Typeface Animation
Garamond
Initial thoughts on how I would progress:
- Characteristics of typeface: calm, airy, elegant, versatile, classic
- Pace: slow, but not boring
- Color: subtle — 3~4 color; probably consistent with poster (maroon, tan, white, and black; black and maroon being emphasis colors)
Thumbnails:
Learning how to thumbnail effectively:
I realized that although the order of progression in my thumbnails feel appropriate, I may need more dynamic-ness and consistent in the way I communicate content. In my thumbnail, all of my texts move in free form, without a particular grid. Also not showing the transition between screens was also not helpful in fully understanding how I will unfold the narrative smoothly.
Selecting Music
Because Garamond is a very classical font, I thought that classical music may be the most appropriate. However, at the same time I wanted the video to be more approachable to the general public, I also looked for songs that are more familiar to a larger group of people, like movie soundtrack.
Jules Emile Frédéric Massenet (1842–1912) 01:07:00 Thaïs, Act 2 Méditation by Gil Sharon, Idith Zvi
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) 01:11:42 The Swan (from: The Carnival of the Animals)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) 01:11:42 The Swan (from: The Carnival of the Animals)
01:29:32 Consolations S172 — №3 in D flat
Very airy
01:46:24 “Carmen” — Prelude Act III
02:23:08 Nocturne in E fl at Op.9 №2 , Misha Goldstein (piano)
- Nocturne flute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBr5vGhnK0
- Or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7b4F8Rn6GM
02:27:29 Suite Bergamasque — Clair de lune by Misha Goldstein (piano)
Link to spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2XEl2spWhajEGtoYykVhRT?si=1560c1115bac4516
My favorite were “Bogart & Bergman” from Lalaland and the piano version of “Je te veux” by Erik Satie. Although I liked the jazziness and more upbeat rhythm of Lalaland, I thought that the music could be a little too dramatic compared to the characteristics of the font.
Setting up After Effects
Composition:
- Introduction (historical context)
- Analysis (characteristics of typeface)
- Modern application (development of typeface in current context)
First Iteration
Concerns:
- I wanted to focus mainly on the nature of the typeface and colors without using as many images or secondary graphics. However, this made me very scared to explore dynamic animations and transitions, which made my draft very keynote-like with rigid transition from frame to frame.
Feedback:
- Not thinking about refinement yet and playing with the tools in after effect may be helpful — This feedback was really helpful because exploring with masks helped me find the main transition for my introduction composition, where I mask text from two different directions to emphasize where I want the user to look at.
- Setting up grid — Setting up a few baselines and vertical grids helped me position my elements with consistency. Especially for text within the same sentence of section, this really helped me to communicate that they are within the same block of information.
Link to first iteration:
Second Iteration
I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted to execute the characteristic analysis part during my thumbnailing phase, which was to use the description like “low x-height” and “contrast” themselves to show each characteristics. However, once I had created my intro scene, I realized that I wanted a smoother transition into the analysis. I decided to use the word “Garamond” (ending of intro scene) and bring in the lower case -a to start showing the low x-height. Doing this helped me realize that I should choose element, alphabet that best embodies that characteristics to communicate effectively.
Third Iteration
When I was working on the application part, I was initially going to include the different members of the typeface families and showing the popular versions of Garamond.
While talking to Vicki, I realized that there is not that much meaning communicated when I just simply show all the available typefaces of Garamond. I started to think about the different examples that use Garamond to communicate the three adjectives that I am describing Garamond as — versatile, elegant, and timeless. Some examples I am considering now are: Harry Potter typeset, brand logos (Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, L’occitane), and more elegant and public examples like the Louvr’e museum brand design.
