Welcome to the world of Motion Graphics. This course is for students with at least a basic familiarity with video and still image editing concepts and techniques who are interested in the theory and practice of creating dynamic compositions using illustrations, 3D graphics, still images, and video for use in media art, title and animation sequences, and DVD/interactive menu design. This class has a strong emphasis on creative compositing and 2D manipulation skills and strategies. You will be expected to complete several assignments outside of class, as well as an in-depth final project. Critiques of assignments will be plentiful, and every student’s participation will be critical to a meaningful dialogue. There will be a web presence for the class where you will have access to tutorials, current and past assignments, and links to relevant information. The goal of this course is to prepare students to create professional motion graphics projects from concept through execution to distribution.
Video Graphics - Fall 2007
NME 3430.XX - 4 Credits
Professor Art Jones
Email: artjones@earthlink.net
Room: 2010
Textbook: TBD
Welcome to the world of Motion Graphics. This course is for students with at least a basic familiarity with video and still image editing concepts and techniques who are interested in the theory and practice of creating dynamic compositions using illustrations, 3D graphics, still images, and video for use in media art, title and animation sequences, and DVD/interactive menu design. This class has a strong emphasis on creative compositing and 2D manipulation skills and strategies. You will be expected to complete several assignments outside of class, as well as an in-depth final project. Critiques of assignments will be plentiful, and every student’s participation will be critical to a meaningful dialogue. There will be a web presence for the class where you will have access to tutorials, current and past assignments, and links to relevant information. The goal of this course is to prepare students to create professional motion graphics projects from concept through execution to distribution.
Grades:
30% Video assignments- This includes all elements of a project including treatment, storyboards/shot lists, budget, and the completed project delivered per deadline in proper format and media.
40% Final project video- This includes all elements of a final project including treatment, storyboards/shot lists, budget, production notes, work-in-progress presentation, and the completed project delivered per deadline in proper format and media.
20% In-class exercises- These are designed to help you gain the familiarity with the tools and techniques of production. You will most likely work in teams to solve a particular design or technical problem and to collaborate toward the completion of a short piece.
10% Class participation
Attendance: Proper attendance is required for this course. Attendance will be taken for all lectures. Two cuts permitted per semester (these include illnesses, weather delays etc., - but this is not a license to cut arbitrarily). A third absence will lower your grade a full mark and a 4th absence will mean a failing grade in the course. Being more than 15 minutes late constitutes an absence.
WEEK 1:
Intro.
Who are we, and why are we here?: Tell me a bit about the areas of media you have worked in the past and what your goals are for your participation in this course.
Course description: More details about what you should expect from this course. I'll also answer any questions regarding the course.
Screening- Ballet Mechanique, TBD
Discussion of materials, workload, attendance requirements, etc
Request email addresses, phone numbers and prior video experience.
Concept of compositing. Early cinema, optical printing, animation stand.
Intro to Adobe After Effects: Creating compositions, file formats, basic program structure. Examples of early collage work.
Assignment: ‘Still Me’
Bring at least 5 but no more than 10 still images (in JPEG, TIFF, PICT, or PNG format) of yourself for use in a composition during Week 2’s class time. The images can represent you at any time during your life (i.e. baby pictures and/or shots taken right before class). Write down a descriptive word that you will apply to each image.
WEEK 2:
Screen Soviet animation examples
Time manipulations in 2D compositions.:
Keyframes, scale, position, and orientation of elements. Anchor points.
Generating elements within Adobe After Effects.
Assignment: Complete ‘Still Me’
Complete ‘Still Me’ as a 30 to 60 second video with sound for screening at next class (Week 3)
WEEK 3:
Screen Oskar Fishcinger,TBD
Screen and critiques ‘Still Me’ assignment.
Working with layers.
Setting points and markers, time stretching, frame blending, editing of attributes.
Assignment: Complex Composition
Bring in at least one short video file and five still photographs or graphic images in proper digital formats to be used during Week 4’s class.
WEEK 4:
Text manipulations and animation.
Creating, editing, and formatting text, text paths, properties.
Brief history of the Film and Television title sequence.
Screening: Various title sequences 1950’s to 2000’s
Assignment: Title Sequence, part 1
Create a 60-second title sequence for an imagined documentary film. Take detailed notes about the process of interpreting the theme of your film in a graphic environment. Why did you select these particular elements? Which elements in your composition are primary?
WEEK 5:
Screen and critique Title Sequence assignment, part 1
Masking and mattes.
Animating masks for complex layer interactions, track mattes. Image masks.
WEEK 6:
Screen various short films and videos
Layer Hierarchies
Parenting, nesting compositions, pre-composing
WEEK 7:
Screen Dziga Vertov, excerpts from “The Kid Stays in the Picture”
3D Space in the 2D compositing environment, part 1
Manipulation of Virtual Cameras
Assignment: Bring elements for 2D/3D composites to class for Week 8
WEEK 8:
Screen TBD
3D Space in the 2D compositing environment, part 2
Lights and Lighting for 2D objects
Assignment: POV (Point of View):
Create a video ‘walkthrough’ of an interior or exterior space utilizing at least one virtual camera. The POV of the camera should approximate the perspective of a human or other large animal moving through the space, selectively looking at objects.
WEEK 9:
Screen and critique POV assignments
Discuss final project.
WEEK 10:
Screen Resfest shorts 1999-2007
Effects and special techniques, part 1
Effects examples
Assignment: Title Sequence, part 2
Create a 90-second title sequence for an autobiographical film.
WEEK 11:
Effects and special techniques, part 2
Using Adjustment Layers
Final project proposals due
WEEK 12:
Screening and critique of Title Sequence, part 2 assignment
Particle Effects
Motion Tracking
WEEK 13:
Screening TBD
Automating the process: Using expressions to produce complex animated sequences
Individual meetings
Work-in-progress presentations part 1
WEEK 14:
Individual meetings
Work-in-progress presentations part 2, tutorials
WEEK 15:
Final project screening.
NME 3430.XX - 4 Credits
Professor Art Jones
Email: artjones@earthlink.net
Room: 2010
Textbook: TBD
Welcome to the world of Motion Graphics. This course is for students with at least a basic familiarity with video and still image editing concepts and techniques who are interested in the theory and practice of creating dynamic compositions using illustrations, 3D graphics, still images, and video for use in media art, title and animation sequences, and DVD/interactive menu design. This class has a strong emphasis on creative compositing and 2D manipulation skills and strategies. You will be expected to complete several assignments outside of class, as well as an in-depth final project. Critiques of assignments will be plentiful, and every student’s participation will be critical to a meaningful dialogue. There will be a web presence for the class where you will have access to tutorials, current and past assignments, and links to relevant information. The goal of this course is to prepare students to create professional motion graphics projects from concept through execution to distribution.
Grades:
30% Video assignments- This includes all elements of a project including treatment, storyboards/shot lists, budget, and the completed project delivered per deadline in proper format and media.
40% Final project video- This includes all elements of a final project including treatment, storyboards/shot lists, budget, production notes, work-in-progress presentation, and the completed project delivered per deadline in proper format and media.
20% In-class exercises- These are designed to help you gain the familiarity with the tools and techniques of production. You will most likely work in teams to solve a particular design or technical problem and to collaborate toward the completion of a short piece.
10% Class participation
Attendance: Proper attendance is required for this course. Attendance will be taken for all lectures. Two cuts permitted per semester (these include illnesses, weather delays etc., - but this is not a license to cut arbitrarily). A third absence will lower your grade a full mark and a 4th absence will mean a failing grade in the course. Being more than 15 minutes late constitutes an absence.
WEEK 1:
Intro.
Who are we, and why are we here?: Tell me a bit about the areas of media you have worked in the past and what your goals are for your participation in this course.
Course description: More details about what you should expect from this course. I'll also answer any questions regarding the course.
Screening- Ballet Mechanique, TBD
Discussion of materials, workload, attendance requirements, etc
Request email addresses, phone numbers and prior video experience.
Concept of compositing. Early cinema, optical printing, animation stand.
Intro to Adobe After Effects: Creating compositions, file formats, basic program structure. Examples of early collage work.
Assignment: ‘Still Me’
Bring at least 5 but no more than 10 still images (in JPEG, TIFF, PICT, or PNG format) of yourself for use in a composition during Week 2’s class time. The images can represent you at any time during your life (i.e. baby pictures and/or shots taken right before class). Write down a descriptive word that you will apply to each image.
WEEK 2:
Screen Soviet animation examples
Time manipulations in 2D compositions.:
Keyframes, scale, position, and orientation of elements. Anchor points.
Generating elements within Adobe After Effects.
Assignment: Complete ‘Still Me’
Complete ‘Still Me’ as a 30 to 60 second video with sound for screening at next class (Week 3)
WEEK 3:
Screen Oskar Fishcinger,TBD
Screen and critiques ‘Still Me’ assignment.
Working with layers.
Setting points and markers, time stretching, frame blending, editing of attributes.
Assignment: Complex Composition
Bring in at least one short video file and five still photographs or graphic images in proper digital formats to be used during Week 4’s class.
WEEK 4:
Text manipulations and animation.
Creating, editing, and formatting text, text paths, properties.
Brief history of the Film and Television title sequence.
Screening: Various title sequences 1950’s to 2000’s
Assignment: Title Sequence, part 1
Create a 60-second title sequence for an imagined documentary film. Take detailed notes about the process of interpreting the theme of your film in a graphic environment. Why did you select these particular elements? Which elements in your composition are primary?
WEEK 5:
Screen and critique Title Sequence assignment, part 1
Masking and mattes.
Animating masks for complex layer interactions, track mattes. Image masks.
WEEK 6:
Screen various short films and videos
Layer Hierarchies
Parenting, nesting compositions, pre-composing
WEEK 7:
Screen Dziga Vertov, excerpts from “The Kid Stays in the Picture”
3D Space in the 2D compositing environment, part 1
Manipulation of Virtual Cameras
Assignment: Bring elements for 2D/3D composites to class for Week 8
WEEK 8:
Screen TBD
3D Space in the 2D compositing environment, part 2
Lights and Lighting for 2D objects
Assignment: POV (Point of View):
Create a video ‘walkthrough’ of an interior or exterior space utilizing at least one virtual camera. The POV of the camera should approximate the perspective of a human or other large animal moving through the space, selectively looking at objects.
WEEK 9:
Screen and critique POV assignments
Discuss final project.
WEEK 10:
Screen Resfest shorts 1999-2007
Effects and special techniques, part 1
Effects examples
Assignment: Title Sequence, part 2
Create a 90-second title sequence for an autobiographical film.
WEEK 11:
Effects and special techniques, part 2
Using Adjustment Layers
Final project proposals due
WEEK 12:
Screening and critique of Title Sequence, part 2 assignment
Particle Effects
Motion Tracking
WEEK 13:
Screening TBD
Automating the process: Using expressions to produce complex animated sequences
Individual meetings
Work-in-progress presentations part 1
WEEK 14:
Individual meetings
Work-in-progress presentations part 2, tutorials
WEEK 15:
Final project screening.
