37 kinetext : Concrete - Programming Paradigm for Animated Typography

kinetext is a programming sketchbook environment for animated text design. Authoring any kind of animation involves a series of smaller decisions on movement, timing, and interplay of visual subject elements throughout the design process. While many authoring tools support this process, they fail to document the design process in such a way for others to easily discern the designer's decisions. Frequently the only artifacts are lengthy text programs or similarly oblique scores. kinetext presents an environment where authoring animation occurs via small visual programs. Each program illustrates each of the individual transformations responsible for the motion of each subject element in the animation. Viewed in its entirety, the environment becomes a sketchbook of the design process involved in bringing about the final animated piece. The visual nature of the system is inspired by a spatially structured type of poetry known as "concrete poetry," where the arrangement of words take on form. Hence one can refer to the system as a form of "concrete-programming." Thesis Supervisor: John Maeda Title: Assistant Professor of Design and Computation kinetext: Concrete-Programming Paradigm for Animated Typography 2 kinetext: Concrete-Programming Paradigm for Animated Typography