After Effects Tutorial: Particle Text Effect

I've been looking for a lot of After Effects tutorials that would give me cool text effects and give me lots of options for customization. This is a nice one that I found by Morocco that uses a particle effect--but I found that it could be altered to fit any other type of aesthetic.



I really like the style of this tutorial--it feels very modern and fresh but extremely customizeable. It's a good resource, especially since we've been dealing with a lot of text. Morocco's channel also has a lot more tutorials that deal with particles and logos and such.



If you want to explore more, definitely check out his Youtube channel--he has Photoshop tutorials as well as After Effects that are just as good.

Logorama

This short animated film is directed by a group who calls themselves H5. Although it’s 16 minutes I highly recommend everyone to take some time out of their night and  watch this. It won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short film and won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Immediately the first thing you’ll notice is all the different logos. In total, this movie used 2,500 different logos/mascots. The extensive use of these logos is a statement of what our society is becoming or what will come. We are run by these major corporations whether we realize it or not. The main characters in this film are all logos from different companies and of course the evil character is Ronald McDonald. The police are trying to take him down because he’s on a shooting spree but simultaneously an earthquake begins and the entire city of Los Angeles falls to pieces and everything explodes and ends. This is a powerful statement about the world we live in and the inevitable demise of it.  Other then the messages, the animation is amazing in this film. The logos come to life and are just as exact as the real ones. 

TV logo animation

This week, I decided on bringing up live TV After Effects graphics and video. I was watching a hockey game and just watching the commentary (with double boxes, background animation, et al) and various intros / outros, the idea of discussing network animation logos came up!!

There are many different terms for on-screen graphics throughout the news and sports industry -- I am specifically going to talk about intros and logos to major networks. Many images on live TV are created either from video or Chyron, there are so many different aspects of animation and digital non-video pieces we watch while viewing network news or sports.

The below CBS animation was created on Maya and the other two (I assume were AE) ... The reason why I am posting is because although today's animation and 3D images are crazy intensive and glamorous. Yet when we look at these intros, the simplest of vectors and colors are being used on national network broadcasts. We must really think, with all the hype of intense and crazy 3D animation -- why do the major tv channels still rely on basic vectors and and colors for their logos and backgrounds

recent CBS logo animation

recent NBC logo animation

1957 NBC logo animation

ESPN logo animation

Production Company Logos

I was trying to figure out how to animate my logo, and I found this compilation video here of all the big-name production companies and their animated logos. I think you'll recognize most of them. There are maybe two I didn't recognize, and one I only recognized because we watched it in animation (it's the dark one with the man and the bird, and it's paint-on-glass animation, which looks really awesome- at least, I think so).

It was funny to see that a lot of the logos start either having their logo come in from behind the camera, zooming out of a close-up of their logo, or flying through a scene to get to their logo. I think the most unique ones are the man-bird one (Scott Free, I think?), the fish mobile one, Pixar's, and the tiger one, just because they did something completely different. I'm sure there are other ones that also do something unique, those four are just the ones that stand out for me. I also noticed that many of them use 3D animation, even the older ones (like the very basic Disney one that kind of looks unfinished, it has so little detail).

I'm trying to find a video that shows the animated logos for smaller production companies, animation studios, or freelance designers/editors, since that's the kind of logo I'm trying to make. Haven't had much luck so far, but I'll post if I find something cool.