Video Editing: Kinetic Typography :
Manual V Type Monkey
Happy New Year people! Hope your holidays went well. But for the majority of us (including myself) its time to get back infront of our respective computers and work. In my case edit.
Kinetic Typography
For a few years now Kinetic Typography has been a cool way to turn songs,speeches,or monologues into visual eye-candy. The way I’ve done it for about a year now is through Adobe After Effects with some assistance through Adobe Illustrator. But over my vacation ive found this rather awesome plug in called Type Monkey. Long story short it removes the manual labor from the creating process. Which sounds automatically like a better deal. But I for one like looking at both sides of anything new just so i can have a better idea before i just dive in a join a bandwagon.
Well doing it manually takes hours, days even depending on your work flow. But after numerous tweaks. Hours of rending you can have a greater sense of achievement compared to Type Monkey doing it for you. Me personally i do anything typography via After Effects from the ground up. Word by word (or in some cases sentences) to sync it with the audio. Then from there i usually take that one section then do camera, lighting etc. It can be rather annoying but its worth it. In the few months ive actually done Kinetic Typography i was always looking for an easier way to do it. Complaining all the way til i look at my clock and realize that its 5am but more importantly that the project is done.
With Type Monkey all that changes. The plugin for after effects makes something that takes hours it gets chopped up by at least half that. To use it is possibly the simplest thing ever. When you open the plugin via the scripts menu on the top toolbar. Type in your words and hit do it. It would automatically create something for you. If you want to get more technical then you break it down into sections. The company behind TypeMonkey Ebberts + Zucker have uploaded many tutorials that are very easy to follow just in case you get lost. Or have questions along the way. From basic composing to syncing with music. The tutiouals break down everything which is a life saver cause it make sure you get the optimal experience of the plugin.
After testing out the rather teasing demo of type monkey i can say its pretty efficient. I recommend actually buying the plugin for $89.95 over at aescript.com The links to purchase the program will be displayed below.The potiental that TypeMonkey has is evergrowing and cant really wait for the fun im going to have with it once i get my hands on it. But the one thing that concerns me is how the rest of people the do alot of kinetic typography would look at it. Hopefully this wont make a internet like war of words between people that pefer manual compared to people that prefer TypeMonkey. Its a question that will be answered in due time. Link to purchase TypeMonkey.
http://aescripts.com/typemonkey/
