LECTURE 03

Kinetic typography appeals to me because of my background in web and print design. My past experiences in designing with text has lead me to believe that text is as valuable as any part of the design as text is used to deliver the literal information to the target market. Therefore, text should adhere to layout and design principals just like any other graphic or designed image. With after effects, the prospect of designing motion text feels like an extension of what I have learnt from my past experiences.

During the lecture I found several keypoints which particularly interested me. The first was the brief explanation of grids which are used to distribute and align text in print, as I have been working with InDesign over the past couple of months I was interested to see how the use of grids in print/web layouts would translate into motion graphics. Laz used the center of the feild/frame to explain how grids can exist in much the same way in motion graphics.

The second point was the reference to Saul Bass's kinetic typography which had influenced the work of modern motion graphic artists. The intro sequence for 'catch me if you can' interested me in that the title sequence seemlessly integrated text to reflect the idea of a highly sophisticated version of cat and mouse across glamourous backdrops using simple info-design styled motion graphics. Se7en was also another video which I felt that the text had evoked the mood of the movie, the text was frenetic and consistantly inconsistant in it's style.

From the student examples I enjoyed the 'fight club' video for its portrayl of not only the spoken words but also the background sound effects. There was a dynamic use of camera pans which moved around the canvas to reflect the pace of the conversation with dramatic zooms which reflected the varations in sound volume. Another aspect of this video that I enjoyed was the way the text would animate as a reaction to crashes in the background. I also enjoyed the 'five' video for it's simple and elegant use of soft blurs and the use of connotations between the videos (for instance the pushups) with the word 'five'. I also enjoyed mark okon's work which emobided a surreal effect using an environmental/geographic image overlayed with softly animated text.