ANI 260 Motion Graphics
Summary
ANI 260
MOTION GRAPHICS
Fall 2013, Todd Mattei
tmattei@cdm.depaul.edu
This course is a project-intensive course that will introduce students to techniques and concepts around expression and communication using motion graphics, including its application in the areas of film titles, broadcast and commercial design, interactive media, and to some extent, gaming. The combination of music, visuals and typography will be explored following the basic theories of kinetic composition and aesthetics. Students will study the history of the field, including the work of pioneers such as Norman McLaren, Saul Bass and Len Lye.
Students should have a solid knowledge of the following subjects by the end of this course:
Enhanced knowledge of the use of After Effects, Photoshop, and integration of production and post-production using the computer
Graphic editing techniques
Music and the moving image
Creating meaning through moving text and abstract moving graphics
Your grade will depend on the following criteria:
Inventiveness and originality ? a heavy emphasis on experimentation
Be interesting ? your peers will judge the most interesting projects, make sure yours stand out
Meeting Project Deadlines: It is important to have your work available for critique- work unavailable for critique will be lowered one full grade.
Creativity and personal input into execution of project
Coming prepared to class, including assigned reading and assignments
Showing in-progress work, which can benefit from suggestions, rather than only presenting entirely new work at critiques
Effective, visually aesthetic solutions to all problems assigned
Technique
Hard work and sweat
Participation in critiques and discussions
This class is project-based and work-intensive:
All assignments and grades will be listed on our Course Online site: https://col.cdm.depaul.edu
All projects will be submitted for critiques. You will submit these through Vimeo so you need to register for an account. Final versions of projects need to be turned in as QuickTime movie files to COL and uploaded to Vimeo
NOTE'*I may, at times, need to make changes or additions to the material in class, verbally. If I make such a change, and you are not there
or you are not listening, you are nonetheless responsible for the information I have given.
Equipment:
You will need a portable external hard drive for the class. You should, as an animator and film maker in the digital age, be making a habit of keeping your media together and organized. You are responsible for media that you use on your computer, during class time.
Required Texts:
Texts: Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics by Jon Krasner. Focal Press, 2008.
And either:
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Harvest Books, 1976. Available in libraries, used bookstores, Amazon, for around $10 or even less.
Or:
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. Harvest Books, 1982.
Or:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Mariner Books, 1978.
CALENDAR
SEPT
TH 12 Intro, etc. 'Countdown Assigned, READ CHAPTER 1Motion Graphic Design
T 17 thumbnail presentation due, AE intro
TH 19 READ CHAPTER 2 MGD
T 24 Countdown Due uploaded to VIMEO for class viewing
TH 26 '*Comedic TIming Assigned, READ CHAPTER 3 MGD
OCT
T 1
TH 3 READ CHAPTER 4 MGD
T 8 Comedic Timing Due uploaded to VIMEO. Read "The Natural" handout for next class
TH 10 '**Low Fi and Crafty Assigned, READ CHAPTER 5 MGD
T 15 Quiz # 1
TH 17 READ CHAPTER 6 MGD
T 22 Low Fi and Crafty Due
TH 24 Instructional Assigned, READ CHAPTER 7, MGD
T 29 YOU SHOULD HAVE PICKED and BEGUN READING ONE OF THE CALVINO TEXTS by NOW!!!
TH 31 READ CHAPTER 8, MGD
NOV
T 5 Intstructional Due
TH 7 READ CHAPTER 9, MGD, Calvino Response-Paper Due
T 12th CALVINO Storyboards Due
TH 14th Quiz # 2, READ CHAPTER 10, MGD, work time
T 19 work time
CALVINO PIECE DUE NOV. 25th.
GRADES:
Projects 1-4: 40%
Final CalvinoProject: 20%
Quizes: 20%
Class Participation: 20%
Assigned Projects:
1. COUNTDOWN:
Your goal is to create a backwards countdown, from 10 to one, in which each number is stylistically different than the last.
THUMBNAILS (presented to class on Tues Sept 17).
This project is conducted by a team of 2 students. Once the team is formed, brainstorm a list of varied ideas for presentation of numbers, in the following categories:
? Style
? Material
? Method
? Cultural influence
? Visual objects
The goal is to come up with unexpected combinations that are interesting, using skills and techniques that you already possess (if you are mainly confident in drawing, bring that to the table. If you also do photography, use that, or video, or digital illustration, or what-have-you. You are also encouraged to explore outside your technical or material comfort-zone). The visual styles you choose should appeal to you in one way or another.
Combine these influences/styles/methods to come up with thumbnail ideas for your countdown numbers. Create/render these on paper for presentation in class. Medium is up to you, but they must be physical so we don't require a computer for viewing. Try to come up with ideas that are totally different from each other. Share ideas as a team and give suggestions. You want quality and quantity, more than 10 if possible. Visual appeal is important, not just randomness. You don't want me (or anyone else) to say that your ideas are boring, or to brush past them during class.
FINAL
Work with your partner to narrow down your style/material/method choices to 10. Try to make every choice as different from all the rest as possible. Divide up the choices so you each get 5, and then assign to alternating numbers (one person should do 1, 3, 5..) Each person is responsible for their own set, but you are encouraged and allowed to work together on the entire project. HAVE FUN, experiment.
The goal is to come up with unexpected combinations that are interesting, not just different. The visual styles you choose should appeal to you in one way or another. Edit them and render them out, using After Effects.
Technical restrictions: approx. 10 seconds long, counting backwards, 720 x 480 Quicktime H.264 or MP4 compression, 30fps, posted to Vimeo and submitted as a file to COL or to me. Projects which don't meet these specs will be downgraded at least one full grade. SOUND is a plus, but not essential.
Grading criteria:
Experimentation
Appeal to an audience (judgment of your peers and me)
Creative, unexpected solutions
Difference of styles/materials/methods
Amount of effort/polish - 300 frames of perfection
Visual composition throughout each piece and entire countdown
Sound
++++++
2. Comedic Timing:
PART 1
Timing is essential to motion graphics, and all time-based media. In comedy it may be even more critical, and we all know whether a joke "works" or not. This project challenges you to combine text, design and timing to create a visually interesting and funny video. You can learn a lot about timing from great comedians, so here's your opportunity.
Assignment: Tell a joke using only text. No images that aren't letters. Make the end result as funny as possible, but also make it visually interesting, unexpected and well-designed. You can use music and sound, but no spoken words. You have some freedom with length: it should be close to :30, but it can be :20 to :40.
Your challenge is to combine these in a way that exhibits:
Experimentation: creative, unexpected solutions
Appeal to an audience (judgment of your peers and me)
Amount of effort/polish
Excellent visual composition throughout
Follows the technical requirements of the project:
720 x 480 QuickTime movie, h.264 or MP4 compression, 29.97 fps
Approximately 30 seconds long, no longer than :40 or shorter than :20
Uploaded to COL and Vimeo, added to Vimeo group video section
Fulfills the Agency Assignment: FUNNY
Step 1: Find :30 video or audio of a professional comedian telling a joke that you think is funny. It better be, because your project depends on it. It shouldn't use obscenity or be objectionable, keep it mostly clean please.
Step 2: In After Effects, use the audio as the timing track for your joke-match the words on screen to the timing of the spoken words (you won't use the audio in your final). Pay attention to the phrasing and emphasis, and try to emulate them visually using timing, composition, color, scale.
Original audio due Tues. Oct 1 : either as an audio file or movie
ROUGH CUT
Thur., Oct 3. Rough version due for initial feedback. remove original audio
Upload to Vimeo and COL before class.
FINAL
ACTION and TITLE SAFE: make sure you pay some attention to these guides when placing your text. It shouldn't be too close to any edge.
YOU MUST INCLUDE SOUND, but NOT the audio of the joke.
Final joke due Tues, Oct. 8: Upload a copy to COL and to Vimeo.
++++
3. Low-Fi and Crafty:
Read "The Natural" chapter from "Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic" by Daniel Harris. Think about how images of ecology, the environment and natural are communicated in advertising. We live in a high-tech society, yet there is a longing for a more natural world that doesn't (and probably never did) exist. There's also an eternal appeal for hand-crafted media in our age of slick computer images. This project connects these two ideas into one spot.
?The Natural? REFLECTION PAPER
Read "The Natural" chapter from "Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic" by Daniel Harris. Think about how images of ecology, the environment and natural are communicated in advertising. We live in a high-tech society, yet there is a longing for a more natural world that doesn't (and probably never did) exist. There's also an eternal appeal for hand-crafted media in our age of slick computer images.
Write a one page reflection paper to this chapter. What does it mean to YOU? Hand in printed, stapled in class.
RESEARCH
Find 3 GOOD video examples of the hand-crafted low-fi aesthetic being used in commercials. They should be distinctly different from each other in style and execution.
Submit URLs for you 3 examples in Email
STORYBOARD
Agency Assignment:
Create a :15 sec. corporate tag that re-imagines a company in a more "green" image. Use whatever techniques necessary to give your project the feel of being hand-crafted, non-tech, and low-fi. Scan the media for methods that are being used to this effect: textures, imagery, colors, etc. The spot needs to end with the corporate logo visible and legible for the final 3 seconds, PLUS 3 SECONDS OF YOUR FINAL FRAME (this results in 18 seconds total). Use sound.
Your challenge is to combine these in a way that exhibits:
Experimentation: creative, unexpected solutions
Appeal to an audience (judgment of your peers and me)
Amount of effort/polish
Excellent visual composition throughout
Follows the technical requirements of the project:
720 x 480 QuickTime movie, h.264 or mp4 compression, 29.97 fps
EXACTLY 15 seconds long, not one frame shorter or longer, with 3 seconds still of your final frame (no sound for the final 3 seconds. Total 18 seconds.
Uploaded to COL and Vimeo.
Fulfills the Agency Assignment: hand-crafted, showing that the company/product really cares about the environment
Storyboards
Submit a 4-10 panel storyboard as a PowerPoint, showing your plan for the spot and the method you plan to use. The storyboard panels should be in horizontal format, showing a border. Thurs. Oct. 10
IN-PROGRESS CRITIQUE
Thur., Oct. 17
POLISH!!
Take the suggestions from class on Thursday and make your project FANTASTIC! Add polish and detailed animation.
++++++
4. Instructional:
To be assigned later in the term, according to the dynamic of the class.
CALVINO FINAL PROJECT:
CALVINO ANALYSIS
Read:
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Harvest Books, 1976.
Or:
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. Harvest Books, 1982.
Or:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Mariner Books, 1978.
Write a 1.5-2 page paper that analyzes one of these books by Italo Calvino. What does he achieve in writing that is unique to that medium? Why do you think that Calvino has been cited as a creative influence by many visual artists/designers? What parts/aspects of the book do you find most interesting? What are the challenges of translating this kind of work into a visual medium? What would you focus on in creating a video inspired by this book?
Printed and stapled paper due in class
STORYBOARDS
Agency Assignment : create a one minute (approximate length) title sequence that will lead into a film adaptation of one of the two books by Calvino. Your final project needs to reflect what's different and interesting about Calvino's literary style, translated into a visual time-based medium. It should target the type of person who might find Calvino of interest. It must clearly communicate a real URL that the viewer should visit to either find out more or purchase the book. After watching your project, and be in the right mindset to watch the film. It needs to be interesting and grab our attention.
Start by researching titles on Art of the Title. Notice the way that color, type, texture, and layout are used in pursuit of an aesthetic. Pay attention to the way the still frame-grabs can be read as a series of compositions. You should be thinking about moving from one strong composition to another.
Your final project can be created in whatever method you choose, but must be able to be viewed online and also be submitted to COL in a file that I can archive.
Your challenge is to combine these in a way that exhibits:
Experimentation: creative, unexpected solutions
Appeal to an audience (judgment of your peers and me)
Amount of effort/polish
Excellent visual composition throughout
Pays attention to safe areas
Demonstrates motion graphics principles emphasized in this course
Follows the technical requirements of the project:
30-60 Seconds Long.
Uploaded to COL and online (Vimeo, YouTube or website)
Incorporates sound
Fulfills the Agency Assignment : communicates Calvino's literary style through motion graphics, introduces the film.
Storyboards due Thursday, Nov 7 must be clear and visible, needing minimal explanation.
IN-PROGRESS CRITIQUE
Submit on COL or Vimeo for discussion in class
FINAL
Your final project can be created in whatever method you choose, but must be able to be viewed online and also be submitted to COL in a file that I can archive.
Textbooks and Printed Resources
Prerequisites
Grading
Online Teaching Evaluation
Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely separate from the student?s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation. Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect at External Linkhttp://campusconnect.depaul.edu
Email
Email is the primary means of communication between faculty and students enrolled in this course outside of class time. Students should be sure their email listed under "demographic information" at External Linkhttp://campusconnect.depaul.edu is correct.
Academic Integrity Policy
This course will be subject to the faculty council rules on the External LinkAcademic Integrity Policy
Plagiarism
The university and school policy on plagiarism can be summarized as follows: Students in this course, as well as all other courses in which independent research or writing play a vital part in the course requirements, should be aware of the strong sanctions that can be imposed against someone guilty of plagiarism. If proven, a charge of plagiarism could result in an automatic F in the course and possible expulsion. The strongest of sanctions will be imposed on anyone who submits as his/her own work a report, examination paper, computer file, lab report, or other assignment which has been prepared by someone else. If you have any questions or doubts about what plagiarism entails or how to properly acknowledge source materials be sure to consult the instructor.
Incomplete
An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the College of Computing and Digital Media. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.
Resources for Students with Disabilities
Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that you contact the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Student Center, LPC, Suite #370
Phone number: (773)325.1677
Fax: (773)325.3720
TTY: (773)325.7296
This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L and sent via email.
Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course
content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The
evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely
separate from the student’s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation.
Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect.
This course will be subject to the university's academic integrity policy. More information can be found at http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/ If you
have any questions be sure to consult with your professor.
All students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of Academic Integrity.
All students are required to manage their class schedules each term in accordance with the deadlines for enrolling and withdrawing as indicated in the University Academic Calendar. Information on enrollment, withdrawal, grading and incompletes can be found at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/PoliciesandProcedures.aspx.
Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that
you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296