Opening Credit Animations - Game of Thrones

In recent television shows, opening credits are becoming more and more animated rather than sequences clipped together of the actors and such. TV shows like Mad Men, Jessica Jones, and House, are well known animated opening sequences. One of my favorite animated opening sequences is Game of Thrones. The opening is two minutes long, in which it is shot from a raven's-eye view, scanning the map of the fictional land (Westeros) in which the show takes place. As the title sequence unfolds, it shows a 3D model of the cities rise from the ground. Portraying the buildings made from thousands of gears instead of brick and stone, like a clock had emptied itself and started to build a city with its pieces. The credit is runned by Angus Wall, and his company The Rock Paper Scissors, Group. What makes the opening sequence so incredible, is that it is always changing. The credit follow the storyline in the show, in which the map is always changing revealing what is going on with the war, reflecting the twisting plot. I thought this idea was genius when I first heard of it. The amount of time and effort that goes into just the opening theme is impeccable. If you have no yet seen Game of Thrones, I highly recommend checking it out, and pay close attention to the opening sequence, it reveals much more then you realize. 

Film Riot - Helicopter!

Although this effect itself isn’t all that complicated (or at least seemingly not too complicated), I find it to be very impressive.  The way the production team put this piece together is pretty spectacular!  I love the fact that they didn’t only show you what their (final) product was, but also how to do it.  This group, “filmriot” appear to have countless videos for how to add things to your production.  What makes this even nicer is that they show people who are ‘amateur’ film makers, aka low budget productions or the at home movie maker type of person.  On a side note, their intro sequence is phenomenal as well!  I love everything that they have going on.  I feel that they found a very good balance of too much vs too little, making it just right!  I really like this filmriot page!

Motion Graphics Project

When we got the details for our first project, I immediately started to think about all of the possibilities and options. I thought about my favorite shows that have amazing opening credits and thought of Misfits:



Obviously, Misfits is very very complicated and I wouldn't even know where to begin! I love the show and I love the animation with the combination of real footage and the text in the beginning but it would just be too difficult for a beginner like me. After a lot of thought I settled on the opening sequence for House.



I think it's a lot simpler and doable, but I could be wrong? I plan to change the opening sequence and call it "Watson" and replace the footage they have with footage from BBC's Sherlock. Let me know what you think!