I love the way animation and motion graphics techniques can engage and explain various messages including marketing, awareness, even sometimes sensitive or complex ideas in short order.
Although I primarily chose the career topic “bookend videos” – the first and the last – for their strategic value to me and my career and think these two could also be of definite value to others – particularly those in creative fields.
The video in the middle “Kiss The Girl” just absolutely caught my eye, and my ears, then most of my “Caribbean island, Jamaican, or vacation sensibilities”. I elaborate on what and why like all three below. Have a look. Ya mon!
READING & WRITING
Summary of Chapters Two, Three, and Four of Animated Storytelling by Liz Blazer
In Chapters Two, Three, and Four Blazer’s continues passing out her sage advice like a dapper,
confident card dealer at the MGM Grand Vegas in Vegas. Like many of the buffet style eats at Sin City, her
style is still signature in many ways: plenty to chew on, effective, and (mostly) digestible!
· Spoiler Alert – Below are key, selected chapter learnings & insights from these three chapters. Below also
contains what was not so applicable or clear to me at this nascent stage of my animation and motion graphics journey.
Key, Selected Chapter Learnings & Insights
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – Once the muse has helped you to whittle your story down you need to plot that baby out; understand where all the “beats” are.
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – Beats are all the things that help you advance your story. I need to lay down some beats! Nice metaphor!
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – Whether a classic character-based linear Three Act Structure or a classic information-based linear Three Act Structure I will build a narrative arc that reflects:
Act 1 – A Problem
Act 2 – An attempt to solve it
Act 3 – A resolution
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – In this chapter and elsewhere Ms. Blazer’s alludes to the physical act and idea of getting messy! Meaning, I need to get away from my normal paradigm of using my computer for all things creative and, instead, maybe use sticky notes! . . .
Physically using stickies are almost a must! What novice, in this increasingly digital-oriented wouda particularly thunk it! Not me! Then, again, decades ago when I was in junior high school the idea of
getting rid of paper as a writing medium was bandied about, as I recall, as a sure thing!
ü Chapter 3 – Unlocking Your Story – Reveal a clear conflict in your story early; don’t start too late
in the story to do this.
ü Chapter 3 – Unlocking Your Story – Similarly establish important images early.
ü Chapter 3 – Unlocking Your Story – The best writing secret that Ms. Blazer encountered is when
one of her teacher’s asked the class to do the creepy assignment of following a stranger around.
The point? Get really familiar, no really familiar with your story’s main character.
For example, what is your character’s biggest secret? …… fear? …. Best and worst friends etc.
ü Chapter 4 – Storyboarding (and it’s cousins) – Storyboarding and its planning cousins are seminal in my opinion! Call it previsualization (or call it the “in the know” term “previs” for short!)…… call it concept art, creative brief, thumbnailing – even call it “having your elevator pitch together”.
Truly Liz Blazer, in one way oranother refers to virtually ALL of these notions or concepts applying to
pre-production and the important planning aspects of producing effective stories. The idea for me
being — especially for longer creative works — is to know the value of strategically capturing the essence of what you are trying to do —- before you do it.
I’m pretty sure that some of the greatest, Michelangeloesque works, started as a mere idea, written down on the lowly, proverbial napkin!!
ü Chapter 4 – Storyboarding – Bringing up the utility of deploying Post It notes — again — our author also offers several other hints. Such storyboarding hints include illustrative techniques on shot composition and framing. Importantly, she also pays homage to the ubiquitous rule of thirds. I Love it!
Retrieved from page 83 of Animated Storytelling
What Was Not So Applicable or Clear to This Newbie
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – Cue cards in the context of motion graphics and animation? I thought cue cards were used on live television shows and such . . . Using cue cards initially threw me off! It made more sense to me when I, and then the author, switched from the idea of cue cards to the idea and pictures of large sticky notes.
ü Chapter 2 – Storytelling – Can I Mix and Match Concepts? I’d like to think I can! Specifically, linear or nonlinear, whatever type of animation or motion graphic that I might seek to create know this: I will always favor the cohesive ideals and the ability to deftly pick and call into the game any the strong creative elements of the nonlinear, beaded concept below:
Retrieved from page 38 of Animated Storytelling
ü Chapter 3 – Unlocking Your Story – Get Graph-y? After a couple of skim throughs, this concept was still not particularly clear to me. Although the words themselves may seem intuitive enough I had to wade through Ms. Blazer’s unfamiliar examples and study her sort of busy graphic here, to finally draw some meaning … no pun intended!
RESEARCH TO INFORM
I love the way animation and motion graphics techniques can engage and explain various messages including marketing, awareness, even sometimes sensitive or complex ideas in short order.
As although I primarily chose the bookend videos – the first and the last – for their strategic value to me and my career and think these two could also be of definite value to others – particularly those in creative fields.
The video in the middle “Kiss The Girl” just absolutely caught my eye, and my ears, then most of my “Caribbean island, Jamaican, or vacation sensibilities”. I elaborate on what and why like all three below. Have a look. Ya mon!
Motion Graphic Project – 1 – “Curriculum Vitae ☕ Motion Graphics”
I have always been enthralled at the inventiveness by which fellow creatives express themselves and showcase their background or skills to the world. Precisely because we are creatives, I think we have more leeway in showcasing our skills – even regarding something as boring sounding and conservative as a Curriculum Vitae no less!
Although I have seen this type of presentation before this curriculum vitae motion graphics works for me based on the subject matter alone. Think I won’t consider “swipe filing” this to do something similar one day? Think again! Although the creator uses a light-hearted cartoon representation of herself to start things off and set a jovial tone don’t let that fool you. I, for one, appreciate the serious thought and skill that went into this production!
For sure the animations are smooth, engaging, and are sprinkled deftly throughout the piece. I also like the transitions and how the colors, graphics, and fonts are integrated. Collectively, everything seems to be held together through the very beaded technique that is illustrated in my chapter commentary above and that Liz Blazer holds up in her book Animated Storytelling. The music, in particular, is an easy-going cohesive thread that nicely binds this curriculum vitae piece from the beginning to the end. Hired!
Motion Graphic Project – 2 – “Kiss The Girl”
Its February 2024 at the time of this writing. Close your eyes for a moment and this piece will lull you in. Listen to it for only 5 or 10 seconds and it might have you dying to jet to Montego Bay, Ochos Rios, Negril or some of the many other delightful destinations in Jamaica or the Caribbean when the weather warms up a bit.
Now please open your eyes! You, like me, were getting a bit too comfortable! I want you to take another 15 or 20 seconds to appreciate, like I did, this well-done example of kinetic typography!
True to the name of kinetic typography I am impressed by the ways that Sarah uses a true and undeniable variety moving text and dynamic motion to capture my attention! At the same time she set’s a very relaxing tone, while entertaining and exposing me to a variety of great colors and animated techniques and elements! The song she uses is so appropriate to illustrate this genre of motion graphics!
All of this just works to accent or underscore the moving and contrasting typefaces that make up the big and small words!
Here’s the kicker: I love the story line. I love how, like slowly peeling back a sweet onion I get curiously pulled into the world of how this love-struck person is getting more and more infatuated with this girl – to the point that he just wants to kiss her. Again, my oh my how well Sarah uses moving words to advance the story!
https://sarahestherhusney.com/Used with permission. Retrieved from the website of Sarah Husney, the link of which is https://sarahestherhusney.com/
Motion Graphic Project – 3 – “29 Ways to Stay Creative”
Surely all or some of the points in this animation should be of interest to creatives who want to stay that way and even those folks who aspire to be more creative. Which number(s) (ways) are your three favorites?
Like the first, “Curriculum Vitae Motion Graphics” piece above I chose this piece for its strategic value to my career … – but – not only that – I also chose this 29 Ways to Stay Creative piece because of its aesthetic and animation value.
Like some other animations or graphics that I have seen I appreciate how this creator uses a simple black
and white background scheme. I also like how the creator uses clean graphics, ample white space combined and mostly spots of red to highlight key ideas or points and make them truly pop!
Importantly, the animation moves fast enough to get through all 29 ways without a problem in
only about two minutes! Necessarily the animation is quick, and, based on my comments in the above paragraph I think the author gets the 29 ways across n a very interesting and dynamic, way!
CREATE
I had a good time, overall creating a fun, personal animation about myself that you can see and play below.
A Popcorn-loving, Ping pong – graduated-to-table-tennis Playin’, raPPin’ Pk — all wraPPed into one fella? < ==> watch the animation and you will see! . . . There are only two of us in the entire world!
Now as with a lot of my creations there are some things that I would have done differently. Chief among them is that I would have probably focused on two, not three aspects of my life as the video wound up being closer to around four minutes, not the two minutes that I later realized that I should have “shot” for.
People I got IN to it and literally lost track of time! This, despite my known tendencies to let my passion override time considerations.
Very short work but I fully leveraged a formal pre-production audio/visual script that evolved. I also initially used “Act 1”, “Act 2”, and “Act 3” yellow-colored “cue cards” that the animation author Liz Blazer encourages, which I dutifully pasted up on a large white construction sheet and then pinned the whole shabang on my “studio” wall.
I eventually abandoned the Act 1”, “Act 2”, and “Act 3” yellow-colored “cue cards” because I realized at some point that I was not doing the classic character-based linear Three Act story-telling structure where in Act 1 – There is A Problem; in Act 2 – There is an attempt to Solve it; and in Act 3 – There is a Resolution.
Some additional notes about my process follow.
Using Ae’s keyframe function and shape layer; assets galore!
To create the intro, I learned with effort, to use keyframes in Adobe After Effects to alter opacity, position, and scale of text and pictures.
This is what created those animations of the text flying I, then getting bigger, then quickly fading. Of course, I had a ball scouring, finding, or creating all assets!
Also, to create the ping-pong and table tennis ball that slowly arcs over the one scene about my love of “Ping Pong”, I learned to use Adobe After Effect’s shape layer and added position keyframes to that.
Popcorn scene example – png’s, jpegs, and more Ae keyframes
For the one popcorn scene with my teenage friends of yesteryear I included a bunch of popcorn png’s and jpegs so that I could move them around with position, opacity, and scale keyframes.
I also added position keyframes for the popcorn bowl to move into the hands of one of the other teens so that it would give the illusion that they all had had taken my precious popcorn and were running down the street with it. True story that I haven’t fully moved on from … lol
… it being decades later!
Ping Pong scene example – Ae shape layers, more keyframes, YT vids
For the ping-pong scene, I used a shape layer for the ping pong ball and added three position keyframes so that it jumped up from out of frame and then down out of frame. I also included video layers which I scaled down and placed under text.
Final scene – use of remaining assets to top things off!
For the final scene, I included a photo and some music that fit in perfectly with the narration.
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