Project 4: Type & Motion
Typeface Video of Vista Sans
My process for my typeface video is very music driven. Music is so important in this project because it helps set the mood, the pacing, and helps tell the story.
Music
Because Vista Sans is all about the balance between an expressive calligraphic serif and a simple and pragmatic sans, I couldn’t come up with an overarching defining adjective that sums up its mood. The best I could do was the word “quirky” and I started looking for playful music.
I chose two pieces of music that have potentials:
I liked “Summer Melt” because it sounds like a phrase saying “something yet something”, which fits into my narrative.
I also really liked “Aegean Okra” because it has two distinct sections, the first one that’s melody-heavy feels more expressive while the second one is percussion-heavy and feels more pragmatic.
Story Board
I started by drawing out the timelines for both pieces of music, and putting in bullet points of my script.
I decided that I liked “Aegean Okra” better than “Summer Melt” because I think it can contrast the “humanist” and “pragmatic” in Vista Sans better.
Initial story board:
I made a rough storyboard that syncs to the music, to help me evaluate the pacing. I think the overall structure and the pacing works, so I moved into digital storyboards to figure out the color palette.
Color Palette
I searched up something like “Indonesia quirky doors” (the type designer was inspired by shop signs in Indonesia), and I took inspiration from the vibrant colors of these photos.
I wanted two main different colors, for a dramatic background shift in the middle of my video, contrasting the “humanist” and the “pragmatic” side of Vista Sans.
I’m pretty sure about the orange and the yellow because they feel warm and a little archaic that takes me to a little town in Indonesia. But I’m not sure about the cooler color. In the end, I decided to go with the teal, because it feels the most playful and reflects the teal in a tropical ocean.
Animation
When I started to animate, I realized that a lot needed to be changed from my original storyboard. At some points, the pacing is too slow or too fast.
Draft1:
After meeting with TAs, I realized that I needed to change the bouncing ball part completely, because it goes by too fast for the player to understand that I’m trying to highlight the curvy stroke ends. So I decided to try something new and unexpected:
I highlighted the curvy end strokes by putting them out of contexts as super graphic shapes. I was unsure if this would work at all, but decided to give it a try.
I think it worked out. The graphics are quite quirky and the transition from the previous scene is fun.
Draft2:
Feedback (Tue 12/15):
- first half conveyed the quirky and humanist typeface well
- experiment more with transitions? Some are just text appearing on screen
- ends abruptly
- “simple” too slow to appear
- color palette is playful
Revisions for Final:
Emphasizing Theme—before, the orange/teal contrast representing the two different aspects (humanist/pragmatic) of Vista Sans wasn’t clear enough. So I added an animation when the background switched from orange to teal, so the audience notice it more. In addition, I changed the end scene, using an orange circle and teal square to further emphasize the two sides of my typeface through shape language. Bringing them together into one pattern at the end also offered a nice closure.
Title scene—when “Vista Sans” came on, I worried that it didn’t stay long enough on the screen to be memorable to viewers, so I added some transitions to the next scene to allow it stay on screen for a bit longer
Timing—I fixed some timing issues, such as weird pauses or when things did not align with the music well.
Final Video:
Takeaways
- for motion, keep text on as long as possible
- a symmetric composition is hard to do well
- trust myself more with decisions about making changes
- during animation, do rough tun-through first, then refine later (a lot of things can change or get cut)
- for motion, the original storyboard is going to change when the animation starts
Thank you, Vicki, Andrew, Jaclyn, and Hannah for a great mini! I learned so much even though it went by so fast. I will definitely use what I learned next semester in C studio. On my way to becoming a type nerd :)
