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48-512: Since there is no universally accepted definition of motion graphics, the official beginning of the art form is disputed. There have been presentations that could be classified as motion graphics as early as the 19th century. Michael Betancourt wrote the first in-depth historical survey of the field, arguing for its foundations in visual music and the historical abstract films of the 1920s by Walther Ruttmann , Hans Richter , Viking Eggeling and Oskar Fischinger . The history of motion graphics

96-434: A "labor-saving" procedure now saves all human labor in/as the productive machine: it is this specific dimension of automated (immaterial) labor using digital technology that reflects an ideology of production-without-consumption." The elimination of labor by automated labor presents a paradox for Betancourt's digital capitalism because the wages paid to workers for their labor are the basic element around which all of capitalism

144-655: A Director's Citation award at the Black Maria Film Festival. Other works have screened in Art Basel Miami Beach, Contemporary Art Ruhr, Athens Video Art Festival, Festival des Cinemas Differents de Paris, Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop, the San Francisco Cinematheque's Crossroads, and Experiments in Cinema, among others. His video Telemetry screened as an installation during

192-477: A Universidad de Sevilla painting professor, criticized Betancourt's work with glitch, stating: Michael Betancourt's video work, part of the so-called glitch art, which focuses on the failure that can occur within the digital realm, has been here the basis for a comparative study between different concepts of movement in art, as well as between a current and a past art, a comparison that allows us to see clearly how technological advances have produced radical changes in

240-412: A form of cultural resistance. Instead of utilizing the smooth, illusionistic motion of digital cinema, which you would typically see in a commercial movie theater, he deliberately pulls apart the codes and exploits its errors to deconstruct the movies and show us how they do their tricks. He pulls apart the narrative tropes of Sci-Fi at the same time that he pulls apart the pictures, pixel by pixel, creating

288-505: A long time to complete. Scripts can also use some functionality not directly exposed through the graphical user interface. After Effects Extensions offer the ability to extend After Effects functionality through modern web development technologies like HTML5, and Node.js, without the need for C++. After Effects Extensions make use of Adobe's Common Extensibility Platform or CEP Panels, which means they can be built to interact with other Adobe CC apps. While not dedicated to compositing,

336-439: A motion graphics project can be animated by various means, depending on the capabilities of the software. These elements may be in the form of art, text, photos, and video clips, to name a few. The most popular form of animation is keyframing , in which properties of an object can be specified at certain points in time by setting a series of keyframes so that the properties of the object can be automatically altered (or tweened ) in

384-460: A motion graphics workflow, while Blender integrates several of the functions of its commercial counterparts. Many motion graphics animators learn several 3D graphics packages for use according to each program's strengths. Although many trends in motion graphics tend to be based on a specific software's capabilities, the software is only a tool the broadcast designer uses while bringing the vision to life. Leaning heavily from techniques such as

432-410: A radically open form that resists the hypnotic myth-making of Hollywood. In a series of articles collected as The Critique of Digital Capitalism, Betancourt criticized what he called the "immaterialism" of digital technology, specifically the claims that digital technology ends scarcity through being able to create value without expenditure, unlike the reality of limited resources, time, and expenses; it

480-406: A system for designing abstract animations based on synesthesia that he uses in his animations. Betancourt discovered that the inventor Mary Hallock-Greenewalt produced the earliest hand-painted films known to exist; these were used with the earliest version of her Sarabet machine that automatically synchronized colored lights with records. The Sarabet device was an early music visualizer of

528-410: A systemic shift focused on the generation of value through the semiotic exchange and transfer of immaterial assets." Several features marked this economy: (1) a disassociation between the physical commodity and its representation in financial markets that is global in scope, (2) a reliance on fiat currency , (3) a financialization of the economy based on debt. Part of this analysis is a discussion of

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576-581: A variety of locations in Miami and Chicago. [REDACTED] Media related to Michael Betancourt at Wikimedia Commons After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects , motion graphics , and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc. ; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making , video games and television production . Among other things, After Effects can be used for keying , tracking , compositing , and animation . It also functions as

624-541: A very basic non-linear editor , audio editor, and media transcoder . In 2019, the program won an Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement. After Effects was originally created by David Herbstman, David Simons, Daniel Wilk, David M. Cotter, and Russell Belfer at the Company of Science and Art in Providence, Rhode Island . The first two versions of the software, 1.0 (January 1993) and 1.1, were released there by

672-509: Is a critical theorist , film theorist , art & film historian , and animator . His principal published works focus on the critique of digital capitalism, motion graphics , visual music , new media art , theory, and formalist study of motion pictures . Betancourt was born in New Jersey in 1971. He enrolled at Temple University for film studies and received an MA in Film Studies at

720-625: Is a recurring theme in Betancourt's discussion of digital technology and capitalism. In his discussion of the New Aesthetic , he argued that the transformations of production being created by computers and automated assembly lines belong to a larger shift in the digital capitalist economy: The various artifacts brought together as the 'new aesthetic' are united by their orientation not towards human observation or functional utility, but rather by their invocation of productive values without human action --

768-401: Is based on denying the actual costs of access, creation, production, and maintenance of computer networks and technologies. He sees the "aura of the digital" as both the capitalist fantasy of continuous expansion made possible by digital technology and as the anti-capitalism fantasy of a world without scarcity or needs for capitalist production. Betancourt's concept of the "aura of information"

816-516: Is built. Betancourt's movies are usually abstract and belong to the tradition of visual music . He has claimed these videos are related to his work as a theorist. He has exhibited his work since 1992 when Archaeomodern screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival ; since then he has produced many videos that have screened on television and in festivals, galleries, and museums. He described his video Telemetry as "a documentary whose subject

864-398: Is closely related to the history of computer graphics , as the new developments of computer-generated graphics led to wider use of motion design not based on optical film animation. The term motion graphics originated with digital video editing in computing, perhaps to keep pace with newer technology. Graphics for television were originally referred to as Broadcast Design. Walter Ruttmann

912-416: Is dependent on the exchange of labor for wages that are then spent purchasing the production of that labor. The elimination of labor by automation follows what Betancourt has called a fundamental law of the ideology of automation: "Anything that can be automated, will be." Following the automation of physical production, the transformation of formerly intellectual labor by "autonomous production that began as

960-453: Is generated on digital machines and then implemented by other digital machines without human labor in the fracture process; the necessity of human-as-designer thus comes into question as it is the only aspect of non-machine agency remaining, an element whose necessity is challenged by evolutionary algorithms and automated design. The replacement of human labor by automation poses a problem for capitalism according to Betancourt because capitalism

1008-463: Is the archaeologist Philip P. Betancourt and his brother is the author John Gregory Betancourt . Michael spent his summers in both Crete and Greece and worked as a photographer on his father's excavation at Pseira . His first film exhibition was Archaeomodern , shown at the Ann Arbor Festival of Experimental Film in 1993. In 1995, his film, a self-referential film in 30 sentences, won

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1056-414: Is the separation made possible by digital technology of the information and the ways that information is carried by technology. This idea claims the digital transcends physical form by separating meaning from the physical objects that present meaningful information to its audience. It is the tendency to ignore the particular physical details of how we encounter information, in favor of just paying attention to

1104-403: Is those things that fall outside our direct perception. It adopts an abstract form precisely because what is represented has no direct physical form... instead of our electronic intermediaries, satellite and deep-space probes, send back numerical data we interpret intellectually to understand what it is like in those places we cannot go, what those things we cannot see look like." This concern with

1152-632: The University of Miami , studying under film historian William Rothman. He also received his Ph.D degree from the University of Miami in Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on Art History, Communications/Film Studies, and History. In addition to scholarly work, he has written popular articles and reviews on art, art theory, and culture for magazines, including The Atlantic, Make Magazine, Miami Art Exchange and Art Scene . Betancourt's father

1200-599: The collage or the pastiche , motion graphics have begun to integrate many traditional animation techniques as well, including stop-motion animation , frame by frame animation, or a combination of both. Motion design applications include Adobe After Effects , Blackmagic Fusion , Nuke , Apple Motion , Max/MSP , various VJ programs, Moho , Adobe Animate , Natron . 3D programs used in motion graphics include Adobe Substance, Maxon Cinema 4D and Blender . Motion graphics plug-ins include Video Copilot's products, Red Giant Software and The Foundry Visionmongers . Elements of

1248-722: The Bosch FGS-4000 which was used in the music video for Dire Straits ' Money for Nothing . The advent of more powerful desktop computers running Photoshop in the mid-90s drastically lowered the costs for producing digital graphics. With the reduced cost of producing motion graphics on a computer, the discipline has seen more widespread use. With the availability of desktop programs such as Adobe After Effects , Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Motion , motion graphics have become increasingly accessible. Modern character generators (CG) from Vizrt and Ross Video , incorporate motion graphics. Motion graphics continued to evolve as an art form with

1296-399: The aura of the digital's separation of product from all that is required to produce it: labor, capital, resources. This transition point marks a shift from the fragmentation of the assembly-line where tasks are organized around the repetitive action of masses of human labor (itself an organization that implies semiotic disassembly and standardization) to an automated fabrication where the design

1344-539: The company. CoSA, whose CEO was William J. O'Farrell. CoSA with After Effects was acquired by Aldus Corporation in July 1993, which in turn was acquired by Adobe in 1994. Adobe acquired PageMaker as well. Adobe's first new release of After Effects was version 3.0. After Effects functionality can be extended through a variety of third-party integrations, the most common integrations are: plug-ins, scripts, and extensions. Plug-ins are predominantly written in C or C++ and extend

1392-460: The creation for images that would not be feasible using any other technology." Before computers were widely available, motion graphics were costly and time-consuming, limiting their use to high-budget filmmaking and television production . Computers began to be used as early as the late 1960s as super computers were capable of rendering crude graphics. John Whitney and Charles Csuri can be considered early pioneers of computer aided animation. In

1440-611: The first Athens Video Art Festival. Other installations were site-specific: as part of Art Basel Miami Beach, the Sites-Miami project in 2004, and at the South Florida Art Center's 800 Lincoln Road exhibition space as part of the Face-to-Face series in 2011. Betancourt is both a historian and practitioner of visual music. He exhibited his videos at visual music showcases such as the iotaCenter and SoundImageSound. He created

1488-656: The frames between keyframes. Another method involves a behavior system such as is found in Apple Motion that controls these changes by simulating natural forces without requiring the more rigid but precise keyframing method. Yet another method involves the use of formulas or scripts, such as the expressions function in Adobe After Effects or the creation of ActionScripts within Adobe Flash . Computers are capable of calculating and randomizing changes in imagery to create

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1536-636: The functionality of After Effects, allowing for more advanced features such as particle systems , physics engines , 3D effects, and the ability to bridge the gap between After Effects and another application. After Effects Scripts are a series of commands written in both JavaScript and the ExtendScript language. After Effects Scripts, unlike plug-ins, can only access the core functionality of After Effects. Scripts are often developed to automate repetitive tasks, to simplify complex After Effects features, or to perform complex calculations that would otherwise take

1584-520: The illusion of motion and transformation. Computer animations can use less information space ( computer memory ) by automatically tweening , a process of rendering the key changes of an image at a specified or calculated time. These key poses or frames are commonly referred to as keyframes or low CP. Adobe Flash uses computer animation tweening as well as frame-by-frame animation and video. Early ground breaking motion design studios include: Michael Betancourt Michael Betancourt (born 1971)

1632-580: The incorporation of sweeping camera paths and 3D elements. Maxon's Cinema 4D , plugins such as MoGraph and Adobe After Effects . Despite their relative complexity, Autodesk 's Maya and 3D Studio Max are widely used for the animation and design of motion graphics, as is Maya and 3D Studio which uses a node-based particle system generator similar to Cinema 4D 's Thinking Particles plugin. There are also some other packages in Open Source panorama, which are gaining more features and adepts in order to use in

1680-577: The information itself. In "Immaterial Value and Scarcity in Digital Capitalism", Betancourt proposed that the illusion of a rupture between physical and virtual production posed by the aura of the digital can be observed in the political economy of the United States, most especially in the Housing Bubble that burst in 2008. His analysis states that "Financial 'bubbles' are an inevitable result of

1728-583: The late 1980s to mid-1990s, expensive proprietary graphics systems such as those from British-based Quantel were quite commonplace in many television stations . Quantel workstations such as the Hal, Henry, Harry, Mirage, and Paintbox were the broadcast graphics standard of the time. Many other real-time graphics systems were used such as Ampex ADO, Abekas A51 and Grass Valley Group Kaleidoscope for live digital video effects . Early proprietary 3D computer systems were also developed specifically for broadcast design such as

1776-501: The most important figures in 20th-century experimental film . He explored a variety of formats, creating a large, diverse body of work. His influence in the credits of the film Seven (1995), designed by Kyle Cooper , with the scratched emulsion, rapid cutaways, and bursts of light in his style. Computer-generated animations "are more controllable than other, more physically based processes, like constructing miniatures for effects shots, or hiring extras for crowd scenes, because it allows

1824-436: The motion picture as a series of distinct, but related domains of aesthetic manipulation: camera, image, editing, projection, screen, and sound. His construction of formalist motion pictures argues against a medium-specific definition and chooses a broad description of formal potentials instead. Betancourt has written about glitch art as both an artist and a critic and employs glitches in his videos. José Manuel García Perera,

1872-433: The motion seen in paintings. He terms this second type painterly motion and argues that the subjective viewer invents both kinds: "Unlike motion in the real world that is physically eminent, the motion we see in movies and through the technique of painterly motion is entirely a result of human perception. The motion we see does not exist outside our perception." Work by painters Francis Bacon and Peter Paul Rubens present

1920-577: The physical, spatial and mobile nature of the artwork. Betancourt's investigation proposes a new kinetic art that becomes critical through error, mimics the real-time movement that contemporary culture demands, and uncovers the artificiality of images that mimic reality as if they wanted to replace it." The use of glitch art to create critical media is a focus of Betancourt's theoretical writing on glitch art. David Finkelstein, in writing about his glitch video series Going Somewhere on Film International , stated: In Betancourt's hands, data moshing becomes

1968-453: The relationship between affective labor and what he has termed " agnotologic capitalism ." Affective labor is the enabler for the creation of the bubbles that are characteristic of the digital capitalist economy, Where the reduction of alienation is a precondition for the elimination of dissent. Affective labor is part of a larger activity where the population is distracted by affective pursuits and fantasies of economic advancement. Automation

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2016-417: The relationship of scientific and speculative interpretations of space appears throughout his work. The Experimental TV Center's Video History Project has a biography. Betancourt's Aesthetic Hazard is a public installation project that imitates the more common barrier tapes marked "Caution" or "Police Line - Do Not Cross," but instead states: Aesthetic Hazard--Do Not Look. He installed this project in

2064-407: The type now included with computer audio-players. Even though these films were not designed to be motion pictures themselves, they were created with templates and aerosol sprays, which produced repeating geometric patterns in the same way as the hand-painted films of Len Lye from the 1930s. He wrote a short monograph and a large collection of short essays, pictures, and other archival material about

2112-424: The type of motion effect identified by Betancourt as being psychologically the same as the real motion of actual objects in the world. Betancourt's construction of formalism suggests a broader scope for applications of film theory than simply motion pictures since it focuses on both painting and experimental film . This approach was developed in his book, Structuring Time: notes on making movies. He approaches

2160-407: The visual music group Lumonics composed of Mel and Dorothy Tanner of South Florida. Most of his other visual music-related scholarships take the form of anthologies of technology patents or reprints of earlier texts on visual music machines designed for live performance. Using psychological studies of motion perception, Betancourt argued that the motion seen in motion pictures is identical to

2208-399: The wet paint could be wiped away and modified easily. John Whitney was of the first users of the term "motion graphics" and founded a company called Motion Graphics Inc. in 1960. One of his most famous works was the animated title sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Vertigo” in 1958, collaborating with Saul Bass , which featured swirling graphics growing from small to large. Saul Bass

2256-462: Was a German cinematographer and film director who worked mainly in experimental film. The films were experiments in new forms of film expression and featured shapes of different colors flowing back and forth and in and out of the lens. He started his film career in the early 1920s, starting with abstract films Lichtspiel: Opus I (1921), the first publicly screened abstract film, and Opus II (1923.) The animations were painted with oil on glass plates, so

2304-460: Was a major pioneer in the development of feature film title sequences. His work included title sequences for popular films such as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and Advise & Consent (1962). His designs were simple, but effectively communicated the mood of the film. Stan Brakhage was one of

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