Time & Motion

Based on our previous print project, I was to create a video that introduced Bodoni’s characteristics and personality with a video medium. I took advantage of sequence, sound, motion and rhythm apart from just visuals. A sixty second video was made using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.

Looking back at my fifty word statement that was supposed to guide me on this project, I decided that I wanted to edit it to be more literally concise but contain more information. My list of adjectives were prominent in guiding me towards the vibe I wanted my video to give off.

I followed the storyline of my narrative, beginning with an introduction of the creator and the history, followed by a detailed analysis of the anatomy with an iconic summary at the end. I wrote the script before I thought about how everything would look like and how it could be tied together. Only then I brainstormed specific motions that would visually convey the text. I am really into smooth transitions and so I heavily based on a single line that followed through many frames.

Liszt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ1KwnOI_qE

Jazzhop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ENF5OCtkY

Beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdf1goONNZI

I found three different music choices — one was low-fi classical, one was delightful jazz and one was chill modern music. I tried to find music that had an age to it but with a hint of modernness. Both my professor and TA said that the jazz one was more engaging because it had a distinct two types of beats that I could alternate my motion accordingly. I was thinking that the third one may be too modern to represent my font, but my professor reminded me that Bodoni was considered very modern at the time. However, I eventually decided to choose the first one because I associated it with the feeling of the font the best and i could see how the animation would go in my mind.

Once I had a basic idea of the sequence of the whole script and a music track in mind, I tried to organize the script based on the music beats. Therefore, the words would hit on specific beats. I kind of planned everything in mind already before I started working on After Effects.

I began by creating a setting, and thought of the idea of a collage. Originally I wanted to create a “printing effect” like the engraving of Parma and Bodoni was “printed” onto the screen. Although I found an adequate wood creaking sound effect, I could not achieve the visual effect.

To showcase the inspirations, I found pictures of Baskerville and Didot. It was an engraving so that it related to my spread and the history of printing, giving it a vintage old vibe. I edited it on photoshop for a clean pic with a transparent background and places it on opposite sides on the spread. So that there would be visual jumps.

For the contrast section, I wanted to show that there is an extreme stroke contrast on all of the Bodoni letters and incorporated all of the alphabet letters on the page. To highlight the strokes, I realized that it took too much time to create individual rectangles on illustrator and so I saved a version in beige and erased unrelated strokes in my iPad.

While meeting with my TA to talk about my storyboard, she gave me a great idea of changing my background color in multiple places so that there is more of a variety. It inspired me to create the “extreme stroke contrast” frame with a very intense black background that really caught the audience’s attention by bringing out the bright red and beige.

At the end where I wrap up the video, I decided to introduce Bodoni then and all of its literary descriptions. I wanted it to appear as if it was printed or stamped onto the screen, which worked better with the rapid beats at the end. My ending sentence worked perfectly with the music and was quite dramatic.

I met with my TA for feedback during class. She said that was a solid, chill video that remained true to my storyboards. The background color changes — switching from dark backgrounds to light — is effective at demonstrating new points. In addition, she enjoyed how each word at the end is added to the beat of the music, which adds a tasteful amount of drama.

However, a lot of the motion feels very stilted and rudimentary and that it would be great if I could tweak it to be more natural and exciting. She suggested that I try adding “easy ease” treatment, however, I’ve already done that so I tried to play with the graphical adjustments of easy ease instead.

Some texts in my frames were not centered although it is expected to be so I should take another look at my text alignment. Overall, the video is tasteful but lacks drama and excitement that I could implement with motion, perhaps adding a little bit more pause and punch.

After making according changes with my TA’s feedback, I reached out to both of my professors and inquired for another round of feedback. It turns out that my introduction is indeed unsatisfactory, Giambasttista Bodoni even seems like a Godzilla hovering over the city. Parma and Bodoni should probably be separated or Parma should just be left out overall. However, the way I presented Didot and Baskerville is well done. Perhaps I’ll incorporate Bodoni in that style instead.

The space between 1 and 7 is huge in 1798 and the space between B and O in Bodoni was slightly too wide as well. I should kern the letters to close up the space. There is a lot of movement on right when it comes to the vertical axis, which makes it harder to the text on the left. Thus, I could either tuck the text closer in or make it a simpler motion. It would be better for the credits in the end to be held slightly longer.

In general, the flow is good and the last line is the most powerful. I could add even more drama to that by maybe playing with scale and fine-tuning other details. Since the mood and tempo of the music is chill, it is true that there is more limited options of what I could do with motion.

The greatest problem that I encountered was that I wasn’t working with the “right” Bodoni for the whole time. It turns out that I was using Bodoni 72, which had slightly curved brackets and completely contradicted with the section where I highlighted its unbracketed serifs. I was unaware until now and I decided to change everywhere where the text appeared to Bodoni URW, which were truly unbracketed.

Personally, I made a few comments for myself. For example, I wanted the the 1798 to drop down to follow the beats falling down. The continuous line seemed much ticker when the screen was enlarged so I wanted to thin it down. The camera pan of the U definitely had to be smoother than it was. And perhaps the adjectives could appear horizontally to mimic printed words in a more realistic manner.

On the day of critique, I received very critical feedback:

• First two transitions too fast (could space out better and use more time for that and less for 1798 as the four numbers takes up 3 sec)
• There is a minor typography issue where there is more space between printer and typographer (adjust a pixel or two to equal the space)
• Inspired by should be frozen and not kind of wriggle
• The first 35 sec is like on automatic but it turns magical on 36 sec
• The beginning is much more expected and decisions are much more sophisticated in the other half (more exciting)
• Illustrations don’t appear afterwards so can consider tying the front and back together by adding illustrations later
• Glad that I changed from Bodoni 72 to Bodoni URW
• Use a brighter or more intense red to have less of a dull page
• The opening can be more delicate and slow (perhaps use fading)
• Printer, Typographer, Publisher can move in at a gentler and slower pace as well

If I had more time on this project, I wish I could choose a different music track and perhaps play more with utilizing to music to enhance the motion. Otherwise, I wish I could’ve pushed my boundaries further and brainstormed more creative ways of introducing its history and designer. Also, I wish I realized my mistake of using Bodoni 72 earlier so I had extra time to work on other aspects of my animation instead of switching out the fonts. Thinking back, I wish I used lowercase letters in the stroke contrast section as well to better communicate the idea.