A MOMENT IN PROCESS

So, the past two days have been a trip to say the least. An experiment in the process of process. I set about to learn a new skill in after effects based on motion graphics in such movies as "Stranger than Fiction," "Fight Club," and "Zombieland." It is an experiment in type, motion graphics, and film and integrating all the elements into a seamless final piece. What have I learned? MASKING IS A BITCH! Going through the movie frame by frame masking out the type is, an experience, to say the least. I have learned, that 20 seconds of graphics = 8 hours of work. Which begs the question, How long does 3 hours of graphics equal? All in all though it was a very gratifying process, through the gruel and grit, and borderline insanity, being able to create these types of effects is an amazing experience.

Ok, enough of the emotional shit. Let me explain how I did what I did. First I started by doing some visual research, looking at movies and title sequences that emulated what I wanted to do. I also studied some kinetic typography videos just to get a feel for the use of type in a very dynamic way. After the research phase came an experimental phase where I made two "practice" videos exploring motion tracking capabilities in after effects. After realizing, however, that without a high contrast image finding a source to actually track the image was more difficult than originally thought. Most of my time was spent manually going frame by frame making sure the motion tracker was tracking exactly what I wanted it to. Next I began experimenting with 3-D type, allowing the type to mimic the actions of what it was tracking. From there I began tracking other shapes and then began the masking process.

Actually, I first filmed a short little snippet of film following my girl-friend as she got ready for class. After editing the film together, which was filmed on a little flip video camera I brought it into after effects where the magic began. Above you can see the initial experimentation.