56 replies to this topic

[mgrvsh]

With all due respect to the talented artists who created this piece, I'm so sick of this style I could puke. I get it. You can scale-up a circle while animating it's stroke from 10 to 0. You can use radial wipes and trim paths to death. You can design something to sit in the center of an empty white frame with some faux vintage paper texture on it. Now for the love of god, STOP IT.

Am I the only one sick of this?

*I don't mean to pick on this video in particular or whoever made it (though I find the title horribly ironic). I've just seen so many of these uninspired, cookie-cutter pieces in the last few months (years?) that I've lost count.

**On another note, it's been a long day. Ugh.

[destro]

The idea has been done to death, but I enjoyed it because it's so nicely executed (thou I did find the wobbly cam a bit distracting).

[Binky]

Yaps. Kinda the way it goes.
Its time will pass and it will fade into the obscurity of less visible venues. Like kinetic type before it. And vector paint drips before that. And scratched juddered type before that. And spinning logos before that. And so on and on to the beginning of time when the Almighty Lord of Motion Graphics set the world spinning. And so it will be after. As it goes with all things that achieve meaningless Style. They are but fancies of the moment.

For real, you're probably just reaching the annoyance threshold slightly ahead of the pack, which sorta sucks for you. Cuz this stuff is still being legitimized by hipsters and kids and shit. They'll start getting bored with it, but then it has to go through that phase where the lazy ad agencies finally pick it up and start smearing it randomly on everything like advert cream. Then it has to trickle down to the social backwater who "saw this pretty cool thing on that one rad commercial". By then it's just the worst kind of hack work and is far from being celebrated and you're pretty much in the clear.

[Sao_Bento]

Apparently it only goes away for a little while. I see the Gmunk style flickering text and meaningless geometric nernies are making a comeback.

[zook]

Big wheels turning
Baby I know
Big wheels turning
Baby I know
Big wheels turning, turning
Turning, turning...

[rolin]

So what's coming next then?

[rjb]

Dear heads. Remember those? They were AWESOME.

[zook]

So what's coming next then?

What's been before?

[destro]

Dear heads. Remember those? They were AWESOME.

dear heads?

[rolin]

Can we do a list of the best/worst trends of the past years please!

[anthonyc]

....showing my age...... back in the day when i was a kid GI Joes, Transformers, He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and almost everything in 80's pop culture was exploding.....now most of this stuff is obviously making a comeback w/ technology getting better and better. so at what point do people just say....i dislike this idea and move on or just trash something because it was "done" before?

[Cosmo Ray]

Can everyone just stop using lens flares, plexus, and shape layers so we can get back to the real motion graphics?

[troyA]

Hey Cosmo Ray, this'll sound snarky but that is not my intention. Curiosity is. What do you consider real motion graphics?

Every designer I know, especially the good ones, are ALWAYS looking for the "next thing". It's what we do. But I'm not going to NOT use a deer head, lens flare or Shine if the project could use it. Well, maybe not Shine.

I would submit that not using a technique simply because you think it's been overdone is a little petulant. We're supposed to be on the cutting edge. Our clients aren't. If one of them wants some kinetic type, which so many of them still do, I'll happily do it while trying to freshen it up.

A lot of us have been doing this long enough to see trends come and go and come back again. I don't think I'm smart enough to permanently retire any idea.

Except maybe Shine.

[levante]

Every designer I know, especially the good ones, are ALWAYS looking for the "next thing"

A good designer should create (not copy) a look that fits his client instead of trying to fit his client to that "next style thing"
But maybe i'm just an old fashioned fart...

[Sao_Bento]

"Dearest Heads, ..." ?

dear heads?

[Sao_Bento]

It's a $$ thing in many cases. Notice that the places with the large staff and large budgets (think Pysop, Logan, Prologue, etc) don't simply join the current visual trend, but actually attempt to do their client's message some justice. The one man bands, who have to start from scratch generally have a harder time cooking up original looking stuff. It may also be that the clients at that level aren't real big thinkers or aren't design educated enough to care.

A good designer should create (not copy) a look that fits his client instead of trying to fit his client to that "next style thing"
But maybe i'm just an old fashioned fart...

[hamax1]

grumpy old mographers!

just had to get that off my chest. But yeah, this style is playing its way out. I'm actually working on a piece currently that some could argue is in this "style", I hope the addition of hand drawn elements pulls it away from this style.

I like that everyone is getting amped about it tho, it's that exact frustration that will propel us into the next stage, hopefully a more dynamic one.

I would also like to point out that this is a level of stagnation in graphic design more-so than animation. A lot of these types of pieces move quite well, nice eases, weather the curves were drawn or not it's sometimes hard to tell, snapping when appropriate etc.

[Cosmo Ray]

troyA: I was being facetious and agree with you almost completely. I wouldn't say I'd happily do kinetic type, mostly because I think it rarely makes sense to use that technique specifically. For many trending tools and styles, there are circumstances under which the brief is appropriately met by their implementation. Sometimes these trends are overdone, but there is usually an opportunity to improve upon them, or mash them together to make something new.

It's a $$ thing in many cases. Notice that the places with the large staff and large budgets (think Pysop, for instance, Logan comes to mind, as does Prologue to some degree) don't simply join the current visual trend, but actually attempt to do their client's message some justice.

It's this totally. At least it is in a professional setting. Maybe what is annoying mgrvsh so much is that this piece seems to be self initiated.

Edited by Cosmo Ray, 23 May 2012 - 09:40 PM.

[jaypeeare]

So what's coming next then?

I think what could be next is Nick's new plug-in "Transform". The plug-in is super impressive & awesome but we all know people will abuse it & well all eventually know the effect, presets, & will be able to spot it from a mile away, just like Mr. Kramer stock footage.

Also Speaking of Mr. Kramer, his new plug-in will be another thing to account for animation/design look trends.

But talking more towards the topic in matter, the Créativité animation piece was well done & that's what really catches my eye. It definitely has a lot to live on it's own as it's own piece rather then some other projects look straight out stolen, slightly adjusted, & re-rendered project files. I guess that's what counts for me in the end.

[hamax1]

@mgrvsh:
would you say this wonderfully whimsical and only somewhat circular, well-eased, simply designed bit is the same vomit worthy style?

Edited by hamax1, 24 May 2012 - 12:26 AM.