Kinetic Type Quote
The following Kinetic Type Quote animation was created as an assignment for the New England Institute of Technology’s Motion Graphics II course. The assignment was to find a movie/tv quote that has a duration of :15 – :30 seconds. The quote was then storyboarded in Adobe Illustrator and animated in Adobe After Effects using the Video Copilot’s Sure Target 2 plugin.
The quote I chose was excerpted from Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, who delivered a memorable speech at the University-wide Commencement on May 17, 2014. Adm. McRaven urged graduates to find courage to change the world. I first heard this speech in 2018 and it has been one of the most inspirational and memorable speeches I have ever heard.
Students assembled the layout as an Adobe Illustrator design including the type treatment. We were instructed to pay particular attention to font usage, color, texture and abstract letter form. We could add small embellishments or shapes to this assignment but avoid over usage of imagery. Our primary job was to stick to typography! The final project was built to 1080 HD resolution and exported as an .mp4 movie file.
Audio
I started this project by obtaining the audio clip from Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, speech at the University-wide Commencement on May 17, 2014. I selected the most inspirational message segment that was approximately 15 seconds in length, trimmed it down using Adobe Audition, and added a theatrical score from StoryBlocks.com.
Color Scheme & Mood Board
The next step that I took after selecting the audio was selecting a color scheme and mood board. The colors that I chose were navy blue, light blue, white, and yellow/gold. I searched Pinterest.com for a type design treatment that reflected a shark bite and came across an ice cream company called Bite, Bite, Baby; I immediately thought “this is it!” (meaning this is the look that I was after) and began the Adobe Illustrator layout process.
Illustrator Storyboard
Our instructor suggested that we create our storyboards directly in Adobe Illustrator as close to the finished type layout as possible. I created a total of nine Artboards in Adobe Illustrator with the type treatment that best reflected the look and feel of the inspirational speech. I took my inspiration for design from the ice cream company called Bite, Bite, Baby. I chose Myriad Pro as my font, applied the color scheme, created a stacked typographical treatment with varying point sizes, and made emphasis on impactful words through careful hierarchy choices.
Kinetic Type Animation
The Adobe Illustrator storyboards were carefully recreated in Adobe After Effects, the type was then made into 3D, with the final kinetic type animation created using the Sure Target 2 plugin by Video Copilot.
