This compnay has created motion graphics for the complete range of purposes: idents, film credits (both opening and closing), TV adverts, music videos, creative shorts and of course video games, shown above.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
MK12
This compnay has created motion graphics for the complete range of purposes: idents, film credits (both opening and closing), TV adverts, music videos, creative shorts and of course video games, shown above.
Steffen K
The artist Steffen K's vimeo profile is pretty impressive. It's obvious straight away he has his own style, a style that I can appreciate. This video is a quick promotional short for the Danish Music Awards. Even though this ad would primarily be shown in Denmark I think it is important to point out that it would look right at home on our MTV. There seems to be a specific type of image the music channel is aiming for and the kinetic type above plays right into that. I like the pastels used and the chunky typography. I also like the layers effect used at the end. In terms of difficulty I would say this is one of the more simple videos I have looked at and it's not ridiculous to say that if I stick at it I could create something on the same level within the next few years.
Jr. Canest
The above animation is basically a short designed to promote a new documentary called 'Waiting for Superman'. The reason why I have chosen to post this is because I absolutely love the aesthetics. If I were to set myself the task of creating a video that dealt with the same subject matter as above I would most certainly want it to be as similar to this as possible. The colour scheme might be considered a little unusual at first but it soon becomes clear that the pinks and blues work really well with delivering such startling facts to the audience. I also really like the narration, and how the animation is so in sync with it. When she says something hard hitting, the animation visually communicates it. I also like the running theme of the use of circles throughout the video. It is not always necessarily a solid circle that is used but you can see the continuity undoubtedly.
Moshun
The video above displays something I have never even thought of before; an animated font. Sure, it sounds simple enough and I've seen hundreds of fonts that are in motion, but never have I seen a font that was specifically designed to build up more and more components until the individual letter is formed before your very eyes. In terms of the typeface I imagine it would work just as well used in print graphics, you can see the clear bauhaus influences and I feel as though it is a digital, slightly more complex version of Marion Batailles pop up book ABC3D. In terms of personal preference I would have to say that the letters K, O and S are the best designed.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Noah Harris
This is an example of how much he has developed as an artist and has identified and claimed his own style. The entire thing was created with thousands of images which were all brought together to form an intricate piece of visual art. Harris has done work with and for many other companies and agencies. Some of his more famous work includes two idents for the channel E4 and TV commercials for Ford and Talk Talk.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Films and TV
This first example shows an animated quote from the 1982 cult classic 'Blade Runner'. The quote is a very poignant one and perhaps the best know piece of dialogue from the entire film. In terms of the kinetic type I particularly like the panning out to reveal orion's constellation and the very clever way 'like tears in rain' has been portrayed. With the audio playing over the background, it is perfect.
This next one isn't necessarily the best designed but I couldn't resist posting a video that quotes the funniest TV programme of all time, no questions asked: Arrested Development. Out of the whole piece I would say that my favourite bit is actually the animated popcorn shrimp, so not actually type then.
The Big Lebowski is the next film to be given the kinetic type treatment. Again there are parts that work really well, then there are parts that look like they've been created by a complete beginner. The colour scheme is a little garish and could probably do with toning down, however I do like how John Goodmans's character 'Walter Sobchak' is portrayed in a large, bold font, almost overpowering his conversational partner.
This next piece of motion graphics is from the film Catch Me If You Can. It seems a lot more sophisticated than the rest, probably through the use of a serif font. This is clever because the film itself is more high brow than the rest of the subject matter in my other videos. I like the use of minimal colour, in fact a very dark blue is the only thing that comes near to colour. Besides this it is entirely black, white and shades of grey.
A pretty different approach from the rest, this video actually uses video footage. However it is altered dramatically to fit within the constraints of a 'psychadelic' colour scheme. There are far too many fonts used in this video, one suggestion on how to fix this would be to use a different font for each character and keep it at that. I think it would feel a lot more professional if this was the case. I'm assuming everyone would know what programme this is from, if you don't then you are missing out.
The last video is from Stranger Than Fiction. I like the background used, it gives it an industrial feel, something that needs to be communicated in order for the dialogue to make sense. I also like the use of yellow text, which I would think has been inspired by traditional road markings. The scale of the text has also been used wisely: it increases significantly when one character is shouting and decreases when the other character is responding to the shouting.
Film Titles
As a frequent reader of the 'features' section on the Total Film website, I was delighted to see that they had composed a list of '25 Amazing Opening Credit Sequences'. I thought it was the perfect place to start researching this new brief. Obviously some from the list I don't agree with, however they do all hold a certain amount of merit so below is that list in full. By clicking the title of the film you will be taken to a website where you can view the credits in full.
25. Watchmen
Rundown: Zack Snyder’s stylised adaptation of Alan Moore’s ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel oozes confidence and visual panache – all beginning with this epic five minute intro, which cleverly fills us in on the movie’s setting. To the tune of Bob Dylan’s awesome ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.
24. Halloween
Rundown:An ingeniously simple set-up, as the camera slowly zooms in on a cheerfully grinning carved pumpkin while all the names flicker up on screen. Oh, and then there’s Carpenter’s scarily economic, haunting musical score.
23. The Man with the Golden Arm
Rundown: Master credits manipulator Saul Bass turns the opening crawl into a pivotal part of the movie experience. Before this, they were a boring nuisance that projections often skipped over. Here, they become an art form.
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Rundown: Plain and elegant, reliant on pioneering imagery which, when paired with Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ becomes something elegiac in and of itself. It looks great, even if some scientific bigwigs have pointed out that the sun, moon, and earth would not proportionally line up as Kubrick dreamed they would.
21. Spiderman 2
Rundown: That familiar score from the first film returns, pumped up – and this time combining old school Saul Bass-inspired lines and actor sketches with re-sketched scenes from the original film. Beautiful nod to the origins of our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger.
20. To Kill A Mockingbird
Rundown: A nod to the film’s young lead Scout, these opening credits zoom in on childlike delights, as an ornate box gives up numerous wonders – including a harmonica, a pearl necklace and a pocket watch. They so affected a young Cameron Crowe that he paid tribute to them with Almost Famous.
19. Psycho
Rundown: Who needs CGI? Psycho’s opening credits cleverly play around with the film’s title with a little bit of pixilation manipulation – and, yes, more Saul Bass lines. Meanwhile, nutso violins do their worst.
18. Reservoir Dogs
Rundown: Another beautifully simple offering, this time Quentin Tarantino plucking Dutch band George Baker Selection out of his CD collection, and pairing ‘Little Green Bag’ with slow-mo shots of our leads walking, dressed in black suit and tie. Minimalism rules.
17. Panic Room
Rundown: Chunky credits text is cleverly slotted into New York cityscapes, as David Fincher establishes a wider setting for his thriller – which mostly takes place within a single building.
16. North By Northwest
Rundown: Saul Bass lines again, these ones converging to create the image of a skyscraper. It was clearly inspiration for Fincher’s Panic Room, with the names cropping up in line with the building.
15. Pi
Rundown: Darren Aronofsky proves you don’t need a huge budget to craft something classy and impactful. Splicing charts and numbers with TV fuzz, not to mention a rocky, futuristic backing track, it’s maximum effect on a minimum budget.
14. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Rundown: Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer’s underrated crime caper gets the old school treatment. Bullet vapour trails turn into plants. Bodies fall through the air. Lines turn into stuff. All while trumpets toot. Brilliant.
13. Bunny Lake is Missing
Rundown: Who knew that tearing paper could look so effective? We shouldn’t be surprised – it sounds great, it looks immediately arty and stuff, especially when revealing the name Laurence Olivier. It’s also a fun twist on those Bass lines.
12. Alien
Rundown: We slowly track the infinite void of space, as slanting blocks of white gradually reveal themselves. The sheer quiet, creeping nature of the credits is haunting in itself.
11. Delicatessen
Rundown: Hyper stylised, just like the film itself, these credits track a room filled with junk, revealing the names of those involved in the most creative ways imaginable.
10. Dr. Strangelove
Rundown: Stanley Kubrick originally wanted to use model planes during the opening of his bombastic classic, but Pablo Ferro convinced him otherwise. Instead they used stock footage, while Ferro had the crazy idea of playing around with font sizes – to brilliant effect.
9. Fahrenheit 451
Rundown: Who needs fancy visuals and scrolling written text? François Truffaut does away with all that needless guff and opts for a cutting radio voice reading out the cast and crew instead. Which works perfectly, considering this is a film about a society no longer allowed to read.
8. Thank You For Smoking
Rundown: More clever branding, as vintage cigarette packets host the names of our cast and crew, while Tex Williams sings ‘Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette’.
7. Fight Club
Rundown: Fincher again, still cleverly utilising CGI for his opening crawl. Except this isn’t so much a crawl as a fevered dash through the brain of our narrator.
6. Vertigo
Rundown: Hitchcock, Bass and Bernard Herrmann get it bang on again, stirring up muddy subtextual issues, such as the psychosexual gaze, and turning them into simple but riveting visuals. Those eddying, hypnotic spirals are truly terrifying.
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Rundown: Ennio Morricone’s much-loved theme tune strums out a dramatic Western soundscape as spiffy visuals throw paint and colour at the screen for a breathlessly inventive opening scroll.
4. Goldfinger
Rundown: Goldfinger’s opening credits took one look at the credits at the beginning of From Russia With Love and rustled up an inspired new take on the formula. With Shirley Bassey’s defiant vocals, it’s a dreamy, moody intro.
3. Seven
Rundown: Fincher, what would we do without you? Here, his grimiest (and grimmest) film to date gets a grim, grimy opening credits sequence that is as chilling as anything else you’ll find in his ‘what’s in the box?’ thriller.
2. Catch Me If You Can
Rundown: A colourful hat-tip to Saul Bass, the credits for Spielberg’s globe-trotting crowd-pleaser are bright and stylish.
1. Superbad
Rundown: If there’s one thing we’ve learned from compiling this list, it’s that if you want to make a good set of opening credits, you’ve got to have one killer tune. Which, luckily, Superbad does, this one a groovy foot-tapper courtesy of The Bar-Kays.
25. Watchmen
Rundown: Zack Snyder’s stylised adaptation of Alan Moore’s ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel oozes confidence and visual panache – all beginning with this epic five minute intro, which cleverly fills us in on the movie’s setting. To the tune of Bob Dylan’s awesome ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.
24. Halloween
Rundown:An ingeniously simple set-up, as the camera slowly zooms in on a cheerfully grinning carved pumpkin while all the names flicker up on screen. Oh, and then there’s Carpenter’s scarily economic, haunting musical score.
23. The Man with the Golden Arm
Rundown: Master credits manipulator Saul Bass turns the opening crawl into a pivotal part of the movie experience. Before this, they were a boring nuisance that projections often skipped over. Here, they become an art form.
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Rundown: Plain and elegant, reliant on pioneering imagery which, when paired with Richard Strauss’ ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ becomes something elegiac in and of itself. It looks great, even if some scientific bigwigs have pointed out that the sun, moon, and earth would not proportionally line up as Kubrick dreamed they would.
21. Spiderman 2
Rundown: That familiar score from the first film returns, pumped up – and this time combining old school Saul Bass-inspired lines and actor sketches with re-sketched scenes from the original film. Beautiful nod to the origins of our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger.
20. To Kill A Mockingbird
Rundown: A nod to the film’s young lead Scout, these opening credits zoom in on childlike delights, as an ornate box gives up numerous wonders – including a harmonica, a pearl necklace and a pocket watch. They so affected a young Cameron Crowe that he paid tribute to them with Almost Famous.
19. Psycho
Rundown: Who needs CGI? Psycho’s opening credits cleverly play around with the film’s title with a little bit of pixilation manipulation – and, yes, more Saul Bass lines. Meanwhile, nutso violins do their worst.
18. Reservoir Dogs
Rundown: Another beautifully simple offering, this time Quentin Tarantino plucking Dutch band George Baker Selection out of his CD collection, and pairing ‘Little Green Bag’ with slow-mo shots of our leads walking, dressed in black suit and tie. Minimalism rules.
17. Panic Room
Rundown: Chunky credits text is cleverly slotted into New York cityscapes, as David Fincher establishes a wider setting for his thriller – which mostly takes place within a single building.
16. North By Northwest
Rundown: Saul Bass lines again, these ones converging to create the image of a skyscraper. It was clearly inspiration for Fincher’s Panic Room, with the names cropping up in line with the building.
15. Pi
Rundown: Darren Aronofsky proves you don’t need a huge budget to craft something classy and impactful. Splicing charts and numbers with TV fuzz, not to mention a rocky, futuristic backing track, it’s maximum effect on a minimum budget.
14. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Rundown: Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer’s underrated crime caper gets the old school treatment. Bullet vapour trails turn into plants. Bodies fall through the air. Lines turn into stuff. All while trumpets toot. Brilliant.
13. Bunny Lake is Missing
Rundown: Who knew that tearing paper could look so effective? We shouldn’t be surprised – it sounds great, it looks immediately arty and stuff, especially when revealing the name Laurence Olivier. It’s also a fun twist on those Bass lines.
12. Alien
Rundown: We slowly track the infinite void of space, as slanting blocks of white gradually reveal themselves. The sheer quiet, creeping nature of the credits is haunting in itself.
11. Delicatessen
Rundown: Hyper stylised, just like the film itself, these credits track a room filled with junk, revealing the names of those involved in the most creative ways imaginable.
10. Dr. Strangelove
Rundown: Stanley Kubrick originally wanted to use model planes during the opening of his bombastic classic, but Pablo Ferro convinced him otherwise. Instead they used stock footage, while Ferro had the crazy idea of playing around with font sizes – to brilliant effect.
9. Fahrenheit 451
Rundown: Who needs fancy visuals and scrolling written text? François Truffaut does away with all that needless guff and opts for a cutting radio voice reading out the cast and crew instead. Which works perfectly, considering this is a film about a society no longer allowed to read.
8. Thank You For Smoking
Rundown: More clever branding, as vintage cigarette packets host the names of our cast and crew, while Tex Williams sings ‘Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette’.
7. Fight Club
Rundown: Fincher again, still cleverly utilising CGI for his opening crawl. Except this isn’t so much a crawl as a fevered dash through the brain of our narrator.
6. Vertigo
Rundown: Hitchcock, Bass and Bernard Herrmann get it bang on again, stirring up muddy subtextual issues, such as the psychosexual gaze, and turning them into simple but riveting visuals. Those eddying, hypnotic spirals are truly terrifying.
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Rundown: Ennio Morricone’s much-loved theme tune strums out a dramatic Western soundscape as spiffy visuals throw paint and colour at the screen for a breathlessly inventive opening scroll.
4. Goldfinger
Rundown: Goldfinger’s opening credits took one look at the credits at the beginning of From Russia With Love and rustled up an inspired new take on the formula. With Shirley Bassey’s defiant vocals, it’s a dreamy, moody intro.
3. Seven
Rundown: Fincher, what would we do without you? Here, his grimiest (and grimmest) film to date gets a grim, grimy opening credits sequence that is as chilling as anything else you’ll find in his ‘what’s in the box?’ thriller.
2. Catch Me If You Can
Rundown: A colourful hat-tip to Saul Bass, the credits for Spielberg’s globe-trotting crowd-pleaser are bright and stylish.
1. Superbad
Rundown: If there’s one thing we’ve learned from compiling this list, it’s that if you want to make a good set of opening credits, you’ve got to have one killer tune. Which, luckily, Superbad does, this one a groovy foot-tapper courtesy of The Bar-Kays.
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