Inspired by the great work of Epipheo studios, Storysteam and I went out and created a cool video for Brainpark.  This was a really fun project.  It was a challenge  to illustrate purposefully-crappy, but was a good experiment in being spontaneous and going with the flow of my hand… disconnecting the brain from my movements and just trusting the direction.  It a way, like the philosophy behind chinese calligraphy, except much different.   Brainpark is ’social media with a purpose’- basically internal Facebook-like-platform for managing projects and people within a company. Great idea! – and voted for top 100 tech startups. Lots of scribbles scanned and cleaned up in Photoshopped, then animated in After Effects. Foley by my brother at www.ryanzak.com

(click to enlarge)

Note: here is how Epiphoe Studios explains their style of video communication:  ”We create epipheos.  We believe the best thing you can do for your brand, idea, or business is to educate and enlighten.  When someone can see the world the way you see it, then your brand will come alive.  Give someone your epiphany and they will share it with others.”

clever.

To make your own ‘Epipheo’ style video (my workflow anyways):

- You will start with the audio file.  All animation and images will rely on the text…  So write the script and think of the style of voice talent.  Raspy female morning hangover (my favorite), calm grandpa matter-of-fact or enthusiastic teenage male that won’t shut up about all the apps on his i-phone (a common one lately).

- Next I used Final Cut Pro.  Bring in the final voice-over and place in text placeholders on the timeline to match the images that you will need to create. ex. ‘girl face -concerned’, ‘laptop with web interface to animate’, ‘logo’, ‘zoom into screen’ etc…

- Take a list of the images needed, and start drawing.  The simplicity of this style video is in the simplicity of the drawings.  You need to not try.  I found that the drawings came out best when I was lost in good music… The drawing that I used was always one that was literally a scribble that got on the page between thoughts. Trying to draw properly will not get the proper effect.  This is a good exercise in trusting yourself, and blocking the internal critic that says you need to be perfect.  Just put the pencil to the paper and see what happens.  You can always make a mistake.  You should make mistakes.  Draw it 10 times and pick one.  Stop telling yourself no.

- Next, scan in the images.  Do not be too picky about what drawings are the best.

- In Photoshop, clean up the images.  blacken the lines with ‘levels’.  remove all white with ’select – ‘colour range’.  add colour on a bottom layer to match brand.  At this stage, think about what will be animated.  If the arm is going to move, make this a separate layer in Photoshop.  If the mouth needs to turn from a frown to a smile, have a straight line on a separate layer that can be warped.  I found it easiest to save each image set as a separate PSD file.

-  Export the ‘timing’ from Final Cut Pro.  This will be a guide layer in After Effects.

- In After Effects, bring in the ‘timing’ video, and import saved PSD files from Photoshop with all layers separated.  After Effects will import the PSD files with layers in tact.

- align the proper AE compositions over top of the proper place, referencing the timing video from FCP.

- Animate piece by piece.  This style of video uses FAST animation.  A transition of one scene leaving and another entering is literally 5 frames.  Make movements fast and sudden.  Do not over-do animating.  This videos goal is to simplify a concept and bring on the ‘Epiphany’…

- Last – make a list of the foley you will need.  wooshes and beeps and murmuring.. easy to find for free on the web.

- Adding a music soundtrack did not seem necessary, it actually felt like too much.

- Also, think about the audience and their attention span.  Notice that Epipheo videos are SHORT and to the point.  Be quick. entertain. do not loose the audience.  I feel like the BrainPark script is much too long (and voiced this).  I would aim for 2-3 minutes max.

hope that was helpful

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Tags: brainpark, epipheo

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 11:09 am and is filed under advertising, art, design, editing, fun, motion graphics, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.