Week One: Title Sequence

 Week One - Day One

This week's project was to create a title sequence (the opening portion of a film or television show that presents the title and credits through a combination of visuals and music). My immediate thoughts were to create a title sequence for an animated TV show as I have wanted to look into animation in a lot more detail. I started to look at popular animated TV shows about families, such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, and noted down certain similarities that I came across as to gain some inspiration and insight into what my title sequence should look like (Miro board):

What I picked up on:

• The family vibe about the show is represented through each sequence, as well as a silly and comedic vibe (e.g Maggie Simpson ending up in Marge's shopping bag)
• It shows the main characters and their quirks throughout the whole title sequence (e.g Lisa Simpson and her saxophone)
• The title of the show is bold and bright, almost making a point of the name of the show
• The theme song is memorable and catchy, possibly incorporating lyrics
• The main backgrounds of each show is highly represented and repeated (e.g The Simpsons showing the whole town and where the family goes in their day to day lives, further implementing the family vibe)

After researching different shows, I decided to make a title sequence for The Simpsons as I have watched the show many times and I would find it easy to incorporate the characters' quirks and personalities as it did in the original. My first draft of a plan was to show the main groups/families of The Simpsons infront of their main scene, inspired by the original with how the main characters were displayed in their main settings (e.g Marge in the shops, Homer at work) however I wanted to show more characters' backgrounds into more detail. The original only shows snippets of other characters so I wanted to show off their characters more.

To get started on animating, I looked at different softwares I haven't used before as to gain more experience and knowledge about different softwares.

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The first software I looked at was Adobe Animate as they provided some tutorials to grab a hold of the basics and what the software offered.

 

After trying the tutorials, I still found the software confusing and hard to use and decided to try After Effects as I was quite familiar with key framing but had never used this software before. Since it was my first time using after effects, I looked up some beginner tutorials on YouTube just to gain basic knowledge and to have somewhat of a start on animating a title sequence.

          

After Effects For Beginners

Week One - Day Two

Day two was a preparation day. On day two, I was getting all of my characters and backgrounds edited so they had a clear background and could be used as assets in After Effects. A clear background is important as to layer assets seamlessly. To do this, I used Photoshop - a software I was already familiar with.

Whilst photoshopping, my tutor, Paula, paused me and showed me a quicker way to clear the background as to speed up the process and make it cleaner:

1. Go to remove background
2. Click on the "Modify mask feather and density" option
3. Click "Select and mask"
4. Click on the "Quick selection tool" at the top which allows you to either add or remove from your selection (the red)
   

Upon reflection, learning this new process allowed me to work quicker and more efficiently and I will be using this from now on to make photoshopping simpler and cleaner.

Problem One

My original photo of The Simpsons family was quite hard to photoshop as the background was providing hard to remove:

How did I problem solve?

To problem solve, I found individual photos of each character so the background was a lot easier to remove: 

Upon reflection, I am glad I chose to go with individual photos as it allowed me to incorporate one of Homer's quirks and what he is known for (his doughnut).

Problem Two

Trying to find a photo of the church was hard as there wasn't any good examples of the front of the church. They were all at an angle or a birds eye view:

How did I problem solve?

As I still wanted to add in The Flanders', I decided to have their house as a background and add in the characters with their religious quirks as to still represent their Christianity faith:

 Rod is shown to be praying with implements them to being a religious family

 Maude is shown to be holding a plate of cross biscuits, again implementing them as to being a religious family

 As I was just showing The Flanders' and not the  reverend, I thought the house would be a better fit because their house is also shown a lot in the show what with being The Simpsons' neighbours

Upon reflection, I thought this worked better overall as it still showed who they are as a family and how they are committed to their Christianity belief.

After having photoshopped each character and background, I added them each into a folder called "assets'" as to keep my work organised.

Week one - Day Three

To kickstart my editing, I had to learn how to first import my assets by right clicking, selecting import, files, then dragging them down into what is called a "timeline".

Adding asset by asset, I also added "keyframes" onto my timeline, which tells an asset what to do at a certain point along the timeline. Whilst learning about keyframes, I also learned different shortcuts such as P for position, which became quite crucial in my editing.

From watching the beginners tutorial, I found that adding "Easy Ease In" from the option "Keyframe Assistant" became effective in making my animations cleaner and more professional looking. I found the Easy Ease In option by right clicking on the keyframe itself as the tutorial on YouTube said.

This "Easy Ease In" option made the animations smoother. I made sure to add this onto every movement and keyframe along the timeline.

Problem Three

As I was editing, I had forgotten to add in any credits. As I was at a point in editing where the credits would fit (towards the end) so I decided to add them in then. Deciding to add in the credits at the end was inspired by the original title sequence in The Simpsons and how they are shown on a tv at the end:

How did I problem solve?

I found the credits on a photo from google, then cropped each line so they were their own individual asset, removed the background with the same process in Photoshop, and I could add them in one by one. I decided to go for a slightly different animation to how the characters were presented because I did not want the title sequence to be too repetitive:

Upon reflection, almost forgetting such a crucial part in the title sequence would've been a huge mistake. I am glad I added them towards the end also as many title sequences, including The Simpsons of which I was inspired from, showed the credits at the end aswell.

To organise my work even more, I placed my assets into folders in After Effects which made my work a little more efficient but also kept my thoughts organised. This helped to not get me so confused on where my assets were as I was working with a lot of assets in this title sequence.

Week One - Day Four

Day four was all about finishing and exporting my edit. 

Problem Four

My original ending was to have a map of the whole of Springfield slowly zoom out, however I could find no such image of what the idea in my head was.

How did I problem solve?

To problem solve, I searched for alternatives of the town of Springfield which still showed its iconic statues and monuments as such about Springfield (e.g the tire fire). When I found a suitable alternative, I decided to change the animation from a zoom out to the bouncing technique I had used previously as to not go off track of my title sequence and instead had the title 'The Simpsons" zoom out into the screen as it fades out:

I decided to go for the bottom of the two photos I considered as I found it easier to clear the background of that one on Photoshop.

Upon reflection, I think this worked very well and better than I thought it would be. In all honesty, I liked this better than my original idea as it kept with the animations of the whole title sequence, overall keeping the same vibe and theme going.

To learn how to export my edit, I had to look back at the beginners tutorial video again.

To export, I learnt you had to:

1. Click on "File"
2. Click on "Export"
3. Click on "Add To Render Queue"
4. Choosing the save location (should be an mp4)
5. Click on "Render"
6. It will be in your files, where you chose to save it

(Explained from 10:26 to 10:44)

To finish my title sequence, it was a matter of transferring my animation from After Effects to Premiere Pro.

Premiere Pro is a software I have worked on many times before this and so I was already quite familiar with its range of editing techniques including fading a video out which is what I wanted to do. I wanted to fade my title sequence out because:

1. I wanted it to have a more smoother ending
2. Many title sequences also fade out

Title sequences that fade out:

• Dr. No (1962)

• North by Northwest (1959)

• Pink Panther (1963)

After fading the title sequence and music out, I was finally finished 🎉

Reflection

How did I find this task?

I found this task to be quite fun but time consuming and tedious at the same time. As much as I enjoyed making a title sequence for a show I love, the editing process was long. Despite this, it was very rewarding to see it all come together.

What did I find out/learn by undertaking this task?

First, I learnt what a title sequence actually was and how varied they can be, what they are supposed to tell and what they include (e.g credits, foreshadows, important scenes). Many people just call it an "intro" and skip it. Second, I learnt an entirely new software and different editing processes involved with that software which, once I got the hang of it, was quite easy and straight forward.

What would I do differently next time?

Next time, I could possibly create a title sequence of an entirely different theme, such as a James Bond title sequence, or continue with animation but make a completely new show if I had the time to do so.

Forward Plan

Moving forward in these next two weeks, I will be learning other filming and editing techniques which will help me to decide what I will focus on for my assignment. I plan to take these 3 weeks into consideration and weigh out which one I loved the most and what softwares I found to be useful and want to continue gaining knowledge on.

The Final Product

Let me know what you think! 😀