READING AND WRITING
Animated Storytelling by Liz Blazer is a nifty, simple guide on how to plan and execute successful animated projects. I say animated, but this also includes motion graphics. So what’s the difference, if there is any?
Animation and motion graphics are sometimes used interchangeably, and in truth, they are very similar. Blazer describes the distinction like this: animation is seen as filmmaking (think Frozen, Snow White, Toy Story) while motion graphics gets associated with the graphic design realm, where branding and identity are important for marketing.
Either way, they all start with the same first step, pre-production. Plan, plan, plan! Before any project gets underway, it’s important that the concept is flushed out. This comes really easy for some people while others struggle (and try to jump right into the animation part). Blazer suggests starting with a creative brief, outlining the goals, the audience, length, etc.
Once that’s solidified, then you tap into your creative juices. Anything and everything you can think of should be written down, even if you think it’s stupid (because those end up being the best). Once your brain is empty of all related to the project, then you can start narrowing it down and developing your story.
Naturally, this is where the process gets tougher. How do you take all of your ideas can pull out a story? Blazer offers three exercises:
Elevator pitch (If you stepped into an elevator with the HBO network producer, what would you say to sell the story?)
Six Word Story (The most famous being “For sale, baby shoes, never worn.”)
Tagline (What’s the one sentence that would describe your movie, but leave enough intrigue to make people watch it? The tagline for the film Jaws is very simple: don’t go in the water.
Once you’ve got something substantial, then you can start visualizing what it will look like, what program you’ll be using, what assets to use, etc.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
The most common, and relatively recent, category for motion graphics is GIFs. Everyone who knows how to work a phone or the internet knows what it is, probably because they have used it to react to someone’s post or to articulate how they are feeling. GIFs offer people to say a lot more than just text. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, GIFs are probably worth a million. Some are animations, some are scenes from films or television shows, and some are scenes from animated films or shows.
These are some of my personal favorites:
Reaction
These I send/use when I want to comment on how I’m feeling regarding what someone said. The emotion in these are strong and provide clarity on how much of the emotion I’m feeling.
Response
These I use when I want to comment on how I’m feeling regarding what someone said. Similar to reactions, these show how much emphasis I put on the response if I were to say it in person.
GIF sets
If you’ve been on Tumblr, then you’re pretty in tune with these. GIF sets are a series of GIFs that depict a scene, an emotion, a visual song lyrics…basically anything you want it to be. The basic ones are scenes from a movie or tv show, like what my friend created here. Other times, people get creative and make comparison sets or overlay lyrics or poems like this. And sometimes, people create these gorgeous sets that must have taken hours upon hours but they are so breathtaking.
CREATE
Now comes the fun part. I have always wanted to learn how to animate, and it’s been something that has crept up my “I want to learn” list quickly. So using some very basic Photoshop, here is what I created:
I took this photo of the Mt. Hope Bridge in my town a while back and thought it would make a simple background. I figured a cloud drifting through the sky in a straight line is easy enough. Using a photo from Creative Commons, I animated this 17-frame GIF. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, it probably needs about 30 more frames added to it to make it look smoother. But at least I know how to do the basic movement.
For these two I used a technique called onion skinning, which allows you to see the previous frame as you draw the current one. This aids with smoother animation and makes it less time-consuming. I tried to will myself to go for something simple but naturally had to try something complicated like a stick figure doing a handless handstand, TWICE. The onion skinning is so useful. My main concern was that I’m not a good artist, so it was hard to make it look somewhat realistic…but I guess that adds to the quirky style?
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