Project Revision: Gertrude Stein Animation

I choose to revisit my Gertrude Stein animation for Project IV. I decided to recreate this project because after working with my PotPie logo spot and the Union Station timeline project I felt like I had a much better understanding of After Effects and how to better utilize it to see my vision to fruition. I am still very much so a beginner to After Effects but after this class it feels like with enough patience, and practice it is possible to bring into my skill set as a designer.

In my initial design I had a sets of type clumped together and sometimes single lines of text just popping out from behind a shape. Honestly it was pretty much the extent of my abilities at the time haha. It was as close as I could get at the time to replicate or I should say represent my type Stein book which was actually more of a complex set of different branded related materials like two posters, a dvd, and a small book of moments. I found myself repeating the same motions and text placement in this original video. Some of the text was actually too fast paced as well. The worst mistake I made was adding a paint swatch to the background. I think I was nervous about having such an empty background. I have since realized that just because its empty doesn't mean its wrong, or better to place any kind of filler.

While working on this revision I learned that I could better utilize my type in various movements and combinations to better represent the expressive text from Stein. I learned to pull back on the imagery if it isn't needed and made sure to better utilize the way my audio syncs up thanks to the Logo Build project. Making small but conceptual moves rather than large moves to make up for lack of concept has made a world of difference. I learned that I could use type and break it up into objects that I can use to make cause and effect actions. Since using the background image that doesn't work I realized that I could instead use subtle details created in photoshop rather than full on blocky images that might not relate as well. A few other differences between the new video and the old: The new video uses text zooming in and out to re-enforce the idea of distance and representation of other imagery suggest by Stein rather than just basic text shifts. This version better supports the Type project but also goes above it to bring in more meaning.

New Video:


Old Video: