FINAL Le Creuset Video December 13th

Final Weekly Submission

After Effect Semester Wrap-Up | Problems & Concerns

Melanie Lerner | December 9, 2010

From the beginning of the semester until now I feel like I have at least a basic mastery of AfterEffects. While the program still intimidates me at times I know better how to animate efficiently and effectively than from when I started out.

• The most common problems I encountered dealt with using the camera. Often times I would make my layers 3-D and add in a camera, only to find that when I added any additional layers in and made them 3-D too, they acted strange (became oddly sized and placed outside of the composition). One way around this was to precomp my layers I was done animating with so that I wouldn’t have to worry about messing them up with the inclusion of new ones.
• Another lesson learned was that I shouldn’t manipulate the scale key frames when using a camera. Instead, it makes much more sense to play with position and use the “z” coordinate for sizing/zooming in and out. The more key frames there are within a given sequence can lend to jumps in the camera and choppiness in the presentation. I found sometimes key frames didn’t line up, even if only by just a hair. To solve this I held down the shift key and moved my cursor to the proper spot in the time cue to make sure they started and ended at the exact same time.
• Towards the beginning of the term I didn’t understand how to prepare my files so that they were ready to import into AfterEffects. You can’t just import your images in storyboard format. It took some time before I understood that every layer needed to be by itself if it was to be animated. And that when I made the Illustrator/Photoshop file I had to think very methodically as to how to break the storyboard apart so that I could animate the parts I wanted. It was more or less a process of trial and error but it was nice to get to the end of the semester and know exactly what to do to make my life easier when I was ready for AfterEffects. It was convenient too that you can always go back and update the original file and it will automatically change in After Effects.
• Another area I struggled with were using masks, especially on an object with lots of curves such as a paperclip. The best way to remedy the situation was to go very slowly around the form and use a combination of masks to complete it rather than one big one (sometimes subtracting out areas I didn’t want seen quite yet and revealing them later).
• For a while I was confused as to how to add in audio and play it using ram preview. I thought the only way to hear the voiceover was to make a QuickTime movie out of the file. Now I know I can hold down “0” and it will play audio and visual on screen in After Effects.
• I also had to learn to watch segments of the animation rather than the whole thing because it slowed the program down. By hitting “bn” on the keyboard I could choose what part of the animation and determine a length I wanted to watch so that it played faster.
• Working in full quality proved problematic so I figured out how to work in quarter size, but then make sure to render the file in full size prior to the final version in order to catch small inconsistencies that aren’t seen on a poorer quality version.
• Also, rendering became problematic when I would save a file to the computer and it would work, but as soon as it transferred over to a jump drive the audio and/or visual would skip. This was solved by changing my rendering options to HD 264 rather than After Effect’s default settings. I further learned to be patient while the file rendered and to save the motion blurs for the very final render because they slowed down the program and render time.
• As far as execution abilities, sometimes I would have an idea in my head but not know how to follow through with it in the program. If I couldn’t figure it out I would think of other ways to animate instead. I struggled most with transitions between scenes and finding ones that made sense and were not just “easy” or PowerPoint like. Often times it was a matter of playing around with different things before finding the right one, and getting feedback from classmates to help as well. 

Le Creuset Option II Final

Le Creuset Final Video Option I

December 3rd In Progress Video

After Effects Tutorial Number 5

After Effects Tutorial | Proxies & Workflow Tips

Melanie Lerner | December 1, 2010

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/proxies_and_workflow_tips/

In Andrew Kramer’s tutorial he shows simple tips on how to work on a project quickly at a decent resolution. He explains that a proxy is a lower resolution version (video or still image) of a project that temporarily takes the place of something that is higher resolution. The benefits are being able to work and preview your project faster.

To start with he says to check your composition and footage settings (HDTV is a standard 1920 x 1080 format). Once you set the dimensions that you want, you have a couple options as to how to work with a lower resolution in After Effects. The first is to lower the resolution of the project window (say quarter, third, half, or full size), but doing this means After Effects is still sampling from the bigger footage file. Another, better way to go about it is to look at the output module and format a proxy that way. You can right click on the footage layer, go to create proxy – movie and a render queue window will pop up. You can then go to output module settings to format your proxy, which is how a proxy saves itself. You can choose such settings such as Quicktime movie and change animation to a photo jpeg sequence, then hit ok and render. Now a square box pops up next to your footage to show that the footage has been converted to a photo jpeg Quicktime movie (hence it’s easier to work with). You have the liberty of toggling the switch back and forth between your regular full resolution project and the proxy clip. You can shut the proxy off at any time as well.

Now if you have several pieces of footage you can’t unfortunately convert all of them at the same time and create a proxy but you can create a proxy template that can be applied to each. To do this, right click – create proxy – movie (do this for each file so that all files are included in the render queue), then go to output module – make template. Now if you go to the output module and hold down the shift key for each item, you can select all the render queue items and choose the template you made to apply to all of them. Or, if you would rather make global changes in regards to proxy settings, you can change After Effect’s defaults by going to edit and output module so that when you add your composition to the render que, your settings are already in place.

Kramer mentions too that if you are working with a proxy that is ½ the resolution, you should set the original file to ½ the resolution as well (there’s no point in seeing extra pixels if you aren’t going to render them). Proxies do come with their limitations. For instance, you never want to do motion tracking with a proxy in place. Also you will want to check that your resolution is not set to full while tracking because After Effects has a tendency to change it back for you. And if a render ever dies an easy trick is just to duplicate it and the composition will re-render for you.

Kramer concludes by saying that you never want to render the final video using a proxy. To double check that the proxy is turned off while rendering you can go to add to render queue – proxy use – use no proxy. For the most part, proxies are extremely helpful and a quick way to work while keeping fairly decent resolution. Color correction and compositing are just two things that would benefit from proxy use. Kramer's techniques are certainly viable in rendering large files, which I know will come in handy in my current and future projects.

Le Creuset December 1st

Le Creuset – November 29th in Progress Video

After Effect Tutorial 4

After Effects Tutorial | Reflection Plug-In

Melanie Lerner | November 25, 2010

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/reflection_plug-in/

In Andrew Kramer’s tutorial he shows an easy way to use reflections within an animation piece (while After Effects comes with a built in reflection preset there are some limitations to it, which is why he uses a plug-in feature instead). He starts off by installing a plug-in titled VCReflect.aex (free feature of VideoCopilot), which can be downloaded, copied, and pasted into your own directory. With a new composition and image in place he begins by going to effect – videocopilotvc – reflect. Once this is in place you can go onto to change the reflection from After Effects’ default settings by altering the floor position (where the reflection starts), the reflection distance (how long the reflection goes on from the main source image), and by turning down the opacity and changing the blur amount so that the reflection looks as believable as possible. A falloff blur is one that gets stronger as the reflection extends away from the floor/beginning position (as compared to a simple directional blur). An advantage to this plug in is that it renders fairly quickly and easily.

While the first example Kramer showed involved an image that had a straight horizontal base, the next one rests on a diagonal. To accommodate for this he rotated the angle of reflection so that it lined up with the diagonal base of the image. However, even after a rotation the reflection looks awkward because reflections are supposed to appear to bend. Therefore, Kramer further adjusted the skew so that the reflection looks less forced. Another point he brought up was to consider moving the reflection behind the original image so that the image itself doesn’t get cut off.

The third example Kramer demonstrated showed how to create a reflection in 3-D space using text, which yields different but interesting results than from adding a reflection to a mere image. The reason is that After Effects separates the text and reflection layers so that if you move one the other one doesn’t follow suit. To fix this, he suggested you precompose the layer (making sure all of its attributes are attached). Consequently, the two layers should then link together. He suggested adding a camera into the mix as well and playing with light and texture to make the work look more dynamic and dramatic.

The final example Kramer illustrated in this particular tutorial was how to customize effects on a reflection. First change the blend style to reflection only. Then you can go to effect – stylize – scatter. With the title selected you can go to effect – channel – cc composite to do some pretty interesting things as well (just have to make sure RGB box is unchecked so that the title appears on screen). This feature allows for the reflection to have noise/texture to rather than just its basic sheen. If there is a solid color layer in between the text layer and the reflection layer, a simple adjustment layer will separate the two so that they A) render in the proper order and B) don’t get cut off by the solid color.

While there are definitely many options for as how to go about customizing a reflection, knowing the basic steps will give me a starting point from which to branch out from. I find this plug-in will be a handy tool to have when animating and give an extra layer of depth and dimension to my work.

LC November 22nd

After Effect Tutorial 3

After Effects Tutorial | How to Make a Countdown

Melanie Lerner | November 19, 2010

http://vimeo.com/11312354

In this tutorial the artist Jordan Wiseman explains how to make a countdown clock by using expressions in After Effects. Before working on a plain background, he decides to start out by creating a more visually interesting one. He opens up a new solid layer and then goes to effect – generate ramp. The default is set to show a linear gradient but that can easily be switched to radial. You can then further alter the look by playing with different colors and expanding the gradient in size so it becomes much more subtle. He then took the text tool to write out 2:00 and clicked the arrow under the text layer followed by an Alt + Click on the source text layer so that the expression box showed up. The countdown expression is set in such a way that you have to input how many seconds are in the amount of minutes you hope to show. For instance, inputting 300 seconds would generate a 5 minute countdown while 120 seconds would generate a 2 minute countdown. You can manipulate the seconds to get the exact minute count you want, which I find helpful when trying to show moving numbers in my own presentation.

After Effects Tutorial | How to Show Smoke

More November 19, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmimOeWZRcY

In this video the creator shows an easy way to form a realistic looking smoke. He starts out with a plain black image/background and then goes to effect – stimulation – particle playground. The default color is set to red, but in order to look more like smoke you need to change the coloration to a light gray. He then goes into to alter the velocity to 250 (now the particles on screen go upward in motion instead of down). To get the particles looking less rigid you can add a blur by simply going to effect – blur and sharpen – fast blur. In this scenario the artist chose to adjust the blurriness to 16 in value, clicked enter and then ok. You can at this point watch what you have created by generating ram preview or if you want to see what the particles look like without the blur you can do that as well. By selecting total transparency grid you will see the smoke by itself (shows up as pretty faint), and this layer can be placed into any after effects video you want to use. Because my client is Le Creuset, knowing how to make smoke can be extremely helpful if I want steam to come out of a pot at some point during the animation sequence.

Le Creuset November 19

Le Creuset November 17 Video

After Effect Tutorial 2

After Effects Tutorial | Advanced Camera Tips (Duration: 29:37)

Melanie Lerner | November 13, 2010

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/advanced_camera_tips/

In this tutorial, Andrew Kramer discusses how to animate a camera in After Effects by showing us some tips for advanced camera angles. Kramer emphasizes that successful camera angles can be done with few key frames if using the write technique. To start with, click P for position then Shift+A to get the point of interest to show up under the camera layer. Then use the track camera tool to move the camera around on screen (just click and drag). While After Effects defaults to a setting that when you change the camera position it affects the X,Y, and Z coordinates together, there is another way to animate each individually so as to prevent extra key frames and distractions. First you need to create a null object and make it 3-D, then parent the camera to the null object. Next, go to the effects tab and type in “Separate X, Y, Z position” and apply it to the layer. Doing so allows for much more precise control over each coordinate. So instead of relying on position to animate the camera’s movement, you use camera controls.

To create some cool particle/nebulous/firework effects, Kramer explains that you must go to the effect tab and select trap code and then the particular button. From there you can choose how many particles you want to emit. To stop emitting particles simply set the key frame back to 0. The physics time factor lets you freeze time in the animation sequence and the Aux system feature allows you to emit more particles from the main, already existing ones. Like other areas in After Effects, you can control the size of the particles and their opacity, in addition to their velocity, size over life, their color, and the amount emitted per second. To add an element of randomness you can play around with the random setting under the physics tab.

Once this is complete, you can type “A+A” to bring up your camera options. At this point it is necessary to turn on depth of field. Because depth of field requires high rendering settings, it is wise to turn the resolution on screen to ½. After doing this, you can create a new adjustment layer and play with the curves to affect particle color. You can even add text, make the layer 3-D and animate with the rest of the particles. When making a text layer 3-D, however, you will want to shut off depth of field in order to see the text clearly (text suffers from shallow depth of field). If you shut off depth of field using the draft 3D button though, the camera’s depth of field remains on – thus becoming a useful tool.

On a side note, Kramer explains that if you ever need to duplicate a layer’s position just hit control+D and copy and paste it into another layer. You can add expressions like wiggle to make the animation more exciting and play with focus distance to determine how close or far something is too. There is really no limit as to what can be done in After Effects. Overall, the main point to be taken away from this video is that knowing how to use a camera and playing around with camera angles and particle emissions, one can make ordinary animation seem exciting, and produce some pretty cool results. I personally found it valuable to find out about camera controls and how it’s better to animate a camera’s X, Y, and Z coordinates separately rather than bundled together.

After Effects Tutorial Number 1

After Effects Tutorial | Expressions

Melanie Lerner | November 5, 2010

http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/tutorials/09.Expressions/

In this tutorial, Andrew Kremer unlocks expressions for the After Effects user. Expressions are a scripting language for the program that have many endless variables and possibilities, which lets you add in special features not found in the effects bar of the program. To add an expression you must alt + click on a stopwatch (say for position, rotation, or opacity). The expression dialogue box will then appear. The default settings should show up on screen as transform + position (if you are animating position). To change the default you can type in a new expression like wiggle (12, 5). The numerical values tell you two things. First how many times a second the wiggling will occur (in this case 12), and second how much it will occur, in this case 25 units/pixels. To close the expression box, click outside of it.

By animating the expressions in this way, however, the entire layer has an expression added onto it. If however, you want to start and stop the expression so it only occurs at certain points in the animation sequence, then you have to utilize slider control. Slider control doesn’t affect the footage, just the value you want something to have. To get slider control to appear you will have to go to the effect toolbar, click expression controls, and then slider control. You then delete the section of the code that says how often something will occur (the second number) and click and drag the pic width to the slider control bar. The pic width looks like a spiral. At this point, the expression will automatically write itself a new code. This way allows for more control so that the user can add in keyframes to start and stop the expression as he/she chooses.

You can add expressions to other things as well, such as to the opacity. You would use the same technique as before, alt + click the opacity stopwatch, then drag the pic width to the slider control. You can further link layers together so that one expression is used for all without recoding it each time by simply copying and pasting the code. When layers are linked together and you only want to change one part of one of them without affecting the others, you can add a divide or multiply sign after the code to animate differently just that one specific part.

To erase an expression you alt + click the stopwatch or alt + click the = sign. I found the tutorial was effective at demonstrating and helping better understand what are expressions and the ways in which to incorporate them into an animation project. It is, in short, a simple math formula that produces powerful results.

Video Critique Number 9

Video Critique Number 9
November 1, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

Title: Happenstance

1 Minute and 44 seconds

http://vimeo.com/11480780

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11480780" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11480780">Happenstance</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

This particular video shows a strong visual communication system through the use of symbols and typography. The main message is about how one seemingly small and insignificant decision can define our lives. The video goes on to demonstrate this point through a story about a boy and a girl who meet each other by chance all because one morning the girl accidentally woke up late. The story reinforces that if just one thing had been different the day that they met, they may not have ever gotten the opportunity to meet in the first place. The approach to executing the work is diagrammatic, which makes it easy for the viewer to understand and follow. Rules lead the eye around the screen and a hierarchical system (through color, type size, and weight) is there to help reinforce the order different elements are meant to be seen. By reducing the content to simple iconographic symbols, the message not only becomes clearer, but also more powerful.

The video has a strong concept and no instances of see and say. The cohesive over all feel and smooth transitions make it apparent that the artist paid great attention to detail. Moreover, the music helps add drama at the right moments and solidifies the piece, along with a consistent color palette. The pacing works as well and plenty of good animation comes from constructing and deconstructing the typography. In terms of critique, there is not much that needs changing, just minor tweaks.

At 0:17 the brackets around the numbers get cut off screen. They are not cut off enough to look intentional so the best way to fix this would be to shrink them down so they both fit on screen or cut them off more drastically.

At 0:24 the “To” drops down arbitrarily, which is strange. A better treatment would be for it to extend off the dotted line instead.

At 0:25 the diagonal line leading off of the “E” in “Change” doesn’t function very effectively because there are no other diagonals on screen and the type doesn’t follow the line to the next screen. Instead both line and type just randomly fade away. A better transition is necessary here to help unify the two scenes and add more dynamics.

At 0:27 the word “Everything” should not fade out leaving only a small red dot on the screen. Instead the type should remain and then disappear after the camera zooms in on the dot.

At 0:35 the way the boy and girl and their respective symbols appear on screen should match but they don’t. The boy shows up before the symbol that represents him while the girl shows up after the symbol that represents her.

At 0:40 the “411” is barely visible because of the white color it has been given. The artist needs to amp up the contrast just a little more. Also the bullets should wait to appear until the text does. It doesn’t make much sense for them to show up beforehand like they currently do.

At 1:12 the man’s symbol is a bit too close to the edge of the screen so that it doesn’t look asymmetrically balanced. It would be better to scoot the type over to the left.

At 1:26 the black and red colors would look better flipped with one another inside the bracket containing the words, “Might not have met” so that the brackets are black and the word “NOT” is in red.

At 1:34 the word “Define” seems too heavy in weight next to the other type. The word should be toned down in contrast. Also the alignment is funky because “Our lives” doesn’t line up with anything. In addition, the “L” juts up into the negative part/counter of the “N” creating awkwardness. 

FINAL Paperclip Video October 25

FINAL Paperclip Video October 22

Video Critique Number 8

Video Critique Number 8
October 22, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/11764477

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11764477" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11764477">Learning How to Survive the Next 4 years</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: Learning How to Survive the Next 4 Years

1 Minute and 15 seconds

The big idea or over arching concept for this video deals with how to survive the next four years of college life while in the communication design program and the implications that will follow as a result. The work takes on an informative tone and educational stance presenting the viewer with several figures/statistics in a visually compelling way. The idea is original, clever, and well executed through a combination of typography, illustration, photography, and video. The work is also highly entertaining for the viewer, with a good choice of music, sounds, and voiceovers in addition to being aesthetically pleasing. The creator avoids see and say and there is careful attention to detail, good mix of pacing and transitions, and a set hierarchy to follow. It is further helpful that the different elements are aligned and arranged in a sophisticated way based on a grid system (nothing is arbitrarily placed).

There are not too many things to fix with this piece. A little too much time is spent over all on still pictures going from one end of the screen to the other, and I feel more time should be dedicated to deconstructing typography and illustrations because that is where more visual interest resides. The ending is also a bit weak and doesn’t really tie the entire video together (almost like the video is a “filler” to take up time because it goes on too long). The video also makes it hard to discern what is happening with the strange, dramatic lighting flashing in the background while people dance.

At 0:04 the word “Stoked” has a strange entrance effect. The italics is bothersome because that type treatment doesn’t frame the square image as nicely. There is already an emphasis on the word “Stoked” just by coloring it red. The italics is not really necessary and actually ends up making the word over exaggerated, drawing too much focus and attention.

At 0:08 the tracking between the words “You can say that again” is too spread out. This happens again at 0:11 with the word “Drinks.”

At 0:24-28 the ruler/baselines appear well before the type saying “Success equals hard work” and it doesn’t make sense as to why they don’t both show up on screen together.

At 0:37 the “&” between “Coffee” and “Tea” is too small

At 0:41 the type lock up doesn’t work as nicely as in some of the other cases because the “90” is more curvilinear than the rest of the words. The leading could also be shrunk down a few points. Moreover, the hierarchy is confusing. Right now the type reads “Sleep in min. increments 90” instead of “Sleep in 90 minute increments.”

At 0:51 – 1:00, the pictures moving across screen go too slowly and are too dull/boring in comparison to the rest of the piece. The artist could either add an effect as they go across screen or speed up the part entirely.

At 1:01 there is too much space between the words “And” and “Most.” Also, this whole block of text should leave the screen before the video starts up rather than waiting to disappear.

At 1:02 – 1:15 Dancing segment at the end not only lasts too long but also is hard to read and discern what is going on. The type that shows up on top of the flickering light is an ineffective treatment and way to handle its placement. The artist could further animate the type so it does more than just appear and fade away adding more dynamics and interest.

October 20th Paperclip Video with Audio

Paperclip In Progress October 18th

Video Critique Number 7

Video Critique Number 7
October 15, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/11743005

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11743005" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11743005">Pan Ector Industries</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: Pan Ector Industries

47 seconds

This piece demonstrates the proper sequence when screen printing for a company and the ways to go about producing a shirt. The concept centers on the fact that there are many options, but in general, there is a logical sequence to follow. The way the illustrations appear on screen resembles the workings of a slot machine. I’m not entirely sure of the connection but I think the artist was trying to show that making a shirt, like playing slots, involve many choices, and until the very end you never know which one you will end up with.

The video contains a nice sense of unity, a tasteful color palette, and design language that is simple and easy to understand. The jargon is in fact very good: casual and catchy. The hierarchy is clear, the typefaces chosen are legible, and the illustration style is a nice touch. However, over all the video is too dull and unexciting. Pacing is too slow and the transitions are not dynamic enough to retain attention and make the work memorable. The work needs variety. Things could get changed up a bit from scene to scene so that is not as predictable, but still remain cohesive through consistent type choices, colors, and other treatments. Maybe even some audio could enhance it, be it a voiceover or individual sound effects from time to time (a nice compliment to the music already playing). Nevertheless, the creator did pay fairly good attention to details and the work is aesthetically pleasing. He/she avoided see and say as well.

Some suggestions are: The intro could be strengthened by altering how things reveal themselves instead of just appearing one by one with a simple wipe down on screen.

At 0:02 there could be a zoom in or more focus to highlight the details on the backboard that says “Live Screen Printing $15.” The artist could have taken more liberty to deconstruct this because there are many components in backboard alone to worth with.

At 0:03 it is bizarre how the icons appear on screen by coming up from the bottom and spinning into their respective boxes. It would make more sense to already be spinning and slowly revealing themselves in the actual boxes from the start.

At 0:08 the zoom in to reveal the type leaves the last two letters of the headline still showing which makes for a weird cut off. To remedy this, those two letters shouldn’t be on screen at all (just the paragraph/copy of text that follows). Also, the pacing here is slow and it doesn’t take that much time to read a few quick lines of copy.

At 0:11 the brown box on the bottom right hand corner flashes for no apparent reason and this treatment is not repeated anywhere else (mistake rather than intentional).

At 0:12 the text is not lined up with the crossbar of the “T.” And at similar screens later on in the presentation alignment issues resurface again (at 0:21 and 0:28 seconds).

At 0:18 the appearance of type doesn’t work (zoom in and expand) and it ends up showing through part of the previous heading.

At 0:37 it would be nice to be able to see the icons animated rather than just remaining stagnant. The t-shirt could be moving and look like it is coming out of a printer. Also, the other icons don’t get the same treatment as the t-shirt (there is no zoom in for them), creating an inconsistency.

At 0:41 the ending is weak. The simple wipe down seems too PowerPoint like. Even the way Pan Ector Industries shows up at 0:44 seconds is too boring. The ending is a time to make a lasting impression and there is none to be found here.

October 15 Paperclip In Progress

October 13 In Progress Video

Paperclip in Progress Video October 11

Video Critique Number 6

Video Critique Number 6
October 8, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/11481046

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11481046" width="400" height="400" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11481046">Mack the Knife</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: Mack the Knife (from Vimeo)

1:09 seconds

This video is highly catchy and entertaining with a song (about Mackie being back in town) nicely complimenting the animation. There is no real storyline per say or concept/theme, as it seems random phrases, names, and words appear together, but the piece does flows well. There is great attention to detail, seamless transitions, and a good bit of work spent on constructing and deconstructing typography. The pacing is well done, and the solid colored backgrounds interspersed from time to time definitely add for a nice contrast to the rest of the transitions in the piece, and the repetition in revealing the colored squares helps unify the work. There is an old time beat to the video with traditional sounding music, fused with modern/simplistic typography and illustration style. The video over all is successful, is aesthetically pleasing, and not see and say. In fact most of the video is done completely through typography, except for the opening section.

The main issues with the piece are that there are many instances of bad tracking and spacing between words. These awkward gaps of negative space detract from the video but could easily be fixed. Also there seems to be an awful lot of different typefaces incorporated into a short span of time. I’m not sure if this is entirely necessary. It might be more effective and cohesive for the artist to decide on 3 and then reuse them throughout.

Another area of concern is that the order in which type appears and is arranged on screen. The hierarchy seems a bit backwards. Rather than following the eye’s natural course of direction (top to bottom/left to right), the artist has changed things up. Words appear from bottom to top and in the reverse order. I don’t know if this is intentional but it does make it a bit confusing for the viewer to follow along. All in all though, the piece is well crafted, has a good color palette, and is fun to watch.

At 0:05 there should be a more interesting way for the bird to enter on screen besides suddenly appearing. Even flying in from one side would add a sense of motion and dynamics that would help.

At 0:15 there is a strange mix of typefaces and weight of those typefaces between the words, “Lies a body.” There are also tracking issues that need to be adjusted (too big of a gap right now). Tracking issues are again apparent at 0:24 in the spacing between the words “Is that” and again at 0:17-18 with the words “oozing life.”

Between 0:18-21 the effect used is PowerPoint like and resembles a 3-D cube turning from one side to another. There is probably a better way to demonstrate something sneaking around a corner. For example the type could come in slyly and disappear a few times or just a peak in bit by bit.

At 0:25 the question mark that is resting across the word “Knife” seems arbitrarily placed and doesn’t fit in well. The placement and negative space is awkward as well as forced and consequently distracts the viewer.

At 0:30 the word “Right” doesn’t align with any of the natural thresholds in the word “The.”

At 34-38 there is too much space between the words, “The cement’s just for the weight dear.”

At 0:56 the name “Polly Peacham” is executed in two different typefaces that don’t go with one another. “Polly” is altogether too faint.

The ending at 1:07 is weak and zooming in on the “C” in “Back” is strange. There should be another focal point to end on or maybe a different type of transition/effect to use altogether.

Paperclip October 8th Video Critique

Video Critique Number 5

Video Critique Number 5
October 1, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

Title: Halitophobia (from Vimeo)

56 seconds

http://vimeo.com/11480824

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11480824" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11480824">Halitophobia</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

This video is all about taking a simple idea and making an interesting visual presentation about it. In this case the idea involves the irrational fear of bad breath, also known as halitophobia, and presents the likely effects that might come as a result. The concept is cohesive and entertaining, and the artist over all executed the production well with good attention to detail and craft. The transitions are well done and the pacing is constantly changing, holding the viewer’s interest from start to finish. Furthermore, the type presents a clear informational hierarchy making the story easy to follow. However, while the tone/attitude of the piece is straightforward, instructional, and in your face, I feel that the color palette (aesthetically pleasing though it is) needs a bit more contrast and pop. Louder colors would help convey the message much better (right now the only loud color is red).

Another suggestion too is that there are several instances of “see and say.” The narrator talks about spoons and then a spoon appears on screen. The same is true for showing bad breath (narrator talks about bad breath and then a person taking a whiff shows up). There might be more visually interesting ways of depicting the piece in order to minimize instances of see and say. Overall I feel that there are also too many competing typefaces and treatments. I don’t understand why a serif is included in the piece when the language is so informal. Between bold, italics, serif, and san serif type there is too much variety going on that is not necessary and a bit confusing.

At 0:02 the spacing needs to be checked between groups of words like “How to,” “tell if you have,” and “Bad breath.” It seems inconsistent and “Tell if” is way too faint. Including it in a label and treating it like the other type around it would help.

At 0:04 the second gray bar under the type should connect either with the crossbar of the “H” or just with the H itself. Right now there is a sliver of negative space that isn’t doing anything and is not repeated elsewhere on the screen. Also at 0:04 it is a bit hard to see the name of the narrator because the color treatment consists of cream on yellow. More contrast could help solve this problem.

At 0:17 there ought to be more space under the word “You.” As it reads now there is not enough breathing room and things appear cramped. The amount of space to the left of “You” is greater than the allotted amount underneath.

At 0:16 the text, “Your breath smells like crap!” isn’t justified exactly. Each line should line up.

At 0:21 the type treatment is a bit strange (italics mixed with thick strokes). There should be more uniformity. Also the kerning between the letters in “How” is too spaced out. And the type that runs along inside of the arrow extends too far. Instead of going all the way to the edge the artist might reconsider stopping at the arrow’s hard right angle.

At 0:41 the text “Breath stinks” is not aligned properly.

At 0:49 the “&” enclosed in the gray box draws too much attention for something that isn’t that important.

At 0:51 the text “On your tongue” seems tacked on and not placed/designed very well. There are smarter ways of integrating type with image here.

At 0:54 the screen goes away too fast for the amount of type that is contains. It would be helpful to slow down the pacing/transition for this part so the viewer gets a chance to read the information.

At 0:56 the ending is abrupt and the type “Does she” is the only thing on the screen right aligned. Maybe consider force justifying it with the other type to tie everything together.

Video Critique Number 4

Video Critique Number 4
September 24, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/11480679

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11480679" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11480679">We are all connected</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: We Are All Connected (from Vimeo)

1 Minute and 15 Seconds

In this video the artist’s main message is that things, no matter how different they at first seem, are really all the same and connected in some form or fashion. The concept carries through the entire presentation and the type and graphics accurately and meaningfully reflect it (they all have a role/purpose). The project itself is entertaining, sustains visual interest through great effects, good use of pacing (lots of dynamic zooms and camera angles), and attention to craft and detail. The combined use of illustrations mixed with typography and maps is a nice touch, adding multiple levels of hierarchy and information into the piece. Some of the images are a bit see and say but necessary in this case for the manner in which the artist is portraying her point. The style seems very appropriate, the informational hierarchy is easy to follow and understand, and over all the video is aesthetically pleasing and fun to watch. The sound effects are chosen well and further enhance the piece (especially in the intro with the walking footprints popping up on screen). In addition, the voiceover’s casual tone and lighthearted, matter of fact nature helps evoke the right response/feeling from the viewer.

There are not many things in this work that need fixing and those that do are minor, mostly dealing with better alignment. The quality of work is high and it is obvious the artist spent a lot of time fine tuning, constructing and deconstructing letters, and paid attention to time, space, and sound to make the work flow nicely. The feedback for areas of improvement are as follows:

At 0:01 the introduction screen could have larger type and the artists’ name would look better if justified with the title rather than merely centered (already close in set width).

At 0:11 “Is this” should line up with “Part” and there is a little too much space between “Part” and “Of.”

At 0:12 the slant of the “L” should be mimicked by the B in “Blanket.” The alignment looks awkward as it is now because we see a harsh vertical against an italics diagonal.

At 0:20 “Everything” ought to be aligned with “Nothing has been left out.” Optically this will look better when justified than as it is now.

At 0:33 the bulleted list needs to be centered vertically in relation to the picture drawing (there is more space beneath the list than above).

At 0:43 the placement of the type “Over here” seems forced/strange as it sits at right angles on a dotted line, creating weird gaps of negative space.

At 0:49 the “&” needs a better placement on which to sit than in the middle of a dotted line. Right now it looks tacked on (more consideration needs to be given to it).

At 1:00 the “Y” in “Exactly” and the “B” in “But” should align. The “B” currently extends beyond the natural threshold.

At 1:04 the words “Separate” and “Limited” should be paired up in alignment.

At 1:05 the serifs on the “T” would look better if aligned with the bottom of the illustration (again the artist seems to disregard some natural thresholds).

At 1:08 some things on the map lack any type in the middle of the connectors whereas others have it. There needs to be more consistency here.

At 1:10 the type would look better if there were not serifs on the lines linking “We are connected” (they seem odd and unnecessary).

Video Critique Number 3

Video Critique Number 3
September 17, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/album/248210/video/11321555

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11321555" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11321555">Kinetic Typography - Idiocracy</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/nhcampbell">Nathan Campbell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: Kinetic Typography – Idiocracy (from Vimeo)

38 seconds

This video is concept driven and done entirely through type. The story is intended to evoke a confused and frustrated state in the viewer. Basically there are two guys conversing. One of who is not listening to what the other has to say. The main voice sounds like a game show host as he tries but fails to figure out the name of the person he is talking to on TV. The way the artist goes about animating type is not see and say, but highly entertaining and captivates the viewer’s attention. Sound effects and voiceovers are done very well and certainly enhance the project’s message. The dynamic transitions, camera angles, and quick zoom in and outs help stimulate this interest and variety in the piece. The viewer can definitely sense the absurdity and the frustration of being ignored/labeled as just another face in the crowd (a mere number). In essence, the work confirms how the world has grown to be increasingly mechanical and impersonal.

Overall the piece is well crafted, the attention to detail is impeccable, the hierarchy of the text is legible, and there is a clear sense of what needs to be read first through change in type size and font. The pacing however could be slowed down at parts because it gets a bit difficult to read, especially towards the end when the text moves fast across the screen. However, this may be the intended purpose in which case it can be left as is. The color palette is far too quiet/muted for the message/tone. Rather than using a pale aqua, yellow, and red, the creator ought to bump up the saturation and brightness a bit to stimulate more of a game show feel and to accentuate the emotions being evoked.

Other suggestions are as follows:

At 0:02 there a bunch of gaps in the phrase, “As it appears on your,” which could be tightened, and it is confusing to have random phrases of words upside down when there is no repetition of this upside down type anywhere else in the work. Also the crossbar of the E in “Name” is not aligned with the crossbar of the T in “Current.”

At 0:10 the tracking between the words “Not Sure” is a bit too big. The gap could be narrowed a bit.

At 0:17 the space between the period after “Correct” and the “I” in “Is” is again too wide. Splitting up the word “Correct” into two lines seems strange too.

At 0:22 there is an awkward amount of negative space in the word “Not” and the bounding box it sits in. The “T” in “Not” should be aligned with the “D” in “Confirmed.” Currently it doesn’t line up with anything.

At 0:32 the gap between “Is” and “Complete” is far too wide in comparison to the width of white space between the words “Confirmation” and “Is”

At 0: 33 the “I” breaks away from the word “While” and makes for an awkward gap the rest of the time the word “While” appears on screen. This is true as well when the “A” breaks away from the word “Please” to form the word “Wait”. The artist ought to reconsider the transition sequence so that there aren’t missing letters within a word on screen.

Throughout the work the floating text that randomly appears on screen is also a bit distracting. It might be better to align them on a baseline or the background grid. Over all the work though the piece is strong and well executed.

Final DELL Video

DELL VIDEO for Critique 2

Video Critique Number 2

Video Critique Number 2
September 10, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11482829" width="400" height="338" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11482829">la biblioteca: two students explore alternative studying strategies for spanish</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

http://vimeo.com/11482829

Title: La Biblioteca (from Vimeo)

This video is about processing different kinds of information at once; in essence, how the brain can focus and make sense out of things as our eyes read one thing and our ears hear another. In this case we see English words on screen but we hear words spoken in the Spanish language. This constitutes for an interesting juxtaposition and an original concept. There is also a dynamic and pop art like quality to the piece, which is unique. The repetitive imagery of cameras and moustaches that appear on screen resemble an Andy Warhol silk screen. The transitions are fairly smooth, the music has a good, catchy beat, and the clip is entertaining to watch. Aesthetically it is well done but could certainly be tweaked a bit to make everything “pop” more. The ending feels a bit sudden/rushed though and there seems to be extra time latched on at the conclusion of the project (it concludes at 35 not 43 seconds). But the pacing works well and is easy to follow (not too rushed or slow) and the colors palette chosen is sophisticated and ties together nicely.

Some criticism is that there are far too many competing typefaces used in such a short clip, some of which don’t relate to the words being depicted on screen at all (randomly chosen). “Doll” and “disco” are the exact same size, color, and typeface, and yet have nothing to do with each other. A bit more manipulation could have occurred in the reconstructing/deconstructing of type and image rather than just having words slide in on screen. Also there is some evidence of see and say. For example, when the artist mentions a library, books are shown, and when he/she mentions disco, a disco ball appears. This could be avoided by using more interesting typography and other, less obvious illustrations to hint at the word being described.

At 0:06 the placement of the “is” appears strange because it enters the screen beneath the word “Where” from bottom to top when our eyes naturally read from top to bottom.

At 0:10 the word “spider” is not lined up with any threshold on the “Y’s” baseline (looks like the word is floating into space).

At 0:14 the phrase “big mustache” should have been aligned with the letter “r” in library
The placement of the phrase itself is confusing and lacks clarity (reads “is in big mustache” right now).

At 0:18 the word “Huge” followed by the tiny “little” is too stark of a contrast. The “little” gets lost altogether and is doesn’t remain on screen long enough for the viewer to notice the juxtaposition.

At 0:26 the leading needs to open up between the words Cameron and Diaz (far too tight right now and the words bunch together). Also “Diaz” is altogether too heavy in weight

At 0:29 there is an awkward negative space between the words “Yeah” and “Boi” and the big letter Z that it sits inside of. This could be fixed by aligning the type with a baseline and eliminating small gaps.

At 0:31, near the end of the show, the 2009 that runs across the screen is static/boring. Should reanimate it differently to leave a lasting impression. The texture is also a bit arbitrary (maybe do a mask and have one of the pop art images used earlier play as the text background).

DELL In Progress Video

Video Critique Number 1

http://vimeo.com/11480712

September 3, 2010

Title: Reservoir Dogs

This piece lasts for a good length of time, finishing at exactly 51 seconds. The subject matter centers on two men fighting over what color they want to be called at work and why some colors are more popular/better than others. Ultimately one of the guys is stuck with the name “Mr. Pink.” The concept is original and entertaining, the point is conveyed successfully, and overall there is a nice flow in pacing and transitions (not too choppy). The project is decently crafted without any typos (but there are small problems that ought to be addressed as mentioned below), and there are several dramatic zooms to keep the viewer’s interest.  The hierarchy is also successful because the typefaces and sizes chosen are legible and easy to follow (variety too). The pacing is slow enough for the viewer to be able to read all the text, but fast enough to make thoughts follow each other like in an actual conversation (good TSS). In fact, the pauses the artist has added into the presentation help create the casual, conversational tone. The artist didn’t resort to much see and say by utilizing a tie to represent different men rather than showing people in business suits. The typography is constructed and deconstructed in an appropriate manner also making the video fun to watch. Nevertheless, there are things to improve on including:

·       At 0:07 the narrator calls each tie by color name except for the yellow one, which he calls Mr. Blonde. There is a disconnect as to why the narrator doesn’t just say “Mr. Yellow” to keep things consistent.

·       At 0:18 seconds, the type between the big bold “A” is neither vertically centered or aligned with the A’s baseline (need some more attention to detail here).

·       At 0:23 there should be a change in type size, font, or color to separate the phrase “…Tried it once it doesn’t work” from “You got 4 guys…” because right now the two read together creating confusion.

·       At 0:26 – 0:29, when talking about “Mr. Black,” I think there are other visual ways to show the words interacting with each other that would be more visually compelling than simply circling around on screen.

·       Between 0:38 and 0:41 there is a very distracting and arbitrary brown dot scrolling across the screen. The dot appears to be a decorative element and doesn’t seem to fit in as part of the artist’s concept. The dot should just be removed.

·       At 0:40 there is an awkward space between the period after “Mr.” and the P in the word “Pink” as well as the period after “Mr.” and the P in the word “Pussy”. The extra white spaces should be tightened by tweaking the kerning.

·       At 0:51 “Mr. Purple” hangs off the left vertical axis of the “Y” instead of aligning to the right, which would look better (should take the spot the “is” is currently resting at). And once again there is an awkward space between “Mr.” and “Pink” that should be altered with tighter kerning.