Motion Graphic... Bewitched

An absolute classic and timeless animation!

Adobe After Effects... Part 3

Alternate method to inputting text
Layer > New > Text


- The font can be edited in the character pallet.


- The anchor point is not central, but can be adjusted by pressing A and adjusting the X and Y value.





- The text layer gives a few more options...



- By editing the source text, other words and characters can be added or taken away.



Adding an Animator



Here is what I created...

Last Session... from Gemma Byrne on Vimeo.

Hello hello hello from Gemma Byrne on Vimeo.

Adobe After Effects... Part 3

Alternate method to inputting text
Layer > New > Text


- The font can be edited in the character pallet.


- The anchor point is not central, but can be adjusted by pressing A and adjusting the X and Y value.





- The text layer gives a few more options...



- By editing the source text, other words and characters can be added or taken away.



Adding an Animator

Kinetic Typography... Ocean's Eleven

Another cool kinetic type example, with some clever representations throughout, only the keywords appear on the screen...
- 0:16 'through these doors' With the three words going through the stem of a letter, as if going through a set of doors.
- 0:19 'each of which...six digit code' These three words appear in 2 blocks of three, with the order changing, representing the 6 digit code that changes every 12 hours, with the correct code being represented by the each individual word turning green.
- 0:24 'ELEVATOR' This is written on its side and moves vertically from bottom to top, like a lift.
- 0:44 'ELEVATOR' This is a reduced size version which fits on the screen and reads horizontally, with equally spaced black dots across the top and bottom with green lines connecting, showing the laser motion detectors that George Clooney is describing to his group.

Kinetic Typography... Lock, Stock

This is a cool animation based on a scene from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. particularly like, the variety of sizes and the different directions in which the text is placed. These kinds of clips only tend to focus on the speech, however, this does emphasise a background noise, two footsteps, which is represented on the screen by two faint foot prints. The colour scheme works well, yellow, black and white which varies in the amounts used throughout. At 0:35 where the voice can be heard saying, 'If you bend the truth...', the text bends into the background, making it look 3D which is really effective. The exclamation mark is used as some kind of knife weapon throughout using a stabbing effect, which again is simple but effective.

Pixar Interview...

September 2005 What’s a typical day like for you? During film production, the animators get together every morning in a small screening room with the director in what’s called “dailies.” It’s a chance for the director to see where we’re at in the shots that have been assigned to us, and for the animators to find out if they’re going in the right direction. It’s also a chance to become inspired by the other animators’ work. The director is looking at whether a shot is feeling the way it should, and the action is doing what it should. After that, I start working. Sometimes I call other animators in to get feedback on my work. We also have walkthroughs when the director comes around to see what we’ve worked on during the day. How are shots assigned to you? Sometimes we get one or two shots, or a sequence of five to seven shots. The supervising animators usually assign a shot by matching the kind of animation called for in the shot with an animator’s strengths. But sometimes we’ll be allowed to select what shots we want to animate, and our choice might be motivated by the type of shot: action, slow-moving, emotional moments, or just by a particular character. Then there are the shots that the director wants assigned to a particular animator. And what do you start with? The way it usually works is after a movie has been scripted and storyboarded and approved, they make layouts of the shots. The shot contains the sound, models and props that are needed for the acting. You have the storyboards as a guide to what needs to happen in a scene. How do you begin animating? We begin by blocking out, which is when we roughly put in the key poses to tell the story of what’s happening in the shot. So at this point we’re not doing much facial expression or dialogue. Sometimes the director will tell you it’s not feeling the way he wants it to, and you go back. Or you might have one of those days where he says, “keep going.” An animator always likes to hear that! We go back and work more on it-that’s called IP (in progress). We put in more acting. More details. Some lip dialogue. You show the director this IP version, where you have a pretty good sense what it’s going to look like toward the end. He might say, “It looks great-keep going.” Or he might say, “We’re losing something here.” Animators show the shot again close to final, where everything is mouthed out, and the details of the face are there. It’s one last chance for director to make changes. Once a shot is finaled it gets a render check and then it goes to lighting and shading. How do you animate characters in the computer? The characters are built on the computer as models. These models are then given avars. Avars are the controls assigned to each part of the model. There’s avars in the face, the limbs, etc. We use these avars as a puppeteer would use the strings on a puppet to get the desired movement. The movement of each avar on a character model gets recorded on the computer in distance and time. Adjustments are made accordingly until we are satisfied with the motion of the model. How long does it take to animate a shot? There’s a formula the animation team uses. Generally, an animator will average about a hundred frames a week (that’s 4 seconds of actual screen time). But it also depends on how many characters are in a shot. They also take into consideration the difficulty of the shot. If it’s a character interacting with a prop-where he might be pushing or holding things-or special effects are involved, it might take longer. It sounds fast-paced. We try to be creative but also work within the schedule of the shot. A shot sheet says how many frames a shot has and how much time you have to work on it. It’s important to work within the schedule allotted because the shot usually has to go through other aspects of film production, such as special effects, lighting and shading. In order for us to be able to put our movie out in time, we have to allow for time in each aspect of the production process but sometimes there are technical difficulties that happen that we can’t anticipate. What do you do to put yourself in the mindset of your characters? More often than not, the nice thing about animation is we get to animate characters we’re drawn to. We film ourselves acting a scene, but sometimes that’s not enough. The team has a list of films that were used as reference when the script was written, which helps us get the feel of the characters. Animators also tend to be people-watchers. The stranger the person, the more we’re hooked. We pull from that when we animate. It’s not unusual for animators to be talking in the hallway and one of them is saying, “There was this guy at the park and he did the weirdest thing...” We’re fascinated by what motivates peoples’ little ticks. There are a lot of interesting, unusual nuances that we’re able to take in from real life for characters we might animate in the future. What’s the most challenging aspect of your job? Being able to animate a character and convey that the character is alive, truly thinking and driven by something. In real life, you meet people and know they have a history you don’t necessarily know about. An animator has to be able to convey this with a character. That it existed beyond this movie and is driven by many things. That’s the biggest challenge. That’s the core of what I get caught up in. It’s easy to do the more difficult action, but when it comes to true acting-that this character is alive and breathing and thinking and has a past-that’s the most challenging. What sequences are you most proud of? Whatever I’m most proud of is always my biggest downfall. I always think, “Ugh, it could have been better.” Mostly recently, I’d say it was probably the cave sequence in The Incredibles, when Helen gets down with the kids and tells them they need to use their powers to save themselves after years of her telling them not to use their powers. She loses it and then gains control and nurtures them. It was a meaty scene as far as acting goes. There was a lot going on there-a duality of emotions. One was internal and one external; trying to act one way while feeling something else. To convey that through animation is difficult. I went back and forth on that with the director, Brad Bird. It was the sequence I was most proud of, but I feel like it was my weakest. You do your best, but sometimes you’re still not satisfied with it. There seem to be very few female animators in the industry-do you find that to be the case? It’s true. In ratio, we’re still not as many as there are men, but nowadays I see more and more women in the field. I remember someone advising me that it was “such a man’s world, you have to elbow your way in.” But for me, what got me through was that I wanted to animate and keep learning. My experience at Pixar was that if you do good work, you are recognized. I haven’t had to elbow my way into anything here. All I want is to animate. I suck in as much as possible, and we have a good collaborative environment here. What they care most about is that you have a solid art background. Speaking of which, what’s your background? For college, my parents sent me back to the Philippines to study. My dad was a banker and wanted me to take commerce. I told him no, that I had to be an artist. So we agreed on advertising, which I studied at the University of Santo Tomas. After graduating I went into advertising for about five years in Guam. It was great, because I was a big fish in a small pond. I was able to work with big clients, like Nestle, that I would never have been able to work with at my age here in the United States. After a while I burnt out and wanted to go back to school. There was a course in computer animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. For our thesis we had to make a short animated film and then send it out to the companies you wanted to work for. I sent mine to Blue Sky, Disney, Pixar and PDI. I actually got job offers from Blue Sky and PDI. Pixar was the last one to call me, but told me they couldn’t do the interview me for a whole month. I had to take a big leap of faith when PDI and Blue Sky said they didn’t know if they could wait that long. But I knew if was going to learn anything, it’d be at Pixar. When did you know you wanted to be an animator? Well, it’s funny, because I can tell you when I knew I didn’t want to be an animator. In college I took a side subject called 2-D animation. I’ve always been more of an illustrator, putting everything into one image. In this 2-D class I had to do all these images. I remember hating the assignments-it was too many drawings! For the longest time I wasn’t drawn to it, but I knew I loved watching animation as a kid. So what changed your mind? When I discovered 3-D animation and realized the computer can do the in-between drawings. But you’re still wrestling with the computer to do exactly what you want it to do. Mainly, that one pose that should tell you what is happening in that moment. And that goes back to my love of detail-that one image that tells a story

Motion Graphic... Dreamworks

This is a great piece of motion graphics that is universally recognisable, and is usually featured at the beginning of certain films. I can recognise this ident just by the music even if I cannot see the visual, which symbolises a successful piece of design. The way the text is only partially revealed, in a dream-like great.

Kinetic Typography...Typolution

Genius. I love this, I love the typography tree, the typography snail, the typography rain and puddles... You get the picture. No fancy flashes or shapes and swirls, just type. The spatial movements really immerse you into this 'type world'. Bloody brilliant!

Kinetic Typography...Roxie!

This is slightly cheesy in areas, but I think the filters/animations of the text really suits the theatrical, musical theme. The colours work well, black and white is always effective, but the scarlet of the heart makes it more effective, as it gives it that feminine, lipstick, show girl feel. At 0:23, the simple use of semi circles changing black, grey and white makes it look like flashing lights you may get in the theatre, this is a simple idea with no lighting, but the way the colours change, give this impression.

Kinetic Typography...Melpomene

The beginning of this is really cool, it looks like the 'structure' is something you would see under the microscope, like a cell. I love use of space and when this 'thing' rotates, the centre is in focus, so the spheres at the end of the spindles are blurred as they move past the camera. The music at the beginning seems to suit this bit also. After 0:27 the clip seems to lose the plot.

Adobe After Effects... Part 2

Using Photoshop files with After Effects

- Create New File.

- The document should look like this, with the automatic guides.



- Save document as .psd or .tiff.

- .psd is more reliable when wanting to save layers.

Using Illustrator

- New File.

- Note: PAL D1/DV Widescreen - no square pixel as Illustrator doesn't use pixels.

Importing in After Effects - as footage

Setting up the file in After Effects

Importing in After Effects - as a composition

Importing as Composition - retain layer sizes




- Now the anchor point is different for each character, letters can be edited individually.

And this is what I created...

Second Session... from Gemma Byrne on Vimeo.

Second Session Part 2 from Gemma Byrne on Vimeo.

Motion Graphic...MTV Bloom

MTV BLOOM from FMK_7 on Vimeo.

This is more of a motion graphic featuring typography, this is a much more complicated way of communicating type, and it's really effective. I would love to be able to create something like this, where with the other more simplified clips I can work out how the motion is constructed, I have no idea how this one is made.

Motion Graphic... Parkour

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

Absolutely awesome. I always appreciate cool drawings like that, mainly because I can't draw, they are pretty simple, no colour and clear, but really effective. I especially love at 0:09 where the drawing of the building is introduced. I also love the interaction of the drawing with the different folds, it is an incredibly clever concept, and it works.

Motion Graphic... Bin Liner

TRI▲NGLE from Onur Senturk on Vimeo.

This is brilliant! Not sure what it is supposed to represent, but nevertheless it is still impressive, and the audio fits really well.

Kinetic Typography... Psychiatric Answering Machine

I think this is a fantastic piece of kinetic typography, in terms of the visual and the concept which is quite humourous. There are a few
The type used is the same as the narration being played, and the main words throughout are highlighted in red. The visual style of the clip is like a mind map with the different phone options branching off. The animation of each phone option represents the action being described, for example at 0:08 'If you are an obsessive compulsive press 1 repeatedly', the animation for this is multiple different sized, black and white 1s moving between background and foreground - as if the number one button is being pressed continuously.
I also like at 0:15 'Multiple Personality Disorder', which is represented by the word personality in 4 different fonts.

Kinetic Typography... Mad World

I am not posting this because it is something I love (although I do love the song), it isn't one of the greatest clips I have watched, but this is a whole new world to me and I am investigating into different techniques used which can begin to inform my own work.
At 0:06 where the cut out letters appear spelling the title of the track used and the artist, I quite like this, and never thought of incorporating 'real' elements instead of only digital type... if that makes sense?
Again, something I am noticing a lot is the animation reinforcing different words, such as at 0:23, the word bright, being in yellow, when on the whole the text is grey.

Kinetic Typography... HTC You Are Different

Kinetic Typography... The Matrix

Animation News... Rastamouse

DHX Media's 'Rastamouse' Scores Global Sales

December 3, 2010 by Ramin Zahed

How can you not love a stop-motion preschool show about a kind, raggae-singing Rastafarian mouse whose motto is “Making a bad ting good!” Kids worldwide are bound to fall for the new series Rastamouse, which is being distributed by DHX Media outside the U.K. Today, the company announced that it has sold the show to Australia’s ABC TV, Poland’s Canal+ (MiniMini) and Israel’s HOP!

Commissioned by the CBeebies, the 52X11 series is produced by Three Stones Media with Dinamo Productions and Little Roots. The show will premiere in the U.K. on CBeebies in the first quarter of 2011.

The show is based on the books by Michael De Souza and Genevieve Webster. It follows the adventures of Rastamouse, Scratchy and Zoomer—a crime-fighting, mystery-solving, special agent, reggae band. (They believe in redemption not retribution and they go about helping bad guys rebuild their lives!)

Greg Boardman, exec producer at The Rastamouse Company notes, “The sales Rastamousehas achieved to these international territories are fantastic. It’s clear there is a space in the kids market for a show like Rastamouse—which has heart, humor and fun at its very core. We look forward to building the brand with our partner DHX as the program is picked up worldwide.”

To learn more about this clever show, visit www.rastamouse.com.

(Taken from http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/dhx-media%E2%80%99s-rastamouse-scores-global-sales/)

To watch an episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/jackanory/stories/rastamousebling/

Motion Graphic... Circus

This is pretty funky, not sure what it's for...

Kinetic Typography...One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

This is short but sweet, I believe it is someone's college project.

Kinetic Typography...Stewie Griffin

Sticking with the Family Guy theme, I quite like this example of kinetic type, for many reasons, I like the faded 'ha's' used to show the audience laughing at 0:03. Also at 0:12 where Stewie is saying the material is 'so fresh', the use of blue, yellow and white is visually quite a fresh look. The visualisation also enhances the stutter throughout Stewie's speech notable at 0:14 (I've), 0:19 (reference), 0:23 (that's) and in a few other places. On the second reference of fresh, an animated fancy illustration appears in the left corner to further emphasise this. At 0:45 when Stewie talks about Titanic jokes, I love how the screen is half blue text on white background (top) and white text on blue background (bottom-sea), and the word Titanic snaps in half and sinks, like the ship did.

Kinetic Typography...Peter Griffin

This isn't an example of what I would call good kinetic typography, and I don't think this works without seeing the Family Guy episode, but it was created using After Effects. The multi coloured text seems to work with this one, maybe as it is from a brightly coloured cartoon?

Kinetic Typography... What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?

This is a great representation of the scene from Pulp Fiction where Jules Winnfield (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is interrogating Brett. Brett's dialogue appears in a lowercase bluey-white colour, which represents his quiet yet terrified answers, which is shown through the text jumping around in some parts. Jules's dialogue appears in a pale yellow colour, in varying sizes to emphasise different parts of the speech. At 0:05 the text appears to jump up and down which enhaces the noise of the table being turned over and thrown across the room. At 0:38 after the gun shot, there are 'blood stains' in the same colour as Brett's speech to show it's him tht has been shot, and this runs throughout the rest of the speech.

Kinetic Typography...V for Vendetta

The text featured in this is from a scene in V for Vendetta (which I haven't seen), it is a dialogue between two characters in the film. Again, the colours have been kept to a bare minimum to keep simplicity, but there is the use of opacity at 0:14 as the text appears, the previous line fades. At 0:31 the text is no longer appearing as a line, but as individual words which emphasises the staccato in which the speech is delivered. 1:16 is the part which sticks out the most to me, as the visual representation of the man's laughter is completely different from the rest of the clip, and the fast spinning and movement of the 'ha's' could also represent the character's insanity.

Kinetic Typography...V for Vendetta

Kinetic Typography...Pieces

This is my first piece of independent research into kinetic typography, and even though this clip isn't as impressive as some I have been looking at, it is all still very impressive as at the minute, I am only able to make coloured squares move across the page! This is quite simple in the fact that it sticks to the same font throughout, with the same two colours. The main two features that the clip seems to focus on is the spatial movement of the text moving from background to foreground and vice versa, and rotation, which at times can be disorientating!!

Flipbook...

Today should have been my session on flipbooks, but due to a snow day it was cancelled. Therefore I decided to take the time to have a look at flipbooks and how they work...

I created my own flipbook on a website:

Morphology...

'A morphology is the study of the structure and form of a language system, including inflection, derivation, and the formation of compounds. In this book, a morphology is presented for the study of the language of motion-graphics design...

The functioning components of the morphology are its various attributes and variables. Generally, the variables cover a spectrum of possibilities for each attribute. Some describe a range, others are distinct opposites. Hierbert describes this as a contrast continuum. Barthes used the term "binary opposition". It is a way of thinking not only about design, but about life. For example, considering the human attribute of "feeling", we do not really understand the variable "happy" until we understand "sad".'

Research taken from Motion Design - Moving Graphics for Television, Music Video, Cinema and Digital Interfaces by Matt Woolman.

Designing For Motion...

'All pictorial form begins with the point that sets itself in motion... The point moves and the line comes into being - the first dimension. If the line shifts to form a plane, we obtain a two-dimensional element. In the movement from plane to spaces, the clash of planes gives rise to body (three dimensional)... A summary of the kinetic energies which move the point into a line, the line into a plane, and the plane into a spatial dimension.'

(Paul Klee)

Adobe After Effects Workshop...

The General Interface:

Tip: If a panel is closed by accident, go to Workspace > Reset 'Standard':

- To create a new composition:



- Setting up the Composition:

Choose the Preset: (PAL is the UK video standard - 25 frames per second)


- The updated interface:

- Add a new layer instead of Importing prepared assets:

- Select Solid to make a shape:

- 100 pixels by 100 pixels

- Layer appears in left hand panel:

- Moving the layer timeline, means this layer will appear later on in the composition rather than at the beginning.

And this is what I created in my first session:

First After Effects Session from Gemma Byrne on Vimeo.