Ident Film Design for Google
The idea was to create a hypothetical Ident Film for Google.
This student project document tries to magnify into all those thorough processes and steps explored, mistakes, learnings and improvisations, evolution of ideas etc. while reaching to the final creation.
Coming up with “what to do?” was simple but “how to do it?” was quite tricky, it took a lot of thinking beforehand to create its virtual existence in our imperfect realities. The motive was to reflect a brand’s personality and catch the emotion into the form of contemporary storytelling medium unlike Google Doodle.
What's an Ident?
Idents are short promo videos that identify a station or network, and in today's age it can even be a for TOT platforms.
Once a mainstay of radio and television, idents are now a critical branding element for all digital channels,
especially platforms like YouTube.
Theme
Based on the research, it seems that Google will be completing its 25 years of journey in the year 2024, which is not so far.
So, the theme of the ident film is decided to celebrate this silver jubilee occasion while
Google is also being grateful and giving joy to the audience.
The nine sequences
There are total 9 key sequences in the narrative, from which the snippets with their corresponding animatic
versions are arranged below. Once the production phases of the film started, some improvements in terms of language
slang, kinetic typography, visual treatment, motion and sound design etc. has been constantly added to every latest
edit of the sequence compilations. The hero font used is Product sans.
The double diagram model has been design process framework.
Storyboard Final Renders
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Art direction
Background stills explorations which can be used for shot/frame transitions. Flowy lines can give the sense of
continuity and flexible nature of the UX system with enriching colours.
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Sound design
An inspirational material found in terms of music and sound is the interesting melodious sound created by striking the water glasses which a simple science inspired from the xylophone.
After gathering a bunch of similar looking glasses from the kitchen (I accidently broke a few :P),a small original musical piece was created with dozens of trial and error methods which could hint about the ‘Happy Birthday song’ This small sound track has been cleaned and edited further and added into the final music track for the animatic.
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Character design and animation
In a couple of sequences the character designs has been kept around minimalistic approach while keeping the balance between primary brand colours of Google and other pastel hues. Here below are the explorations in terms of demographic diversity character forms, art direction, expressions and exaggeration etc.
Character animation
In sequence 2, the character’s form has been taken under consideration in order to define the amount of dynamism/exaggeration in its movement. The form has subtle turns and directions with round and broad contours which generates specific weight in the character. The longer the limbs than the torso the more clumsy the character's body language will be.
So certain constraints has been taken care in terms of character’s body movements like picking up the balls and a little jerk before actually starting to juggle, the inertia of head w.r.t. torso also intentionally there are no ups and downs of head in the walk cycle, co-ordination of hand movements w.r.t. legs in the walk cycle etc. The over all tone of this motion sequence is executed in such way to provide smooth momentum and anticipation before every action. A few example videos of live action juggling has been also referred while studying and planning the choreography.
Some more character design
explorations for end sequences.
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Motion design
In order to sustain the motion language of the film, consistent sharp hills has been kept in velocity graph panels of all motion graphic sequence edit files including foreground and background elements.
Here below are some other motion design explorations in terms of unconventional style of
logo reveal and kinetic backgrounds.
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Thinker
The Vision sequence reveals a concept of perception of looking at things. A short narrative where simple primitive solid shapes are changing their orientations to achieve similar looking flat shapes one after another.
The metaphorical way in which something is regarded, understood, interpreted or from what point of view we see things, matters. Thanks to Google and its people who has always been versatile with their perception to understand its
users, since the very beginning.
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The firm hand
Both versions differ in terms of sharp/round edges of the form. The one with sharp corners looks more firm and strong where the one with round corners is more comforting and subtle with its organic form. However, the inner tail of G having rounded corners may not follow the design system of the brand.
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System design approach
While doing the research, it has been realised that unlike Google Doodle, this theme can have various short modes of outputs for different communication mediums rather than just one broadcast ident film. Such as, social media short loops, a doodle gif for the search engine page, some new icon/logo animations in terms of UI and apps, poster design etc.
Here is one idea to give the Ident Indian and vernacular touch, there can be a road show of Indian drums and orchestra with Google logo behind. (animatic attached) - live action shooting can also be there where the crowd is dancing and there is a textured wall behind on which google logo is painted.
New iconography concept models
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Conclusion
This project was a great opportunity to accept new challenges along with polishing and showcasing the existing skills in animation. Working under branding constraints was a great deal of thought but it wasn’t playing a role of any obstacle in order to achieve desired outcome.
Due to pandemic, the testing of the film has been carried out remotely using online platforms to a selective set of audience. The majority of the feedback enjoyed and liked the overall tone of the film, some common critiques were based on the style treatment and concept significance of the 3D primitive shapes used in sequence 6. The last objective of this project will be about working on the given feedback and improvising further till the ident becomes a hundred percent visual treat and personal satisfaction.
Along with motion graphics, creating major sound effects for first time in limited resources was another precious experience which helps to improve a little more confidence in order to become an independent film-maker in near future. It’s been a couple of years since classical/ hand drawn animation technique had became a personal comfort area in the visual design field, this particular project acted like that push which was needed in terms of widening the vision and to look closely into other important practical applications of 2D/3D motion design in the industry.
- - Credits - -
Project concept and executed by Heramb Shet
Music track - Out of the box by Patrick Patrikios (YouTube audio library)
Brand identity elements and resources are referred from Google's branding.
Special thanks to Neerav Doshi and Troy Vasant for their valuable feedback and guidance and many other talented artists over various platformsI got inspired from!
Bibliography
1. WADE, directed by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya (2019; Kolkata, CA: Ghost animation,2020), VHS
2. Afternoon class, directed by Seoro Oh (2014; Icheon, CA: Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, 2015), Streaming
3. (OO), directed by Seoro Oh (2017; Icheon, CA: Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, 2020), Streaming
4. ESPN Ident, directed by Marcel Ziul (2018; Augsburg, CA: State design, 2018), Streaming
5. FOX Life Ident, directed by Mariano Farias (2013; Buenos Aires, CA: Plenty studio, 2013), Streaming
6. MTV Ident, directed by Andrea Bax (2021; Barcelona, CA: Bax design, 2021), Streaming
7. NIKE Ident, directed by Rodrigo Miguel (2019; Mexico, CA: One Hundread, 2019), Streaming
8. ADIDAS Ident, directed by Gustavo Leal (2020; São Paulo, CA: Dirty Work Factory, 2020), Streaming
9. NETFLIX Ident, directed by Andrew Vucko (2021; New York, CA: Hornet, 2021), Streaming
10. Google Doodle celebrating 20th birthday, directed by Nico Piccirilli (2018; Mountain View, CA: Google, 2020), Streaming
Glad to mention the acknowledgements and compliments received from designers around the globe working at brands like Google, Facebook, Tesla, Adobe, Flipkart, Ola, Scaler etc.
