Animating a Motion Graphic

I want to incorporate a cool animated title card near the end of the film opening that would act as the “cherry on top” of the project, but want to make it one that matches the retro aesthetics of the production. The problem with making it too retro is that it would look too cheesy, generic, and feel out of place with the dramatic tone established earlier on. In order to circumvent this issue, I decided on making a compromise. Something that matches the vintage aesthetics, but wanted to avoid the VHS effects and create something that is still modern and sleek. I set out on using After Effects to make the graphic as I have been familiar with the program for almost a year now and found it very effective in creating great looking video and effects. With this information in mind, I went to look at motion graphic tutorials on YouTube to find a good platform to build off of.

Tutorial Time

The tutorial I based the title card out of.

I really liked this tutorial in particular because it was less typical to what people now associate with retro graphics and felt more authentic to what would be broadcasted on TV, even if it might have been a bit too early 80’s than late 80’s like the film opening is set in. While the end result was great in my opinion, it still was too excessive for what I was going for and as well required external software, which I avoided and made from scratch. The elements I took from this tutorial and incorporated to my own motion graphic was the trailing effect of the text as it goes into a spiral, except no spiral at all, just downwards movement for the “show” half of the text and upwards movement for the “time” half the text. I also used the same color palette, as it looked nice and as well matched the 80’s color palette we are using throughout the opening.

Creating the Graphic

When making the title card, I made it so that once the text met at the center to create a complete “showtime”, the text fades to white and the background turns black. This is because I wanted to keep the end minimal to illustrate the stark contrast between the vibrant beginning of the animation to the cold ending screen, mirroring the glamorous lifestyle everyone expects from a celebrity to the tragic truth presented in the plot. Some extra effects I added in were very light film grain and chromatic aberration to the text to keep the title card looking like a retro television graphic, but not too much to the point where it becomes distracting and corny. While I did the chromatic aberration in After Effects itself, I had to find elsewhere to implement film grain. Luckily, Shutterstock has completely free film grain overlays that anyone can use in their own productions both personally and commercially. This resource helped make this graphic complete in the authenticity I was aiming for.

Once I finished it, I sent it over via text to my group. They found the title card to be visually pleasing and liked the simple approach I took with it, making my job complete for now. Here it is below for your own viewing pleasure, enjoy!