Create your own animated title sequence

Concept Development

Brainstorm title ideas

Create a list of elements you want your title to include.

Think about the statement you want your title to make. Do you want them to support the themes of your film or to contrast them in a way that is pleasing and adds to the experience? Does the style call for something as simple as elegantly animated text that fades on screen, or does the style call for something that will take a lot of planning to execute? Now is the time to decide what your goals for the project are.
Research your animatic strategy
Create a summary of your animatic strategy.

Now that you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, it’s time to do the research. This is where I dive deep and ask myself what I know about my clients.
- What does their previous work look like.
- What are the themes of the piece that I will be doing titles for.
- What time period do I want to represent
- What imagery and style of movement will resonate with the audience and the film the most -how long does it need to be
- Will you be animating everything or filming some and then animating over live action
Sketch thumbnails for animatic
Now that you have a solid foundation of what you are aiming for, take out your pencils and sketchbook and start drawing out thumbnails. You may also start using photoshop or illustrator to explore your ideas. These drawings should take you hardly any time to do at all. The goal is to just get through several designs for your titles util you find the one that will work the best.

When you are done with your thumbnails, it’s time to put them in an animatic. Use photoshop’s timeline or drop your images into after effects to create your animatic and export.
Share your animatic
When you are done with your thumbnails, it’s time to put them in an animatic. Use photoshop’s timeline or drop your images into after effects to create your animatic and export.

Upload all video content to your youtube channel and post the links to your project page for all to see.

After Effects Basics and Animation Techniques

Create your project layout
As you layout your design and begin animation it is always useful to keep composition in mind. A useful starting point is to use the rule of thirds. After that, take a look at your negative space. Don’t hesitate to leave some breathing room in your projects. I personally enjoy a lot of space around my designs. Filling every nook and cranny of your workspace can make the view- er tired or overwhelmed. Thinking about your audience is always a safe bet in planning your animation.

If you feel like you need to create a border around your piece, that is a good way to keep ev- erything in line. If you don’t need a border, perhaps just turning on the action safe/title safe guides will be enough to allow you to create your own personal rules and guidelines for your piece.

Executing and Finalizing your Animated Sequence.

Create your final cinematic
Add the finishing touces to your final cinematic:

Take a look and make sure that all your timing and easing of your keys is just how you want it. Tighten down anything that you see is still a bit rough.

Remember that if something is not as you planned it to be that there might be another better way to go about accomplishing the look you want.

Export your project and post to vimeo/youtube and place the link in your class project page.

Additional Resources

Download Concept Development written lecture here.

Here are some great videos to get your juices flowing!
Lecture notes available here :

http://g.virbcdn.com/_f2/files/a3/FileItem-287758-eye_cathing_titles_week_2_lecture_notes.pdf

This link has all the AE short cuts in one simple page. They cannot be edited in the preferences so it's always good to have this handy.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WSCEBCDB03-0A9C-459e-873E-F5A10520F24A.html

Video inspiration

https://vimeo.com/56406550

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/tutorials/
Here is the PDF lecture notes from week 3.

Briana Yates

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