I have a great passion for Motion Graphics - I love it's timing, sequencing, stoytelling and marrying all of these aspects to music.
It is a convergence of fine art and graphics driven by the forces of motion. From the invention of printing through to lithography, photography, cinema, television and the internet, there has been a uniting of energies in design that has given rise to this dynamic creative category- motion graphics.
HISTORY:
Modern technology is so fast-paced, it would be very difficult to choose one year as a starting-point for modern motion graphics, but let’s focus on 1995.
By 1995 Macs and PCs had become more powerful adding the possibility of putting design it into motion. Graphics-oriented software had been designed to take advantage of this speed.
Also at this time a new software company, Macromedia, introduced Director, a programme designed around the use of layers and cell animation, allowing for the combination of type and user-developed graphics, which could be imported from outside programmes, such as Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop. By 1995 Abode’s After Effects software was fully in use in the making of broadcast motion graphics. This year Adobe released a package called Production Premium which is a total, integrated post-production solution with all the tools for capture, editing, motion graphics, effects and audio.
INFLUENCES:
It would be impossible to discuss the history of motion graphics without considering the contributions made by Saul Bass, whose graphic designs are the very definition of motion graphics as we know and use them today.
Bass’s credits include nearly sixty films, including the legendary titles and identities such as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo(1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960) (for which Bass also created storyboards for the famous shower scene).
Today’s practitioners include the likes of Kyle Cooper who created the title sequence for Seven (which is my personal best title sequence in its context and at the time it was introduced) He was also the lead title designer on the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead where he used actual human blood when designing the film's opening and closing credit sequences.
In 2003 he also formed a design company named ‘Prologue Films’ specializing in film and broadcast that have consistently churned out some exceptional pieces of work for a variety of clients and movies.
With this in mind I hope to base my research methods report on the area of Motion Graphics.
Initial interests lie in the area of Title sequences.
- I could look at the importance of a title sequence.
- The technical and conceptual considerations when creating a title squence.
- How the title sequence has changed and evolved over time.
- How is the title sequence used:
Telling a story
Introducing you to the plot
Introducing you to a character
Creating atmosephere
Trying to evoke an emotion
MOVIES:
Seven
Kyle Cooper.
Spiderman 2
title sequence for Spider-man designed by Kyle Cooper from Prologue Films
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
title sequence created by Danny Yount from Prologue Films
Catch me if you can
Lord of War
Fight Club
Dawn of the Dead
300 End Credits
Books:
Motion by Design by Spencer Drate, David Robbins, Judith Salavetz, and Kyle Cooper (Hardcover - Feb 2007)
Creative Movie Title Graphics (Science Behind the Fiction) by Marvin Belle (Hardcover - 1 Oct 2006)
The Art of the Title Sequence: Film Graphics in Motion by Gemma Solana and Antonio Boneu (Hardcover - Jun 2007)
Motion Graphics (How Did They Do That?) by David Greene (Hardcover - 31 Jan 2003)
Motion Design: Design for Motion, Sequence and Visual Impact by Matt Woolman (Hardcover - 29 Oct 2004)
Type in Motion: No. 2 by Matt Woolman (Hardcover - Sep 2005)
On Screen - In Time: Transitions in Motion Graphic Design by Melanie Goux and James A. Houff (Hardcover - 25 April 2003)
"May Contain Graphic Material": Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Film by M.Keith Booker (Hardcover - Nov 2007)
Articles:
"Saul, Can You Make Me a Title?": Interview with Saul Bass
Pamela Haskin, Saul Bass
Film Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 10-17
This article consists of 8 page(s).
Getting started with... TITLE DESIGN
Computer Arts Magazine (July 2006)
and some other stuff...
