We all have a story to tell. While some might have more adventurous experiences than others, everybody has the luxury, or burden, of communicating their personal narrative however they creatively choose. Hemingway, for example, had a way of getting straight to the point. Kerouac, on the other hand, wrote with a stream of consciousness. Substance matters, of course, but authors like these taught us that style does, too. How we tell our stories is arguable as important as the stories we tell. 

Reading & Writing

Animated Storytelling, by Liz Blazer 

Chater 2: Storytelling
In Chapter 2 of Animated Storytelling, author Liz Blazer refers to the moments that move a story forward as beats. How we arrange those beats helps to set up the story’s structure. According to Blazer, there’s nothing wrong with taking the most recognizable and time-test approach: the three-act structure. Why? Because we’ll never run out of ways to make it our own. Simply practice the following steps. 1. Introduce a character with a problem. 2. Imagine the trials and tribulations said character has working towards a solution. 3. Reveal how the problem is solved in a surprising way. The structure may be familiar, but the elements that make it work don’t have to be.

Does the three-act structure feel too sequential, straightforward, or restricting? Rest easy. There are other ways to tell a narrative that might be more fitting. Perhaps you’re looking for something more symbolic, poetic, or abstract. While every author is free to develop their own structure, Blazer presents five compelling approaches. “Book Ending,” for example, ends the story exactly where it began. Another interesting structure is called, “The Countdown,” where drama continuously builds without any de-escalation. Blazer also outlines the tenets of, “The Beaded Necklace,” “The Puzzle,” and “High Concept.” My recommendation would be to leverage the structure that’s most appropriate for your personal content and tone of voice.

Chapter 3: Unlocking Your Story
In Chapter 3, Blazer provides several practical exercises to further refine plot, character development, and storyline. She separates the chapter into two parts, narrative form and experimental form. For narrative form, Blazer recommends revealing conflict early, as it helps to “provoke action.” She suggests that many authors provide backstory that’s not necessary. A good practice is to get to the juicy parts first. Last, uncovering the protagonist’s “biggest secret,” either a fear or motivational factor, can help create more interesting character development.

Blazer has an affinity for experimental film and devotes the next 13 pages to exercises that focus on alternative story structure techniques. Experimental film is like going on a road trip without a map, she explains, so getting to a final product can be difficult and frustrating. As such, she provides some of the methods that other animators and storytellers have utilized successfully. Visual Music, for example, is a form of animation “that attempts to translate the sounds and rhythms of music into moving images, shapes, and colors.” A similar approach uses poetry instead of music. “Repetition/Evolution” features cycles that repeat and slowly change, while “Continuity/Diversity” maintains one predicable element that never changes. Throughout this chapter, Blazer provides plenty of award-winning references.

Chapter 4: Storyboarding
Once the structure of a story has been refined, creating a storyboard provides animators with an opportunity to figure out the stylistic details. This is the stage where visual elements are created to best match the content, and it’s done by creating individual frames of action. Start by creating simple sketches. The frames should be pulled from the beats, and sketches should be detailed enough to show composition, framing, staging, and transitions. While the sketches don’t have to be beautiful renditions, the ultimate goal is clarity. Each frame should be accompanied with dialogue or explanatory notes.

The easier it is to understand the storyboard, the easier it will be to create the animated story. In other words, revise with intention! Look closely at each frame and adjust for shot composition, framing, and staging that envisions the most emotional impact. As Glazer suggests, these elements are important considerations to enhance the visual drama of a story. Remember those style frames developed early on? Reference them for the look and feel of the animation. Review everything in light of spatial, temporal, and directional continuity. Does the story make sense from a contextual standpoint? Are there confusing elements? Create a simple animatic using the storyboard frames and recorded dialogue, and revise the storyboard as needed.

Research to Inform

NIKE - 50th Anniversary 'Swoosh' + "Waffle"
There are many excellent examples of tweening and transitions in this animation, created by Spanish production studio, Bliss. If you listen carefully, though, the best part is the story. Audio recording of Carolyn Davidson plays while hand-drawn sketches of the original swoosh logo animate. Graph paper, tape, and torn images of old newspapers playfully overlap each other, which creatively represents the iterative design process. While the viewer gets a behind-the-scenes look, Davidson talks about her process in creating the ubiquitous swoosh logo. How many designers can relate when it’s revealed that she didn’t even like her original solution? Cut out images of the original waffle sneaker, Michael Jordan, and old advertising then unravel in a wonderful cacophony of Jazz-infused rhythm and motion. Problem and solution result in a timeless pop culture phenomenon, which happens to be a great example of the three-part story structure.

For All Mankind Main Titles
Film title sequences have historically been a chance for designers to expand their graphic sense with motion. This introduction, created for the film, For All Mankind, by designer Evan Eggers, is a case study in how to create anticipation without using footage at all. The credits themselves are simple opacity reveals using a sans serif font in uppercase letters. But those letters live wonderfully in the negative space of hand-drawn spacecraft, duotone images of planets, and various scenes of outer space, presumably taken from the film. Each element is carefully tweened to create a sense of depth and adds slow movement that mimics a sense of low gravity. Transparent bars of color add a retro style, and every scene builds on the next. The dramatic music rises until the title is revealed on a hard beat. This nonlinear story structure is what’s often called a “countdown,” and it’s the perfect segue into the movie.

Kuya Sizzle Reel
Created for the global advertising agency, Kuya, this sizzle reel represents a fantastic form of experimental animation that Blazer refers to as visual music. Filled with bright colors and bold typography, each of the featured examples flow seamlessly with the soundtrack. While Kuya undoubtedly creates amazing work, the sizzle reel is a piece of art itself. The animator, known as Please Call me Champ Studio, fits plenty of portfolio-worthy examples into just 30 seconds. By creating bouncing movement, seamless transitions, and visual repetition, he creates an eye-catching animation that is, for lack of a better word, is just fun, fun, fun. (Sorry, I had to.)

Create

The structure of my own animated introduction a mix of high concept and book ending. Given the length of the video, and the time to complete, I knew I wasn’t going to have the time needed to tell a complete story. High concept allowed me to focus on one simple subject — my love for design. This approach allowed me to create a succinct audio recording but also collect quite a few assets to animate.

As you’ll see, I start the video with animated text from one of my favorite designers, Massimo Vignelli. I wanted to make sure to give him credit for the inspiring line, “If you can design one thing, you can design anything.” By starting with this quote, I was able to showcase a variety of different design projects in a relatively short amount of time. Plus, I was able to close the animation with my own inspirational quote that related to the introduction. Take a look and let me know if you agree: