Concept development
Concept: 1970’s country/western animated lyric video
During the beginning of the project I was overwhelmed by the variety of options I could have progressed with, although I did know that I wanted to create a lyric video. I was originally split between two music genres, ‘60's-70’s country’ and ‘early 2000’s pop’. These ideas were guided by the brainstorm which I had first created. I used this brainstorm map as a guide and a starting point in my research and project ideation phase. I have settled on pursuing the country music genre. By picking a song I was able to conduct further research on the aesthetic that I wanted to produce within my video. The art styles of the time relating to country music have been explored, and current trending country music lyric videos have also been viewed in order to gather inspiration for my project. I enjoy the rough textures and handmade aesthetic that is incorporated into the visual style. I believe that by using these aesthetics to my advantage, I can create a deliverables that display expressive and engaging kinetic typography to the viewer.
Research
Brainstorming: In order to synthesise my design concept, I created a brainstorm spread where my thoughts and interests could be developed. As a result of this brainstorming session I concluded that I would like to produce a deliverable that incorporates a country and western aesthetic. This was the starting point of my project ideation phase.
Song choice:
Rollin' with the flow - By Charlie Rich (1977)
Inspiration
When looking for inspiration I have referred to a variety of country music album covers produced from the 1950s and onwards. I am inspired by the simplicity yet striking nature of the compositions. The 1959 Marty Robbins album ‘gunfighter ballads and trail songs’, displays great contrast and use of colour. The visuals seen within this album cover are striking yet so minimal, displaying the effectiveness of simple text and typeface weight.
Another album cover that inspires my style choices is the Charlie Rich album ‘American originals’. This particular album cover artwork uses a simplistic colour palette and assets that look to be hand printed. The typography included on this cover artwork varies in line thickness, height, weight, size, and colour. This is an aspect I wish to include within my project.
I want to include hand drawn/printed elements within my work that reflect the aesthetics shown in country music album artworks. Another visual piece that conveys this aesthetic is the Red Dead Redemption 2 cover art. This visual design work also draws upon old country and western movie poster design tropes as well as country music album cover art.
The textural elements included within George Strait’s ‘The cowboy rides away’ Lyric video will also be taken note of. Within this lyric video it seems as though a texture overlay has been added to give a rough and scratchy feel. This element also makes the video feel more authentically 'country'.
Another video that I gain inspiration from is the title sequence from the 2022 show ‘Candy’. This title sequence utilises animated text, and the assets throughout the video interact with the text to create a visually engaging piece that captures the audience’s attention. The text within this video creates movement and guide the viewers eyes around the screen, making the text more important than the images displayed alongside it. Although this work is a title sequence and not a lyric video, it still incorporates aspects that I wish to also include within my deliverable.
The lyric video for Taylor Swift’s 2017 ‘Look what you made me do’ intertwines both text and visual media very well. Creating a steady balance between motion-based text, and storytelling. The contrast and colour choices used within this video display a bold and attention capturing cinematic experience. Another aspect that this video displays positively is form, specifically distortion, and elaboration. Characteristics within the moving text include blur, rough textures, repetition and substitution, once again causing the viewer to look around the entire screen.
The music video for the Imagine Dragons song ‘sharks’ also includes great use of kinetic typography. This lyric video includes a variety of transitions and letter form characteristics, thus forming meaning and intonation throughout the video. The interaction between text and artistic assets once again engage the viewers’ attention.
Moodboards
The mood boards that I produced allowed me to explore the colours, textures and themes that I wanted to include within my final short lyric video. These boards were a continuation of my project ideation phase and helped me visualise the aesthetic that i wanted to follow.
Style guide
When deciding what colours to include within this task, it was determined that black, browns and blues would be included within the assets and artworks. Bright yellow will also be included to create contrast within some textual features. These design decisions will allow for a more ‘country and western’ aesthetic to be communicated. By including a consistent colour palette within this task, it is hoped that the video will be coherent and easy to follow as a viewer.
Storyboard
Through my storyboards I wanted to convey the general story that will be depicted within my video. I have focused on the ways that text will move across the screen, as well as camera movement, framing, and camera zoom. I have explored a variety of kinetic text techniques that will engage the viewers. These boards will guide the progression of the short lyric video.
Asset creation
In order to begin organising the video that will coincide with the text I first had to create visual assets. I began this by creating a list of ideas and visuals that I would like to see within the video, this list was open to change and further elaboration as I progressed through the task. These visuals relate to the lyrics that are song throughout the song.
Style frames
These frames were an experiment of how the final frames may look. These style frames were composed within Adobe Illustrator. Alignment, framing, balance and scale was explored within these images.
Ae process
In order to produce the lyric video, I formed the deliverable in multiple parts. I first began by exploring movement and timing through the creation of the animated background video. This video would then be utilised as supporting material for the moving type designs.
As the animated video was created before incorporating textual elements, I was able to gather an understanding of how Adobe After Effects generally worked. Some knowledge was also drawn upon through my experience when creating the appendix tasks.
When producing this lyric video, I split the production process up within four parts. This helped me work efficiently and it also helped me define the artistic direction that would be followed. I utilised my style frames to guide me when creating the first part of this lyric video. By using the roto tool and copying the image layer I was able to make the text emerge from behind the cowboy. I then explored text scale and movement. To create text movement, I viewed a tutorial video on YouTube. This specific video taught me how to make textual features and images move along a set path. This technique would be used throughout other parts of the video. I also viewed a tutorial in order to learn how to use the roto tool. When the text pans off the screen the opacity was reduced to create a smooth transition between the sequences.
Once again I utilised the roto tool to allow the text to emerge from behind the gun. This scene explores movement and scale as well as speed/timing. By enlarging the text and image assets, a zooming effect was achieved. I made the text move from right to left, the camera would then pan to follow the text off screen. This movement allows the viewers to cast their eyes around the entire screen and not just within the centre of the frame.
This scene shows a cowboy walking forward with different still frames, the background also moves with increasing size, creating movement and utilising scale. These elements engage the viewers. During the sequence I attempted to utilise different textual transitions. The text can be seen smoothly panning onto screen with a blur effect, and then displaying a wiggle effect. In order to learn how to create this text effect I viewed another YouTube tutorial, and changed some animator features to achieve the outcome that I believe to be the most effective.
The final sequence within the lyric video shows a tumbleweed rolling across the screen, in order to achieve this effect I explored settings within After Effects. I then found a YouTube tutorial which explained the outcome that I wanted to achieve. After creating the image animation, I rotoscoped the tumbleweed and applied a rotation effect to it. To create further movement within this sequence I decided to once again make the text follow a determined path at a slow pace. This path would allow the text to move in a rolling motion and pan off screen. The opacity of the text also decreases as it moves off the screen. Many settings and sliders were changed in order to create the final outcome of this sequence.
Final Video
Reflection
I have decided to produce a portion of a lyric video in response to the kinetic image and text task brief. My project incorporated a variety of approaches and design principles in order to form a consistent and interesting visual experience for the viewers.
When beginning the task, I created a brainstorm map and explored music genres and visual elements that I gained inspiration from and would like to work with. From here, I decided to create a lyric video for the 1977 country song “Rollin’ With the Flow” by Charlie Rich. The country genre was chosen to pursue as I believe that this would allow me to push my design abilities and also create a deliverable for a musical piece that I enjoy.
When conducting research, I referred to theories that were explored both during lectures and tutorials for example, time, space and type. I then studied the letterform characteristics such as depth, scale, movement and distortion as these characteristics would create meaning and capture the audience’s attention.
I explored art styles and colour palettes that suited the country genre, although when searching through country music lyric videos, it was difficult to find anything that included animated images and art styles that inspired me. Due to this, I referred to album cover artworks and other lyric videos outside of the country music genre. I believe that the art style that I incorporated into my deliverable fits the country aesthetic, although is unique as very little country music songs utilise animated images within lyric videos.
By creating a style guide, mood boards, storyboards, and style frames, I was able to work efficiently. This was because as these assets would allow me to follow a framework and project timeline. The style frames particularly allowed me to create the video efficiently as they helped establish the overall aesthetic and feel of the finished video.
Designs were formed by producing drawings and editing them through Adobe Illustrator. Many hand-drawn assets were created for this task. This process was very time consuming although I believe it had a positive impact on the video’s aesthetic.
A constraint that I faced was my lack of experience within After effects, although I aim to progress my knowledge further throughout the future. I viewed many online video tutorials via Youtube in order to further my learning within After Effects, this was because I have never used Ae before. As a result of this research, I learned knew techniques which I could apply to the type design. Such techniques included blurring, cropping, movement, depth, direction, rotation, rotoscoping and timing. These aspects ultimately facilitated the formation of a coherent and engaging lyric video
Appendix
Title Sequence - KIT boot camp
Celebrity Quote - KIT boot camp