Kinetic Typography is a Fad That Needs to Die
I’m not sure what started off this infuriating craze, though it is customary with these sorts of things to have been birthed down the same creative buttpipe as either a commercial or a music video featuring some talentless maker of sounds.
Either way you’d have noticed animating typographics or “kinetic typography” after attempting to search for an iconic scene from a famous blockbuster film, only to receive a screen full of bupkis; search results of the scene in question, recorded on the TV by half naked men in robes (you can tell this from the reflection in the glass) and pages upon pages of typographics like these. (I may warn you the videos below are rated C for Craptastic.)
You get the idea…
What are you doing here precisely? You’re missing the whole point of what being an animator is really about. Animation is about opening doors for your audience’s mind, not force feeding them with 20 kilos of spoiled dog food. Think about when you’re reading a book, your mind’s eye isn’t thinking about the words arranging themselves in some green floating limbo, it’s weaving pictures and old memories together in some quantifiable mess that makes sense to you. Animation should stimulate the movement of old thoughts into new ideas…why aren’t you doing that?
Is there a level of artistry is moving text from left to right in timing with a prerecorded voice? If so it’s probably on the same par as ripping a fart just wet enough as to be slightly soaked up by your undergarments.
If this rant is being received by motion novices I apologise, animating text is a legitimate place to start your journey and there is nothing wrong with animating text like this if you don’t have a V/O but honestly, if you’ve read the local pizza delivery menu you have enough design expertise to stop this abominable practise. And if I wanted words to arrange themselves randomly on a wall I’d put an unopened can of alphabet spaghetti on the hob then gone to and watch Sopranos.
Mix it up, be inventive because these kinetic typography animations are just glorified powerpoint presentations, and that’s sad. Over and out.
desu said:
Dec 04, 12 at 8:01 pmSo freaking true… I’m so tired of these “Kinetic typography” videos. First of all, they are worse than subtitles since they are more difficult to read. And since some of them move so fast, it distracts you from listening to what is actually being said.
Basically, kinetic typography doesn’t add anything to the experience of listening/reading something, it just takes away from both of them!