Editing Kinetic typography

{{short description|Style of animation mixing text and motion}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2011}}
[[File:'Trick or Treat' - Kinetic Typography.webm|thumb|A short animation showing kinetic typography]]
'''Kinetic typography'''—the technical name for "moving text"—is an [[animation]] technique mixing motion and text to express ideas using video animation. This text is presented over time in a manner intended to convey or evoke a particular idea or emotion.

== History ==
With the advent of film and graphic animation, the possibility of matching text and motion emerged. Examples of animated letter-forms appeared as early as 1899 in the advertising work of [[Georges Méliès]].<ref>Bellantoni, Jeff and Woolman, Matt, 'Type in Motion', Thames & Hudson, 1999.</ref> Early feature films contained temporal typography, but this was largely static text, presented sequentially and subjected to cinematic transitions. It was not until the 1960s that [[opening titles]] began to feature typography that was truly kinetic. Scholars recognize the first feature film to extensively use kinetic typography as [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[North by Northwest]]'' (1959).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wizmotions.com/46465/history-kinetic-typography/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214215111/http://www.wizmotions.com/46465/history-kinetic-typography/ | url-status=usurped | archive-date=February 14, 2015 | title=History of Kinetic Typography | publisher=WizMotions | accessdate=20 February 2015 | author=Zimmerman, Bill}}</ref> This film's opening title sequence—created by [[Saul Bass]]—contained animated text, featuring credits that "flew" in from off-screen, and finally faded out into the film itself. A similar technique was also employed by Bass in ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/kt/dist/files/Kinetic_Typography.pdf | title=The Kinetic Typography Engine: An Extensible System for Animating Expressive Text | publisher=Carnegie Mellon University | accessdate=20 February 2015 |author1=Lee, Johnny C. |author2=Forlizzi, Jodi |author3=Hudson, Scott E. }}</ref>

Since then, the use of kinetic typography has become commonplace in film introductory titles and [[television advertisements]]. More recently, it has been a central feature of numerous [[Station identification|television idents]], notably [[Martin Lambie-Nairn]]'s first ident for the British [[Channel 4]] television network in use from 1982.

== Categories ==

Y. Y. Wong has proposed that it is important to distinguish between the properties of form (e.g. colour and font) and of behaviour (e.g. qualities of movement) in temporal typography. It is necessary to make this distinction in order to classify kinetic typography in ways that acknowledge their difference to static type (which may share  properties of form, but not kinetic behaviours). Kinetic typography is therefore categorised according to behaviours or action, rather than appearance.

In classification, kinetic typography is a form of [[temporal typography]] (typography that is presented over time). It is distinct from other forms of temporal typography including 'serial presentation', which involves the sequential presentation of still typographic compositions.

=== Layouts ===
Barbara Brownie's model of temporal typography divides kinetic typography into 'motion typography' (subdivided into '[[scrolling]] typography', 'dynamic layout') and 'fluid typography'.<ref>{{cite journal|title=One Form, Many Letters: Fluid and transient letterforms in screen-based typographical artefacts |journal=Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network |volume=1 |number=2 |year=2007 |first=Barbara |last=Brownie |doi=10.31165/nk.2007.12.20 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Motion typography ====
[[File:Flash Gordon (1940) - Opening Crawl.jpg|thumb|A frame of the opening crawl of episode 11 of ''[[Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe]]'' (1940)]]
In dynamic layout, text elements move in relation to one another. Letters and words may move away from one another on a 2D plane, or in three-dimensional space. Likewise, scrolling typography can scroll across the flat screen, or can appear to recede or advance.
An iconic example is the [[Star Wars opening crawl|''Star Wars'' opening crawl]] inspired by the Flash Gordon serials.

==== Fluid typography====
In fluid typography, letterforms change and evolve without necessarily changing location.
An example is the subtitles of [[Night Watch (2004 film)#International release|the international release of ''Night Watch'']]:
In a scene in which a character is being called by a vampire, he is in a pool and the camera is underwater.
The caption appears as blood red text that dissolves as blood would in water.

== Production ==

Kinetic typography is often produced using standard animation programs, including [[Adobe Flash]], [[Adobe After Effects]], and [[Motion (software)|Apple Motion]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kinetictypography.com/2-ways-of-communicating-with-kinetic-typography/ |title=Hire Kinetic Typography Service Designers Motion Typography Design Studio &#124; 2 Ways of Communicating with Kinetic Typography |website=kinetictypography.com |access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605035125/http://kinetictypography.com/2-ways-of-communicating-with-kinetic-typography/ |archive-date=5 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The effect is most often achieved by [[compositing]] layers of text such that either individual letters or words can be animated separately from the rest.

==See also==
{{commons category}}
* [[ANSI art]] allowed for animation based on text characters.
* [[AAlib]] allows to convert moving images into ASCII art.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Typography terms}}

[[Category:Typography]]
[[Category:Animation]]