READING & WRITING

One of the most challenging parts of creating a story for me is coming up with a plot. In any medium, I think that the initial starting point is always the most challenging part to come up with from scratch. Chapters 2-4 in Animated Storytelling by Liz Blazer successfully identified tools and structured methods to create a story.

First, I thought the analysis on different story structures was extremely helpful in creating a starting point. I specifically thought the non-linear story structure examples were the most captivating and creatively stimulating. For example, in the book ending structure, I could relate examples in many movie or TV plots such as the Game of Thrones title sequence example.

In terms of finding initial inspiration, I thought the visual music and pure poetry methods were very thought provoking examples of how to use music or poetry to influence the plot of a story. In addition, the “cut it out and play” method was something that I have never done before. When Blazer says, “inspiration only comes once you start physically moving objects around”, I could understand that this method could really be helpful in finding inspiration with visual structure (Blazer, 71).

Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about storyboarding. Since I work at an advertising firm, there are always many storyboards floating around in pitches and presentations. Not only does this chapter explain the importance of storyboarding logistically and structurally, Blazer points out how storyboarding helps bring ideas to life (Blazer, 75).

Personally, I’ve never been one to sketch anything by hand, but after reading about thumbnailing, I recognized the benefits of even just a simple stick figure drawing. No one would ever want to present any of my stick figures in an advertising pitch, but I realize adding some style frames can be a quick and beneficial way of communicating the mood and theme of an initial idea. I thought all of the information on staging, framing, and transitioning was very familiar to me in the entertainment business. However, the tips and details were very helpful in reminding me to pay attention to basic continuity rules, timing, and transitions in my upcoming projects.

Blazer, L. (2020). Animated storytelling. Peachpit Press.

RESEARCH TO INFORM

https://motionographer.com/quickie/pitches-are-dead-state

This video is a great example of how animating text and graphics can create a specific tone and message. The synchronization of the animated text with the music really creates the mood of overwhelming client pitches and the pace at which these responses resonate.

This video is a “how-to” video that is a great example of different ways to animate text. It uses a variety of ways to animate the text and the content perfectly influences the animation style so the viewer can understand the meaning clearly. For instance, the word “tap” animates and literally taps the next word to emphasize the meaning.

This title sequence is one of the most creative animations I’ve seen with text and graphics. The music synchronizes with the text and the text moves the viewer seamlessly through each frame. The mood and theme are clearly communicated through the text dropping in the next frame and each graphic slowly unravelling.

CREATE 

This was my first time using Adobe After Effects and it took me a while to get familiar with the program while watching the tutorials. There was a lot of trial and error and stopping and starting of the tutorial videos. Once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed playing with the rotation and also exploring the text animation pre-sets. It was challenging to coordinate the transitions and timing with my audio narration. However, after I got comfortable moving all of the layers around, I actually had some fun with animating myself and my dog. I would like to continue exploring more of this program, but I felt that learning how to navigate the program as well as problem solving and troubleshooting details took up most of my time.