Karen Demsko of Color the Grayscale TV blew my away by writing the following about the approach she took to make her very effective intro.
Coming up with the CTG TV intro, was an interesting experience, in that I was able to come up with an idea myself, without any outside interference.
Meaning I had free reign, creatively. Boo ya.
However, though I had the creative freedom to fly like an eeeeeeeeagle, I still followed the same process of creation that I always do.
The first was to ask myself “What am I looking to see?” I jotted down design ideas and thought about what CTG TV represented to me and how I wanted to convey my feelings and ideas to my audience.
From there, I took these ideas and made about four to five rough drafts, sketching out ideas and doing very basic storyboards.
More times then not, I buffet style through my ideas and come up with a Frankenstein of a project that I
am truly proud of.
Something to note as well: I had to be aware, at all times, of my tools, abilities, and time.
As much as I may have longed to have a professional grade intro sequence, I may not have had the time (due to work or other priorities), the tools (such as certain computer software), or general artistic ability to create what my imagination might have cooked up.
Next was to figure out what music I wanted to use.
This seems like an odd one to add, but it’s one I feel I need to add. The likelihood that my intro would be silent was slim to none.
Music and/or voices can be one of the more challenging aspects of the creation process. I say this from my own personal experience, as I am not musically inclined. Places like istockphoto are a great for finding music that you can use (though it will cost you), but if you happen to know somehow who plays or creates music ask them for help! Having such a valuable resource should not be overlooked.
The next step was to storyboard.
People tend not to do this and I’m not exactly sure why.
Laziness perhaps? I can’t be entirely sure, but this process always, always, ALWAYS helps me further down the line (when shooting footage and animating).This helped me organize my vision and the music down into one coherent idea.
Last, but certainly not least, was to actually get down to the nitty gritty and start production.
With my preproduction out of the way, it was time for me to get cracking on the intro.
I set up my camera and lighting so that the first two shots would have the light needed in order to look good in the gray-scale color scheme I was going to make. The third shot, in retrospect, could have been lit better, but I’m still pleased with the results.
That was the easy part. Now came the hard part. Animating.
The entire animation was done in Flash (yes I know what your saying: “what were you thinking?!” this was before I could acquire Adobe After Effects) and took about two solid weeks to complete. Making sure every patterned ribbon (there were four), every ball (there were eight), and every swirly line (there were three) was exactly the way I wanted it to be and matched the part of the music when the animation would appear. This intro was to encompass my entire brand in one short, complete burst and I knew it needed to be just right. I wanted the colors to be vibrant (representing the vibrancy that my shows would hopefully be), the logo to be revealed over a small period of time (building a small amount of anticipation that something awesome was just about to start), and, most importantly of all, to leave just as quickly as it came. I wanted it to be a small burst of something, but nothing that lingered too long on the screen.
After this was finished, I went into postproduction and I took both my live action shots and my animation and lined them up with the music in Final Cut Pro. And viola! The project was done!
Thanks so much to Karen for agreeing to do this. Check out her show, Animation Domination, if you haven't already.
...I have no idea why the formatting is so wonky.
It's at this point I should dedicate this to Montag for a talking about his own minimalistic approach to making an intro... does that even work with a guest article? Oh well.
