This is a motion graphics piece focused on kinetic typography, inspired by and sampled from the comedy special called “Mostly Stories” by Tom Segura. It focuses on a specific bit that he performed about children being the worst storytellers ever and visualizing the content through a typographical standpoint. I am a part time Art Instructor at the McMichael Art Gallery of Ontario, I usually teach teens but when I get the chance to work with a smaller age group they communicate in this way which makes this piece meaningful.
For the voice of the comedian, he changes into three different personas which are: the narrator, him in the story asking the questions and him impersonating a child’s voice. Therefore, I wanted to represent and embody these different voices so I used different typefaces to express each of them. For his narrator voice I used Bree Serif, I thought it would be a nice and sophisticated font that suited the tone of voice. For him talking as himself (asking questions) I used a combination of the Passion, Calistoga typeface, I also used Bowlby One SC to visually enhance his voice. For when he imitates that child’s voice I chose the typeface called Luckiest Guy to visually represent the child’s voice. I thought this typeface did the job with its thick type and block- like lettering, almost looking like those alphabet blocks. I chose this font because I liked the thickness of the typeface and in the audio clip the child speaks really loud and boldly so I thought it was well suited, especially when used to fill up most of the screen.
For the audience clapping I decided to mimic the “wave of applause” by making the word “clap” flow on a curved line in the position of where the crowd would be, with the subtle “woos” in the background. While then adding the punchline when he says “Jesus” at the end of the clip. As for the colour of the overall piece, I chose to go with primary colours as well as some lighter hues of the same main colours because when you think of youth and children, you think of toys, primary colours so I wanted to give it that young, playful aesthetic to properly represent the overall tone and feel of the piece.
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Motion Design, Visual Storytelling, Kinetic Typography
Timeline - Winter 2020
Tools - Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
For this project, I chose to create an introduction sequence for the film festival Noir City which is held in San Fransisco. The reason why I chose this particular film festival is because, at the start of brainstorming I was heavily influenced by jazz music and originally wanted to do something along the lines of a jazz festival. Though I have to change my direction a little bit to make it more film influenced, therefore, I turned to the noir aesthetic and style of film making. I was drawn into the retro, black and white, mysterious approach I can take with this intro sequence. Usually, when people think of Noir films they think of the traditional whisky or cigars, as well as a detective / personal investigator types of Noir films, which was the route I ended up taking for my final project.
The Noir City film festival is that is held in San Francisco every year, the current dates for this year are January 24 – February 2, 2020, at the Castro Theatre. It is a ten-day event featuring 24 Noir films. Hollywood’s classical film noir period is generally from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. It showcases old restore films as well as featuring new films with the Noir film style. I wanted to create an introduction sequence that can capture the essence and aesthetic of the Noir City Film Festival, as well as elements inspired but the films.
I wanted to incorporate the traditional countdown timer in the bumper, I thought it would tie more of the different elements from the films. I kept the overall theme monochromatic with only using black, white and grey tones throughout the sequence. As for the hierarchy, I thought it would be more compelling to incorporate a little suspense with the overall look and feel of the bumper as well as leaving the title of the film festival for the end so it keeps the audience waiting as they are taking in all the other information. I started out with an introduction to the bumper with “the film noir foundation presents.” Then I go into some more details stating how many films and say there are of the festival, where its located, the dates, and then ending off with the title to wrap the sequence up.
For typography inspiration, I explored a bunch of fonts though I think the use of Roboto but mostly Blocklyn Condensed really fit and ties everything together. Also, I manipulated some of the fonts to look more textured than others to give it a more rustic feel. In Classic Noir Films, the viewer is usually following the “detective around” and following him throughout the film to solve the mystery, whereas, in my bumper, I am getting the viewer to follow the type information around the cityscapes to mimic the film structure. For the overall look and feel of the introduction bumper, the goal is to have the Noir film aesthetic and feel incorporating more of a narrative with the suspenseful detective theme while making it modern and fun.
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Motion Design, Visual Storytelling, Kinetic Typography
Timeline - Fall 2020
Tools - Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
This is my final designed book trailer of the book I chose called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. My thought process throughout the makings of this film fluctuated tremendously but ended with this piece as the final result. The film is inspired by the story of the book which this young boy embarks to follow his prophecy of discovering treasure in the pyramids of Egypt. The main focus and aesthetic of the film to mimic a treasure map and for finding purpose at the end of the road. The main message I want to convey to the audience about the book is the essence of metaphors and symbolism reflecting the real world, valuable life lessons through our journey as young adults through visuals and words. I also have a narrator throughout the film that quotes a very important passage from the book that talks about life and its journey of purpose. To never stop believing and to never give up on finding your “treasure.” This book is not about the destination but about the meaning of the journey.
Throughout my process, there has been a lot of change through the different scenes and keyframes that I was planning on doing. Though, due to time, I didn’t really get a chance to explore fully on the other concepts I wanted to pursue because the ones that I was already working on such as animating the eyes and map lines to move took most of my time. However, I really enjoyed the process of trial and error and really getting my hands dirty with after effects because it is a new tool for me that I haven’t really got a chance to explore with.
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Credits:
Narration Voice Over – Noel Mehretab
Background Music – Freesound.com
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Motion Design, Visual Storytelling, Kinetic Typography
Timeline - Fall 2020
Tools - Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
The word that I created for this word smash exercise is “Perstractive” which is a combination of the words Purity, Abstraction, and expressive. The words purity and abstraction are nouns where the word expressive is an adverb. I catered the word to be about an abstract design expo event promoting the works of young abstract design artist. With this wordmark in mind, I wanted to do a colour palette and very minimal abstract designs, closely related and inspired towards swiss and Bauhaus design. This exercise was a journey for me, finding and creating a new word with some restrictions was a challenge. I did a bunch of options and investigations trying to see what works and what doesn’t. Once I found my word, I started to plan and work in Illustrator for my visual concept and started to split up the files and layered to prepare into aftereffects. After Effect is still a working process for me but as for my concept, I wanted to stick to a more minimal, geometric abstract feel.
Overall, I really enjoyed this project, choosing and creating a new word was probably the hardest thing, I really got lost wit it writing a bunch of words all over my notebook. Originally I was going to go with “PERDERNESS” which is happiness, perfection, and wonderful but those were all nous and the name really flow together, which is why I went back to the drawing board that took about 2-3 days and then finally decided on the word “PURSTRACTIVE.” I had a lot of fun with creating the overall mood choosing colours and exploring which typeface to use. I really like this style of design and I’m happy that I got to play around and create something with it in after effects! I got the background music from Freesound.org which I think really ties everything together.
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Motion Design, Visual Storytelling, Kinetic Typography
Timeline - Winter 2019
Tools - Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
For this project, I wanted to do something a bit more different in terms of visual direction. With the given script of the exercise about the Health Mart Pharmacy, it talked and indicated a lot about locations. Therefore, I wanted to mimic the text in the first part to resemble like a map leading into the rest of the visuals. From there I played around with repetitive words to see if there are words that I can keep longer on the screen and some that I can change. As for the colour and mood of the overall product, I changed the colours from the original colour palette to more of the blues as well as more of a muted tone. The man’s voice in the audio was very deep and rhythmic and I wanted to reflect that with the colours as well as the typography itself. Using rounded edges and soft tones to relay the message clearly.
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Motion Design, Visual Storytelling, Kinetic Typography
Timeline - Winter 2019
Tools - Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
I had so much fun exploring and learning about the green screen and how it functions! I have never worked with the green screen before or even attempted this kind of filmmaking but it was extremely interesting to experiments with it and try something new! At the beginning stages of planning I had so many ideas but how to execute them was the struggle, also i didn’t want to take on anything too crazy because this is my first attempt. I am not the best with premiere and after effects but I am learning and with experimentation and exercise are the best way of getting there. Originally, I wanted to do the “devil and angel” on my shoulders but I left my devil horns at home so I decided to go with a mosquito or a “moe-squito” if you will (because I play the mosquito), that has landed on my shoulder and swatted it.
Throughout this whole process I really can to realize that planning and process goes a long way. That i need to plan my frames and background ahead of time so i have a direction. I feel like I jumped into the green screen a little to quickly because I was so excited but I didn’t confirm my background and i didn’t know the exact shoots I wanted to take. I really understand the value of taking time to plan a concrete ‘game plan’ so I can execute for exactly what I wanted to complete. However, i’m glad I realized this now so I can take the time in planning that I need to create for my projects to come!
Role - Visual Communicator, Motion Designer
Type - Visual Storytelling, Video Graphics
Timeline - Fall 2019
Tools - Photoshop, Premiere Pro, DSLR Camera, Green Screen
