7 Nation Typography

The Kinetic Typography; A Scarce Resource.

Danielle Sleigh

_____________________________________________________________________

Summary

I've created a kinetic typography for 7 Nation Army by The White Stripes. The character I used in this animation is named Hitomi Shiga, and the animation is about her struggle through her job. I fit the color scheme of the video with the character. 

Story Boarding

Because of the story requiring lots of text, I typed out the lyrics on a word document, and just put them in the video section under the visuals. Also, instead of drawing everything out, I labeled each visual image I used with a letter and put said letter on the story board instead of a drawing. Some of the visuals had two parts, and some were used more than once. Untimely, this was not how I made my animation, but it was nice to have a point of reference. My goal was to get a good looking typography, and a steady verse animated. I think I was able to do that.

Making The Visuals

To start out, I sketched the visuals I planned to use, and labeled them for the purpose of my story board. I think the image I spend the most time on was the first visual. I used a few references to figure out how to draw a person from the back. After I got everything drawn out, I scanned them in the computer so I could make them on Photoshop. I made them as vector graphics, using the pen tool. Originally, I made the letter A image with the band connected to the rest of the image, but I changed something in my animation to make it visual that the band was getting ripped off her arm, so I took the band off her arm in the graphic by cutting it from the image and adding what was missing from the arm. I cut a few of the images because I did change the story board, and they could be a little hard to do as a vector graphic. I tried to keep simplistic, because I enjoy the look, and it would also look better in theanimation and with the font. The font I used is called Red Out. As a part of the visuals, it looks sleek and fits with the visuals and the song. The hardest part of making the visuals was the hat, I think. Both front and back had to be shown at one point. I had to use a few references; they were actually kind of hard to find. I based the character’s color scheme off of a school uniform with a coat. The band represents a disciplinary committee band to prove she is in fact in said committee.

Setting up the Project

I made this on After Effects, which is ideal for 2d animations, including typography, and also piecing together already done video or animated clips. I had to create a new project, then I had to get all my graphics into the project, as well as the music. I made a new composition in the project, and originally I made it too small, and I set the background as white, which contrasted with my moon and just did not look good in general. Tip: Always make sure you are animating in the animation workspace!

Animation time!

Getting to know After Effects and Your Workspace

There are a few things not already mentioned that help a lot to know about when using after effects. The first is your tool bar. The things I use on my toolbar for the typography are the regular pointer arrow, which lets you move around your text and images, the hand which lets you pan, a magazine glass which is your zoom tool, the object tool that… makes objects, the pen tool, which also works as a key frame manipulator, and finally, the all-important text tool, which has a rather obvious purpose. Next, for creating effects on your text, you have the effect control drop down on your main drop down bar. I use the text manipulation the most, but that can also be accessed through the layer editor. You also have key frames. Those signify a change to the object, it moving, changing opacity, ect. Not counting key frames, I think the tool I most used was the guides and rulers. They are a very nice thing to have. I used them to line up all the text, and make sure there was even space between words. They were also good if you needed a perfect line for a movement key frame. A basic tool that you don’t notice you use is the time line. It is pretty self-explanatory.  You use it to tell where you are in the song, in frames, and it really helps when lining up key frames.

Your Best Friend is the Hide Button

Almost every single word is its own layer, which adds up to a lot BEFORE factoring in the objects, images, and the music you have to add in. When not working with a set of words, objects, and images, you can click a little button that looks like a guy at a table to represent the layers you want to hide. It helped a lot when I needed to match to the audio waves.

Syncing Text to Audio

When you are messing with the text (making it move, warp, ect.) you create key frames to signify change. A very simple way to make sure you have text synced with the song is to listen. You want your word to be fully visible and finished changing by the time they finish saying the word in the music or speech. When it comes to music, if you have text that is not sung, then you want to line it up to a beat. You can open up your audio wavelengths really simply. Line up your scrubber with the major bumps in the audio, which is where you will find a consistent beat that works to sync your words to.

The Finished Product

After about 120 hours give or take, I finished my typography. The biggest challenge was not getting the music or putting things in, but the timing and just the appearance of the next and its alignment. I really enjoyed making this typography, even with the stress it caused. It was really fun to tell the story through words, and play with the way words could come in. The most annoying thing about the typography was listening to the song 20 times an hour. If you are going to make a typography, keep that in mind.