In order to keep ideas and designs 仕esh， the designer must balance ideas of author-ship, practi白， audience, dialogue and art and design history. Without a balance of these concepts the designer is bound to continue copying the latest trend and not focusing on their inner vision.
Case Studies
As a motion graphics professional, I am constantly re-educating myself and creating an environment as it pertains to di叮hent projects. In a recent film I worked on, The Kid
Stay.δ in the Picture,strategies of the autobiography were reinvented. The film chronicled the ups and downs of Robert Evans, the Hollywood producer responsible for The Godfather,Love Story and Rosemary's Baby. The historical photographs that are usually untouched in a doωmentarywere cut up and animated to create the feeling of seeing these events happen as they were told. I worked with the directors, Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein to get a sense of how they wanted to portray the living legend's life and the truth about surviving in Hollywood
The I'12-hour film was composed of animated photographs, film and video footage.
In order to get to all of more than 50 animations and hundreds of photographs in the month we had to fini 鉤， the film was broken down into sections and shots were distributed based
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。n the idea
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or interest Irom th已 destgners. All the dcsigners lllmiii 曰 ri/ed themsel 、 es 叭 ith the rough-cut or draft 、 ersion of the mo、 ie and the baek-ground of Robert E、 ans. The directors participated in almost all th 已 design and c入 ecution of the ani-mation in a room full of motion graphic designers.Macinto泊的‘ Iligh Definition telc\ isions and hard
dri 、 es. The desigt刊的 made Quicktime motion tests or dailies sho叭 ingasketched 、 ersion of theit ideas. At the end of the day there 叭 as a Crtltqu已
、、 ith the directors and designers going 0、 erall the shots that \\ere 叭。 rked on. Graduallv‘ aftcr subte\t discussions. color decisions. timing adjustments and dc~ign issues 叭 ere sorted Oul. the tlnal ptece
叭 as appro、 cd. Then the shots 叭叭 e rendered in Iligh Delinition quality. stOt 已 d. backed up and outpulled to Digi 日 eta tapes. Th山叫 tapes 叭的 C 討ent out to the editot 、、 ho assemblιd the piece on an A、 id editing 、tation. Finally. the directors took the assembled rough draft and 皂a、 e the cOl乃 to the music and sound compo、ers to make the final adjustments. The film premiered at the Sundance him Festi 、 al and the Cannes I ilm h:sti 、 al projected throu芷 h Hi 旦h Definition projections
Latet司 the Iligh Delinition 、 crsinn \\ as COIl\ened
to Ii 1m and sho叭 n tn mo、 ie theaters nation叭 ide.
Designing Motion Graphic~ ha、 c parameters that must be mastet 已d. In addition to time. music‘ motton 、 isual material changes and 3-di l1len~iollal
space‘ the designer must undersland the meaning behind the me出age
In the 、 hot abo 、 e. the narrator.仁、 ans. IS
talkitH! about ho、、 h已川、 ested in a no、 c l. called .. The Detecti、 U ..、、 hose rights he sold to
T叭叭llieth Centur、 Fo\ 叭 hich started his eareet My trealtnent of the shot is the coming together of ditTcrent elements in thc no、已I. The title cnters
from both sid已s of the screen and comωIOgethet
to complcte the book. Thc illustration of a ©CopynghI2002USAFllms
seducti 、 ely posed woman. from the co、 er， comes down the front. Placing the seducti\e woman on the front parallelcd how Evans' was attracted by the book and then convinced 20thC Fox into a dcal. The covcr is deeonstructed and the images overlapped to show what might have gone on in
Evans 司 head as he read the book and made the decision to buy and then sell the rights. It was
his 、 ision that came together and sold the book The next shot illustratedlhe first time E\'ans
\Vas disco、 ered and 叭 ritten about in the press The subtext of this scene 叭 as that it \Vas both a IOr!unate occurrence and the beginning of his double-edged relationship 叭 ith the press that made him who he was and destroyed him. 1001
this shot、 I had the original article from the news-paper which included his picture as a young aspiring producer. The music in this scene was a bit ominous andnot exactly as eekbratory as you
\Vould eλpect 、、 hen describing his lucky break into the industry. Thc colors 、、'ere dark and old to
sho叭 the time period as 叭 ell as loreshado 叭 his do叭 nfall \\ ith the press. I enlargcd the phOIO-graph so that the audience in the theater could see the grain of the newspaper and feci that there was an ominous darkness over the event. As I reduced the image 、 the picture of Evans' smiling face is IOrllled completing the juxtaposition and foreshadowing of later e、 ents
The anecdotes that the directors described to me helped me loml a better idea of 、，vhat kind of man Robert E、 ans 、、'as. II 叭 as lmportat1l get a sense of E、 ans while creating animation for his autobiography. It allo 叭'ed me to relate to the person and create from my personal 、 iew. It is important when researching for a topic to open the avenues of discussion and observation
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This ne:\t project required a different approach. The task 叭 as to create a I-hour documentary explaining the changcs a mothel and her fetus undergo during pregnancy. The
Disco、 ery Health Channel 叭 as airing a senes on
叭。 men's health issues and pregnancy for the month of July and August 2002. This 叭 as pal1 of a larger medical series on anatomy and physiology that arc cventually sold at the Disco 、 cry Channel storcs and online
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The goal of this project \\ as 10 educate the
、 Ie 叭 ers about ho帆 the 叭 oman's body changes and ho叭 the fetus de 、 clops through personal accounts as opposed to impersonal medical descriptions. The documelllary follo\\'s se、 eral pregnant 叭。men at differelll stages of birth. The look and feel 叭 as based on the photographer.
Lennan Nilsson's，、、 arm and glo叭 ing photo-graphs ofIi 、 e embryo洹
First、 the creative team views the animatic, the rough-edit 、 id 巴。、 erslon ‘、、 hieh includes
、 olee-o、 ers， footage of the 叭。 men and
inter-、川、\'s 叭 ith the doctors. There are also the place-holders for the animations selling up the time and narration. There帆 ere 15difTerent 川 ternal physi-ology animations and 4 external animations
Next,research was done to understand life processes like how the fetus' eyes are formed, how the fetus breathes, how the mother's organs are compressed, etc. Then, the
style-命ames are sketched as issues like camera angle, lighting, positionin臣， movement and graphic elements are decided. After the style企ames become more developed, the client reviews them with the doctor and approves or makes changes and animation is executed.
With this project, I needed to understand how to educate the viewer in a simple and clear way. I researched many anatomy books with different approaches to the same processes. I also did this in order to educate myself on each life stage. I collected photo-graphs of embryos and images that used the same look and feel that we were going for. It was important to surround myself with images of pregnancy in order to have a feel for the greater picture
References
Gropius, Walter (1938)The Theorv and OnzanizatiOI 、 ofthe RauhausTrans. Herbert Bayer. New York Museum ofModem Art. (Harrison,PP. 338-343)
Harrison,Charles and Paul Wood,ed.,(1992)A rt in Theorv 1900-1990Cambridge: Blackwell
Hell前.， Steven ed.,(1998)The Educationof 且Granhic Desi2:ner New York: Allworth Press Rock,MichaelGranhic Authorsh巾， PP.149-l58
Van Doesburg (1974). Theo and the De Stijl Group. M盟主且 to 1. Trans. Nicholas Bulloch. London
(Harris 凹， PP. 278-279)