Design Investigation

Design InvestigationJason MingayGraphic Design: New MediaYear 2

For this brief I decided to investigate motion graphics.

Motion graphics are graphics that use video and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or a transforming appearance.

From doing this investigation, there are a number of things I plan to find out:

What it takes to become a successful motion graphics designer.What is the process from start to finish of a piece of motion graphics work.How companies and freelance designers get themselves known.How long briefs can take.What are the main pieces of software used are.How many of the design team work on a brief.Whether it’s better to work as a freelance designer or in a studio.How they go about finding work, through self-advertisement or approaching the companies themselves.What the advancements of motion graphics will be in the future.

From doing initial research I learnt that no one knows exactly when motion graphics were first used as an art form, but the first known use of the term was by John Whitney, who founded a company called ‘Motion Graphics Inc’

The man who is said to be a pioneer in motion graphics is Saul Bass. He created title sequences for Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, Psysco and many more.His work is still influencing other title sequence designers today, including Royal Cow, who created the title sequence for the film ‘Buried’.

History and Theory

The BriefDesign Investigation Jason Mingay

Graphic Design: New MediaYear 2

It was from looking at Saul Bass’ work that I stumbled across a website called ‘Artofthetitlesequence.com’ This is a great website that lists a huge amout of film title sequences and includes a lot of interviews with the designers.

It was on this website that I found a few of the studios that I decided to contact, including:

Digital Kitchen created the opening sequence for the television series’ ‘Dexter’, ‘True Blood’ and many more.

Daniel kleinman creating the opening sequence for the James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’.

Shynola and Voodoodog teamed up to create the animations and opening sequence for the film ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’

Daniel kleinman creating the opening sequence for the James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’.

Digital Kitchen Daniel Kleinman LoganShynola & Voodoodog

Art Of The TitleDesign Investigation Jason Mingay


As helpful as Art of the Title was, I wanted to email and get answers from a variety of people, not just from companies that create title sequences.

I therefore decided to contact some other companies aswel. I send emails to other companies who create motion graphics for advertisements, tv idents etc and some companies that do a bit of everything.

Psyop are recently most famous for creating the Coke ‘Happiness Factory’ advert.They are also known for creating animations from still imagery and illustrations.My favourite work of theirs is the MTV ‘Crow’ Ident (second image) where black and white high definition illustrations are animated giving an amazing finish.

Foreign Office are most famous for creating the 5th, 6th and 7th Harry Potter ending title sequences. They have also done work for Coke and other major companies and have done title sequences for films such as ‘The Queen’ and ‘Children of Men’

Psyop

Foreign Office

StudiosDesign Investigation Jason Mingay


Other companies I contacted includes Prologue, Noah Harris, Neil Grunshaw, Mainframe, the Mill and Eyeball NYC.

MK12 are one of my favourite companies and have created some amazing work including the James Bond ‘Quantum of Solace’ title sequence, the tile sequence for ‘Kite Runner’ and the opening and ending sequences for ‘Stranger Than Fiction’.

Nomint are a company based in Athens, Greece. Though Nomint do create some good work, their work does not inspire me as much as some other companies. The reason I wanted to contact Nomint was to get answers to my questions from a company based somewhere other than the UK or US.

MK12

Nomint

Email

Studios

Overall I sent out 12 emails explaining what and where I study and that I’m currently investigating motion graphics and politely asked if they could answer some of my questions.

Since my website wasn’t finished and my blog was untidy, I decided not to include a link to any of my work.

I only got one reply back, however it was from one of the companies I was hoping would email back the most, which was Mk12.

Design Investigation Jason MingayGraphic Design: New Media

Year 2

The Process and TeamOn this page I have laid out some of the feedback I recieved and found on the design process, how many people work on a brief at once and whether it’s better to work as a freelance designer or part of a studio.

The Process

The Team

Each company has a different process which can depend on the size and circumstances of the brief. Nick Campbell of ‘Digital Kitchen’ and ‘Greyscalegorialla’ stated that there can be a lot of back and forth between the company and the client and this isn’t always exlusive to just one company. Several companies have to present their invididual ideas for a brief to the client who eventually selects the strongest.

I was also happy to learn that proffessional designers are still just human. Jorge Calvo described what goes through his head when he is struggling on a brief, “Oh my God! What can I do, I can’t think of anything! Don’t these people see that I have no talent?” Jorge Calvo.

The size of the brief also determines how many of the design team work on it, “Sometimes it’s all seven of us, sometimes it’s a couple of folks.” (MK12)

I did not manage to get an answer from a freelance designer on their opinion whether it’s better to work freelance or part of a studio, but Kyle Cooper from ‘Prologue’ gave his opinion on the matter.

“For most films or commercials it seems like there is a team. I know these days you can have a one-man band, where a single designer can do his own boards, his own typography, can shoot his own footage and even do his own animation. But usually we have to work fast and having a team allows you to have each person dedicated to one thing. For myself, I’m usually working on a couple of things at once and function more like a director, which is what I really enjoy most.” Kyle Cooper


Year 2

On this page I talk about the importance of audio in motion graphics.

I also talk about what inspires some motion graphics designers.

Audio is an important part of motion graphics and can make or break it. “music is such a basic and primal thing and it does so much for the image (or takes away from!). I usually work first on the audio part of my projects and then work with the image over the music. Everything flows much more naturally that way” (Jorge Calvo). Audio tracks are usually supplied by the client but sometimes this is not done straight away. If this is the case then the animation is usually edited to a click track or a temporary audio track until the final track has been selected. “Audio starts working, parallel with initial animating (to a click track or temp audio, matching BPM)” (MK12)

It’s hard to define inspiration as everyone finds inspiration from different places.“Travel and people and nature” (Prologue)“Everything and everybody” (Shynola)“I am usually inspired by the process of creation” (Nick Campbell)“Comic Books, Dumpster diving, Elegant Universe (Brian Greene, 1999), Found Photos” (MK12)

Audio

Inspiration

Audio & Inspiration


Year 2

I was disappointed to hear that a lot of the companies I got answers from get their work from knowing the right people “we already had an established relationship” (Psyop). Sometimes

I was disappointed to hear that a lot of the companies I got answers from get their work from knowing the right people “we already had an established relationship” (Psyop). Sometimes they meet by chance at a party and get chatting to the right person by chance “I was in the queue to the toilet and got chatting to this guy” (Shynola).

The advice I found for getting my name out there included:

“Keep positive. Don’t be discouraged. BE CREATIVE” (MK12)

“collaborate and create experimental animation works.” (MK12)

“submitting a lot of work to film festivals, gallery shows etc.” (MK12)

Getting Work

Getting Known

Conclusion

Getting Work & Getting Known

Almost all the questions I set out to answer were answered. The one thing I failed to find out was what the designers thought the future held for motion graphics. The only answer I got to this question was from MK12 and that they wanted an “Oscar category for title sequences” (MK12).

I also did not manage to get a freelance designer to answer my question ‘Is it better to be a freelance designer or part of a studio?’ I got an answer for this question from a studio, saying that it is better to be part of a team (Kyle Cooper), however this is biased. However from the research I have gathered, I do agree with this due to the high work load and stress levels it would be easier to hand the work out amoungst a studio rather than hold the entire brief on your own shoulders.


Year 2

For my artefact I decided to create a piece of motion graphics showing the ten process steps that MK12 send me.

I decided to give it a title sequence feel due to the majority of my research being from title sequence designers.

I took inspiration for my artefact from both MK12 and Psyop. I liked MK12’s ‘Kite Runner’ title sequence and decided to take away the idea of using animated lines that meet to create words.I also wanted to use Psyop’s process of starting off with a still image and then animate it.

Here is the answer MK12 sent me for the question ‘What is your process from start to finish?’

“Hmm. Brainstorm. Imaginate it! Come up with a plan if there are any live action shooting elements. Animatic. SHOOT. rough edit. rough edit/animatic. source elements/toolkit creation. audio starts working, parallel with initial animating (to a click track or temp audio, matching BPM) NO SLEEPING. Animate. Finish.” (MK12)

To animate these steps, I had to cut down or change a couple of them to eventually leave me with 10 process steps which are as follows:

Inspiration Content

Artefact Inspiration & Content

BrainstormImaginePlanAnimaticShootRough EditConstructionAudioAnimateFinish


Year 2

Here is my final artefact. The idea being that one word would appear, and then the letters would unravel and turn into a series of lines which would shoot across the screen to meet up again and join together to create the next word. This process would repeat creating the ten words.

I began by creating a series of images in photoshop of the words that need to animate into each other. I drew lines which met the point of one letter that would disappear into the line and the point of another letter where it would grow.

The audio I choose to use for my video was ‘The Plug’ by ‘Bonobo’. I wanted the audio track to be calm, laid back song with a good tempo and this song fit perfectly.

I then imported these images into After Effects as seperate compostions. I then created two masks for each letter and two for each line. The first mask revealed the letter or line to give it the appearence of it growing and the second covered it up again giving the whole letter or line the appearnce of moving. I did this for each composition and then placed them into one final compostion at the end.

Audio

Artefact

Rendering

The artefact took me a long time to complete. Each word along with it’s lines, took me over an hour to animate so animating all ten words took over 15 hours in total.

I also had trouble with the rendering. The first render took over 12 hours and when it finally finished, there were a few noticable problems with the video, meaning I had to alter them and re-render the video, taking another 20 hours.


Year 2

For this design investigation, I decided to investigate into motion graphics. I decided to contact a variety of studios and practitioners to get answers and opinions from different backgrounds and places. The first studio I knew I wanted to contact was MK12, a design and filmmaking collective based in Kansas City, Missouri, US. I have been a fan of MK12 since I watched ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, a film where MK12 created both the opening and ending credits and I have followed their work since. I also contacted a studio in Athens, Greece called Nomint because I wanted to find out how studios in the rest of Europe differed from studios here in the UK.I contacted two freelance designers, Noah Harris and Neil Grunshaw, in hopes of finding out the differences between working in a studio and working freelance, both of which Noah Harris has had experience.I contacted other studios from both here in the UK and abroad, including Foreign Office, Psyop and Prologue. I did this mainly because they create amazing work and I wanted to hear their opinion on the industry and learn more about their processes.

I send each of the studios and freelance designers an email explaining what and where I study and that I am currently investigating motion graphics design. My current website was not finished and my blog was untidy so I decided not to provide a link to either of these. I mentioned why I was emailing them and politely asked them to answers the questions I had laid out below.

Of the 12 emails I send out, I only received one reply. The one studio that emailed me back just so happened to be the studio that I wanted to hear from most, this being MK12. Since I only had one reply, I had to rely heavily on interviews posted online. I found a website which was dedicated to movie title sequences and that posted a lot of interviews with the designers which greatly helped my investigation.

In conducting this investigation, I have found out a lot about the industry. I learned about the process and how there can often be many months of preproduction alone. One person can create his own boards, typography, shoot his own footage and even do his own animation but most projects have tight schedules and having a team allows different people to work on different things and therefore complete the project faster. The size of the project determines how many members of the design team work on it, but it can vary from just a couple members to the whole team, though most studios do not work on one brief exclusively.MK12 gave me about 10 steps which they usually follow for each project they do. I found this information to be very beneficial and I believe it will assist me in my future in this industry. The key piece of information I received was that these designers are only human. Having heard one of them describe his design process as a source of panic, questioning his choice of profession and a lot of starting over. It is good to feel that even the professionals have problems sometimes.The typical pieces of software I am currently using are also used in the industry. These include After Effects, Photoshop, Cinema 4d, illustrator and many more. A piece of software called ‘Flame’ was mentioned by at least two different studios. I had never heard of this software before so I looked into it - Flame is a 3D visual effects, lighting and colouring software. Since this software is used in the industry, it is something that I will try to use for one of my future projects.Audio is a massive part of motion graphics and if an audio track has not yet been allocated by the client, which is usually the case, then the animation is set to a click track or a temporary piece of music until the audio track has been selected.

I was let down when I learnt that a lot of these studios get their work from knowing the right people or sometimes by chance at a party or in line for the toilet. This will make it hard for an up and coming designer to get major jobs for major companies unless they have the right contacts.The advice I was given to begin getting my name out there included posting work online and submitting work to festivals/ galleries.Inspiration can be found anywhere and different people find different things inspiring. Some of the different studios inspirations included travel, nature, music, comic books, found photos and even dumpster diving.

Almost all the questions I set out to answer were answered. The one thing I failed to find out was what the designers thought the future held for motion graphics. The only answer I got for this question was that an Oscar category for title sequences would be nice. I also did not receive an answer from a freelance designer giving me their opinion as to whether it is better to work in a studio or freelance.Overall I learnt a lot from conducting this design investigation and I hope most of it will be useful for when I try and make a name for myself in the design industry in the future. If I do succeed in this industry I will be more than happy to reply to students when they email me with questions.

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Design Investigation

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