motion graphics part1

8/13/2019 Motion Graphics Part1

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Lev Manovich

After Effects, or Velvet Revolution

[spring 2006]

During the heyday of post-modern debates, at least one critic inAmerica noticed the connection between post-modern pastiche andcomputerization !n his boo"After the Great Divide#$%&6', Andreas(uyssen writes) *All modern and a+antgardist techniues, forms andimages are now stored for instant recall in the computerized memoryban"s of our culture ut the same memory also stores all of pre-modernist art as well as the genres, codes, and image worlds of

popular cultures and modern mass culture. $(is analysis is accurate/ ecept that these *computerized memory ban"s. did not reallybecame commonplace for another fifteen years 1nly when the ebabsorbed enough of the media archi+es it became this uni+ersalcultural memory ban" accessible to all cultural producers ut e+enfor the professionals, the ability to easily integrate multiple mediasources within the same pro3ect / multiple layers of +ideo, scannedstill images, animation, graphics, and typography / only cametowards the end of the $%%0s

!n $%&4 when (uyssen boo" was in preparation for publication ! waswor"ing for one of the few computer animation companies in theworld called Digital Effects25ach computer animator had his owninteracti+e graphics terminal that could show D models but only inwireframe and in monochrome7 to see them fully rendered in color,we had to ta"e turns as the company had only one color rasterdisplay which we all shared 8he data was stored on bul"y magnetictapes about a feet in diameter7 to find the data from an old 3ob was a

$Andreas (uyssen, *9apping the :ostmodern,. inAfter the GreatDivide#loomington and !ndianapolis) !ndiana ;ni+ersity :ress,$%&6', $%62 http)??accadosuedu?@5waynec?history?lesson2htmlB


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cumbersome process which in+ol+ed locating the right tape in tapelibrary, putting it on a tape dri+e and then searching for the right partof the tape e did not had a color scanner, so getting *all modernand a+antgardist techniues, forms and images. into the computerwas far from tri+ial And e+en if we had one, there was no way tostore, recall and modify these images 8he machine that could do that

/ Cuantel :ainbo / cost o+er ;


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computer animation, and typography / started to be combined innumerous ways y the end of the decade, the *pure. mo+ing imagemedia became an eception and hybrid media became the norm(owe+er, in contrast to other computer re+olutions such as the rise oforld ide eb around the same time, this re+olution was notac"nowledged by popular media or by cultural critics hat recei+edattention were the de+elopments that affected narrati+e filmma"ing /the use of computer-produced special effects in (ollywood featurefilms or the inepensi+e digital +ideo and editing tools outside of itut another process which happened on a larger scale - thetransformation of the +isual language used by all forms of mo+ingimages outside of narrati+e films / has not been critically analyzed !nfact, while the results of these transformations ha+e become fully+isible by about $%%&, at the time of this writing #early 2006' ! am not

aware of a single theoretical article discussing them

1ne of the reasons is that in this re+olution no new media per sewere created Eust as ten years ago, the designers were ma"ing stillimages and mo+ing images ut the aesthetics of these images wasnow +ery different !n fact, it was so new that, in retrospect, the post-modern imagery of 3ust ten years ago that at the time loo"ed stri"inglydifferent now appears as a barely noticeable blip on the radar ofcultural history

Visual Hybridity

8his article is a first part of the series de+oted to the analysis of thenew hybrid +isual language of mo+ing images that emerged duringthe period of $%%-$%%& 8oday this language dominates our +isualculture hile narrati+e features mostly stic" to li+e cinematographyand +ideo shot by ordinary people with consumer +ideo cameras andcell phones is similarly usually left as is, e+erything else /

commercials, music +ideos, motion graphics, 8F graphics, and othertypes of short non-narrati+e films and mo+ing image seuences beingproduced around the world by the media professionals includingcompanies, indi+idual designers and artists, and students / arehybrid


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1f course, ! could ha+e pic"ed the different dates, for instancestarting a few years earlier - but since After 5ffects software whichwill play the "ey role in my account was released in $%%, ! decided topic" this year as my first date And while my second date also couldha+e been different, ! belie+e that by $%%& the broad changes in theaesthetics of mo+ing image became +isible !f you want to uic"ly seethis for yourself, simply compare demo reels from the same +isualeffects companies made in early $%%0s and late $%%0s #a number ofthem are a+ailable online / loo" for instance at the wor" of :acificData !mages' !n the wor" from the beginning of the decade,computer imagery in most cases appears by itself / that is, we seewhole commercials and promotional +ideos done in D computeranimation, and the no+elty of this new media is foregrounded y theend of the $%%0s, computer animation becomes 3ust one element

integrated in the media mi that also includes li+e action, typography,and design

Although these transformations happened only recently, the ubiuityof the new hybrid +isual language today #2006' is such that it ta"esan effort to recall how different things loo"ed before


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Jou can do D or 2D all on your des"top computer at home orin a small officeG

!n the $%&% former


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design Although today #2006' media design and post-productioncompanies continue to rely on more epensi+e *high-end. softwaresuch as Olame, !nferno or :aintbo that run on specialized graphicswor"stations from


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Examples

8he use of After 5ffects is closely identified with a particular type ofmo+ing images which became commonplace to a large part becauseof this software / *motion graphics. =oncisely defined by 9att Orantzin his 9aster 8hesis as *designed non-narrati+e, non-figurati+e based+isuals that change o+er time,.motion graphics today include filmand tele+ision titles, 8F graphics, dynamic menus, the graphics formobile media content, and other animated seuences 8ypicallymotion graphics appear as parts of longer pieces) commercials,music +ideos, training +ideos, narrati+e and documentary films,interacti+e pro3ects

hile motion graphics definitely eemplify the changes that too"place during Fel+et e+olution, these changes are more broadhttp)??wwwmattfrantzcom?thesisandresearch?motiongraphicshtmlB&!ncluded on onedot'ero(select D#D + 1nline +ersion at >

http)??wwwpleinet?filmshtmlB


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The %nsideby !maginary Oorces, 2004' !n other cases, a seuencemay mo+e between different media so uic"ly that the shifts arebarely noticeable #P9= Denali *(oles. commercial by !maginaryOorces, 2004' Jet in other cases, a commercial or a mo+ie title mayfeature continuous action shot on +ideo or film, with the image beingperiodically changing from a more natural to a highly stylized loo"

hile the particular aesthetic solutions +ary from one piece to thenet and from one designer to another, they all share the same logic)the appearance of multiple media simultaneously in the same framehether these media are openly 3utaposed or almost seamlesslyblended together is less important than the fact of this co-presenceitself

8oday such hybrid +isual language is also common to a largeproportion of short *eperimental. #ie non-commercial' films beingproduced for media festi+als, the web, mobile media de+ices, andother distribution platforms%8he large percentage of the +isualscreated by FEs and Hi+e =inema artists are also hybrid, combining+ideo, layers of 2D imagery, animation, and abstract imagerygenerated in real time #Oor eamples, consult The #, )oo-, #,: "iveCinema nraveled, or web sites such as www+3centralcom andwwwli+e-cinemaorg$0' !n the case of feature narrati+e films and 8F

%!n December 2004 ! attended !mpact media festi+al in ;trecht and !as"ed the festi+al director what percentage of submissions theyrecei+ed this year featured hybrid +isual language as opposed to*strait. +ideo or film (is estimate was about one half !n Eanuary2006 ! was part of the re+iew team that 3udged graduating pro3ects ofstudents in


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programs, while they are still rarely mi different graphical styleswithin the same frame, many now feature highly stylized aestheticswhich would pre+iously be identified with illustration rather thanfilmma"ing / for instance, 8F series CS%, Peorge HucasIs latest Star/arsfilms, or obert odriguezIs Sin City

Media Remixability

hat is the logic of this new hybrid +isual languageM This logic is oneof remi0a)ility: not only of the content of different media or simplytheir aesthetics1 )ut their fundamental techniues1 !or-ing methods1and assumptions.;nited within the common software en+ironment,cinematography, animation, computer animation, special effects,

graphic design, and typography ha+e come to form a newmetamedium A wor" produced in this new metamedium can use alltechniues which were pre+iously uniue to these different media, orany subset of these techniues

!f we use the concept of *remediation. to describe this new situation,we will misrepresent this logic / or the logic of media computing ingeneral$$8he computer does not *remediate. particular media!nstead, it simulates all media And what it simulates are not surfaceappearances of different media but all the techniues used for theirproduction and all the methods of +iewing and interaction with thewor"s in these media

1nce all types of media met within the same digital en+ironment /and this was accomplished by the middle of the $%%0s - they startedinteracting in the ways that could ne+er be predicted nor e+enimagined pre+iously Oor instance, while particular media techniuescontinue to be used in relation to their original media, they can alsobe applied to other media #8his is possible because the techniues

are turned into algorithms, all media is turned into digital data storedin compatible file formats, and software is designed to read and writefiles produced by other programs' (ere are a few eamples) motionblur is applied to D computer graphics, computer generated fields of

$$Eay Da+id olter and ichard Prusin, $emediation: nderstanding

3e! &edia#8he 9!8 :ress, $%%%'


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particles are blended with li+e action footage to gi+e it enhanced loo",a +irtual camera is made to mo+e around the +irtual space filled with2D drawings, flat typography is animated as though it is made from aliuid li"e material #the liuid simulation coming from computergraphics field', and so on And while this *cross-o+er. use by itselfconstitutes a fundamental shift in media history, today a typical shortfilm or a seuence may combine many such pairings within the sameframe 8he result is a hybrid, intricate, comple, and rich +isuallanguage / or rather, numerous languages that share the basic logicof remiabilty

! belie+e that *media remiability. which begins around middle of the$%%0s constitutes a new fundamental stage in the history of media !tmanifests itself in different areas of culture and not only mo+ing

images / although the later does offer a particularly stri"ing eampleof this new logic at wor" (ere software such as After 5ffects becamea :etri dish where computer animation, li+e cinematography, graphicdesign, 2D animation and typography started to interact together,creating new hybrids And as the eamples mentioned abo+edemonstrate, the result of this process of remiability are newaesthetics and new media species which cannot be reduced to thesum of media that went into them :ut differently, the interactions ofdifferent media in the same software en+ironment are culturalspecies

9edia remiability does not necessary lead to a collage-li"eaesthetics which foregrounds the 3utapositions of different mediaand different media techniues As a +ery different eample of whatmedia remiability can result in, consider a more subtle aestheticswell captured by the name of the software under discussion / After5ffects !f in the $%%0s computers were used to create highlyspectacular special effects or *in+isible effects,.$2by the end of thisdecade we see something else emerging) a new +isual aesthetics

$2An in+isible effect is the standard industry term Oor instance, in

$%% the film =ontact directed by obert Remec" was nominated for$%% FOS (C Awardsin the following categories) est Fisual 5ffects,est


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which goes *beyond effects. !n this aesthetics, the whole pro3ect /music +ideo, commercial, short film, or a large part of a feature film /displays a hyper-real loo" where the enhancement of li+e actionmaterial is not completely in+isible but at the same time it does notcall attention to itself the way special effects usually did #eamples)eebo" !-:imp 4lac- 4as-et)allcommercial, The "egend of 5orromain title, both by !maginary Oorces, 2004' 8his new hyper-realaesthetics is yet another eample of how in the hands of designersthe :etri dish of software containing all media creation andmanipulation techniues created during human history is nowproduces new hybrids !n fact, it produces only hybrids

Layers, Transparency, Compositin

Het us now loo" at the details of new +isual language of mo+ingimages which emerged from the Fel+et e+olution and the materialand social conditions / software, user interface, design wor"flow -which ma"e remiabilty possible :robably the most dramatic amongthe changes that too" place during $%%-$%%& was the new ability tocombine together multiple levels of imagery !ith varying degree oftransparency via digital compositing!f you compare a typical music+ideo or a 8F ad+ertising spot circa $%&6 with their counterparts circa$%%6, the differences are stri"ing #8he same holds for still images'

As ! already noted, in $%&6 *computerized memory ban"s. were +erylimited in their storage capacity and prohibiti+ely epensi+e, andtherefore designers could not uic"ly and easily cut and pastemultiple image sources ut e+en when they would assemble multiple+isual references, a designer only could place them net to, or on topof each other


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auschenberg / a mosaic of fragments without any strongdominant!"

=ompositing also made tri+ial another operation which was +erycumbersome pre+iously ;ntil the $%%0s, different media types suchas hand-drawn animation, lens-based recordings, ie film and +ideo,and typography practically ne+er appeared within the same frame!nstead, animated commercials, publicity shorts, industrial films, andsome feature and eperimental films that did include multiple mediausually placed them in separate shots A few directors ha+e managedto build whole aesthetic systems out of such temporal 3utapositions /most notably, Eean-Huc Podard !n his $%60s films such as /ee-End#$%6' Podard cut bold typographic compositions in between li+eaction creating what can be called *media montages. !n the same

$%60s pioneering motion graphics designer :ablo Oerro who hasappropriately called his company Orame !magery created promotionalshorts and 8F graphics that played on 3utapositions of differentmedia replacing each other in a rapid succession$G !n a number ofOerroIs spots, static images of different letterforms, line drawings,original hand painted artwor", photographs, +ery short clips fromnewsreels, and other +isuals would come after another with machinegun speed

ithin cinema, the superimposition of different media within the sameframe were usually limited to the two mediaplaced on top of eachother in a standardized manner / ie, static letters appearing on topof still or mo+ing lens-based images in feature film titles oth Oerroand another motion graphics pioneer


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#rather than in edited seuence' were rare eceptions in the o+erwise*unimedia. uni+erse where filmed images appeared in feature filmsand hand drawn images appeared in animated films 8he onlytwentieth century feature film director ! "now of who has build hisuniue aesthetics by systematically combining different media withinthe same shot is =zech Qarel Reman A typical shot by Reman maycontain filmed human figures, an old engra+ing used for bac"ground,and a miniature model$4

8he achie+ements of these directors and designers are particularlyremar"able gi+en the difficulty of combing different media within thesame frame during film era 8o do this reuired utilizing the ser+icesof a special effects departments or separate companies which usedoptical printers 8he techniues that were cheap and more accessible

such as double eposure were limited in their precision


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!n $%&4 Eeff


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analyzed the actual techniues of digital compositing and thefundamental concept of an alpha channel which deser+es a separateand detailed treatment ! ha+e also did not go into the possible mediahistories leading to digital compositing, nor its relationship to opticalprinting, +ideo "eying and +ideo effects technology of the $%&0s8hese histories and relationships were discussed in *=ompositing.chapter #$%%%' in my The "anguage of 3e! &edia1but from adifferent perspecti+e than the one used here At that time ! wasloo"ing at compositing from the point of +iew of the uestions ofcinematic realism, practices of montage, and the construction ofspecial effects in feature films 8oday, howe+er, it is clear to me thatin addition to disrupting the regime of cinematic realism in fa+or ofother +isual aesthetics, compositing also had another, e+en morefundamental effect

y the end of the $%%0s digital compositing has become the basicoperation used in creating allforms of mo+ing images, and not onlybig budget features


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dimensional and three dimensional, raster and +ector are madedeliberately +isible rather than being hidden

#rom $Time%based& to a $Composition%based&

9y thesis about media remiability applies both to the cultural formsand the software used to create them Eust as the mo+ing imagemedia made by designers today mi formats, assumptions, andtechniues of different media, the toolboes and interfaces of thesoftware they use are also remies Het us see use again After5ffects as the case study to see how its interface remies pre+iouslydistinct wor"ing methods of different disciplines

hen mo+ing image designers started to use compositing ? animationsoftware such as After 5ffects, its interface encouraged them thin"about mo+ing images in a fundamentally new way Oilm and +ideoediting systems and their computer simulations that came to be"nown as non-linear editors #today eemplified by A+id and Oinal=ut$&' ha+e conceptualized a media pro3ect as a seuence of shotsorganized in time =onseuently, while KH5 #the standardabbre+iation for non-linear editing software' ga+e the editor manytools for ad3usting the edits, they too" for granted the constant of filmlanguage that came from its industrial organization / that all framesha+e the same size and aspect ratio 8his is an eample of a largerphenomenon) as physical media were simulated in a computer, oftenmany of their fundamental properties, interface con+entions andconstraints were methodically re-created in software / e+en thoughsoftware medium itself has no such limitations !n contrast, from thebeginning After 5ffects interface put forward a new concept of mo+ingimage / as a composition organized both in time and 2D space

8he center of this interface is a =omposition window conceptualized

as a large can+as that can contain +isual elements of arbitrary sizesand proportions hen ! first started using After 5ffects soon after it

$&! should note that compositing functionality was gradually added

o+er time to most KH5, so today the distinction between original After5ffects or Olame interfaces and A+id and Oinal =ut interfaces is lesspronounced


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came out, ! remember feeling shoc"ed that software did notautomatically resized the graphics ! dragged into =ompositionwindow to ma"e them fit the o+erall frame 8he fundamentalassumption of cinema that accompanied it throughout its wholehistory / that film consists from many frames which all ha+e the samesize and aspect ratio / was gone

!n film and +ideo editing paradigms of the twentieth century, theminimal unit on which the editor wor"s on is a frame


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e can also see a connection between After 5ffects interface andstop motion that was another popular twentieth century animationtechniue ith stop motion techniue, puppets or any other ob3ectsare positioned in front of a camera and manually animated one frameat a time 8he animator eposes one frame of film, changes theob3ects a tiny bit, eposes another frame, and so on

Eust as it was the case with both cell and stop-motion animation, After5ffects does not ma"e any assumptions about the size or positions ofindi+idual elements ather than dealing with standardized units oftime, ie film frames containing fied +isual content, a designer nowwor"s with separate +isual elements positioned in space and time Anelement can be a digital +ideo frame, a line of type, an arbitrarygeometric shape, etc 8he finished wor" is the result of a particular

arrangement of these elements in space and time !n this paradigmwe can compare the designer to a choreographer who creates adance by *animating. the bodies of dancers - specifying their entryand eit points, tra3ectories through space of the stage, and themo+ements of their bodies #!n this respect it is rele+ant that while

After 5ffects interface did not e+o"e this reference, 9acromediaDirector which was the "ey multimedia authoring software of the$%%0s did directly use the metaphor of the theatre stage'

hile we can lin" After 5ffects interface to traditional animationmethods as used by commercial animation studios, the wor"ingmethod put forward by software is more close to graphic design !ncommercial animation studio of the twentieth century all elements /drawings, sets, characters, etc / were prepared beforehand 8hefilming itself was a mechanical process 1f course, we can findeceptions to this industrial-li"e separation of labor in eperimentalanimation practice where a film was typically produced by oneperson Oor instance, in $%G 1scar Oishinger made an ele+en-minute film &otion ainting +by continuously modifying a painting

and eposing film one frame at a time after each modification(owe+er, because Oishinger was shooting on film, he had to wait along time before seeing the results of his wor" As the historian ofabstract animation illiam 9oritz writes, VOischinger painted e+eryday for o+er fi+e months without being able to see how it was comingout on film, since he wanted to "eep all the conditions, including filmstoc", absolutely consistent in order to a+oid unepected +ariations in


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uality of imageV$%!n other words, in the case of this pro3ect byOischinger, creating a design and seeing the result were e+en moreseparated than in a commercial animation process

!n contrast, a graphic designer wor"s *in real time. As the designerintroduces new elements, ad3usts their locations, colors and otherproperties, tries different images, changes the size of the type, and soon, she can immediately see the result of her wor"20After 5ffectssimulates this wor"ing method by ma"ing =omposition window thecenter of its interface Hi"e a traditional designer, After 5ffects userinteracti+ely arranges the elements in this window and canimmediately see the result !n short, After 5ffects interface ma"esfilmma"ing into a design process, and a film is re-conceptualized as agraphic design that can change o+er time

hen physical media are simulated in a computer, we do not simplyend with the same media as before y adding new properties andwor"ing methods, computer simulation fundamentally changes theidentity of a gi+en media Oor eample, in the case of *electronicpaper. such as a ord document or a :DO file, we can do manythings which were not possible with ordinary paper) zoom in and outof the document, search for a particular phrase, change fonts and linespacing, etc


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A significant proportion of contemporary software for creating, editing,and interacting with media de+eloped in this way / by simulating aphysical media and augmenting it with new properties ut if weconsider media design software such as 9aya #used for D modelingand computer animation' or After 5ffects #motion graphics,compositing and +isual effects', we encounter a different logic 8hesesoftware applications do not simulate any single physical media thate0isted previously ather, they)orro! from a num)er of differentmedia com)ining and mi0ing their !or-ing methods and specifictechniues.#And, of course, they also add new capabilities specific tocomputer / for instance, the ability to automatically calculate theintermediate +alues between a number of "eyframes' Oor eample,D modeling software mies form ma"ing techniues which

pre+iously were *hardwired. to different physical media) the ability tochange the cur+ature of a rounded form as though it is made fromclay, the ability to build a structure from simple geometric primiti+esthe way a house can be build from identical rectangular buildingbloc"s, etc


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custom techniues and technologies !nstead, it led to the emergenceof numerous new +isual aesthetics that did not eist before 8hisarticle only begun the discussion of the common logic shared bythese aesthetics7 subseuent articles will loo" at its other features

motion graphics part1

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