MMc401.4 Motion Graphic Brief

Utopia

Utopia - An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

Dystopia - An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad.

Throughout history people have been searching for utopia. Everyone's view on the perfect world seems to vary. Although dreams of a perfect society have more than likely been around since humans could comprehend them. It was Thomas More in the 16th century that wrote the first idea of utopia. His idea was a self contained world on a single island. The communities that inhabited the island shared a common culture and way of life. 

Here is a image of More's Island of Utopia

Strangely enough some people of today have come up with a similar idea

A religious man by the name of Thomas Campanella had a different view of utopia. In his version of utopia religion and reason worked together in complete harmony. Many people believe in many different religions and share a lot of the same beliefs, although no religion agrees 100% with any other religion. Some religions share more similarities and get along better than others.  A utopia between religions is not very likely as a common collective ideas would have to be established. People in general are very much the same. A lot of people have similar ideas, values, wants, needs and requirements. Even with all these similarities everyone is unique and has a different view of perfection. Utopia is a balance for everyone and at this time that is impossible.

Utopia Survey
I surveyed people to see the variety of ideas and similarities between there utopias. The question was to describe utopia or a perfect world in nine words.

Person 1 - Peaceful, Beautiful, Peach blossom, Spring, Sounds of nature, Familiar faces, Love, Compassion, Contentment and piece of mind.

Person 2 - Love, Support, Gratitude, Compassion, Peace, Fairness, Equality, Sharing and light.

Person 3 - Warmth, Food, Health, Work and education for every one

Person 4 - Love, Food, Community, Passion, Health, Music, Laughter, Happiness and knowledge. 

Person 5 - Peaceful, Respectful, Plentiful, Calming, Warm, Bright, Colourful, Fun and love.

Person 6 - People, Food, Nature, Sun, Moon, Science, Religion, Art and honesty.

Characteristics of modern utopia

There are a few characteristics of a modern day utopia that are reoccurring. None of these cater to the whole population but seem to come up again and again.

• A peaceful government
• Equality for all citizens
• A safe environment to live
• Access to education, healthcare and employment
• A ready supply food and water.

Here are a few peoples views on what utopia should look like today

Is utopia deliberately impossible?

Utopia is not impossible but is so implausible that it may as well be. Although nearly impossible in this day and age the utopian dream does have its merits. It provides a dream, a yearning to create a better tomorrow for everyone.

"true utopia is inherently impossible. Attempting utopia is the surest route to dystopia"

However if utopia was achieved people would have no future to strive for. Everything would stop progressing and the world would become stagnant and boring. The concept of utopia takes away the diversity of life that makes everything so interesting. When i think of utopia i get a image of one big mechanism with everyone as a cog, monotonously living out there existence with no dreams left. Utopia ironically sounds terrible.

The conclusion i have come to from this is that utopia is impossible and for two good reasons.

• It keeps the dream alive that everything can be improved.
• If it was ever achieved life would have no meaning.

The Rubik's Cube

Concept

Many little cubes/ boxes with information/ideas written on/in them. These boxes give us a idea of one persons utopia. More people are added and therefor more ideas are added. Eventually these ideas/boxes form into a Rubik's cube. Each side of the cube represents a persons idea of utopia. The ideas get discussed bu the cube rotates its sections to try and find a combination that everyone agrees on. The cube ends up being a complete mess of colour, overloads and finally explodes.

Message

Utopia is a impossible dream as no one shares the same vision of perfection. Go out, live life, love now and be happy.

Rubik's Cube 

A puzzle in the form of a plastic cube covered with multicoloured squares, which the player attempts to twist and turn so that all the squares on each face are of the same colour.

Rubik's cube colours – Red, Blue, Green, White, Orange, Yellow

This is the western colour scheme of the Rubik's cube and is known as BOY, short for Blue - Orange - Yellow. The idea behind the colour scheme is that any side of the cube plus or minus yellow gives you the colour of the opposite side.

Yellow - Yellow = White       White + Yellow = Yellow
Green - Yellow = Blue            Blue + Yellow = Green

Orange - Yellow = Red         Red + Yellow = Orange

The side of each cube is 17mmx17mm and each block has a chamfer around the edges. This is used as a gripping point for people trying to complete the puzzle.

Plan

I plan to make all the 2D elements in illustrator, all the 3D elements in 3DS Max and then compose them in after effects.

Test Render Rubik's Cube

Amendments

• I attempted to have the cube made from three peoples ideas but the Rubik’s cube has 6 sides and the transition between 2D and 3D would not have worked. This is because each idea made up  cube instead of a face. This prevented the top of the cube from becoming another colour without adding a fourth person.

• The use of 6 peoples ideas was also a failure due to the time constraints of the final video. I feel to much time would have been spent building the cube. This would have resulted in a lot of repetition and the 3D animation part not having the time required.

The solution I have come up with is to have two peoples ideas form two sides of the cube. The other sides will be out of view due to the angle of the cube. The rest of the cube will come into view as the sides of the cube spin into chaos.

I was going to make the 3D cube from 27 cubes and have a multi/sub object material set to them all. The multi/sub object would have used 7 channels with black and the colours from the Rubik's cube. Each face on the box's was going to be assigned colour by Material ID.

To get the words on the faces i will use a multi/sub object for each cube. A bitmap of each face with the word on and colour on it will be used. A normal black material will still be used for the gaps and back faces.

Test Render of Text

Inspirations

Onwards Internet

The use of colour, 2D, 3D, stop motion and sound design in this piece come together to create a very pleasurable viewing experience. The video is fun from start to finish and uses many different mediums.

Design Creates motion

This video also uses many mediums and great sound design to create a entertaining video. The video is solely based around being creative and is itself just that. The sounds match the actions and do a very good job at portraying the mood the designer intended.

Previous Ideas

Two people dancing with each other with polar opposite ideas on there utopian perfection. Each person presents a idea and the other dances it away in the style of the person. One person could be a grey banker with ideas such as money, wealth and power. The other could be a green hippie with ideas such as love, peace and unity.

Here a similar example from Disney

Although I like this idea, alas my illustration skills are not on par with what I would like to create. Time would also be a major factor.

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Animatic MM401.5

An animatic is a preliminary form of an animated video, consisting of still images, sound effects, music and voice over. Some of the time the still images have individual elements detached and animated to emphasize actions within the scene.

Animatics are used to get the mood, sounds and scenes in place before the animation process begins. Illustrations, renders of 3D models, photos and digital art can all be used in the creation of an animatic. Editing an anmatic requires a lot less time than editing an animation with detailed drawings or 3D models. This gives the person or team more freedom to make changes and introduce ideas.

Animatic

Final Version

 

There are slight variations in sound and the animation of the final version from the animatic. We can see though, that most of the ideas came during the animatic phase. Everything was prelayed out and the main elements were there.

Animatics are used in most professional videos and movies. Iron Man, The Gorillaz, Despicable Me, Tron and The Avengers are a few examples of multimedia projects that have used animatics.

Motion graphics

Motion graphics are graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.

 

Stop motion, kinetic typography, frame by frame illustration, 3D rendered video and white board animation are all types of motion graphics.

 

Kinetic Typography

 

By definition, kinetic typography is mixing motion and text to express ideas using video animation. Complex kinetic typography or any animation for that matter, using After Effects, usually require a long preparation. Kinetic typography is also known as motion typography.

 

Kinetic Typography Example

This typography piece, created by Chris Crowl uses colours and images based on the content of the audio. Blue is used to represent the sea and a lighter shade for the text. Red is used to emphasize the word anger, and a greener variant is used to show another person talking. Whales and other sea related imagery are also used to enhance this and utilise the same lighter blue. Everything has motion blur and most of the movement employ the slow in, slow out method. This creates smoother and more real to life movement. The piece makes good use of Z space, adding a sense of depth and abrupt motion. The words move and shake to affirm what is being said. All of these elements make this a great kinetic typography piece. I plan to use these techniques in my final animation.

Royalty Free and Free Music / Sound Effects

 

"royalty free music refers to music from a production music library that is licensed for a one-time fee, rather than paying royalties each time it is used in a production or when it receives airplay.". (OPUZZ, 2014)

 

Royalty free music websites are a good place to get music and sound effects. They can be used as an easy way to get ideas and layout the sound of a piece. Instead of paying for each use, it is a one time payment and then you have access to use the sound(s). 

There are many websites that offer free music and sounds, made and shared by members of the site, such as Freesound. Freesound has been a contributing resource in the sound pallet of my animatic and has provided a valuable foundation for creative development.

Colour

I have picked the blue and red sides of the cube as it is the best contrast between warm and cool colours available on a Rubik's cube.

 

 

Changes and Improvements (Storyboard)

 Music

• The background music has been replaced. The sound effects did not line up correctly and the correct mood was not being achieved.
• Everything in the animatic has been edited to be in time with the music.
• Sound effects have been removed and replaced with musical elements.
• The percussion elements have been introduced sparingly to highlight key actions on screen.

Visuals

• The background was replaced from a light brown to dark brown ramp to a plain black background. A plain black background helps creates a contrast between the background and the foreground components, which utilise the colours.
• The person's thoughts are represented by boxes lighting up. The word fly's from the front of the screen to the back of the screen. This replaces the words being on the boxes and the box coming from the persons head.
• Arrows have been added to show the camera zooming in and out.
• Glow has been added to the completed sides of the cube. This represents a completion of thoughts.

 New Visuals

Wording

• The word "utopia" has been added.
• "Now let's bring in a friend" replaced with "What about their friend?". This question directly addresses the audience. Designed to stimulate engagement.
• "Now let's add some more opinions" replaced with "What about something more?".

I want the person or persons watching the video to cast themselves as the main character. Therefore when a friend is bought in i would like them to think of one of their friends. The message of the piece is to create a sense of experience, journey and provoke thought. This is the main reason for the rewording and goal of the video.

Inspirations

DJ Fresh - The Looking Glass

The music used in "The Looking Glass" sets a great scene for the narrative. It's portrayal of emotion is very relevant to what is being said and assists the narrative. It gives the audience cues in relation to the feeling of the piece and evokes the correct emotions.

The narrative in turn compliments the music and together they take the viewer on a journey.

Mykeythemusic - Fantasia Fairies

 

"Mykeythemusic - Fantasia Fairies" gives the viewer a audio representation of what is going on, on the screen. The childlike nature of the fairies has been expressed with child like vocals. The old man sharing his knowlage about the world builds a family like bond between the two sets of characters. Little sound effects have been used and most of the narrative has been driven by melodic content. The music tells the viewer everything the video does not. The use of sparkly sounds represents the fairy dust, Fairy movements are represented by strings 

 

References

 

Anon'. (2014). Benefits of Using Royalty Free Music. Available: http://www.opuzz.com/music-benefits-royalty-free-music.asp. Last accessed 7/11/2014.