Motion Conference

Motion Main On End Titles

Context

Create epic main-on-end titles, interstitials, and end credits for the Motion un-conference’s final year distilling the excitement and creativity of modern motion design.

Strategy

Inspire top motion graphics artists to expand their approaches beyond their screens and software by building the entire sequence around experimental in-camera visual effects.

Solution

Powerful sequences accompanied by an original score concluded the event’s twelve years of imagination on an emotional high.

Creative Concept

For 12 years, Motion has celebrated the art of motion design and the community of creatives who move it forward.

Our concept for the un-conference’s final main-on-end sequence aimed to offer up something different, honest, and tactile—using live in-camera effects, projected animations, and high-end cinematography to tell a story about the origins of Motion.

We worked closely with VFX artist and cinematographer Christopher Webb of FX WRX, a long-time friend and collaborator, who helped us nail down a creative vision for the piece. Our final idea was to bring (e)motion back into motion graphics and amaze the audience with a sensory, evocative visual experience.

Laying The Groundwork

Pre-visualization and fabrication techniques helped us to distill the Motion logo down to its simplest forms.

Based on the logo’s essential elements, we developed a versatile abstract visual language using repetition, cropping, outline, fills, and scale –– first exploring the concept digitally, then building it out IRL.

We settled on materials like MDF, black and white cardstock, and plywood then started testing, constructing, and lighting a series of specially-constructed sets. Hand-crafted laser-cut letterforms, 3D printed objects, and abstract projections of motion graphics took center stage during this initial exploration, after which we set an official game plan for the final shoot.

Motion BTS Elliott Chaffer and Christopher Webb

In-Camera Effects

Each shot in the final title sequence plays with ideas of perspective, perception, depth, and texture.

The sequence was achieved through a live improvised performance acted out by on-set by our animators, designers, and engineers. Trollbäck CCO Alex Moulton composed an original score for the piece, which we listened to during on-set experimentation, allowing for a more dialed-in, instinctual creative process.

In one scene, the camera is guided by a C-Pan Arm as it revolves around a piece of glassy obsidian. In another, 200 sheets of laser-cut paper whirl past like an animated flip-book to reveal the Motion shield. Discarded pieces from the laser cutting process came together in a Calder-esque sculpture, while probe lenses allowed us to shoot over, under, around, and through on-set objects with extreme depth of field.

At The Conference

Everything we created worked toward making Motion’s final event its best ever.

Our creative team flew down to Santa Fe, New Mexico to give an in-depth talk on our creative in-camera process, presenting alongside motion graphics pioneers like Kyle Cooper, Garson Yu, Erin Sarofsky, Brandon Oldenburg, John LePore, Jayse Hansen, and Trollbäck alumni Brian Bowman.

Using BTS footage from the shoot, we also produced interstitial cards for each of the un-conference’s speakers, giving audiences a sneak-peek at the highly-anticipated main on end event. The sequence debuted on massive screens to a live audience, receiving an emotional standing ovation. The film was followed by end-roll credits (which we also designed) and an epic after-party celebrating the end of an amazing era in motion graphics history.