more research screenshots

this is the cover of the ebook i was using, i downloaded it as a pdf and it has the whole book although i only needed chapter 1, it made it a lot easier for me being able to download the book for free

here are a couple of the links to different audio books i found, i was looking round for interesting voices to use but i ended up finding one on itunes that i ended up using.

evaluation

I have really enjoyed experimenting with this new technique and i think after this project after effects is definitely one of my favourite programs and i would like to incorporate it in my future projects where possible. I think the idea of animating the text in a book in this way definitely makes it more interesting for the reader. by having the viewer follow the type with their eyes especially when it is moving in an unusual way almost distracts them from the fact that they are even reading a book. This project took a lot longer to complete than the music video i did for D&AD because there are a lot more words in this one, this is also the reason i couldn't do much individual animating for certain words like i did in the d&ad video because they are read out soo fast and only on screen for a short time, thats why they are shown more on screen as groups of words. I think the idea to have the camera zoom out at the end and reveal the word flatland made up of the words from the chapter works really well, given an unexpected twist to the end of the video for the viewer. After completing the video i noticed that the audiobook i had used was slightly different to the exact wording of the book which i used for all my text so there are a couple of examples of the narrator saying slightly different words to those shown on screen but it doesn't effect the video. Overall i am really pleased with the final outcome of this project and i think it makes the book a lot more interesting to any potential viewers and throughout this project i have taught myself a lot about the use of after effects which i had never even heard of before i started these briefs. Kinetic typography is something i have been interested in for a long time and i am glad i have now developed some of the skills i need to create my own videos in the future. I have also been noticing that after effects could be used for a lot of other kinds of motion graphics such as television adverts.

flatland final

here is the final video. I have gone through and changed a few little things and stuck with the same ending as the second video i posted. overall i am very pleased with this final outcome and i think it answers the brief very well by using typography to make the book flatland more interesting to readers.

endings compared

these are the 2 different endings i have used in my videos. the top one is the one i think i am going to go with, i think the word flatland works better on one line rather than split up onto 2. it was also my original plan to include the authors name underneath like i have in the top picture and i think this is very effective. when i was talking to mike the other day he said it might be a good idea to use the top ending but then after a few seconds to make the image/word blow up or shatter in to pieces that fly off the edge of the screen to add a bit more excitement and then make the video look like it could continue in to chapter 2. i really like the idea but i'm not sure if i will have time to do that. i am going to make sure i have got everything finished with the ending i am already happy with then if i have got time go back and attempt to create this explosion effect.

still rendering...

i set my final video up to start rendering before i uploaded the last few posts on here and its still going, at the start it predicted about 28 minutes till it was finished but this keeps adding on it has been going for over an hour and if its anything like the others it will be around 2 hours by the time its finished. my mac has 8gb of ram and at times it is using 95% of this, if i tried to do this on my laptop i would be here all day but i am hoping that after this has finished and i watch it through there wont be any more changes that need making and i can upload it as a final video

the audiobook

in the background i wanted to use an audiobook read by a celebrity, maybe morgan freeman but i spent nearly a week back in the early stages of the project looking around for different versions of this book. i could only find about 3 good examples and the voices were very lifeless and boring so i finally settled on a version i found on itunes, it was available as a podcast and each episode was a chapter of the book so i just downloaded episode 1 and used that. i think after listening to all the options i have chosen the best one. the only other way to do it was to record someone reading it myself.

flatland version 2

this is the second version of the video i created, i went back and changed the ending and added the authors name, i think the ending works a lot better now but there are still a few things i need to go back and change for the final video. i also noticed that the words the narrator says are slightly different than the text in the actual book and i just stuck to words in the book so there are a couple of occasions in the videos where the words are slightly different to what he is saying but i dont think these effect the video much and arent that noticeable