Creative Thinking
Brief:
For this brief we were asked to produce an animation using the Flash CS3 software of no more than two minutes. We had to choose lyrics from a song or a short poem. The steps towards completing this project will include:
• Research & Ideas
• Scene Devlopment
• Flash Animation Production
• Evaluation
Research & Ideas:
For this project I have chosen to use Cheryl Cole’s song ‘Fight For This Love’. The first thing I did was write the name of the song in the middle of a large sheet of paper and think of words that are associated with the words in the title. To help me do this I used http://www.visualthesaurus.com because I could enter a word and it would show me words associated with that word.
Next I wanted to find out what motion typography was so I went on www.youtube.com and typed in motion typography and then I watched a few videos to see how it was done. Below are some screenshots of the videos I watched:
The Dark Knight – Joker’s Scene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrumEKXqy5w
Bleed It Out – Motion Typography - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qrehjxuQLk
I also had a look at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/18-creative-examples-of-typography-in-motion/ because this website has 18 examples of motion typography.
Scene Development:
Once I had a good idea what motion typography was, I started to do some sketches of the animation that I could use and then I did some final drawings showing how the words would be arranged on the stage.
Flash Animation Production:
The first thing I did was go on www.dafont.com so I could find a font that I wanted to use for the text on my animation.
The text I decided to use is the one above. I chose this one because the lyrics in the song are what the singer is feeling and saying so the words seem like she could have written them down therefore I chose a font that looks a bit like handwriting. I then opened flash and created a new layer and named it sound and this is the layer which the sound would be added to. Then I added a layer for the text and another layer for animation that would be going on the same time as text on the screen. To be able to find out which frame the words had to go on to be in time with the song I went to Window – Test movie and then clicked on View – Bandwidth Profiler. This is because it has a frame counter and then I could look at that and wait for a word I needed to add to the timeline to see which frame it needed to be added to.
Evaluation:
Overall I feel that this project went well although I did find it quite difficult. This is because I missed quite a few lessons but with the research I carried out I managed to work on my motion typography and complete my animation. The part I found the most difficult was adding the words to the timeline in the right place so they went in time with the music so this part took me the longest amount of time but I finally managed to complete it. I found the research quite interesting because I have never done this before so I enjoyed finding out about motion typography and I enjoyed watching videos of motion typography that had been made by other people. From this project I have learnt a lot and I have always thought that planning was a waste of time because I always thought it was just easier to create the final thing but because I planned the animation and how the words would be arranged on the screen, I found it much easier and quicker when it came to creating the motion typography because I wasn’t having to think of what I could do and how to arrange the words. Although I planned how I would arrange the words and what animation I would use, I did have to change the plans slightly for some of the words and animation because I found it difficult and could not find a way of doing it for example, in some of the screens I wanted the words to rotate 90 degrees as other words were coming on to the screen but because I couldn’t work out how to do this, the words still came onto the screen like planned but it didn’t rotate therefore some of the words were on their side and it didn’t look as good as I would have liked. Overall I am happy with my motion typography project.