Project Three : Kinetic Animation (Production)

This task was the first task were we were all making an animation individually, the task involved using typography to convey a certain message within a chosen political speech to make an overall kinetic animation. I was very excited to do this as I was always very curious as to how those who would do kinetic animation would do it.

To start off we had to view a selection of famous political speeches and choose the one we favored.

Choice one
Speech: Charlie Chaplin Speech
This was the speech I wanted to do first as I felt that it gave the strongest impact to me as a viewer, I was also wanting to experiment with the increase/decrease of volume of his voice during the speech , and how that can be emphasized to create a bigger impact with the use of typography. I was already able to imagine how I wanted to visually produce the speech. What I admire about Charlie Chaplin is that the power of his voice is able to individually communicate and relate to every viewer, he is able to somehow speak for all those watching from generation to generation.

Choice two
Speech: Martin Luther King
This was my second choice as not only do I believe that many of the topics involved in the speech are still (sadly) relevant today, but that I have always admired the use of the word dream in the speech, and how that is still today able to make a giant impact. I also greatly admire Martin Luther King, and how he stood up for his dream with such power and bravery, how he was able to spark a fire of bravery in others, encouraging them to stand up to what is rightfully theirs. A right to be treated respectfully and equally. A dream that I as well as many others still believe and fight for today.

Final Choice
My final choice ended up being speech number two, this is mainly because a lot of other students chose the Charlie Chaplin speech and I personally wanted my speech to maintain an individual quality. As if everyone goes the same way, the results would be too similar. It was also a comfortable choice for me as I could already visually imagine the way I wanted the Charlie Chaplin speech to look like, whereas the Martin Luther King speech was more challenging in the fact that I was able to imagine how I would do it. Therefore the Martin Luther King speech would be more of a challenge, and help me progress my skills at a higher level.

After I have chosen the speech, I had to find an audio version of the speech, convert it to MP3, and then use Adobe after effects to crop the parts of the speech I did not what. It was surprsingly quite time consuming to find an mp3 file of the speech, as

Here is the part I used of the speech:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice

I chose this part of the speech as I thought it was one of the most powerful segments with the repetitive use of I have a dream, and summarizes the context and the overall purpose of the speech to the viewer. 

Production

To make this animation I used Adobe After Effects, this was the first time I used this programme with the purpose of making a kinetic animation. To do this, I added each sentence letter by letter so that I would be able to freely edit the structure and rhythm of the entire word. This way of working was rather long, however I quickly got the hang of putting each word together and lining it up with the correct timing. It also didn't bother me as I am more concerned about the quality of the animation as a whole, rather then the time it takes me to do it.  Here are some screenshots of me making the animation. 

Font:Rekoner Bold

I chose this font as it wasn't bold , over complicated or too plain for use

Overall I really enjoyed making this animation and learned a lot of skills and knowledge about what one has to do to make a kinetic animation. It also reminded me if the influence of a great speech and what makes a great speech. I believe that what makes a great speech is one where the motive of the speaker somehow becomes yours, where the words of the speech continue to live on with you for as long as you live. It also made me see the power of typography and the way typography empowers speech and visually emphasizes the purpose of speech and visual communication. I was happy with the way I pushed myself to experiment with the positioning of speech, and din't stick to a simple and un-moving animation. If I were to make a target for the next time I attempt a kinetic animation, it would be to be more ambitious with the text and look at ways of manipulating the text in more ways, such as changing the colour or adding an animation in-between the text. 

Here is the Final Animation

Martin Luther King Kinetic Animation










Thir motives become youtrs, a great speech is one that immeidatley evokes hange, that has words that stay with you forever