Animating a letter being read

[Alfi Randy]

Write-on.

Serenity now…

[Darby Edelen]

[Michael Brassert] “I am looking for a different way to animate a hand written letter that is being read. Something other than the usual highlight bar.

Has anybody ever seen something like this? “

I don’t even know what you mean by “the usual highlight bar” and if you’re asking if someone has ever seen anything other than that I guess I would have to say yes… but you’re not giving us much to work with here.

Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA

[Ian Corey]

I’d have to agree with Darby, not sure what you’re asking about. A progress bar?

[Michael Brassert]

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. What I am talking about is the following: I have a scanned letter from a soldier to his wife from World War 2. I have an actor’s voice reading the letter and I am using the letter itself as the video. Traditionally I have seen this treated as a move on the letter image with the line that is actually being read slightly brighter. I know I can do this with a feathered mask. I think this has become somewhat of the standard treatment for this type of thing and was hoping someone out there might have seen this done differently from a creative perspective. I know this is all a bit vague and perhaps a mask has been done so much because it is the best way to do it. I should probably look at some CSI episodes to see if they ever had to do this.

Michael

[David Bogie]

[Michael Brassert] “I think this has become somewhat of the standard treatment for this type of thing and was hoping someone out there might have seen this done differently from a creative perspective. “

This effect implies a dramatic focus on the letter’s contents. Something like the evidence of a crime. It certainly would NOT be used to highlight romantic passages. So you’d need to tell us why you need to highlight the text in the letter at all and then we might have some suggestions for you. But what does the director want to do?

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Craig Hirshberg]

Just a thought, but if you have b-roll, photos, etc related to the context of the letter, you could somehow overlay the imagery on the letter and maybe use write-on with it to give it some pizzaz.

Maybe do moves on the letter at funky angle and have a mini-movie/slideshow/storyboard thing going on along with the text?

Craig