HA1 Task 03 - Analysis

Motion Graphics

Motion Graphics are used a lot in the media and sometimes more than we as the audience think. Motion Graphics can be used in numerous ways such as to create a certain illusion or to edit video footage. A motion graphic’s are usually displayed in various ways such as a computer and computer software (e.g. adobe after effects) but also on TV, DVD or games consles. Many people use the term motion graphics to distinguish a still graphic from a transforming one such as a sting or Ident. There are many types of motion graphic: title sequence, sting, Ident, and interactive menu. Each one is very different and each one has its own purpose. 

Compositing video is regularly used in motion graphics ,two examples I have used which are Iron Man interactive menu  and the BBC One football Ident are a  type of compositing video which mean layers of videos and effects have been piled on top of one another in order to make a motion graphic.

A sting and an Ident many look the same but have very different purposes. An example is the E4 sting  is used to grab the viewers’ attention as they flick through the TV channels and to keep their attention during the adverts. Through my research I have found out that the e4 sting is made using CGI with the software adobe Photoshop and adobe after effects. This allows you to play around with the motion graphic and make it move and add text etc. Also through my research I have discovered the E4 hold a competition where people make their own Stings for E4. This is once again a great way in order to get more people to watch E4 due to the fact they might see there sting if they win the competition and they can also win a cash prize. I have examined the sting and can see that the clips takes place on a beach with beach huts and the sun shining, which has a positive effect on the audiences emotions making them feel happy which is what people tend to feel when their on the beach. I think using adobe Photoshop is a great way to create a sting due to the fact you can use many effects making it more interesting and appeal to different audiences. The e4 sting is a cartoon style animation which automatically grabs the audience’s attention due to the fact E4 want to put across the message that there channel is fun and when you watch this channel you will enjoy it. This is also reflected in the programmes they show which are all mainly comedy such as How I met your mother. The colours used are also very bright which refers to the summer theme again adding a positive effect to the audience’s emotions.

Movement is key in the e4 sting due to the fact if we watched the e4 sting clip without movement it would be a lot less interesting then it is now where we see tentacles moving which adds a lot of questions to the clip. This sting is very random with the tentacles moving in the background, however if we watch the clip we see the tentacles moving around the big e4 logo which attracts the audience’s attention to the logo reminding them of what channel they are watching. In my opinion this is a very good way to subliminally grab the reader’s attention and makes them focus on a specific thing which in this case is the E4 symbol. However although there’s not alot of movement happening on screen if we watch closely we can see that the camera pans right to left to give the viewer a better idea what’s going on, but all the time the main focus is the massive E4 symbol. In my opinion this is a very good feature that the designers use because the name of the channel is never leaving their sight.

An Ident is another type of motion graphic and is basically a short visual image which is employed between television programmes that is a logo, which contains the brand of the channel and produces acceptance in the audiences mind. A very famous channel which has a well-known Ident is the BBC one. A lot of BBC Idents feature people nature and their actions which is what BBC mainly focuses on. As my example I have chosen the BBC one ident where we see the footballers all kicking balls then forming a circle which we associate with the letter O which is symbolises a sphere and a globe, it also symbolises the world which could suggest its bring the world and cultures together. The colour red is very dominantly used in the ident which stands out against the rest of the colours used which are black and white. The colour red is usually associated with love which is what the BBC want the viewers to feel while watching their channel. As we continue to watch the Ident we see that it uses repetition which can tell the audience that they should watch their channel over and over again and not change.

When a designer creates a motion graphics he/she can use different software, which each have their own pros and cons. I will demonstrate the difference with reference to the E4 sting and the interactive menu from toy story 2.

From my research I have discovered that the E4 Sting is designed using the software adobe after effects, which I found out through my research. The colours purple and white have been made very dominate in the clip which is due to the fact that they are E4s colour which we associate with the channel. In after effects this can be done using colour correction, with this you are allowed to add highlights, enhance certain colours, add midtones and also add shadows.  I think this is a great piece of software to use if you wanted to change the colour due to the fact you are allowed to experiment with many techniques and also its very simple to use the software. The shadows in the clip allow the clip to make it seem more realistic and also add the effect that it is sunny and therefore there will be shadows. A downfall with using after effects is that the software can be quite dear to purchase, and due to this many people might not be able to afford it. However online you can download a free trial which last 30 days which allows you to access the software and test it out to see if you like it. Another negative point about adobe after effects is that its very hard to put layers on top of one another. This would be needed to create the Iron Man interactive menu that can be see below. This can cause some problems for some people making it very tricky and requires you have a lot of patience.

The clip taken from toy story is made by the company Pixar and made on a software called renderman which is used for all of Pixar’s films. It has been specifically designed to meet the demanding challenges of rendering in 3D animation and visual effects. Pixar uses this software due to the fact its fast efficient and its able to handle an extraordinary amount of geometric complexity. If we look at the clip we can see that there are many colours which are all bold, but there’s also many shadows which have been used. This would have taken a great deal of time and patience because there are loads of tiny details which use as an audience may not notice. The colour technique on renderman is called colourbleedng which is a new feature and very precise. The colourbleeding allows you to add shadows tiny fragments of colour which may not be seen and it also allows you to add precise colour to certain objects. A advantage of using colourbleedng is that its very fast and very precise which is my opinion is more appropriate to use in a large featured film then it would be on an e4 sting. If somebody wanted to create a in-depth sting then using renderman may be a very good software to use to add precise colour. A downfall with using colour bleeding and using render man is that the software uses up a lot of memory and must be kept there until you have finished your design. This would be a downfall for someone with just a standard computer which is what the E4 sting was made on.

The e4 sting use movement in the clip which is seen through the use of the tentacles I  the background, but also we can see the camera panning side to side. In the clip the tentacles are moving around the E4 symbol which centres our attention to the logo, the creator has done this in order to not let the audience forget which channel they are watching which is the whole point of a sting.  To a regular audience the movement would seem very random and just adds abit of character to the clip making it more enjoyable to watch. The movement in the E4 sting is very minimal in movement due to the fact the only thing moving in the clip. Using movement in after effects is done through using motion paths which you would have to create yourself in order for the image to move. This would have to be done frame by frame and don’t forget there’s 24 frames per second which requires a lot of patience. A advantage of using after effects for movement is that it allows you to create your own path and therefore you are in control of the motion graphic or image. Another advantage is it allows you to do it frame by frame which allows you to add precise detail to the clip .  This can also be a very big dis advantage due to the fact some people may not have a lot of patience and find this technique very annoying and tedious which can be a big concern, its also very time consuming.

In the clip of toy story we can see there’s a lot of movement from the main toys to passing cars. Unlike the E4 sting the toy story scene involves a lot of movement and very small fragments of movement such as ears moving and eyes blinking. This adds life like features to the film making them see more realistic to the younger audience and is to be expected in a moving object.  The movement in renderman is done through the use of motion blur and depth of field, each adding their own components. Renderman can mimic the action of real cameras giving the film a real film effect.  The movement in toy story is very lifelike and requires a lot of camera movement and shot which is why render man is preferred when making motion graphic films. Depth of field and motion blur have different sectors which are very complex and require a lot of practice. The more detail you want the film to have, and more lifelike movement (eyes blinking ears moving) the better renderman is. A downfall with renderman is that it’s very highly complex and requires you to have a lot of practice and you need to spend a great deal of time on one character. Renderman is better for films like I’ve mentioned before and isn’t necessary for a small sting such as the E4 one.

Looking into more detail into the E4 sting and the BBC ident we can look at the other components of the clip.

In the E4 sting the colours have been sharpened in order to give a bolder colour and make things seem more cartoonlike. There’s no blur in the sting due to the fact there’s not a lot of movement. The sting creator could of not used blur because they wanted to make the sting clear to the audience and to make sure the E4 logo Is always the main focus with the audience. The clip also has a lot of sharp objects and corners such as the chair which could be done to symbolise the edges of the E4 symbol. If we stop the clip we can see that the opacity is always at 100% making the colours bold and always in sight. This is a very simple clip which gets straight to the point which is the intention on the E4 Sting. Each one of these effects can be found of after effects and they are called colour enhance, and motion paths which I’ve explained above.

There’s a lot of effects used in the BBC Ident such as blur, which is used to blur out the rest of the players and focus on a specific player giving the viewer a better idea of what the footballers doing. The colour has also been changed to black and white while the colour red has been brightened to make it stand out. The movement has also been slowed down to add more effect to the ident. In my opinion a lot of these effects can usually be found and done on adobe after effects which like the sting allows you to play around with the Ident adding different effects. However the ident could also be edited on photoshop and then transferred into after effects. In photoshop you can edit the clip frame by frame which allows you to make the rest of the image black and white and make one item red which is this case is the ball. A downfall with editing the Ident frame by frame is it takes along time and requires a lot of patience. In my opinion after effects is a better software to use for a clip like the BBC one ident due to the fact more effects can be added and used more effectively.  In the clip we also see distortion giving the football players a ghostly image which can also be accessed on after effects. This can be done through the tool distortion which gives you a ghostly effect over your image.

A big topic in the media industry at the moment which relates to motion graphics and the E4 sting is the frame rate of the clips due to the new film The Hobbit. The e4 clips uses the UK standard amount of frames per second which is 24. By using 24 frames per second it allows the viewer to witness a high standard of detail which out too much happening at once. However Directors of films such as the new Hobbit, have choose to use 48 frames per second which is a incredible high amount of detail all at once. In my opinion by using 24 frames per second the creator the e4 sting is keeping the detail simple for a day time viewing audience who aren’t expecting too much. By using 48 frames per second you come across many problems such as because the detail is so clean you can see errors that the creator or directors missed out which makes the clip less believable and less fun to watch. Also 48 frames per second is better suited for bigger screens which require more detail so the image on the screen isn’t pixelated and since a lot of family’s at home hold a standard screen tv they don’t need all this detail. However a lot of motion graphics are designed on a computer and therefore there would be less imperfections, so maybe increased frame rate will work in the future.

Each sting can also have different resolutions for different types of tv. However the higher the resolution the lower the speed the clip loads at if viewed at on the internet, but the lower the image quality the fast the clip will load. In a lot of ways this is a win lose situation, but if you have the patience to let the clip load so it doesn’t buffer then watching it in HD or in a higher resolution is a great advantage. The BBC One ident can be watched in HD or 360 which is standard. A standard TV resolution in the UK is 720 x 576, the BBC one ident would therefore be displayed like this on a TV. This is satisfactory for a smaller screen TV when compared to a larger TV such as a 52 inch. If the ident was displayed on a 52 inch TV the stretch of the image would mean a loss of quality so a higher resolution, e.g. 1080p (high definition) would make a more pleasurable viewing experience. However this would not be good for YouTube because it would use too much bandwith and therefore take a longer time to load. 560 in a smaller window on a computer screen would suffice.  YouTube’s allow you to change formats to your own taste which depends on the type of computer you own.

This can also link into compression, the better the compression the better the image being shown. Different codecs have used for each motion graphic for example the BBC uses a codec called Dirac which is based on MPEG 2, this has many pros and cons.  A advantage of using MPEG 2 is that it has excellent image quality and is also used for the primary standard on DVD’s. A disadvantage of using MPEG 2 is that very few people are currently capable of viewing MPEG-2 which can be a big problem for the BBC. Licensing fees are required to distribute which will affect sharing. However I realise this is both a pro and con.

Iron Man interactive menu uses a codec called Avid DNxHD which is a software which allows you to make a clip HD when it’s at a reduced file size. A advantage of using this its has excellent picture quality and reduces storage requirements. This is a perfect software to use for larger files which are off a higher compression such as HD. However a disadvantage with using this software is that it requires a bigger compression rate and takes longer to stream due to its quality.

There are many different video formats  wmv, mov, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mpeg. Each one of these videos formats each have their own software’s in which they are able to play on. The BBC ident uses the MPEG format which allows it to be played on telly and also on the computer. A advantage of MPEG 2 is that it has excellent image quality, but a disadvantage is that very few people are currently capable of viewing MPEG-2.  The iron man interactive menu uses the format DivX which is also known as MPEG 4. An advantage of using this format is that its very effective by compressing big files which still keeping a detailed image. A disadvantage is that you need plenty of storage on your computer if you want to download it.

The BBC one ident can be viewed as HD and in normal standard tv, by using HD you get to see watch the ident in a lot more detail making it more clearer to the viewer. HD is becoming more common in households and may people prefer to watch channels in HD.  The frame rate of the ident is 24 frames per second just like the Sting. This is because this is the UK standard which a lot of programmes are shot in. However the Ident its self was filmed at a football stadium and then edited on the computer which is different then how the sting was mad which was made on  a computer.

Screen ratio is the size of the picture which I measured byt the width and the height of the picture. A standard television clip such as the E4 Sting and the BBC one ident are usually 4.3 which is a normal standard TV size. If this was to be viewed on a larger screened TV then the picture would be pixelated and wouldn’t be as entertaining to watch which is why HD is better suited.