The intention of this project is to create motion graphics through the discovery of unique design solutions to expand a mere graphic vocabulary into a comprehensive abstract visual language and to maximize the possibilities for visual expression. The primary tool you will utilize is Adobe After Effects.

How to choose a right typeface?
Whatever the case, ultimately your choice of typeface needs to strike a good combination of both legibility and readability. One suggestion. Try to avoid trite correlations. Just don’t do something so blatantly obvious and it took you less than one second to think of it.

• Don’t use Papyrus just because your topic is “ancient” in some way, especially if it’s about Ancient Egypt. (Better yet, don’t use Papyrus at all)
• Don’t use Comic Sans just because your topic is humorous. (Better yet, don’t use Comic Sans at all)
• Don’t use Lithos just because your topic is about Greek myths.
• Don’t use Futura just because your topic deals with “the future”.

Guidelines:
Choose a song, quote, excerpt, article, poem or maxim... then animate the words in After Effects. Music, audio, narration or ambient noise may be incorporated. Pay special attention to the timing, motion, transition and visual style of your animation.

• Choose right typeface(s) and use it accordingly.
• Apply design principles.
• Engage in a dialogue with your viewers.
• Duration should allow time for reading to occur.
• 'Pause' allows time for the viewer to ponder what was just presented before the next event occurs. 
• Keep transitions consistent.
• Keep placement consistent. Words that appear in random locations on the screen are difficult to read & cause disorientation.
• Balanced (aligned) text is more legible. Credit scrolls at the end of films are a good example of type symmetrically composed.
• Words can be animated to simulate intonation the way an actor might speak them.
• Don't let the motion overshadow the message.
• Do not try to create literal illustrations of situations, but to create visual equivalences of the expressions.

Techniques (Treatments/Animation Principles):
Keep these in mind when bringing type to life:

• Tracking tightly, l o o s e l y, and vary your tracking to create rhythm
• Contrast of elements in terms of size, direction, weight, space and position
• Touching, overlapping and cropping
• Line and strokes
• Distort
• Blur
• Mode
• Null: Use type as a texture
• Animate backgound
• Exaggeration
• Graph editor: Keyframe Assistant
• Enables Motion blur
• Drop shadow
• Camera
• Audio and Audio spectrum

Evaluation:

• Creative differences. The 'motion graphic techniques' that I demonstrate in class must be adequately reflected in your work, in addition you will need to explore others to expand your creative horizons. If your work resembles someone else's like the one's next to you or those exmples on the class web, your work is then not that creative. Your work must be different from others; that makes your motion graphics piece creative. 
• No pain, no gain. You will likely end up with a work that is just mediocre or run-of-the-mill, IF you don't make a considerable effort on it.
  

Render settings & Submission:

Resolution: Width 1920 x Height 1080px
Frame rate: 29.97 fps
Format: H.264 
Duration: 50-60 seconds long

References:

• Motion Graphics Examples (youtube)
• Motion Graphics Examples (Vimeo)
• Motion Graphics Lessons
  

Title Designers:

• Pablo Ferro 
• Saul Bass, 
• Kyle Cooper 
• Alex Ulloa

Books:

• <Moving Type, Designing for Time and Space>  Matt Woolman, Jeff Bellantoni 
• <Type In Motion, Innovations in Digital Graphics>  Matt Woolman, Jeff Bellanton