Experiments

Typography Experiments

I'm not happy using 'Birth of a Hero' (Not Death of a Hero as I typed yesterday) as the grunge elements are repeated and look cheap so I have been experimenting developing my own.

The 2 fonts I have used are Futura (the condensed one) and Alte Haas Grotesk (the more rounded one). I really like Alte Haas because it's letterforms are big and chunky but the weight keeps it quite light and nice to read, Futura is better for copy rather than 'logo' type.

Screengrab from Illustrator artboard























Alte Haas Grotesk used on header







I think with a bit of tweaking (perhaps a bit too much grit around the letters) this typeface could be developed into an identity for any future design. I think the header may need a bit of a darker background where the type overlaps as the contrast isn't great with the chunkier letters.

Titles/Intro

I had the idea of the stylised lines animating onto the screen with some simple type smoothly 'typing' on, perhaps with some flickery elements to hint at the tense narrative to follow.
I did some quick sketches in photoshop to get an idea of what layouts and type might work with this idea.

I think a contrast to the main feature would be more appropriate than a crazy action packed title sequence, like I mentioned earlier this will build anticipation which is important in animation (one of Disney's rules), a recent example of the graphics greatly contrasting with the style of the film are the end credits of iron man. (click to watch a clip)

Quick initial ideas
















I think the second image in is quite interesting (I used the grungy futura whilst experimenting in Illustrator), and think the plain white type on black probably works the best. Simplicity usually is the key to effective design, so I think I'll stick with the black, white and maybe just a darker grey 'fluid' element.

I know how I could animate on the flowing lines one way, but it would take days with no sleep so I have posted a help request on mograph.net which is a great online motion graphics community with professionals from all around the world. Hopefully there is a more efficient way to create the effect in either After Effects or Cinema 4D (which I am also trying to learn)

The thread is here

So far the 2 responses have recommended plugins which I don't have:

'Have a look at Trapcode's 3dstroke for AE
http://www.trapcode.com/products_3dstroke.html
It'll let you do the lines fairly easily but you'd have to repeat for each line.
I'd imagine the best way to do this is with a 3d app though.' - Kas96

'Actually, 3D Stroke does have a repeater function to duplicate lines. But, if I were doing it in AE I'd use Form, as you'd be able to get a nice swooping / flowing organic effect. The Studio Daily tutorial actually covers this pretty well.

Granted, I'm not trying to squeeze $20 out of a student. If you have access to Form, I'd certainly help you out to get the effect you are looking for.' - Graymachine


These responses were both within the first 30mins of me posting so hopefully there'll be some ideas using the standard set of tools or in C4D (fingers crossed, otherwise it's 150 layers of lines and manual reveal paths :/ )

Oh I also uploaded my Shakespeare typography animation to youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX8I6P9mLEc

Research Images

I typed in Parkour and Freerunning into Deviantart to see if there were any visual styles for inspiration (there's a load of images now saved into the flickr account), there are quite a lot of grungy urban style illustrations, and some photos that are shot like skating photos.