Looking at some of the title sequence tutorials on videocopilot.net had me thinking of the art of the title sequence in general, especially because I know we're going to have to make one soon for class. I YouTube'd "best title sequence" and came up with this video. This guy sums up pretty well some of the best TV title sequences we've seen:
I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. Mad Men, Dexter, Fresh Prince, The Simpsons, etc. all have title sequences I would call "iconic". They take the quality and creativity of title sequences in TV to another level. Fresh Prince does it mostly through catchy music, but how can anybody deny a title sequence where almost everybody knows the lyrics to it's song front-to-back.
Mad Men in particular is a fantastic example of how a title sequence can use motion graphics and animation to display themes of the show beautifully. This video I found does a great job explaining just how much of Mad Men's themes are telegraphed in the intro:
As you may have noticed, I personally like to post about graphics / animation in relation to what is going on in the TV world. As we all know, the Oscars are Sunday night and two of the categories are directly related to our class -- best animated feature film and best visual effects. Although posting clips of each nominee and analysing them would be great, but it would such a long and tedious post // and I am tired and do not want to stay in much longer
Ironically, when I began searching for "oscars graphics" -- I found so many personal graphics reels from animators, named Oscar. This first one by Oscar Nofre created these animations all via After Effects. At :35. you can see the motion blur effect very present. At 1:47 you can VERY QUICKLY see the mask outline and opacity decrease. Overall, this fast-moving + up-beat + high intensity reel is so cool and it just shows that everyone and anyone can learn motion graphics and greatly develop skills to become this skilled.
Another non-Academy Awards "oscars graphics" reel is one by Oscar Garza. This producer seems to have worked at an NBC affiliate station, KXAN, and created their graphics. It seems like these kinds of images and animations are so simple, with basic vector movements and keyframes -- as if we could make have made something similar the third day of class!
Now onto the actual Academy Awards -- some real Oscar animation. I was slightly surprised when I could not find that many open or close animations. This featured one, from 2010 // the 82nd Awards, is great because it explores many lens flare effects and simple typing text that transitions into a bevy of film titles and numerous layers moving in and out
