Sequence

This short film appeared on my vimeo newsfeed and in it's short 20 minutes it has both captivated my attention and FREAKED me out. I think everyone should take the time to watch this, it is overall extremely well crafted.

Sequence from Carles Torrens on Vimeo.

Dan Savage: The Poker Club

I wasn't sure which artist to write about but the thumbnail for The Poker Club title sequence caught my attention. Dan Savage, the artist behind this sequence, went to school at Purchase College in NY and studied more traditional art but had a love for animation so he taught himself After Effects outside the classroom. I think that it's possible to master After Effects via following tutorials constantly and experimenting with the vast effects and possibilities on AE. However, this must've taken Savage years to master and an insane amount of patience and dedication. When asked about The Poker Club title sequence, Savage responded, ""There was practically no budget...I art directed, designed, and animated the entire thing with the exception of the 3D chips. I rented the exact gun model from the film and hired Eric Wagliardo to help photograph it. The titles were designed for HD 1080p, so to get the extreme close ups on the card elements I went through the tedious process of scanning in the cards, cutting out the parts I liked, printing, photocopying each part like 20 times to get the nice texture, then scanning each part in to piece it together for animation. It was a lot of late nights and weekends." The creative process behind this opening sequence is amazing and the sequence itself is quite mesmerizing. Savage created a title sequence that immediately engages viewers without giving too much away. Savage hints that the movie will involve poker and then draws your attention with the perfectly animated gun and then to top it off, he fades out the sequence with blood dropping on the cards. I think this sequence works well and I want to see the movie now.

CHECK OUT SOME MORE OF HIS WORK AND TUTORIALS HERE 

Kroll Show Title Sequence

Kroll Show Skit

    Last year, during my mass media research methods class, we had the opportunity to talk to a writer that worked on Portlandia, Arrested Development, and Comedy Central's Kroll Show. Our class watched the Kroll Show pilot before it was aired and the one part that stuck out was the animated intro sequence. Famous icons, fonts, and titles are recreated to say Kroll show and flashes quickly with the electronic music. This intro seems simplistic but graphic artists must've photoshopped each individual font and put it in the necessary background. The last Kroll Show title with the explosion in the city seems fairly easy to recreate. The only question I have about this sequence is how did Comedy Central get away with using all the fonts and titles from famous shows and games. I would think that there would be some type of copyright lawsuit of sorts. The show is quite funny but like many sketch comedies, it's either hit or miss and not all skits are funny.

-MCH


*The title sequence wasn't a choice on the blog youtube search but here is the link.
KROLL SHOW INTRO

Breaking Bad Opening Sequence

   We spoke about the Breaking Bad intro and how many people posted about it on the blog last year but as a dedicated fan, I feel it is necessary to post about. The main title sequence is accompanied by a distinct guitar and bongo song that Breaking Bad fans can identify but the animation itself is extremely simplistic. For most shows, the intro develops over time and changes based on the season and what is going on at the time. For Breaking Bad, however, the title sequence has been the same through five seasons. I truly believe that in a few weeks, I will have the ability to recreate the Breaking Bad title sequence with no problems. For example, I could make the smoke in the background already and the periodic table of elements is layered over itself to create the ghost look. I think this is the first major project I want to do. What does this simplistic intro say about the show? Unlike other opening sequences, the Breaking Bad intro only says created by Vince Gilligan. There are no shots from past episodes, there's no cast listed, and it's only 18 seconds long. I think that the title sequence can take away from the show at points and since diehard Breaking Bad fans know who is in the show and want more story, the short title allows a longer period of time for the actual show. At same time, however, the sequence is memorable due to the accompanying sound and simplistic yet clever use of the periodic table. Also, the actors' names appear with elements placed in their name during the opening scene.

HSG (Hayop Sa Ganda)

One part of motion graphics and animation that interests me the most is title sequences.  In this piece by Praveen Fernandes, I am going to focus on the first nine to ten seconds of the video, where there is a great title.  The editor did a great job syncing up appropriate audio with his animation in order to give it an extra bit of punch.  With the animation itself, I really like how many things there are going on at once.  To start off, there is a camera movement to the right while the the Title itself also spins in to the right at a slightly faster pace.  While all of this is going on, there is an elaborate web of blue laser-like lines that is being navigated in an opposite direction.  All of this along with the complementing audio gives a very professional look to this title sequence.  

History of Title Design

I noticed a lot of people in our class are doing projects inspired by titles they've seen in movies. Good titles are really memorable so it's a really good thing to learn how to do well. I'm also interested in titles and I came across this video that shows the history of titles in the media.

One thing that's cool about this video is that you can see how certain titles influenced others. Saul Bass' influence is noticeable as well as the Se7en titles. Towards the end the variety in titles and the creativity is  incredible.

It's worth watching if you're interested in title design.


A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

Monsters Inc.

I was trying to think of a project idea when I remembered the introduction to Monsters Inc. It is one of my favorite movies and I think it would be fun to try and replicate what they did in the title sequence. Watching it, I feel that I know how to accomplish a large portion of the animations excluding a couple of more advanced ones. It is perfect because it is mainly simple shapes moving through space and synchronized with the music. This project is also great because it will give me a chance to go through all the effects that After Effects has to offer and get a grasp of what they all do.