Design Investigation

Research

For this project we were asked to look into a area of design that we are interested in. I choose to look at Motion Graphics and Film making as i’ve always been interested about them both. i think that they both have can have a really strong effect when they are combined together. Motion Design was something i knew very little about and i was eager to do my research on them both. As Motion Design is a broad field which ranges into stop motion, stroboscope, thaumatrope ect, i focused on looking at Motion Design within title sequences. My reason for doing so, was because of it connection to film. I started researching about the two fields, posting up what i could find on the blog. I looked at finding a few facts about the industires, in particular i wanted to find how they make their work in motion design as this was something i didn’t really know the process of. I found a few that gave me a basic understanding about the field, some of which just mentioned the tools that general industires use and also what they use them for.

From here i then broadened my research and started looking at companies and design-ers. I mainly searched Motion Design companies and artists as this was the field i knew little about. I found a few top motion design companies that work on big Hollywood film titles such as Iron Man, The Avengers, The incredible Hulk ect. Along with this i also found a few other small designers. I felt like i had a better chance in contacting them over a more well known artist. Since big companies tend to ignore most of their respones. The information i found about the company was very basic, their websites dis-cuss very briefly their line of work. They mention there projects but they didnt really tell me anything indepth about the industry itself. I knew that i would have to either email them or find my information eles where via books. I also looked at contacting film studi-os, as i had done a bit of research in the film making field and thought of a few questions i wanted to ask them.

Design Investigation

Initial Idea

Having known already that i wasn’t getting a inter for this project, i started by looking at examples of title sequences. I found a variety online all with very different styles and cre-ated in different ways. A title sequences that i was mainly impressed by was the title for Se7en which was created by Kyle Cooper. I like this as it was really gripping and blended in well with the type of film it was. This was the first title to inspire me to created some-thing towards the same direction as this, but i didn’t want to completley copy his style as it wouldn’t of been original. I looked at many other older films too, especially ones cre-ated by Saul Bass, as it was his work that really started to shape the industry of Motion Design.

After looking a through all this clips i could find, i started thinking of what i wanted to create. I thought about many different ideas like creating a vector based animation which is a popular use in some films. I then decided i was going to break it into two and use a combination of 3d animation for the title sequence and then film a short scene that would follow straight after. The reason i decided to do this, was because i felt that a title sequence just on its own wouldn’t achieve the same feeling as it would if there was something to go along with it. As what makes them both success full is when they are combined together. Based on my research i decided to use the 3d software Cinema 4D, as it was a programme that was often used the most in the industry. As for the script i was planning to create i got the inspiration from the the title sequence for Dexter, which is a popular american show. After looking at my research i thought about making my story based on a masked killer. I called the title name “Ghost” because of their mask the character was wearing. The story focuses on a serial killer who is bein hunted by the police. With my idea already planned i started getting people to act out short sequences that was acted around the university campus.

Design Investigation

Interview / Research

After finding a few companies and designers, in both the film idutry and Motion Design industry. I then went on to contact them. I started with the companies first as i thought it would take them longer to reply. A company i was really wanted to hear from was Prologue, as they where on top on the motion design industry. I didn’t however manage to get any respones from any companies which was a shame. I then sent some more emails to the designers. I managed to get a respones from Alex Donne Johnson who is a Motion Graphic Artist living in London. He has won a number of awards on his creative work, some of his clients are range from Addidas, Sony, Levi’s and NFL.

I asked him questions mainly on his style of work, and what are his inspiration when coming to designing work. I felt like i got a positive response from him as he helped me further when he listed a few other Motion Graphics companies which he said he ad-mired. He also did a title sequence for James Bond game on the Nintendo Wii. i was ea-ger to know about this and asked what his intial idea was behing creating the sequence. I feel his answers have helped me go a step further in my research in terms of looking into how Motion Design titles are made.

Although his answers helped, it wasn’t really enough for me, and since no one eles replied to my emails, i decided to look in the library for a couple of books. I found some books on Motion Design that gave me a clearer understanding about how thing work in the industry and how everything is made. The two books i will talk about were Mo-tion Design by Matt Woolman and Motion Graphics by David Greene. David Greene’s book gaves a overview about the whole process behind a title sequence. It mentions the stages that the designers go through and the tools and software they use in order to create their videos. Matt Woolman’s book also decribed a similar process but with dif-ferent projects, It mainly talks about the comapnies idea behind their work and breaks it down into a start to finish process.

Design Investigation Design Investigation

Developing

After i had finished filming, i then went on towards creating this title sequence. Based on the research i gathered, i used a similar process that the idustry would use to creat-ing there title sequence. one factor was to always have the film first. As a title sequence is made during post production. As i was going to create my sequence in Cinema 4D i looked at different 3D designers who have worked on title before. I looked for some inspiration as 3D is something i don’t normally use and it was also the first time us-ing Cinema 4D. As i went on further, i noticed my PC wasn’t capable of rendering a full animation or much less anything under 10 seconds. I opted for using the film clips i had recorded and use After Effects to created the typography.

It took me a while before i really figured out what i wanted to do since cinema 4d was out the option, i was thinking about many different ideas of just using a 3d title with video footage. I did a number of experiments to find out what goes well together before making my final. As everything had to blend well together i didnt add any 3d text to the title as it just didnt fit in too well. I then decided to create my typography in After Effect and use the film footage to play right after. My aim was to make it clear what the title sequence was about. I decided to use a vector image on the title screen which was then faded into the video. I thought about using vectors all the way through out the video, but i didnt thing it would give the same effect it like the live footage does. Prior to this i did some research on film making where i looked at different camera angles and shots. I think this really helped out on the way i filmed. I was looking to achieve some angles that were effective. I also looked at different ways of editing. Certain films are edited to fit the genre. If its a horror or thriller, then scenes are a little faster and clips are usually angles are changing constantly. Something i decided not to use when developing was colour correction. I did use colour correction when i first put it together, but i later found out that when i exported the clips it ruined the HD quality, so i decided to leave it out. Something i did find took a lot of time was finding the sounds for the title, as it took my a while before i final settled for one. i had to use something fit the mood of the sequence.

Design Investigation

Developing Final Outcome

My final outcome is a 1:19 minute video. I think that the research has helped me under-stand the creative process on creating a title sequence, even though its not made to how i intially planned. The research that i’ve looked at has given me a clear understanding about both fields in film and in Motion Design. Especially in Motion Design because its a field where i really didn’t know much about. The whole creative process i read in books and online opened my eyes to what the industries do. A important factor on what makes a good title sequence is getting the audiences attention. As title prepares them for what they are about to watch.

In my video i wanted to only stick to two colours. I used White and Black for the back-gorund and text. The font i managed to download, i was looking for something that was bold and eroded. I felt like this text worked really well with the video as it fits the whole thriller genre. The title sequence se7en inspired me to do the close up scenes of hand movement with objects. I feel like the tone of the whole video suits that of a thriller genre. As it is aided by that of the music, typography and film.

I feel like if you are trying to create a title sequence you need to study both fields of film and Motion Design. As both are what create strong sequences. The industry usually have a whole team of people working on different parts of a film. They often will companies to design there logos and animations.

Overall i think that the video has a successful tone to it, however i do feel that if i had more time i would have done more work towards the animation sequence and then use the film footage after the title is shown. As i would like to have experimented in creat-ing more outlined vectors of the characters, as there really effective placed on a white background.