YSDN 4002 Type in Motion Project 1: Word Play
Chosen Word: Culture
Introduction
For our first project, we were assigned to create a stop motion animation technique of a word (from a selection of words) that effectively captures and communicates its meaning with found objects.
Brainstorming Process #1
First, we research some of the given words by looking up the definition that may give us ideas and concepts to play and manipulate with. After thoroughly discussing each word, we went with the word Culture. We were thinking if we should do a worldwide culture but might be too challenging and broad, and thus we narrow it down to Canadian Culture.
Rough Cut Part A
In the first round, we brainstormed ideas that associated with Canadian Culture, such as the logo of Tim Hortons, the most popular restaurant chain in Canada, Totem Pole, representing the Indigenous culture, and CN Tower, a signature icon of Toronto skyline. As you can see, they all start with the letter “T,” and the images roughly shape the letter “T.” While the rest of the letters are in different typefaces representing diversity as Canada recognized one of the most diverse countries in the world. Also, we did a background white to keep it simple and minimal hence the word Culture can be read clearly.
For the animation part, as you can see, the first image above, the word culture presented in different typefaces. Next, we slowly moved the Tim Hortons logo downwards from the top to replace the letter t. Then, the letter t slowly moves down further and eventually disappears. We did the same process for the totem pole and the CN Tower. The rest of the letters were playfully interacting with each other.
Critique #1
For our first critique, our prof liked the concept and thought we were on the right track. However, he would like us to explore the rest of the letters and incorporate more ideas that identify as Canadian culture. Also, the colour scheme-wise, instead of doing black and white, we should explore a range of colours.
Brainstorming Process #2
With the critique we received, we went back to the drawing board and developed ideas for each letter that represents Canadian culture.
After finalizing, these are the concepts we came up with:
C- For the letter “c,” we thought of the cold weather concept as we Canadians experience extremely chilly and cold weather in a longer period. We decided to add the icicles, the snow gradually growing into a big pile, and the motion of snow falling.
U- The letter “u” looked like a bowl, so we decided to do a bowl of poutine, an iconic Canadian dish.
L- The letter “l” roughly resembles a hockey stick as hockey is a Canadian sport and also representing the Toronto Maple Leafs team.
T- For the letter “t” we did the totem pole symbolizes as the Indigenous culture.
U- We did the letter “u” as a basketball net and the motion of the basketball going into the net representing Toronto’s basketball team, Raptors and their championship in 2019.
E- Lastly, the letter e as “eh?” typically used at the end of a sentence in place of the word “right.” For example: “It’s pretty cold out, eh?” Also, the word “eh!” in this connotation expresses excitement with extended h’s.
Other ideas we had were maple syrup, our politeness, universal free health care, and drink from bagged milk.
Digital Storyboard
We created a digital narrative storyboard on Illustrator to help us have a clearer understanding of how the stop motion video may play out.
While we were creating the digital storyboard, we realized that when we put the letters together, the background colours look like the pride flag, as Canada is openly welcome and supports the LGBTQ community. Although the colours are not in the right order, our idea was to switch the colours to where they belong at the end of the video, but we had difficulties on After Effects and didn’t have enough time.
The Process of Creating the Stop Motion Video
Final Part A
This is our final video for part A. We were pretty content with how it turned and amazed by how the motion moves so fluidly!
Thought Process Behind the Motion
For the motion, we were trying to be creative yet realistic throughout the sequences.
Our thought process behind the motion:
The wind from the first segment blows to the direction to the next segment. Then the wind appeared as steam coming from the hot poutine. The wind comes through, and the hockey stick hits the puck and flies to the next part. The hockey puck passes behind the totem pole and turns into a basketball. The basketball flies to the next piece and shoots through the basketball net. The basketball hits the letter “r,” and the Mounted Police look up and sees the basketball. The basketball hits the letter “e” passes through and turns into the dot of the exclamation mark.
Critique #2
We made minor adjustments based on the feedbacks from the second critique. We toned down the background colours as it was too saturated and straighten the word culture. We also fixed the hat on the letter “r” to look more like a Mounted Police than a woman on horseback riding.
Rough Cut Part B
In this rough cut video, for the audio aspect, we found sound effects according to each letter and their motion. Unfortunately, transitioning the sound effect from one letter to the next smoothly was quite challenging on a consistent level as they all have different styles, texture, and tonality. We tried utilizing the fading in effect but sounded like there were blanks in-between. If we had more time, we believe that we would have successfully executed the audio better.
Final Part B
In this final part B, we tried a different approach for the audio. Our prof thought that our video looked more musical, therefore, we found an upbeat Canadian national anthem remix version on Youtube that may play well with the type animation. With minimal adjustments on After Effects, we were trying our best to match the beat flow accurately with the type motion. Also, at the beginning of the video, we did a white background that appeared as a snowstorm then fading into the next part. We tried to incorporate the snow flakes falling from the beginning but looked too invisible. We also ended off the video (in the credits part) with the white background again to keep the unity.
Link to the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN05spFqodY
Reflection
Overall, we learned how to construct each letter that effectively communicates the meaning of the word while maintaining legibility and readability. This project was challenging its ways, but we enjoyed shooting the sequences and have the opportunity to let us familiarize working in After Effects. If we could further improve this project, we would have gone back and fixed the audio (the rough cut part b video).
