As I complete another week of learning about motion design, I tackled three more chapters in Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling. Here are my key takeaways:

Storytelling

With animation, storytelling has no limits. And because of that, “the great challenge is more about disciplining yourself to reel it in and be intentional” about it.

To begin organizing a story, a three-act structure can be used to create the foundation:

• Knock-knock jokes nicely illustrate the three-act structure.
• Act 1 is for introducing characters, establsihing what they want, and introducing a problem standing in their way.
• Act 2 is where the character tries to overcome the problem
• Act 3 is the resolution

Nonlinear story structure is not sequential, chronological, or straightforward: Identify a point of departure, like a sound, image, or idea that you find powerful enough to build around it.

Nonlinear Story Structures:

• Book Ending: End the story right where you begin
• Beaded Necklace: Use audio to hold all other elements together. Sound is the string holding it together.
• The Countdown: Create an upwards build until the end without any de-escalation. Elevate each beat a step higher.
• The Puzzle: Purposefully keep audience in the dark about certain information. Reveal it piece by piece until the big picture is clear.
• High Concept: Big Idea takes center stage above characters. The premise/hook drives the structure.

Timeless Plots

• Good vs Evil / Overcoming the Monster
• Rebirth & Redemption
• Coming of Age
• Quest / Journey / Voyage & Return
• Buddy Stories
• Love Stories
• The Rebel
• Ship of Fools
• Role Reversals
• Rags to Riches

When finalizing a story concept:

• Make sure the conflict is clear and see if you can reveal it earlier in the story.
• Start later: Get rid of as many early/backstory points as you can
• Biggest secret: Follow your character around and see what their secret is.
• Get Graph-y: Man in hole, boy meets girl, from bad to worse, Cinderella, creation story, Which way is up?

Experimental forms: Visual music, pure poetry, repetition/evolution, continuity/diversity, anthology, cut it out and play!

Storyboarding

• Thumbnailing: rough sketches of your storyboards. Then revise and repeat.
• Rule of Thirds: helps keep framing dynamic

A Bit of Research

This week, creating an introduction video in After Effects is my task. Before beginning, I found a few videos to take inspiration from.

The first video I came across is the one above about the history of Halloween. I enjoy the slow pan of the background video with framed videos appearing in unison with the audio. The transitions in this work are very smooth!

The next video is strong with syncing the text to the music and voiceover audio. This attention to detail is what sets good videos apart from great ones.

The interplay of typography and graphics immediately caught my attention. This treatment creates a unified work that is almost mesmerizing to watch.

This video lines up audio, graphics, and video so nicely that no place feels choppy. The video truly runs all together as one unit.

My Turn!

Below is my introduction video created in After Effects. Starting the project was pretty daunting due to the software’s slightly overwhelming first impression, but watching tutorials of others starting a project and working through it in real time was immensely helpful. I started with gathering most of the files I would need, besides a few I decided to add in after getting started. I recorded my voiceover with Audacity, which was an intuitive and user-friendly recording app. Once I had all my material together and uploaded into my composition, it didn’t feel so daunting! I laid down my background music and voiceover first, then adjusted the volume levels for both. Once this was established, plugging in my images and videos was the simple part. Overall, I really enjoyed using After Effects and am confident I could successfully use it again in the future!