Kinetic Typography

Whilst I continue to figure out the piece of dialogue I will use for this project which at the minute is either the love hate speech by Robert Mitchum from Night of the Hunter or a humorous but crude exchange from Team America, I have been experimenting by animating words that have expressive qualities that you can see below.

Stop Motion

These are a couple of examples of stop motion I was playing around with just trying to get the hang of timing and walk cycles.

Telling Lies

This is a clip from a short movie by Simon Ellis called Telling Lies. I like the simplicity of the piece which takes place after a drunken night where the hidden truths of an exchange of phone calls are revealed by the text flashing on screen. This is another technique I may use for my own kinetic typography project if it suits the dialogue I choose. Full movie here.

Thesis and Main project

I have been giving a lot of thought to what I may like to do for my thesis and main project lately and at this early stage stop motion animation is something that I have found interests me. The thesis and main project have to relate to each other in someway so below I have added links to a few books I have ordered that may help me learn more about this subject. I will post further information of what i have learned from these books as they arrive. I have also posted a few clips I know from YouTube that show a variety of different styles and convey contrasting tones from bigger budget efforts to the smaller bedroom productions.

The Animators Survival Kit
A Century of Stop Motion
Timing for Animation

What Is Motion Graphics?

A few links in no particular order that might help my investigation
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Kinetic Typography

Here are another few examples of kinetic typography similar to what is expected from the brief I have. The top one uses dialogue from the movie Full Metal Jacket. The colours used here perfectly convey war fatigues and military garb backing up the rant being handed down to a lower tiered officer from a superior. We are unable to use any imagery such as the tanks, cross hairs and missiles that we see in this piece which in my opinion are of cosmetic value to the clip as I believe it would work just as well without them. What really appeals to me about this first clip is the movement and clarity of the text as it reveals itself. The Kill Bill kinetic type piece I find effective as it has used the colour scheme of Uma Thurman's (Bruce Lee inspired) tracksuit , a similar font and is paced speedily like the actions of a Kung-Fu flick. The Abbott and Costello clip for me indicates how humour can be conveyed through kinetic type, the timing fits the delivery paralleling the comedic timing and as it is with the other examples here the font and colour suit the period and tone.


















Above I have posted a contact sheet from a piece using dialogue from Stranger Than Fiction, I find these interesting and useful to look at when storyboard time comes round. They help to visualise the frame by frame make up of your project.

Below are two examples that depict other ways in which typography can be used with negative space to reveal faces in both cases. Despite the motionless nature of these 2D images maybe I could apply the techniques used here and introduce movement. Possibly map a selection of words to video image and animate the ones that are been spoken.

Tests for a client

Just a few ideas and tests I was playing around with for a job I was doing where the client wanted a short animation to play before a video clip.