 1 - A Brief History of Motion Graphics

The idea of animation began long ago when drawings where found in the caves which would symbolise movement, such as lots of legs to show running.

Animation would not be possible without the understanding of the human eye. Our brain is tricked into perceiving a rapidsuccession of different still images as a continous picture - this is known as persistence of vision.

Optical inventions first began when optical devices emerged throughout Europe to provide animated entertainment. Games where created which allowed elements to be moved across a stage or lit from behind to create a sense of depth of field.

In the 1600's a Magic Lantern was created. It involved the projection of hand painted or photographic slides which were moved and light up by fire which created a projection.

In Britain, Louis and Auguste Lumiere managed to develop the first mass produced, camera printer projector of Modern Cinema where for the first time in history, cinematographic films were projected on a large screen for the paying public to watch.

During the 1950s Saul Bass became the movie industrys leading film title innovator.

New developments also led to the concept of creating drawings that were specifically to move on a big screen.
Felix the cat (created by Australian cartoonist Pat Sullivan, animated by Otto Mesmer) was the first animated character to have an identity on tv screens.

The idea of creating a likeable character took the audience away.

During the 1960s Friz Frelengs opening cartoon for Pink Panther became icons of pop culture.

Early cinematic techniques that were used in experimental avante garde film and title sequences became adopted in television.


Jon Krasner - Chapter 2 - Motion Graphics in film and tv

Film Titles
'Opening credits are designed to create the context of a film and establish expectations about its atmosphere and tone' Page 26

This is why i have chosen to make my opening fun and uplifting as would the rest of the film. I want to use a fun colour palette and have a comedic feel to the short sequence.

Motion Graphics have started to appear much more in music videos such as Gnarls Barkley - Run


Angie Taylor - Chapter 8 - Communication
Visual communication is one of the most important aspects of a designers job.

I will take into consideration the story, theme, symbolism, meaning etc when planning my piece.

Be careful if using ambiguous imagery as it might not work and come across how you expect or want it to.

I, myself, think i am a kinesthetic and visual learner, mainly kinesthetic. I prefer a more hands on approach and feel that i remember more when i physically do something myself. I find if i listen to a person talking, i dont remember as much and find i drift off into my own thoughts. I like to explore new things myself and come up with lots of different ideas.

Pitching Tips

*Outline design process rather than presenting a single finished design
*Sell your services - speak about why your unique, how you come up with ideas and your team work skills
*Start with the most impotant info so it stays fresh in their minds
*Recap important factors again at the end
*Be snappy and to the point


Angie Taylor - Chapter 6 - Colour
'Colour is the first thing to attract your attention' Page 224
Colours are interesting to look at and fun to experiment with. There are so many colours to choose from - its sometimes difficult to decide out of the variety of choices.

Ill be focusing on colours for screen design rather than print design.
Colour can be used to convey a mood to the viewer as well as make the work look more pleasing.
Each colour has a meaning, mood and cultural association, which is why the colours i use have to be chosen purposefully.

Colours i would like to experiment with for my work are:

Yellow - as it represents sunshine, brightness, happiness and optimisum. - I want to give off an upbeat, happy, comedic vibe as this id the genre of film i am going for.

Purple and Orange - portrays rich life - wealth and luxury. warmth, coziness, cheerful and energetic.

Blue-(Dull) - poorer life - colder, winter
(bright) - outside - calm, peaceful

As my target audience are females, i am going to use softer colours as they are more attractive to that gender.

The Artists Colour Model

Refer back to the colour wheel to learn which colours compliment each other.

Colour Theory

Monochromatic - lack of contrast and isnt so vibrant - this wouldnt work for me as i want my work to be vibrant

I would like to experiment with complementary colours which are found directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. This would help me create vibrant colour schemes that are at the same time in harmony.

Digital Colour Model

RGB used to describe colours used on screen.
I would like to experiment with different hues, saturation and brightness of the same colour.
I also know to be careful when choosing my adjacent colours.


Angie Taylor - Chapter 2 - Planning
Important stages
*Break down brief into parts
*Research each part in detail so you have enough knowledge on doing whats asked of you
*Come up with a rough idea - ensure you will be meeting the briefs' criteria
*Experiment with idea - add more details, look at inspirations, take photos, books etc to give you ideas for your own work
*Sketch ideas - allows you to be more creative in other ways
*Brainstorm - try different ideas and elaborate on the ones you do have
*Create a moodboard so you know your on track meeting requirements of brief - such as colour, fonts, logos etc
*After approved, start to storyboard. Storyboard will keep changing.
*Start off with a rough design, simple with room for addition - approve then expand
*More detail, show colour, camera movement ideas - approve
*Digitalise work - create using computer software such as Illustrator in my case
*Manage time carefully - be sure to make my own deadline and stick to them so i can make sure i am on track


Angie Taylor - Chapter 4 - Animation
Animation is the process of sequencing drawings, computer generated artwork or photographs of models to creat the illusion of a moving image.
Animation is hand-drawn, computer generated and model.

It started as an optical illusion of a moving image from a reel of still images.

Computer animation - 'My philosophy is not to mimic the real world too much and try to adapt the rules developed'. 146

When creating my animation, these are things i have to remember:

Keyframes - points where major changes occur
Tweening - drawing to fill in all the frames inbetween the keyframes
Interpolation - how changes occur through keyframes and how objects travel from one position to another.
Velocity - Rate of change
Motion Path - the path the objects travel

I have used pose-to-pose animation as i have sketched out ideas and storyboarded my entire opening but will only start creating after everyone has approved.

Laws of physics
I will try to mimick the way real life objects move and look to make mine appear more believable.

Rules of animation
When the laws of physics are exaggerated and made noticable it can make an animation look much more effective.
I will exaggerate the my characters facial expression as these are what are important in my scenes.

I will use staging and anticipation to direct the viewers attention o a particular part of the screen.
Reactions are important as it tells the audience something has happened.I will use this alot as it shows the dramatic changes between the rich and poor environments.
I will use an upbeat fun rhythm to make my animation move fast but smoothly.

Angie Taylor - Chapter 3 - Composition


Composition can help convey messages,meanings and feelings to the viewer. This is why layout can be vital. It can help portray certain things without being so obvious, through the way and where you place them. If taken into consideration and thought about carefully, it could make your work look more aestethically pleasing. All elements such as shape, space, lines, colour etc should be thought about when choosing composition. Choose each element purposefully and carefully so they audience can understand the right message.

When placing all my elements i shall use grids to help me, as i am only learning about composition. When i start to feel more confident, i will go by instict. For now i will use grids, screen division, rule of thirds etc to ensure i use the space wisely and to experiment with the different outcomes.

The principle of composition will influence my choice of layout.

Limitations will be my biggest task as i am one who likes to be over creative and adventurous and this is sometimes by negative point as i get too carried away.
'Simplicity is your best friend'
Angie Taylor

Gestalt

This is an example of similarity and proximity. The three similar trees are grouped as one. And the one tree placed further away is classed as another group.





Good continuation - We assume that these buildings carry on behind the ones in front and don't just end randomly




Common Fate - direction of flow - the direction of flow is interrupted by the bus joining from the other lane. In purposely attracts your eye to where the action will take place.

Aliasing and anti-aliasing

In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution.




This image shows the difference between bitmap images and vector images. They both look similar from a far, but when you zoom in close to a bitmap image (image on the right) it becomes very pixelated and distorted as they are not of a high quality like the vector images. If you zoom into a vector image it is still of the same quality and very clear.


Since bitmap images are just a grid of pixels, they can’t be easily scaled up. The only way to enlarge the image is to make the pixels larger, which makes the images look blocky. With vector images, the shapes that make up the image can be scaled up or down smoothly.



Anti-aliasing is the process of making the edges in images/video smoother. For example, the jagged edges in the bitmap image can be deteced and smoothed out so it is more pleasing to the eye and looks for better quality.

Mood Board

Here are some ideas of what i would like to incorporate into my work but obviously being drawn. My mood board includes some of the colours i would like to use, such as vibrant and bold colours rather than dull as this shows the atmosphere of the film will be bright and bubbly. The outfits i have looked at are designer outfits as this would portray the personality of my main character. The luxurious rooms are ideas of what the characters apartment could look like and how to make it look expensive through use of space, colour and props.

Typography Ideas

The idea behind these examples are as if its handwritten by the main character, then scribbled or crossed out

Angie Taylor said that, "One way you can make your designs stand out from the rest is by designing your own lettering". I think this is very true as many fonts you find on your computer are so typical and familiar to our eyes so to make something different and unique, you have to create it yourself as it will be something completely different that people are not used to seeing, therefore it will stand out next to all the recognisable ones.






I like these as the font is quite bold and playful as will the title sequence be, so it will inisiate what the film genre will be.



Out of these fonts, i think the second one will portray the film the best, as the font type looks like its written by a girl, therefore it fits in with the idea that a girl had wrote it in her diary.

Formal and Informal Compositions

Formal



This was an experimental Illustrator drawing of a formal composition. The use of symmetry and geometrical shapes makes this composition formal.




This was an experimental attempt of informal composition, where the objects are scattered around and aren't positioned in a particular way.

Logo Ideas

My first idea was the Logo 'P.Production' with a mark of a hand drawn pencil. The idea of a hand drawn pencil is to show aspects of fun and playful rather than strict and serious.

My second idea is to use a 'big mark and small logo' type. This is to highlight the main aspect of fun. Although the pencil is neater, it still doesn't show signs of strict and serious.

My third logo idea was plain and simple with just the 2 P letters but one mirroring the other. This was to keep it straight to the point and precise. The colours would reflect the fun aspect.

Sketches

This is an image of a gate i drew with the idea of symmetry in mind.



This is an image of a fireplace i drew using different size squares. This could also be used as a setting in my final product.



This is an image i drew of my main character.



Character from side view



As i am not a very confident drawer, this was one of my first sketches which i was proud of. I tried to add in as much detail by use of shading.



This is also an idea for a setting for my final product

Illustrator Practice

This is an image i first sketched freehand then attempted in Illustrator











I used Illustrator to practice how to use the blob brush and eraser tool.








On this one, i added colour to try and make it look more real.











This was my creation without the perspective grid.










This is my first attempt at creating buildings on Adobe Illustrator. I used a perspective grid to help me and guide me on how to position my building. I found this easier to draw on Illustrator rather than free hand.

Main Idea

"Downgrade"

A young, rich girl who becomes in debt from all her shopping spree's and gets kicked out of her luxurious apartment, breaks up with her millionaire boyfriend and is forced to live a downgrade of a lifestytle. The story follows her struggles to adjust to her new life and how whether she makes it out alive.

The story is a fun, uplifting rom-com about a bubbly fun girl who just got hit by reality.


-- Title Sequence

In animation, the main character is walking through a city. Passing shops like Gucci and other designer stores, it looks like she's living a life of luxury. She opens her apartment door to find a top class apartment. She looks stunned, then to rub her eyes a find a grotty, small room.

A arrow drops down from the top to form the 'D' of the title "Downgrade"

Motion Graphics Brief

The brief i have chose is:

2 “environments” that you need to transition between – the title style has to work in both environments.
The sequence should be 2-3-mins.
Create many reflections and integrate the visuals between the cast members’ names and the worlds they are in.

Generating Ideas

Ideas

Here are a few ideas that i have come up with that i would like to experiment with and try out.

1. Animated sequence, then when introducing character/objects, they turn into real life animation with the characters names beside them.
Inspired by: The Back up plan, Juno

2. A real life animation book, which when is opened captivates the audience by the animated objects.

3. A range of animated objects that turn silhouette when touched by the character.

4. A silhouette of the main character falling through a nightmare of her life, which could be in either real life or animated. The mood of the film will be identified through the use of music and colours.
Inspired by Mad Men

Research

I have been exploring different styles of how motion graphics are demonstrated.

Saul Bass is known to be a very successful motionographer. His work was very interesting as it was mostly non narrative based. Instead, he used shapes to set the mood of the film, or important objects that link to the film, rather than tell a story.

One of my favourite styles is the flip book/comic book style. I found that this style allows you to be very creative and artistic.

An example of work i have seen was designed and created by Michael Riley for the opening title of 'The Back-up Plan' directed Alan Poul.

Link: http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00177-The_Back_up_Plan


Michael Riley is the creative director of Shine Studios but has also done work for Dreamworks. He designed the title for Kung Fu Panda which was completely different to The Back Up Plan. He explored many different styles and techniques through the different title designs he has created.
You are able to tell straight away what kind of genre of film you will be watching when you watch the title sequence. The upbeat music and powerful bright colours used instantly tells you the film will be a type of comedy.














Another designer that i researched is Paul Donnellon, one of the founders of VooDooDog. He has created titles for St. Trinians, Nanny McPhee and many more. I feel his work has a hand craft feel rather than pure computer designed.

He has worked with many companies, such as, Columbia Pictures, Fox, New Line Cinema, Paramount, HBO, MTV, BBC, SKY and many many more.

The title sequence that captivated me was for Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Some of the characters where first created in 2D then hand made which made them stand out.

Link: http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00192-Nanny_McPhee_and_the_Big_Bang




The title sequence for Juno is also rather interesting. I like the way the sequence integrates the animated part with the real life part. I think it works really well as it does not look odd and flows in a smooth motion.

The sequence was completely hand made, even the typography, which must have taken a lot of time and effort.

The frames were printed and cut out, then printed several times to get a degraded copy.