Kinetic Typography in Apple Motion

watch it the day you posted it. This is what we needed. I don't think anybody covered this subject yet. I wanted to do a tutorial for kinetic type, looks like I don't have to make one now. Well done Stephen, as always your tutorials are very informative and to the point. Effect is quite amazing. I will re-post it on my site.

EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT tutorial Stephen with the same high production values as your Moving with Motion product, which I already own and review constantly. But then, if you're a Smith, it's already assumed you're talented, right? :)

Don Smith
NewsVideo.com

NewsVideo.com

Thanks for the comments Mark.

[Mark] I was also curious regarding if everything in the tutorial was excuted in Motion

Yes, everything was built in Motion with only included plugins. (I laid out the multiple exported Motion files into Final Cut Pro where I added music and SFX) I was really excited about creating a dart that felt 3D as it rotated around the wheel of fonts, that section took some extra work to get it to where I really liked it. I've already been asked by others if I used some 3rd party plug-ins because I do own some, but I didn't. I really wanted to show people that Motion is a powerful program.

[Mark] the hard part is the creative design aspect

I agree. I think the software box should say talent not included :-) That is why I decided to dedicate a whole chapter to design concepts in my Apple Motion Training DVD Moving with Motion. I wanted the DVD to be more then "this does that and that does this" type of training. That is also why I tried to make each chapter build something you would create for a paying client. Plus, design concepts is knowledge that can benefit a user the rest of their career.

[Mark] I guess I'm wondering if your commercial product has a lot of guidance into general principles of how to design specifically for kinetic type, or if there are more specific design-oriented resources you could point to, where I can build a basic set of design principles that always work

My training DVD does not talk about Kinetic Typography and that is why I wanted to create the Kinetic Type video tutorial. I think a great resource is to look at other projects and see what you do and don't like. I'll work on compiling a list of my favorite samples of Kinetic Type, until then. Here is a link to a



I created that I think turned out well.
I think the first chapter of my training DVD teaches some great design principles but I'm biased.

[Mark] did you take schooling in it specifically

I have a bachelors degree in Multimedia Communications Technology. I feel I have picked up a lot of great design concepts from watching movie and TV show opens. There are a lot of great graphics in TV commercials as well. I will record prime time TV on my DVR and then fast forward through the show and watch the show open and the commercials. Great way to see some cool motion graphics. I even wrote an article about Seeking Great Ideas.

Best of luck on your projects.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials

Stephen, you have done something magnificent here, and I'll be studying it over and over for a long time. How I wish I had this to guide me back when I started doing eight whole projects like this one for the first time this past year! Your tips and advice on those really helped me survive the process, and I'm grateful.

I also will be watching this over and over and step-framing it to study how your overall narrative framework for presenting the tutorial mirrors the particular techniques you were teaching: if it was any more visually sub-referential, you'd be getting a restraining order from Dennis Miller.
:-)

I was also curious regarding if everything in the tutorial was excuted in Motion, or if things like the spinning roulette wheel/dartboard of type were done in another app, and if so, what other apps you used in the making of the tutorial? I was guessing the wheel was a zakworks thing, but what was it, actually?

I don't know how in-depth you go into this aspect of the subject in your commercial product, but for me, the technical aspect of these kinetic type projects, though quite challenging in a mechanical sense, is not the hardest part. Really, for me, the hard part is the creative design aspect of how you decide what to scale, how to position it, when and if to rotate or stack elements, or manipulate the camera in z-axis, when and how to add art to the type, how to make the overall design flow over time and read easily to the eye, yet also convey that extra dimension of narrative. If you don't know what you're doing, you can make something that gives the audience a lot of motion sickness, yet doesn't effectively convey the message. My wife is a trained graphic artist and designer, with years of formal schooling in these things. Me, I'm not formally schooled in Design, I've osmosed some things from watching my wife work and from some reading and observing, but I'm just kind of throwing things up on the screen, experimenting with them and feeling my way though what "looks right" in a timeline. Lots of trial-and-error, which is pure fun when you're not on the money clock, but frustrating and wearing when there's clients tapping their feet and deadlines to meet.

I guess I'm wondering if your commercial product has a lot of guidance into general principles of how to design specifically for kinetic type, or if there are more specific design-oriented resources you could point to, where I can build a basic set of design principles that always work. You seem to have an intuitve grasp of these principles yourself: did you take schooling in it specifically, or if not, where did you learn it from?

With oodles of respect and kudos, M.