Thurs Mar 01 - Class 12
- Kinetic Type Project Demo
- Studio Work Time
- Assignment:
- 388: Kinetic Type Project
- 488: Kinetic Alphabet Project
- Reading:
- Reading/Screening: Pablo Ferro
- Tutorial:
- After Effects CC2017 Ess Train: Motion Graphics (Demaflies) Chp. 7 & 8
- Announcements:
- Crossman Gallery: Reading Material
- Theater Dance: Street Scene
- Weekend Movie: Jumanji, Summers Auditorium, $1 w/ hawkcard
- Time Wasters:
- TopoSketch - by Ian Loh and Tom White (VIA)
Kinetic Type Project Work Time
The remainder of the class will be devoted to work time on your project. Focus you attention on:
- Sound/Film Sample selected and ready to use in project
- AE Project started with audio
- Design Boards - how you want type to appear onscreen
- Assets for animation in production (typographic layout, transcript, etc)
- Developing composition(s) with audio and type in motion
- Developing concept for visual characteristics in relation to choice audio sample
Our project asks you to use an audio sample from an existing source without seeking permission. Because Copyright law is quite complex, we will only have time to talk about how it relates to this project. There are a few references that will we use in this context: the general description of Fair Use from Stanford, US Copyright Office Fair Use Index, and then finally the College Arts Association Guidelines for Fair Use for Visual Art
To make sure we are as compliant as possible with our work, you are required to include a statement at the end of your project animation. This information will appear for 5 seconds over black at the end, after your animation. That statement will serve as a "works cited" and should include the following:
- source title
- source director
- source production company
- source production year
- source actor(s) and/or characters
This will appear at the end of the project on screen for approximately 5 seconds
Kinetic Type Project and Workflow
audio and transcript -> design boards (storyboards) -> typographic layout/compositions -> AE Pre-Comps -> Final AE Comp -> Render
For in-progress critique next class, you will be expected to have some design boards for your type compositions. Design boards can be digital images for our critique, but you might also consider having them printed in color for reference.
As you develop and create design boards, you will also want to begin generating pre-compositions for typographic layout and graphics. Successful projects of this nature are built through careful consideration of design that is then animated to match the audio source. Building your compositions ahead of time is an important stage of motion design process.
Begin by referring to your design boards. Create compositions (Illustrator or Photoshop) based on your initial design concepts. Compositions can be made using film/video presets for HD (1920x1080). They can also be created at even larger sizes - which would allow you to animate larger blocks of text. As you finalize a pre-composition, you will likely want to creat outlines from type.
The typographic layout in my example was generated in Illustrator (works similar in Photoshop) and imported as a composition in AE. This would be considered a "Pre-Composition" because the layout/position of different layers was already determined. To continue working, the timing of when layers (in this project they are spoken word lines/dialog) appear on screen was done by trimming each layer until it is spoken. One could also use a track matte to animate the layer in or could be keyframed for other properties like opacity or position. "Pre-Composition" is a fundamental building block to this type of animation because it allows you to work and focus on individually designed and animated segments.
Each "Pre-Composition" is then inserted into a larger composition that includes the soundtrack. It is then possible to animate them as a group. At this level, usually the animation consists of how the group of text lines that are in the "Pre-Composition" move on or off the screen or transition from one to the next.