Interaction Design · Project 1 of 3 · Weeks 1–5
Motion Graphics Project 3: Title Sequence
Story, designed in time
FORMAT
Individual
WEEKS
10-15
METHODS
Adobe Illustrator · Storyboarding · Animatic · Adobe After Effects · Keyframing · Easing · Shapes and masks · Expressions · Sound design · Presentation
TAGS
Aesthetic Psychology, Time Based Media, Narrative, Design Education
Why this project
A title sequence is an argument about a story, made before the story begins. It establishes tone, visual language, and expectations. The strongest ones function as complete design objects: they could stand alone and still communicate something true about the work they introduce. They foreshadow a piece, much like a book jacket. This project asks students to make create a standalone title sequence for an assigned public domain text — a short story, fairy tale, fable, or myth they did not choose.
The Brief
PROJECT PROMPT
Think of your title sequence as a visual overture — a designed argument about a story, made before the story begins. In film, opening credits bring together stylized graphics, experimental typography, and music to encapsulate the mood, introduce the location, and foreshadow what is to come. Your goal is to do the same for the book you have been assigned.
You have been given a public domain short story, fairy tale, fable, or myth that has not yet been adapted for the screen. Read it carefully. Identify its core themes, key characters, significant settings, and emotional center. Then ask: how do you translate that into motion?
Every element is a design decision: the visual metaphors you choose, the typefaces and how they move, the color palette and what it evokes, the music and sound design, the pacing and rhythm of the sequence. These must work together. Sound is half the experience.
Your sequence must also include an original motion graphics logo for a fictional film studio — designed by you, animated, and thematically connected to the sequence.
Deliverables: minimum 30-second title sequence and a motion graphics studio logo.
DELIVERABLE
Assigned public domain text: short story, fairy tale, fable, or myth
Written analysis: visual logic of the text, initial concept direction
Visual style guide: typography, color, motion language, tone
Storyboard: minimum 20 frames, hand-drawn, 16:9 format
Animatic: full sequence timed to proposed audio
Final title sequence: rendered video file, duration 60–90 seconds
Integrated audio: music and/or sound design
Concept statement: 200–300 words
Process documentation: research, sketches, in-process screen grabs, critique notes
Final presentation: live critique with prepared verbal statement
Self-assessment — see separate assignment sheet
What I've learned from running this
The title sequence is the most ambitious project in the course and the one that shows the full range of student growth most clearly. By this stage, students have developed fluency in After Effects — keyframes, easing, layering, audio integration. The project asks students to bring all accumulated skills into one final piece; logo, kintetic type, and illustrative materials.
The restriction on source material is deliberate. Students receive an assigned text rather than selecting their own. Removing that decision shifts the work toward careful reading and visual argument — finding the logic of a story they did not choose, rather than designing around personal familiarity. The unfamiliarity is productive and teaches students to read a narrative, create visual language based on a narrative, and crete a sense of foreshadowing in which they reveal parts of the story without providing the entire plot.
The project concludes with the final course presentation, where students present professionally: a prepared statement, a clear account of their concept, and genuine readiness to receive and respond to critique.
