Goal

Cre­ate a com­plete com­mu­nica­tive mes­sage using the visual, kinetic, and audi­ble prin­ci­ples of animation.

Objective

Cre­ate a title sequence for a fic­ti­tious fea­ture length movie pro­duc­tion of a clas­sic story pre­sented as a movie or series. through inten­tional use of motion lit­er­acy, design ele­ments, prin­ci­ples and creativity.

Background Reading

• Gen­eral Infor­ma­tion https://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​T​i​t​l​e​_​s​e​q​u​e​nce
• Com­mon Open­ing Cred­its Order https://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​O​p​e​n​i​n​g​_​c​r​e​d​i​t​s​#​C​o​m​m​o​n​_​o​p​e​n​i​n​g​_​c​r​e​d​i​t​s​_​o​r​der
• Project Guten­berg https://​www​.guten​berg​.org/
• Down­ton Abbey (PBS) https://​vimeo​.com/​1​7​6​7​3​150
• Sher­lock (PBS) https://​vimeo​.com/​3​8​3​8​2​280
• Ritchie, Sher­lock Holmes http://​www​.artof​theti​tle​.com/​t​i​t​l​e​/​s​h​e​r​l​o​c​k​-​h​o​l​m​es/
• Ritchie, Sher­lock Holmes: Game of Shad­ows https://​vimeo​.com/​3​5​7​8​1​673

Assignment

Using a clas­sic story from Project Guten­berg, develop a one-two minute intro­duc­tory title sequence. The assign­ment has no cre­ative or tech­ni­cal lim­i­ta­tions regard­ing visual style, tech­niques or soft­ware. Pro­vide fic­ti­tious names for key actors and pro­duc­tion per­son­nel. The solu­tion may include live footage, pure graphic ele­ments, or a com­bi­na­tion of both. Please use what­ever means nec­es­sary to com­plete the mes­sage effec­tively to the cho­sen audience.

Care­fully con­sider the vari­ables listed below, as well as the hypo­thet­i­cal rela­tion­ship show’s con­tent to the vis­i­ble and dynamic ele­ments of the pack­age. Rep­re­sen­ta­tional images, video, audio, color, light, and tex­ture are permissible.

Con­sider your variables:

• type­face, type size, weight, color, tex­ture, focus, ori­en­ta­tion, location
• entrance, per­for­mance, exit
• sequence, speed, pac­ing, tran­si­tion, trans­for­ma­tion, time
• tone of voice, emo­tion, feel­ing, atmos­phere, interpretation.

Part One

Upon approval from the instruc­tor, develop a sto­ry­board that rep­re­sents the key ele­ments and ani­ma­tion frames of your pack­age. Scan illus­tra­tions or cre­ate dig­i­tal files for sub­mis­sion. Make any nec­es­sary assump­tions or dec­la­ra­tions about the con­text at this time. Sup­ple­men­tal footage and audio is required.

The solu­tion should reflect a sum­mary of the story, a fore­shad­ow­ing of the story to come, or it may serve as an introduction/transition to live action. Make any nec­es­sary assump­tions regard­ing con­cep­tual devel­op­ment and art direc­tion as the direc­tor of the pro­duc­tion, not just the animator.

Pro­vide sketches, sam­ple frames and other rubric related require­ments as a PDF or JPG for­mat, includ­ing any nec­es­sary links, to the appro­pri­ate drop­box. (updated 05.03.2024)

Part Two

Begin your ani­ma­tion using any nec­es­sary soft­ware and tech­niques. Pub­lish rough ani­mat­ics and clips as nec­es­sary for rough critique.

Part Three

Com­plete your ani­ma­tion using any nec­es­sary soft­ware and tech­niques. Pub­lish a com­plete ver­sion of the sequence.

Technical Specifications

Cre­ate the ani­ma­tions at the fol­low­ing settings:

• File Size/Export Set­tings: HDTV 1080, 29.97fps
• Ren­der Set­tings: Best and Out­put Mod­ule: H.264
• 44.1kHz, 16 bit, 2 chan­nel audio
• File name: xyz_art378_exer00_part00.mp4

Assessment

• The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine exer­cise score: Assign­ment 03.08: Open­ing Title Sequence

Techniques

Cre­ativ­ity, brain­storm­ing, plan­ning, exper­i­men­ta­tion, file hier­ar­chy, struc­ture, nam­ing conventions

Supplies

Adobe After Effects, Pho­to­shop, Illus­tra­tor, video, audio