Information Design / Project 2

11.1.2023 - 24.2.2023 (Week 1 - Week 7)

Takuto Hozumi / 0354047 / Bachelor Of Design (Hons) In Creative Media

Information Design

Project 2

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LECTURES

Week 2 Kinetic Typography (18/1/2023)

Kinetic typography is a type of motion graphic. It is an animation technique that expresses ideas through animated animations that combine movement and text.

Fig.1-1: Kinetic Typography

Textual composition and good animation are essential. This is common with typographic design methods.

Week 2 In-class tutorial

Create a music video, using kinetic typography, for just one phrase specified from the following songs.

Fig.1-2: Tutorial Subjects "SO WHAT/P!NK"

Basically, kinetic typography is created by After Effects. Create a new composition and import the sound source.

Fig.1-3: Text Object

When placing text objects, it is necessary to divide the object into separate objects for each animation you give.

Fig.1-4: Typographic Design

Once finished placing all the lyrics, design them. In this time I wanted to move the viewpoint in a zigzag manner, so I placed the letters in a Z-shaped flow. The guide is useful for composition.

Fig.1-5: Null

Then create a null object and designate all parts to that null. This is a grouping-like function for animations, which allows you to apply rotations, translations, and other movements to the entire image.

Other functions used in this project include Blur (to make animation movements look natural) and EasyEase (to automatically optimize animation speed).

Fig.1-6: In-class tutorial Final Ver.

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INSTRUCTION

Exercises 3 Kinetic Typography

Week 1 Decide the music to use (13/1/2023)

Discuss the Art Direction and combine the references/ moodboard in Miro.

Fig.2-1: Our Miro board

An in-class activity brought together the ideas of the group members and then a vote determined the song we would use.

Fig.2-2: Vote (13/1/2023)

The decided Music is here;

Fig.2-3: 24kGoldn - Mood (Official Video) ft. iann dior

Week 2-3 First Draft

My group discussed and compiled reference materials (images and videos), ideas for fonts to be used, etc. on mood board. Based on the official music video and CD jacket design, it was decided that the design should look like neon lights glowing in dim light.

Fig.2-4: Mood Board on Miro

The lyrics were then broken down line by line and compiled into a spreadsheet as text data. At this time, each part was color-coded and a member was selected to be in charge of creating each part.

Fig.2-5: Lyrics Text and Part Separation

Finally I have prepared the draft of my part of the project. The method of creation was the same as what we did for the in-class exercise above, but I did a little further research.

Fig.2-6: Editing the Draft

To express neon, I looked into the glow effect. Also wanted to incorporate a more real neon-like atmosphere by blinking the luminous effect on some of the letters.

For the blinking expression, a wiggler was applied to the transparency item. The wiggler is a command to randomize the behavior, and the frequency can be set by entering a numerical value, just like a program code.

Fig.2-7: Apllied Wiggler

I tried several values and set them to the optimal value that I thought.

Fig.2-8: 1st Draft of my part (27/1/2023)

In the W3 class, the following regulations were established for the design style in order to harmonize the entire video with the group members' drafts.

Design direction

• Background color: Dark blue
• Main Font color: white black purple orange (pink as a tertiary accent)
• Main Font: https://www.freechinesefont.com/simplified-jian-suan-xian-download/
• (For variations use your own/font from the mood board)
• *ALL TEXT SHOULD HAVE THE NEON EFFECT*

Fig.2-9: Brush up ver. for Final Compilation (27/1/2023)

Here above is the video of my part that is applied final adjustment.

After other members also revised the draft several times, then the final version is shown below.

Fig.2-10: Final Outcome Group4.3 "Mood" (1/2/2023)

Exercises 4 Motion Graphic Animation Chart

Week 3 Individual Task

A chart is a graphical representation for data visualization.

Fig.2-11: Pie / Donut Chart

Fig.2-12: Bar Chart

Fig.2-13: Line Graph

In this task, the theme to be produced is randomly determined for each student from the above four types of charts.

I was chosen to produce a donut chart.

Fig.2-14: My Topic

https://whattobecome.com/blog/college-student-stress-statistics/

Fig.2-15: Base Object Setting

First, create a shape. In this case, since we are creating a doughnut chart, I create a circle line from a circular shape. At this time, add a trim path and set a percentage to determine the size of the graph. Also, set Easy Ease to smooth the movement. (The figure above is not confirmed color yet and set 1/4 in each items)

Fig.2-16: Adding some Text Objects

I added some text objects, and to improve the visual interest, the graph is slightly angled using null.

Fig.2-17: Decided the Final Composition 

Colors appropriate to the meaning of each item (e.g., strong stress = red) are applied, and textual information such as titles and numerical values are placed in appropriate positions. Adjustments were made for minor movements to complete the process.

Fig.2-18: Exercise 4 Animation Chart Final ver. (27/1/2023)

Exercises 5 Vector Animation

Week 4 Individual Task

In this assignment, we will challenge to animate a prepared vector illustration.

Fig.2-19: Prepared Illustration (W4 In-class task)

First, you need to split the parts you want to move before importing them into your video editing software. In this case, using Illustrator, we placed the parts to be moved separately on each layer and renamed the layer names for clarity.

Fig.2-20: Imported to AE

Import to After Effects. At this time, layers must be imported in document size. If you import in layer size, each figure will be centered independently, and the overall arrangement as an illustration will be distorted.

Fig.2-21: Animated

Even within a single figure, it can be pinged and animated. (One of the requirements for this assignment) For example, movements such as waving hands, hair swinging in the wind, and tilting the head are created by this function. The position can be set as same as normal objects.

Fig.2-22: Use of EasyEase

EasyEase can be used to add a bounce effect. (One of the requirements for this assignment) This is a function used when you want to add a gradual change to the animation. This time, the bounce effect was set at the beginning of the character's appearance.

Fig.2-22: Exercise 5 Vector Animation Final ver. (7/2/2023)

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REFLECTIONS

Experiences

In Project 2 we learned specific animation production procedures using After effects.　In addition to basic animation settings such as transparency and position, I learned that there is a function to set more detailed values such as wiggler settings.

Observation

To be honest, I wasn't a fan of After effects; even though AE is more flexible, I avoided it because even Premier Pro can create videos. However, through the extensive use of After effects in this module, I am no longer afraid to create vector illustrations on AE.

Findings

Regarding the specific video design, I felt that quick movement + blur looks stylish, but overuse of it makes the video cumbersome and unfamiliar. Especially in kinetic typography, I decided to seek a minimal but effective expression with text + simplified objects, and some objects in my part were intentionally left off the blur.　I cannot now judge whether this attempt was successful or not, but I think it was a great experience to explore the possibilities of software. I look forward to making videos using AE in other modules from now on. There are probably many features I am unaware of, but I would like to find out what I can do voluntarily by researching it.