grad603kinetictypography

[grad603kinetictypography]

Why I chose to have floating text

I wanted to add a slight wiggle to the text, as I wanted to make it look like the text was floating on the page. The reason why I did this was to reflect Jonah Lomu to this day, watching over his family and friends. Jonah Lomu had a strong belief and faith in God, and was quite religious. When he passed, a few of his family members would say in interviews that they knew that he was looking down on them like an angel, and watching over them, and taking care of them. Therefore, I wanted to create that similar effect, as if he is floating in heaven, and watching over all of us, especially his family.

I am have a firm and strong belief in God, and I would often say things like this about my Grandfather that recently passed away. Its always nice to know that the people close to you have passed are watching over you and looking after you every step of the way throughout your life.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Reflection on my Strengths

I’m really lucky to have been taught how to animate in high school, as well as being really confident with how to animate in first year of M&M. So coming into aftereffects with already prior experience with key frame and frame by frame, I was clear on what I wanted to do. I was able to lay out a clear and vivid idea in my head. I did experiment, but didn’t really struggle heavily throughout this project, only slightly. Although I am still learning, I was very adamant with where I wanted to go in my animation, and what ideas I wanted to portray. 

I didn’t encounter any massive difficulties or make any massive mistakes, as I was pretty confident throughout the progress of my work. I was able to work efficiently, while also being pretty satisfied with my work.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Changes I’ve Made to the Opening Scene

I have chosen to make the title of my opening scene Jonah. The reason why i chose to make it Jonah it because he is such an icon in this world today, that if someone were to just say the name Jonah, one would immediately think of Jonah Lomu, the legendary rugby player. As well as this, from my research, I found that there is also a book named Jonah, which is coincidentally quite funny and not planned at all!

[grad603kinetictypography]

Changes I’ve Made to Scene 3

Once again, I payed close attention to detail, and decided to turn the opacity down slightly just before it goes behind the goal post, to look as if it is floating away into the distance, similarly to like how Jonah Lomu is passed and went on his way to heaven like an angel.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Changes I’ve Made to Scene 7

I just made a super minor change, as I was trying to pay attention to close detail. I just squashed the AND slightly to create the bounce like effect, as it moved to the middle of the screen. Once again, I wanted to follow the principle of animation.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Changes I’ve Made to Scene 5 - Changing the Jersey

[grad603kinetictypography]

Closing Credits

Now looking at it, I think I may need to shorten the time that the text is on screen. But overall, I’m really proud with how this has turned out. I took inspiration from Raul Bass for this to create this effect, and to create a clean slick transition to introduce the next lot of text.

The ball flying across the air also represents Jonah Lomu’s position on field. As said before, he was the winger, meaning his position required to be close to the sideline, at the end of the line formation of men. Therefore, he would often be passed the ball quite often, far distances. 

The reason why I chose to have a white background as the ending of my animation, instead of having black was because I wanted it to resemble Jonah Lomu and his life being shortlived. He passed away at a very young age, but like all of his family had said, he is now in a better place. The white represents heaven and how Jonah Lomu is happy and healthy upstairs in heaven. It also represents the moment we (us people) close our eyes at the end of the day to rest, and we feel relaxed, calm and open-minded. We are able to finish our day in a positive and easy-going way, just like Jonah Lomu, as he was called to rest.

I also really like how this is the only scene in my whole animation where it has a white background. I think it provides a great deal of contrast with the rest of the animation, and help add that sense of optimism and happiness to the end of the animation, which is really appropriate and well suited to the overall concept I am aiming to communicate through this animation. 

[grad603kinetictypography]

Sketching up Ideas for Closing Credits

I recently watched a video on Youtube that came up in my suggested videos about Saul Bass and how he revolutionised the field of design. I then saw this animation he created and I thought it was really interesting. Although I didn’t dive deep into every single animation he has created, the video creator talked about some of his best animations so far. It went past one of a bird that sat on an egg as a transition and then got up off it, and introduced the next sentence of words which I thought was a really clever way to introduce a next set of text. I’ve already similarly done a little bit like this in a few previous frames of my animation but I want to try something maybe with a rugby ball in my closing credits? Because after all, it is about Jonah Lomu and his rugby career with the All blacks.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Edits I want to Make for Final Submission

- Easy Ease In & Out on all Text layers

- Consistency across Text Sizes

- Add Motion Blur to Moving Elements

- Pre-compose certain layers to reduce clutter, if possible

- Create more smooth transitions between each scene

[grad603kinetictypography]

Scene 10

I wanted to focus around motion in this, as I brought back the silhouette of jonah lomu running, the same one that I used in my intro for my animation. He was known as being a fast runner, as well as being incredibly strong, which is why I wanted fast motion at the end of my animation. 

[grad603kinetictypography]

Words I want to Hero

“AND FOR ME, I’VE DONE MY PART” - FINAL SEGMENT

- FOR ME - MY PART

[grad603kinetictypography]

Moving Forward into the Last Scene

Obviously I wanted the last few scenes to be really effective and deliver my idea/concept across. I also wanted them to sum up everything I had covered throughout my whole animation in just a few frames. In the last segment of the audio, Jonah Lomu says, “for me, I’ve done my part”. I want this part to be really strong and bold. I want the words FOR ME, I’VE DONE and MY PART, to all be on different pages to once again reiterate the bold and straightforward concept, thus delivering more effectively to viewers.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Hurdles I had to overcome when animating Scene 9

One of the main hurdles I had to overcome when animating this scene was using the ball as an animating transition. It was so incredibly hard to try and get the ball to wipe away all the text, and then get the next set of text to come in. At one point I did scrap the idea of doing it because I struggled so much to do it, but I’m glad that I persevered and managed to pull it off because I think it definitely did pay off.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Scene 9

Scene 9 Animation

KEY WORDS:

- WHAT ALL BLACK

- RUGBY

- IS ALL ABOUT

Taking inspiration from the principles of animation, as well as the Pixar animation, I removed the The and followed through with the text knocking back into place. I wanted to make sure that I was highlighting almost all of the words in this scene, as they are all quite important. Most especially the word ‘all about’, as previously discussed, rugby is all about friendship, teamwork, care, empathy and perseverance.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Transitions I want to Use

Although this isn’t really similar to what I’m doing, I did think of this iconic Pixar movie intro. I like how with this animation, the lamp eliminates a letter, but the rest of the animation goes on, like theres really nothing wrong. i really have always wanted to try something like that and try and eliminate a word within my sequence of words kind of like this lamp does in the Pixar intro animation. This is also a good example of inspiration, as it reinstates the principle of animation being squash and stretch, anticipation and following through.

[grad603kinetictypography]

Imagery I want to Use

I wanted to bring back the concept of the rugby ball in the first image, as I brought the rugby ball in when it came to key words, within my animation. Obviously, the word ‘rugby’ is quite important, as it is one of the main things that Jonah Lomu is known for. As well as this, the simple illustration of a rugby ball establishes the playful and casual side to Jonah Lomu, and how he would always be keen for a friendly game of rugby with family, friends or even team players off the field.

In the second image I created an image silhouette on Illustrator, of a couple of team players. The number ‘11′ is obviously Jonah Lomu’s rugby jersey number. I wanted to include a picture of rugby players, being captured in a moment of pure joy, happiness and relief, as this is what rugby is all about. It’s not about being rough with the other players or thrashing the other team, or tackling the other player the hardest. I think that rugby is all about teamwork, reliability, determination, friendship, trust and love. I think that it can be a place where people unite, and connect with people of all different ages and cultures. It’s also about making lifelong friends/family, and keeping them close to you, whether you’re on or off the field. Therefore, I wanted to use this image as it sums up rugby perfectly. We can see two team players in a moment of utter joy and excitement, hugging each other as a way of expressing their love and appreciation for one another after a long game of working and relying on one another.