Motion Design: Title Transformation

Overview

"Projectionists -- pull curtain before titles" This note was attached to cans of film reels containing Otto Preminger's 1955 classic, The Man with the Golden Arm. Before this, movie theaters didn't even open the curtain until the opening credits were over. The Man with the Golden Arm marked a turning point when film titles became more than just a dull roll of credits and became part of the artistic statement of the film itself. Preminger had collaborated with legendary graphic designer Saul Bass (Links to an external site.) to create a simple but arresting cut out animation that changed how we view the title sequence forever. Since that time, title sequence design has become an art form of it own, blending graphics, typography, as well as both traditional and experimental film and animation techniques to create unique visions that are sometimes more fascinating than the movies and television shows they were created for.

Syllabus

Title Sequences: History and Ideation

In this session, we'll brainstorm and sketch title sequence ideas for your film and TV series. We’ll investigate how to express certain moods and tones through titles and how we can communicate them to a target audience. We’ll also consider the following Design and Motion Principles in developing our title sequences: Color palette, Typography, Shapes, Textures, Timing, Pacing, Movement, Animation, Audio, Music, SFX, etc.

Visualizing a Storyboard

In this session we’ll be using reference images to act as storyboards for your title sequences. We’ll learn how to apply expressive images into your storyboards that incorporate simple color palettes, color theory, and typography. Developing successful style frames (finished storyboards that encompass the entire mood of your title sequence) will also be covered.

Animating Your Style Frames

In this session, we’ll get an overview on how to bring your style frames into motion with Adobe After Effects. We’ll be using a variety of common to advanced techniques for both title sequences and motion design from panning animations, editing motion paths, to parallax effects.