Motion Graphics in Real Life

Dive into a behind-the-scenes video exploring the creation of motion graphics for a hardcore documentary. Follow along as Joey Korenman demonstrates the process of adding visual effects to footage for a Kickstarter campaign promo. Learn techniques for tracking and compositing graphics onto moving footage in After Effects, including tips for working efficiently under tight deadlines. Gain insights into collaborating with directors, interpreting creative briefs, and delivering professional results quickly. Download the project files to practice the techniques yourself.

Joey Korenman : I want you to meet my buddy, Ian McFarland. He's half of a directing cinematography duo called McFarland. And PECI Ian is not only a great dude and an absurdly talented director, shooter and editor, but he's also like myself, a metal head. Ian has directed music videos for some of the biggest metal bands out there like kill, switch, engage, miss sugar, love my sugar fear factory, and a little band called agnostic front. Now, maybe you're not familiar with them, but they are legends in the hardcore and punk scenes. Ian has been doing a lot of documentary work lately. And so he was approached by the band to direct a documentary about agnostic front. So to raise money for the film, he shot a Kickstarter campaign promo and asked his buddy Joey for a little help with some graphics and compositing. Here's the email that I got from Ian.
Joey Korenman : And I want to highlight a couple of points. First. I would basically only have a few hours to work on this too. There would not be time for any revisions, so I have to get it right the first time three Ian trusts me. Great. Now I've worked with the Inn before. Here's a clip from a video we did a few years ago with a ton of visual effects work in it. So having done jobs together, I knew what sort of style he liked. And I knew that I could make something cool looking, but with only a few hours of free time to actually dedicate to this, I had to be surgical. And so I used a trick it's one of my go-to moves when timelines get compressed like this, don't just show one option. So let's first take a look at the rough cut of the promo that Ian sent over.
Music : [soft music]
Ian McFarland : My name's Ian McFarland and I'm directing the godfathers of hardcore.
Joey Korenman : You can see where Ian tried to mock up what he was going for. He also sent over this poster that was going to accompany the film and that's it. That's all I had to work with. So let's jump into after effects and let's work our way through this together. So the first shot we're going to work on is this one where we're going to put the logo on this wall. And if you look back at the reference, you can see kind of the mock-up that, uh, Ian did for me, just to kind of let me know what he was thinking. Um, so the first thing we're going to need to do is get a track so we can actually track, uh, the, the logo onto the wall. And you'll see here that, you know, the, the footage is moving. This is like a slightly handheld camera move, but it's not moving very much.
Joey Korenman :
Joey Korenman :