'Time'line

A 'Time' history of video game consloes, quite a reliable source to refer back to. Being a 90's kid, I'm not entirely clued up as to what came when in the world of retro gaming. The link back to the site is here, with more recent consoles that I haven't included in the .pdf below.

visuals

Retro/old school games are most often considered to belong to the 8 or 16bit console families, proceeded by 32 and 64-bit sisters. This was to do with the integras, memory addresses, or other data units, limits of which created the strongly identifiable imagery from game play that has made massive marks on the way we play and experience games today. This console culture that was so widely loved in the early 80's left us with some real gaming gems that I'm sure will long out live their expected expiry date.

It is the imagery, bound to bad quality from the 8 and 16bit technology that overwhelmed the visual culture of kids and teenagers, growing up with brightly coloured flashing pixels merged into forms that designers cleverly made into hundreds of soon to become iconic symbols and characters. That is slightly untrue of 16-bit games to be fair, this introduced a lot more detail (double in fact) to games, allowing more experimentation, clarity and a truer representation of the desired characters.

Although I've rambled on, I wanted this post to be the start of a visual library of typical screen shots//characters//game sleeves//typography and just generally associated visual material...

List

I thought a good starting point would probably be gathering a list of these retro games, not only the ones I used to play but my peers and families eperiences with them too. I want to make sure I dont spend my entire time looking at these games, although important, I want to stick with the idea of glitchy/pixelated imagery, hopefully finding some really interesting images, facts and other random things for inspiration and design progression.

But back to the list, I started with those I could remember, asked my friends and family, working my way up to the world wide web. I didnt want to just jump straight on the internet to find a list, I wanted to see how many of these iconic games came to the table (so to speak) purely from their iconic history.

Tetris

Pong

Donkey Kong?

Space Invaders

Street Fighter

007

Sonic

Zool

PacMac

Bomberman

Mortal Kombat

Duck Hunt

Super Mario

Final Fantasy

Metal slug

Asteroids

Breakout

Legend of Zelda

Snow Bros.

Contra

Chrono Trigger

Secret of Mana

Snake (forgot about that one)!

Frogger (and that one)!

Asteroids

Centipide

Missile Command

Doom

Sim City 2000

Mega Man

I'm sure there are loads more out there that need to be considered, but it's got me wondering about a title to choose for my title sequence - 'top ten retro games' could be a bit simple, I could probably pick ten from this list that could be considered 'the top ten', although it's more about the visual investigation and design process so I won't ponder on it just yet.

Saving

I remember having a talk from ??? where he spoke of a project that took pictures/files and simply by saving them as a different filename and opening them in photoshop created this massively distorted (nowehere near identifyable) imagery made up of pixels. I experimented with this at the time and will again if it becomes an area to explore further, but at the moment I can't remember the designers name or the piece of editorial design he used this technique to produce.

More to come on this....

Retro

So I've chosen to persue retro games as my subject matter for this 'Top 10' brief. The catalyst for this idea came though an After Effects file not opening correctly - documented in a post here. What intrigues me most about this topic is the glitchy/pixelated aesthetics most commonly found in video games post 1980's right through to the mid 90's. 

Today, many designers across all fields crave crisp, life like graphics, not only in games but many digital platforms. I want to work backwards in a sense, experimenting with this retro feel and hopefully capture some beauty in what can otherwise be seen as old, crap graphics.

Tags

Normally if someone mentions the word 'tag' my mind zones into graffiti, these tags however are those commonly found on new clothing. Thinking about the fashion industry for an area to push my enterprise and ppd forward, Ive been researching and collecting as much fashion related graphic design I can get my hands on.

I love how vastly playfull the designer can be, regardless of their generally small scale having to consider; format / stock / colour / size / strings / logos / typography / die-cutting / folding and the list goes on...

I want to continue this visual library of different tags, especially coming up to the christmas period, I'm sure a few new garments will exchange hands amongst friends and family of which I can pinch a few (at least if its just for a quick scan)...

Club TV

Facu Labo was the curator of this Club TV rebrand. I was initially drawn to this video through the Club logo, thinking it was merely an image, the link took me to this pallete perfect piece of moving image. Labo's use of colour is exquisite. There is another video here exampling the rebrand although alot less visual in terms of idents and programme intros. Club TV is a polish channel, and by browsing the foreign website and programme images I get the feeling it's a contemorary channel, focusing mainly on fashion, glamour and lifestyle.



We had a brief-briefing this morning on the second part of our moving image module, Fred mentioned looking at the relevance of brand identity in relation to audience. The colour, type, shapes and on the whole playfulness of this re-brand fits the target democraphic perfectly. - With fashion and interior design reverting back to a more vintage/retro feel over the past few years, the colours here are reminiscent of those found 20/30 years ago and still going strong.

Package

Probably getting a bit ahead of myself thinking about the packaging and presentation of my final CD for module hand-in, but this example is so frugally beautiful I had to offer it up for a blog post. I'm assuming the backplate is made from thick grey card but almost looks as though it could be granite or stone - definitely not appropriate for CD packaging however.

I think the pure white CD with minimal text makes all the difference in terms of impact. The overall feel of the packaging is extremely contemporary whilst at the same time encorporating an old school rubber band and wooden peg fastening technique - a perfect juxtaposition, producing, in my eyes, one of the freshest CD packaging ideas I've ever seen.

Up in Smoke

Aisle One

Plenty

Two reels here from PLENTY studios, their headquarters are based in Buenos Aires - Argentina and they've been producing some phenomonal work for companies and brands all over the world. I thought it would be nice to have their showreels from the past 2 years together here, showing development and a vast range of projects worked on by the team. I love the initial ident, black screen with vibrant green shapes and block colour filling up the logo.


2010


2011


One of my randomized words was 'Float', although I've pushed it back to focus on collide, that kind of concept could work well - filling up a tank with letters in, in turn the letters floating upwards as the tank fills.

Somersault

A title sequence for somersault, not sure exactly what somersault is but I really like this short motion graphic from Nick Campbell. Created using only layers and the 3D camera in After Effects, this level of quality seems very reachable given the time we have available for this module. A definite sense of perspective is achieved as the coloured strips build up and the 3D camera shot moves amongst them



Although sound isn't a consideration at this point in our experiments, the sound used here feels very appropriately 'positioned' so to speak - As a new key frame kicks in, and the mood of the shapes change (the rigidity or flow) the sounds change accordingly.

Physics

Trying to find videos and examples of motion graphics that work with physics and momentum in the same way one would find in real life if something was dropped, thrown, rebounding off something etc. This example is an experiment in cinema 4D, and is comprised of 40,000 cubes, a rather collosal amount of objects to work with, taking an hour to work out the physics and 30 minutes to render. I would've thought more time would be spent making something like this look as good as it does, but I'm sure once a level of techincal ability is reached on any software things can start to become infinitely easier.



I'm looking to acheive and encorporate these physics into my experiments with the word collide, falling at real time once colliding together or hitting the edge of a frame. Another area of concern is how letters react when bouncing or being hit by another letter, I've started to experiment with the concept but only on a basic level.

Collide

A video rather appropriately called collide, and although appearing to be only made up of spheres and blocks, I can imagine this is quite a complicated short piece of motion graphics. The spheres make up a human figure that moves incredibly fluently and when it runs into the blocks, the gravity and speed of the falling parts react in a life like manor.


I found this kind of realistic gravity hard to recreate when working in after effects earlier, it's still early days with the software and I'm sure it's not too difficult to achieve - definitely something for the pinboard.

Wheel

I found this 10 section soap wheel, well, it's uses are many however it's been pictured here with coloured soap, the results of which are extremely high impact. A beautiful idea for typogateaux, particularly given the colour wheel example. We are more lenient to keeping our idea type based but it could be an option, if expected delivery wasn't 4-7 days from now!

Melt

With Typogateaux on the horizon, I've been keeping my eye out for experimental and innovative puddings when and where I can. I came across these amusing festive cookies that really illustrate the more disheartening times that Christmas and winter leave us with, although I think the smiling faces of the snowmen keep the comical element alive.

Minimal

Mehmet Gozetlik has produced this wonderful project that strips brand packaging of all its complexities and focuses on only what is necessary. I find the resulting packages to be more appealing, clean and simple. Usually packaging tends to be as flamboyant as possible to grab the consumers attention, but with all of them screaming at you, these simply packaged products tend to speak louder.

Reels

I kept seeing the word 'showreel' popping up whilst looking into motion graphics, I was using the term 'self promotional motion graphic' to describe material done by motion designers to show off their skills. Turns out...

A "demo reel", or "show reel", is the motion picture or video equivalent of an artist's portfolio. It is typically used as a tool to promote the artist's skill, talent, and experience in a selected field, such as acting, directing, cinematography, editing, special effects, animation, or video games and other graphics. The demo reel is frequently submitted with a résumé to a prospective employer. When a reel contains scenes from actual productions, a shot list or credit list may also be submitted to describe the artist's specific involvement in each portion of the reel. While the usage of video excerpts on such showreels can be regarded as a breach of copyright, it is generally accepted in the film industry to do so, as it is the only tool of an artist to actually self-promote his/her work.

Still

I came across these abandoned monuments from Yugoslavia. They instantly screamed 'collide' to me - jagged, abstract concrete blocks and structures with compositions that I consider to be architectural gold. I'm sure some of these designs could feel at home twenty years from now, although they were commissioned in the 1960s and 70s by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place or concentration camps stood. - This further reinforces the concept of 'collide' to me, collision between countries and values resulting in war.

It's this kind of abstract geometrical design that always catches my eye and influences the way I work, I don't want to numb myself to solely looking at moving image throughout this module, I think many elements from other mediums hold a massive input to the idea and concept stages of current and future projects.

Jorinna

Jorinna Scherle is a motion designer and director working in Berlin, heavily focused on motion graphics, interactive media and fine arts. A very high quality of technical design behind the majority of her works, levels I could only imagine reahcing after a few year experiment and producing work with the relevant software.

Both these videos are flaunting her handywork, kinetically illustrating the  skills and attributes she has as a designer for the screen based industry. A beautiful range of colour, effects and typography throughout, a lot of which can feed in to various levels of my own practice all be it on a much more basic technical level.

more 4

Not actually a post relating to the more 4 channel, but more visual excitment from the creatives behind some of the most iconic TV idents and motion graphics in TV history. A few years ago channel 4 hosted a 3D week, broadcatsing various shows, user submitted content and idents in 3D for the viewers pleasure (they set up a scheme with sainsburys to distribute the glasses). It's been a bit of a struggle to find specific title sequences standing alone, but there was a few...







This kind of 3D effect isn't at all what we're looking at currently as it's an entirely different technical process, but depth of field is, and trying to achieve 3D effects through different techniques. I want to experiment with camera layers in AE, moving around 3d text to achieve this sense of perspective.

Viral

The music industry is becoming ever more visually orientated, obvioulsly album art and one's favourite band poster have been a strong essence of musical culture for a very long time, however the internet and moving image have opened up whole new worlds for the way we experience music. Online musical platforms have been popping up in their numbers with more and more artists turning to the internet in hope of fame by spreading their talent through these viral environments, attracting alot of public attention.

This has naturally led to yet another area of industry to be visually catered for, I wanted to post a few examples of the kind of idents I've come across in the recent months from the aforementioned viral platforms. (The main content of each video is absolutely irrelevant)

Links

It's amazing how random links through design can penetrate other areas of one's design practise, put into context, my last post documenting recent design around the city of Amsterdam completely randomly landed me on an example of motion graphics after following up a link in one of the pictures - www.getitdone.org

"Get it done is a global community that empowers you to positively change people's lives", this piece of kinetic typography is a promotional/persuasive video encouraging people to get involved

Dutch

I recently had the chance to go on an all expenses paid, weekend trip to Amsterdam due to a few fellow creatives living out there working on various live projects. For the very short time and little camera battery life I had, I tried to capture some of the more interesting graphic design and typography around the city. I fell in love with Amsterdam when I was about 16, mainly for the grungy but friendly atmosphere it had to offer, in recent years it's cleaned itself up a lot, especially in terms of graffiti and street art, although their design is still as strong as ever...

Fashion

My recent creative interests have grown towards design for the fashion industry, from high end branding through to the promotion and retail aspects. It's an area I've been considering for PPD and Enterprise projects, and effectively my potential career, but I don't want to pigeonhole myself too quickly.
I'm looking forward to really getting my teeth into this moving image module and it was reassuring to come across this video of various motion graphics/idents for fashion related brands from The Light Surgeons. Depending on how this module and the software treats me, I would like to think I'll keep moving image as a skill for the future.

Rudd

Researching into motion graphics, a fellow peer found these lectures from some of the major contributors in today's motion graphic world. Matt Rudd has been working alongside channel 4 for the last 10 years, working on their many branding and identity projects. He makes a very relevant point approximately 6 and a half minutes in about reduced, simple and pure design becoming more and more important in this day and age with iphones and androids having small displays with apps fighting for user attention.

He moves on to talk about the latest projects currently underway with channel 4, showing examples of very elegant experiments, abstracting the channel 4 logo with a heavy influence from the cubist movement.

Shatter

Not type based, but very relevant to the word 'collide' that I'm focusing on at the moment, a crisp idea to experiment with, maybe replacing the square or sphere for a glyphs. I'm looking forward to learning about the technical side of 3D graphics to create more depth and perspective.

10

A  kinetic experiment created as a countdown into for a Time, Motion and Communication project coming from a student at Carnegie Mellon University. Playfully combining varios typefaces, colours and shapes but still communicating a simpe countdown process.

Stussy

The Stussy UK Tribe recently got together on a giant wall piece featuring the biggest Stussy logo ever and artwork from the Stussy x Fergadelic Nuclear Surf Tee.

Hangul

Hangul is is the native alphabet of the Korean language, I'm unsure whether this typeface is called 'Blooms' or it's just the title of the video. Only working with specific glyphs from the language, this motion graphic explores a massively wide range of techniques commonly found in many kinetic type designs. Predominantly using black and white until the end where colour is introduced alongside a kaleidoscope effect, in which the colour feels very relevant and considered.

W O R K

A lot more relevant to the short, solely type based, silent movies we're focusing on at the moment. This video along with a couple more from the designer experiments with the word work over a 10 second periods, only manipulating the position and rotation of each letterform.

Auto Pilot

Night Shift

Although this isn't motion graphics so to speak, in terms of being produced in After Effects or motion software, but I was so amazed by the one night production of this poster for the 3rd Antropofest Festival 2012 by designer Bohdan Heblik, it had to be blogged. The type could easily be applied to motion graphic software and create a beautiful piece of design using the block shapes and tubes, experimenting with perspective and interaction of image as type.

D-Sign

Colourful Kinetic Typography from David Klassen a Freelance Motion Designer based in Germany.

4 Talent

A swish motion graphic ident for 4 Talent. From the guys over at Spin, the same studio that produced the video celebrating the innovation in type and design from Wim Crouwel, very innovative work coming out of their studio, particularly focused on type, identity and branding.

Better

"We are starting the new year with some new projects, new goals and new challenges.
Whatever you do, always try to be the best you can be. Spread the word."

A minute long motivational typographic motion graphic from Clim, simply using the quote, 'I'm/You're/We're going to make it better', a quote that should always be lingering in my head as a designer. Beautiful use of colour and type, especially from 0.50 - 1.00 min. There is some really crisp stuff over at their website, more posts coming this way from the studio...

Without Words

"A short film that explains the rules of typography without any actual words. The rationale behind the project was to communicate a complex subject through simple graphic images.  ...This medium has been used in order to explain the rules more effectively, rather than static images on a page."

I'm very drawn towards the abstraction of typography in this piece of motion graphics, a very simple take with a strong sense of content once the projects intentions are revealed. Simple in terms of colour and technical process but very effective in my eyes, easily achieveable for the level of technical ability I'm hoping to attain.

Wim Crouwel

These type animations were created for Dutch Graphic Designer Wim Crouwel's exhibition - A Graphic Odyssey. Some amazing typographic forms and designs from Crouwel, definitely a source to remember and explore further.

 

Kinetype

A series of experiments involving typography in motion.

Storyboarding

Becoming more familiar with storyboarding, I looked at different styles and methods that have been visually documented out there, from thumbnail sketches to post production storyboarding (the second example houses a good use of arrows to convey a sense of direction and movement)...

motionography

A few more examples of a kinetic typefaces most created with/for use with Adobe After Effects...

Typogami

An animated typeface for After Effects, although not specifically motion graphics in terms of storyboarding to greater extent, but I want to collect a rounded body of research into areas of kinetic typography.

1980's

After stumbling across my previous post from Ben O'Brein, I had a further look into the Channel 4 idents of the 80's. Some really clean cut, colourful design, quite innovative for the time I can imagine. There must be thousands of minutes, millions of frames in Channel 4's history of idents, an area of their identity they have always been dominant in, evidently...






This example came a decade later, a few years after me in fact. It's clearly a lot sharper in terms of deatail but also expands on abstracting the viewpoint of the dispersing blocks alot more effectively, appearng to be flying right past, almost through the viewer...

Inspiration

Self-promo ident for Ben O'Brein's portfolio site BensFolio.com. Inspired by the 1980s idents from Channel 4, a high impact 10 second personal advert so to speak, definitely something to think about for my own personal self promotion, more so if moving image becomes a larger part of my creative output.

Neuforma

HypeForType - Neuforma Typography Ident

OCR A

These two typography experiments were made using the font OCR A Std, combined with the colour choices I love the overall design. More importantly the designer has exercised some of the core elements I've been learning technically in After Effects and also theoretically, putting the content I've been learning ever more into context.
I think it would be setting my sights reasonably to say I'd be particularly pleased with an outcome of a similar standard to the top example here from this current module.

Spiekermann

This piece of kinetic typography works with a quote from graphic designer Erik Spiekermann, talking about his love for typography. The initial frames seem fairly straight forward, moving quickly and cleanly in what seems to be an abstract manor, until the frame zooms out revealing the word 'type' assembled from the type used throughout.

Portal

This particular piece of motion design is for a game particularly close to my heart. The game challenges concepts of depth, perspective and thinking, represented quite well though the use of type and effects used throughout this promotional motion graphic.

Cropped

This is another short example, using only black and white to communicate a word. It makes use of the cropping and zooming elements of motion graphics we learnt and experimented with in the first storyboarding workshop.
A really tight and simple example of defining meaning through motion, almost exactly the task we have in hand currently, only slightly shorter.

Starting to look at kinetic experiments using type, only 9 seconds long, this example is the kind of length motion graphic we're aiming to produce at present. I love the combination of type, paths growing and entwining to make up the final forms. It's a shame about the final zip animation that it cuts out with, unnecessary detail, I feel.

Amsterdam's heart

This example was produced for the visual identity launch of the Amsterdam Museum (formerly known as Amsterdam Historical Museum) on 6 January 2011. "The Heart of Amsterdam" is the underlying theme for all communication and initiatives of the museum, I love how the surrounding streets communicate veins pumping around the heart, and obviously a very appropriate use of red to reinforce the delivery.

Font Ident

My first post of many to come regarding this moving image module. This Ident is playfully promoting and showcasing a new font called NEUFORMA. Some really simple but effective ways of experiment with kinetic type, especially keeping colours minimalthroughout.