Kinetic typography can come in all shapes and forms. Whether it's an homage to a famous movie speech or song or an exploration of the typography itself, these creations are a feast for the eyes. If you want to create your own, our selection of free fonts and After Effects tutorials will help you on your way.
Need a little inspiration? Here, we've picked some brilliant kinetic typography animations, including music videos, movie tributes and more. Enjoy!
01. Kick-ass
Ryan Perera's video based on a sequence from the film Kick-ass uses a hand-drawn style to reflect the brand's comic book influences. It's a great example of how drama and emotion can be expressed with moving type.
02. Coconut woman
This lively animation by Motion Surfing uses coconut-shaped type timed with the rhythm of the song to to convey personality and energy.
03. From Paper to Screen
This masterpiece was, unbelievably, a graduation project by graphic designer Thibault de Fournas. The animation shows the evolution of typography from paper to screen in serious style. The first half of the video deals with the basic rules of typesetting, before moving on to the use of typography in cinema, with impressive effects running throughout – the tribute to Saul Bass being our favourite.
04. Language
Designer Matthew Rogers is the man behind this kinetic typography animation of the words of writer and actor Stephen Fry. A fan of this particular essay on language, Rogers decided to make it his first kinetic typography project using a combination of After Effects, Flash and Illustrator.
05. The 10 Commandments
In just under two minutes, this kinetic typography animation reveals the 10 Commandments in serious style. The man behind the piece is designer Vit Ryznar, who completed the project using After Effects.
06. Shine a Light
Let's be frank, this J-pop tune by DJ Takuma featuring Angella Guistini is pretty forgettable, and we imagine the lyrics were sugary nonsense even before they got translated from Japanese. But the vibrant typographic video by Bait makes everything better.
07. Childline: First Step
Ad agency YCN Studio recently collaborated with LA-based production company Buck on this powerful animation, which encourages children to talk about and report sexual abuse.
The video promotes the services of UK-based, confidential, free, 24-hour counselling service for children, Childline. Following a conversation between child and advisor, the four-minute animation uses kinetic typography and abstract art to get its message across. It's by no means an easy issue, and we think YCN Studio and Buck have done a sterling job at covering it in a powerful yet sensitive way.
08. Breaking Bad
American TV show Breaking Bad has won multiple awards since it first aired back in 2008. Which is hardly surprising when it includes brilliant monologues like 'I am the danger', in which school teacher-turned-criminal Walter White convinces his wife that he's a dangerous man, capable of striking fear into hardened criminals.
Graphic designer, illustrator and animator Paul Cooper decided to pay homage to the infamous scene using kinetic typography. He visualises the intense scene through a series of black and white illustrations and text, all cleverly timed to each character's lines.
09. The Hush Sound – Lions Roar
Part of a two man team, designer Mig Reyes worked on this typographical motion graphic piece to The Hush Sound's Lions Roar song. Heavily inspired by motion graphics studio MK12, the duo used After Effects to time the song's lyrics to the brilliant typography and graphics.
10. Procrastination
This trailer for David McRaney's international bestselling book You are Not So Smart uses cleverly animated typography to sum up its contents. Animated, designed and produced by Plus3 productions, the perfectly timed animation is all about proscratination, and it'll have you nodding in agreement and smiling all the way through.
11. The Edge
Hunter S Thompson has influenced a generation of film-makers, writers and designers. This homage to the author by Piotr Kabat combines an array of design disciplines to showcase some of his finest words.
12. Apocalypse Rhyme
This is an amazing piece of work considering it was all done by one person. Oliver Harrison wrote the poem, composed the music and organised it all into a splendid animated whole for Channel 4's Random Acts, and his reward was the 'Best Motion Graphics' prize in the British Animation Awards 2014.
13. Bob
Oliver Smith is a 3D animator and compositor who can turn his hand at many aspects of the moving image. Inspired by 'Weird Al' Yankovic's Bob Dylan parody 'Bob', the song features Yankovic's signature style and comical lyrics. Although the amusing tune is the main influence for the video, it's Oliver's stunning array of graphic titles and typography that really stand out.
14. Anonymous
This super-cool infographic kinetic typography animation tells the story of how online hactivist group Anonymous came together in 2003 and subsequently went on to stage various protest actions. The 90-second animation, which uses 3D effects, electronics and text to convey the message, was created by multimedia designer Savva Tsekmas.
15. Shop Vac
Artist Jarrett Heather made this kinetic typography music video for Jonathan Coulton's Shop Vac. The humourous animation took Heather somewhere between 500 and 1000 hours to complete. At just under three-and-a-half-minutes long, the brilliant video features a number of different fonts, all perfectly suited to the story each tells.
16. Rolling Stones - Doom and Gloom
Celebrating their 50th anniversary with a series of recent comeback gigs, the old-time rock 'n' rollers even managed to release a new track that was pretty darned good. For the accompanying music video, Trunk Animation designed this great splatter style animation, which is reminiscent of Ralph Steadman's typographic artistry.
17. Karloff
Another piece from graphic designer Thibault de Fournas, who has combined modern typefaces Bodoni and Didot in this beautiful animated video exploring how two extremes could be combined into a coherent whole. Stylistically, the video is centred around a series of expanding and disappearing hairlines, with cuts complementing editorial typographic layouts.
18. Mad as Hell
Peter Finch's iconic 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more' speech from Network is still relevant 40 years on, and while it doesn't necessarily need any extra weight lending to it, this kinetic typography treatment by Aaron Leming makes a pretty good fist of it.
19. Alphabet
This alphabet in motion video is sublimely smooth. There's no accompanying soundtrack but the animation is so slick you don't notice. Former graffiti artist turned motion graphic artist Pavel Pavlov morphs simple but beautiful lines and graphics together to form a unique design for each letter of the alphabet.
20. Conan O'Brien
Working from one solid artboard, this entertaining kinetic typography video recreates the dialogue on the final episode of NBC's The Tonight Show presented by Conan O'Brien. The camera pans between nicely set type, ending with a shot of the entire piece. The combination of eclectic typography and modern 3D letterforms achieved in Cinema 4D provides a contrast between old and new.
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