This was the project of the multi design project. For each project we had two weeks to finish it
For the assignment we had to choose a song. This was difficult because one of the requirements of the final product was an animation that took between 0:30-1:00 minute so the part of the song you wanted could not take too long.
Some of the song’s I thought would work were:
- Sonne, Rammstein
- Particle man, They might be giants
- Teenage Dirtbag, Wheatus
- King Herod’s song, Jesus Christ superstar (1973)
- Noel’s lament, Ride the cyclone
- I’m the bad guy, Caleb Hyles
- Cell block tango, Chicago
We had to choose three songs and describe them.
I’m the bad guy, Caleb Hyles.
This song is a song with a catchy rhythm and with good lyrics to play with the typography. The song is the most generic villain song ever but that makes it fun.
The vibe of the song is proud and musical. It gives the emotion of being evil and being good at it.
Some of the lyrics are:
I'm not the damsel in distress
I'm not your girlfriend
Or the frightened princess
I'm not a little bird
Who needs your help to fly
Nope, I'm the bad guy
All these former vilains that you see
Each of them, with shaking knees
Has knelt before me
So I'm not your teamate
Or your partner in crime
What am I, boys?
(He's the bad guy)
Oh, it's magic
To watch a planet
Shrivel up and die
Oh, it's thrilling
To be a villain
I destroy their hopes
And then I watch them cry
'Cause I'm the bad guy
Cell block tango, Chicago
This song is a tango sung by seven women who murdered their man’s and why.
The create a scenario in which you imagine you were them and make it sound reasonable why they killed him. It is a funny song where you can make a cool animation for. Also is this one of the songs/musicals I have seen my niece preform so it is close to heart.
The vibe is well a tango, and it feels as if you are in the story. It gives the emotion of them being serious but for you sounding funny.
Some of the lyrics are:
You know how people have these little habits that get you down?
Like, Bernie
Bernie, he liked to chew gum
No, not chew, pop
So I came home this one day
And I'm really irritated
And I'm looking for a little bit o' sympathy
And there's Bernie, lyin' on the couch, drinkin' a beer and chewin'
No, not chewin'
Poppin'
So, I said to him, I said "You pop that gum one more time"
And he did
So I took the shotgun off the wall
And I fired two warning shots
Into his head
He had it comin'
He had it comin'
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there
If you'd have heard it
I betcha you would have done the same
King Herod’s song, Jesus Christ superstar (1973)
This song is also close to heart since we sill watch this movie at my grandma’s house at easter. This is a verry interesting song that is just for laughs. I recommend you watch the music video just to know how unique it is, especially for its time. The story itself is about Jesus and the events lead up for him being hung on the cross. The song itself has a sudden rhythm change and mood change that will make it fun to animate the contrast with the serious and mocking. The vibe this song gives is just mocking Jesus and what they say about him. And the emotions it gives is king Herod being sarcastic.
Some of the lyrics are:
Jesus, I am overjoyed
To meet You face to face
You've been getting quite a name
All around the place
Healing cripples
Raising from the dead
And now I understand You're God
At least that's what You've said
So You are the Christ
You're the great Jesus Christ
Prove to me that You're divine
Change my water into wine
That's all You need do
And I'll know it's all true
C'mon King of the Jews
After some feedback of my teacher we chose on the third song, King Herod’s song. And I started analysing the song. At first online on word
But after a while I found that I liked it better to do it on paper. Here are all the notes I took, that can also been seen as a sketch.
I than made a moodboard. This time I didn’t make a styleboard because ive decided to give my animation powerpoint animation vibes. That means it that I wanted to make the animation look outdated with some funny transitions to match the unserious vibe of the song.
I chose two main fonts for my animation. This was because I split my animation up to two vibes. The first part of the song will look serious while the second part will look like a circus. This was insipred by the video: King Herod’s song- the Making of Jesus Christ superstar.
The font I chose for the first part of the song was a font that could’ve been used in a bible. Sedan SC, I specifically chose this one for the Serif.
The font I chose for the second part was a font that looks like circus lights. Budmo, This is used in de live musicals for this song so I found it very fitting.
Some noteworthy things:
While making the animation I got stuck on effects/transitions to use. So I decided to watch the movie to make notes on what transitions they used.
This gave me a lot of inspiration and made it feel like it is more connected to the movie.
I wanted to make the contrast of the songs really noticible so I changed the background to black. This was also to make the font Budmo more stick out.
While making this animation I got a video that learned me how to add a custom backgrond for the text. After I learned this I knew immedeatly that I wanted to add a disco colors behind the second part of the song.
After adding a gradient animation behind the song I got the feedback to play more with the rhythm. That’s when I decided to make it jump from colors.
After a few more alterations i finally had my end product:
I enjoyed this project and made me hate animating a bit less. Part of why I enjoyed this project is the song I used. Every time I heard it it made my mood a bit better. The thing I learned most was the power of fonts and how to better use them. And the only problem I got was after effects itself since its still a difficult program.
I hope you can see in the animation how much I enjoyes this project but I will sadly not listen to this song for a while.
-Emi Hiraki 20-6-2024