Kurzgesagt

The brain likes to learn. Over the summer the company I worked at was responsible for recording a lot of TED talks. If there's one thing I learned from sorting through and watching these lectures it's that the best TED talks are quick, informational, and usually have an endearing personality attached to them. Recently I've stumbled across a YouTube channel that takes these same principles and combines them with sleek and beautifully animated graphics.

I found myself tearing through these videos not only because they were so interesting, but because each poignant snippet of scientific jargon was elegantly matched by equally beautiful images. It just goes to show how eager one really is to learn when the information is presented to them in an engaging way. 

I'd love to see how a video like this comes together but from what I've heard videos such as the one above require more over 200 hours of work so for now I'll settle for cutting up digital paper.

TAPE Production and Postproduction Reel

In the midst of my daily adventure to find inspiration via the internet and the physical world around me. I came across a video today that was filled with motion graphics and animation that could do easily (being that we already discussed this in class.) The TAPE production and postproduction reel visually illustrates the use of particles, color correction, expressions, and green screens (or green people). Either way the video is pretty short but is enough to ignite your imagination with tons and tons of ideas.

TAPE | Production & Postproduction Reel from TAPE on Vimeo.

Motion Graphics Designs!

I ran across some videos today with very cool motion graphics designs. I thought that these videos would be useful to everyone! (There is even one with a 3D bird) 

Typomania Festival: this short was made in attempt to popularize the typography culture and was aimed towards designers, illustrators, and animators. Notice the 3D birds at 0:28 seconds. 

                   Take a Look:   https://vimeo.com/68512678

Social Media Awards Ceremony Opening Titles

      I enjoyed this video because the fairytale story about the competition between social media comes across flawlessly to the audience. However I'm posting the video because its primarily composed of animated shapes, expressions, several layers, and text (nothing that we can't achieve as After Effects beginners- or atleast i think.) 

               Take a Look:  https://vimeo.com/76510274

Cinco Radio Buenos Días 25 Aniversario:

   This animation piece was made to celebrate the 25 anniversary of Cinco Radio, a local radio station in Puebla, México. Every single aspect of this piece was amazing and is a goal for any graphic designer or animator to accomplish (not to mention the intricate and spot on detail of the hands!) 

            YOU NEED TO SEE THIS:  https://vimeo.com/77067342

Till next time, 

Krystal . 

   

    

Green Screener App

Anyone who is familiar with green screen knows how difficult of a challenge lighting
 it evenly can be. This recently designed cinematography app does just that, Green Screener uses image banding as a way to determine the luminescence in an image. This image is a visual reference to further explain the technology, taken from the Green Screener website.

The app essentially takes your device camera and the green channel ultimately dividing them into 4, 8 and 16 bands. These can be related to the f-stops that we have learned about and thus would roughly correlate to the 2-stop, 1-stop or 1/2 stop resolution between the bands. Although Green Screener is not equivalent in the scientific sense of the f-stop it is much more accurate then a light-meter or a waveform-monitor. In simpler terms the application breaks down whatever image is being displayed and uses the bands to show different levels of light. Here is an example of the banding...

Overall if your trying to keep an evenly light background for your green screen and have a decently well trained eye accompanied with a light meter, for only $10.00 this is a significantly inexpensive tool that will do the job.

The Basics of Motion Design

Motion design is the most intricate and dynamic field of design. This video from the Hochschute für Künste (University of the Arts) Bremen introduces viewers to the many different aspects of motion design.

Ranging from color to sound, timing to physics, the video gives a vocabulary for discussing the art of motion. Taken by itself, the video covers so much in 23 minutes that it is worth taking notes on.