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Filed under: Interactive •Motion Graphics •

Playing Squash: Blobby Text Effect for NBC

The next two set of problems were that we wanted the object to change from the peacock to the titles, and we wanted to blobs to go out and re-assemble back into a solid shape. The shape change was accomplished by cross-fading in a previous composition from one to the other, and then blobbing the result. Since the aspect ratios are so different, we also animated the height and width of the title from the aspect of the peacock to its normal shape after the crossfade.

Mr. Mercury itself also only runs forwards, ejecting blobs. To run it backwards, you have to turn the layer backwards in the timeline. We wanted it to go forwards and then backwards. We could have tried to use AE’s Time Remapping to turn it around mid-splat, but we also wanted the source layer to keep running forwards from the peacock to the title - a contradiction. Rather than try to unravel this time travel problem (actually, we did try for an hour, but then gave up), we decided to cheat.

We set the particle life for the original peacock-to-title effect to die off after roughly a second, dissolving the original blobs away. We then created a fake blob containing the final title, animated it to fly away from the point of impact just as the real blobs did, and then unravel into the title (see the two figures below). To create this fake blob, the first step was again animating the aspect ratio of the title, this time from a small square to its final shape. We bent it into a sphere using the Final Effects/CC Lens filter, and further twisted it using AE’s Twirl filter. The Lens and Twirl were unfurled as it moved from the point of impact to its final resting place. Of course, there were others ways we could have distorted it, but this method was quick and easy to control.

The first image show not quite half way through the gag. You can see the blobs have been crossfaded from the peacock to the Hobby Horse title. The fake blob is under Caroline’s index finger. The second image show the title after it has been fully unfurled from the fake blob; the real blobs have expired and faded away.

Once we had this basic gag down, it was easy to copy and paste it on top of the other mondo clips of other stars smashing the bug. We just had to spot the time and position their hand hit the glass, move the new start time and center point for our objects there, and set where the final unfurled title should end up in the frame.

Deconstruction

When you deconstruct the move frame by frame, it is easy to see the crossfade from the original peacock to the blobbed one, crossfades in the blobs from the peacock to the title, and the emergence and unfurling of the fake blob. But when it all happens over just a second in time, with the added distractions of an actual human smashing it and motion-blurred blobs flying all over the place, it looks believable. Remember that time is on your side in animation versus still work - and you can use the quick passage of it to your advantage when trying to sell alternate realities.

Special thanks to Jim Goss of NBC On-Air Promotions for permission to use the Caroline & Richard shots, and for letting us have so much fun in the first place.

Multithreaded Information

One of the original attractions of “multimedia” was the ability to provide additional details and background information about a subject without forcing interruptions in the linear unraveling of the central narrative (as I do here with my frequent parenthetical asides). Examples of this include allowing the user to click on hot words or photos in a CD-ROM application (do any of you still remember those?) or on a web page to take you to another page with tangential content, or attempts to present multiple media streams at once - such as text, photos, and sound - to give a wider gestalt to the story.

So where does established, linear, big media - i.e. broadcast television - fit into this picture? Although the economics are different, many of the same goals applied, even ten years ago: You have a linear central story (the program), but other details you could provide…even something as simple as outtakes from filming the program, or background on the stars. Fan magazines, newsgroups, web sites, and even TV Guide help fill this roll. NBC, in their own way, started doing the same back in the late 90s. For example, their “NBC2000” group was one of the first to put the alternate screen boxes at the end of television shows, sometimes containing outtakes or promos of other programs. With their AstroVision sign, they went further.

Initially, NBC tried “repurposing” their existing TV promos onto the sign. However, as many multimedia producers also found out back then, you can’t always take a message from one medium to another and expect it to hold up. In this case, the lack of sound, as well as the differences in attention span between someone at home and someone in Times Square (or Epcot Center, or sporting events, where they also play these promos), rendered the original promos less effective than they were on TV. In response, NBC started designing alternate content for the sign - such as trivia puzzles, word games, and factoids about their stars. Each one is then followed by a few seconds of the program the star appears in, along with the name of the show, television network, and night it plays. It ain’t exactly a hot link, but it does give you the pointer you need to follow up on a thread you might have found interesting. And if you’re already a fan, it gives you some additional background information to widen your experience of the show.

It wasn’t the “grand convergence” many preached about back in the 90s (or even today), but neither was it a bad idea - especially for the time. I know it is still popular to say the medium is the message, but perhaps some of us would be better served by focusing more on the message, and then figuring out how to use the mediums at our disposal to better disseminate it.

The content contained in our books, videos, blogs, and articles for other sites are all copyright Crish Design, except where otherwise attributed.

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