Initially I researched into animation in general, researching various techniques and processes within both 2D and 3D animation.

Stop Motion

One method of animation that I was interested in creating is stop motion animation, this would allow me to easily combine hand drawn and digital elements, using a large array of programs as well as cameras. Stop motion being a very popular method of animation I would be able to find large amounts of inspiration and research. As well as it being an extremely old method of animation, allowing me to track the development and evolution of the animation technique. With various programs available for aiding in the creation of a stop motion animation.

Researching Stop Motion

After researching Stop Motion as a whole I have decided to look more closely into specific, very famous uses of stop motion within films and animations. I feel this will give me valuable insight into the techniques and Processes used within stop motion as well as allow me to make my judgement on whether i will use stop motion within my own animation.

Wallace & Gromit

To create this famous scene featured in Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers. Nick Park had to use many weird and wacky ways to create this scene. For instance the background is built  from a 20ft long living room wall, 2ft high, the camera is fixed to the train, this scene is filmed  with the cameras set to a long shutter speed so the background looked blurry. This makes the train stay in focus as it moves with the camera, while the board in the background continuously runs past and repeats, however it is to blurry to notice that the background repeats itself often. This scene takes particular care to achieve the standard that Is needed, since so many character and objects are moving around at the same time and they all need to move relative to each other to avoid some things looking out of sync. Stop motion is used to enhance this scene since if the characters were made digitally they would look less realistic as well as since the rest of Wallace and Gromit is made using stop motion it would make this scene look out of place if special effect enhanced characters were used in this scene but no where else in the short films.

The Valley of Gwangi

This scene is the Valley of Gwangi by Ray Harryhausen combines both stop motion and live section within the same frame, the stop motion moving dinosaur takes the place of the background as the actors in the foreground run away. The constant interaction between the real life actors and the stop motion moving dinosaur make the scene much more realistic and convincing. It also includes areas of stop motion on its own, when the dinosaur fights another stop motion filmed elephant. I think the skills shown in this example are of a higher quality than all of the other examples I have analysed due to the sheer enormity of skills shown with the combination of stop motion and live action filming, the use of green screens and stop motion characters being filmed amongst scenery. The characters also move very smoothly showing that a large amount of work has been put into achieving high quality finish.

Kinetic Typography

https://designshack.net/articles/typography/kinetic-typography-an-introductory-guide/

Kinetic Typography, first widely used in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film “North by Northwest” where movable text Is seen. In essence Kinetic Typography is moving type, classified as a technique within animation, the term “moving Type” is given to any type of typography that is seen to expand, shrink, or move/change in any way, effect complexity  Vary greatly from a simple rotation all the way to elaborate full length animation films and shorts.

Kinetic Typography is most effective when used for the purpose of creating emotional content, such as to increase the emotional potency of a particular scene in a film seems to be a popular choice when doing my research. It is also effectively used when the creator wants to create characters with more depth and feeling, using different colours, styles and layouts to represent the different traits for each character. Finally, and the main reason I have chosen to use it as a large part in my animation project is its distinct ability to capture attention much more effectively than static typography.

Eventually discovering Kinetic typography, and then proceeding to look into examples on the internet. Finding two particular examples that use two very different methods of animating.

“Ira Glass On Storytelling”

The above video is a well known example of Kinetic Typography, i have chosen to analyse this example in particular due to the way that it uses only typography without having imagery to assist in delivering its message, rather than using imagery to help exclaim certain words or phrases, within this work, a more simple method has been used to achieve this. Rather than imagery or illustrations they simply change the type, either by using a more/less bold font or by changing the letter forms to italics as well as increasing/decreasing the size of those particularly clearly spoken words and phrases. I like the way this has been used, making the animation clear and easy to read while still being full of smooth transitions that ensure the viewer does not become confused or bored with what is on screen. Something else of note within this animation is the fact that there is a basic vignetted background that is used and is never changed so all of the focus remains on the typography, I found this animation tracks the spoken word very well, without needing to animate every single word that is spoken i found it to work very successfully due to the fact that you could watch this animation without the audio and still grasp the messages being told as well as understand when words are emphasised alongside being able to gauge the pace of the spoken word. Due to the fact that there is no imagery, the typography must be particularly dynamic in order to keep the audience interested. Luckily the fact that the spoken word is a famous speech does some of the work to keep the audience interested. Although the fast and dynamic rotations of the screen to change the direction of the text at key moments helps to keep the typography dynamic, innovative and interesting. As i plan to use elements of Kinetic typography within my animation this example will be particularly useful in understanding when to rotate text alongside when looking for inspiration for transitions between different paragraphs.

“Kick-Ass”

Another example of Kinetic typography. I have chosen this particular example due to its contrasts to the previous example i have annotated. Of the two examples I do prefer this example, i feel the use of imagery helps to not only make the animation more aesthetically pleasing but also matches the background with the hand drawn looking illustrations and typography. While in the previous example an animation utilising solely typography looks very clean, unless given a specific purpose for being made that way e.g. the spoken word describes something specifically about the use of typography within artworks. Using imagery simply gives the audience more to look at, even small, simple illustrations like this one help to translate meanings more effectively and offer a greater amount of opportunities for animation techniques than solely using Typography. The pace of this animation seem very different as well, the use of a slower, panning camera and the fact that the illustrations appear to be drawn on the screen live as the words are being said alongside the general slower pace of the spoken word being animated, the slower pace compliments the handwritten finish showing the clearly large amount of planning and organisation that has gone into creating this animation. While the background rarely changes in setting, it does invert on occasion for dramatic effect, as well as to make the background appear more like a table surface when it inverts to a dark grey rather than the light grey/white shade that is used to represent a background of crumpled paper. This background is very appropriate due to the fact that, not only is the film that the audio used for this animation also from a film that depicts superheroes but the conversation that is animated makes regular reference to Batman, a sufficient reason to theme the aesthetic finish off of. I like the way that this animation looks, the clever blend of typography and imagery makes for a interesting experience to watch. Inspired by this I will ensure to include a equal mix of both typography and an decent amount of self made imagery to compliment the text and narration.

Both pieces manage to lead the eye effectively to the correct focus areas within the screen, with a clean finish making them look professional inspirations I will take from these examples will be ensuring to change fonts/letter styles depending on how the spoken word is pronounced capitalising on changes in pitch and tone so that it is translated through what appears on screen. At regular intervals when creating my animation I now feel it is important to watch my animation with the narration and sound effects on mute and see if some of the more vital messages are still translated, this will show that the illustrations and typography is effective in their communication and that my message is clearly translated through to the audience.