Presentation 4 - Kinetic Typography

1. What is Kinetic Typography and its history?

_Kinetic typography is a new form of communication that uses movement or other temporal change of text.

_The first known use of kinetic typography appeared in film – specifically, Saul Bass’ opening credit sequence for Hitchcock’s North by Northwest [Bass59] and later Psycho [Bass60].

Purpose: to have the opening credits set the stage for the film by establishing a mood, rather than simply conveying the information of the credits.

_ Beside films, kinetic is also very heavily used in TV advertising where its ability to convey emotive content and direct the user’s attention, which is generally a good match to the goals of advertising.

2. Why Kinetic has not been widely exploited?

_Lack of tools directly supporting it

_The accompanying difficulty in creating dynamic text.

3. Why use Kinetic typography?

_Bringing some of the expressive power of film – such as its ability to convey emotion, portray compelling characters, and visually direct attention – to the strong communicative properties of text.

_Can be effective when conveying a speaker’s tone of voice, qualities of characters and affective (emotional) qualities of text

_Allow different kinds of engagement with the viewer than static text, and in some cases, explicitly direct or manipulate the attention of the viewer.

_Key areas in which kinetic typography has been particularly successful:

• Expression of affective (emotional) content,

• Creation of characters, and

• Capture or direction of attention.

_Rolling text makes reading faster because scanning eye movements are unnecessary (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). RSVP can be seen as a means for trading time for space, potentially allowing large bodies of text to be shown at readable sizes on small displays.

4. Examples of Kinetic typography

_ In Figure 1a, the choice of typeface, rapid rhythmic motions, changes of scale, and rotation, all combine to convey a sense of exuberance

_In Figure 1b, a very plain typeface has been chosen, and a combination of slow and decelerating pace, reduction of typeface weight, and a shrinking motion analogous to slumping of the shoulders, combines to convey a sense of disappointment

_In Figure 2, on the left shouting is expressed by large expanding, shaking, and vibrating text, which lingers and appears to reverberate. On the right a more diminutive tone is expressed by small size, slower pace, and clear adherence to the text baseline. We also see a clear change in tone of voice at a particular point in the piece, again accomplished by manipulating aspects such as size, pacing, maintenance of baseline, and fading.

_Figure 3 also illustrates the creation and interplay of distinct characters, this time created using identifiably different aspects of position, typeface, size, and color. Purpose: to transit the user’s attention from the ongoing dialog of the character at the left, to the entry of the character at the right.

5. Some techniques of using Kinetic typography

	Kinetic type	Meaning
Tone of voice	_Large upward or downward motions can convey	_ Rising or falling pitch.
	_Changing the size of text, as well as its weight, and occasionally contrast or color. Motions mimicking vibration can be used to depict high volume	_Loudness
	_Modifications to text width (i.e., spatial stretching to indicate a temporally stretched word) as well as scaling effects.	_Speed of delivery effects
Analogous motion: uses movements reminiscent of human actions that convey emotional content	_Small vibrations that are analogous to trembling	_Convey affective content with high levels of arousal, such as anticipation, excitement, or anger.
	_Slow rhythmic motions reminiscent of calm breathing	_Appear to induce feelings of empathy.
Recognition techniques	_Consistent use of spatial location, movement patterns, typeface, type weight, and tone of voice techniques	_Used to distinguish characters
	_Large sweeping movements	_Transitioning the user’s attention from one location to another

6. Limitations of Kinetic

_Cannot normally replace or override strong emotive content intrinsic to the meaning of the text.

_For example, it is not normally possible to use kinetic typography to make a sad story into a happy one. Instead, kinetic typography can reinforce or temper emotive content already present

6. More examples: