Every graphic designer aspires to do title sequences at some point in their career. Here's 18 tasty ones to wet your ambition appetite.
18 Inspiring Title Sequences
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Prologue - OFFF 2009 Titles
This first title sequence is by one of my favorite design companies, Prologue. It is the titles for OFFF 2009 in Oeiras, Portugal. With a military-esque look and deserted scenery, this is a great piece from Prologue Films.
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Prologue - MTV Movie Awards 2009
Another piece from Prologue that showcases their quirky weird style. I love how they took the people, and composited them with different heads according to the award that would be given.
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Dvein - F5 Titles
Dvein handled this title sequence for F5 2009 with a super low - almost no budget, and had very little time to complete the project. Good thing this is the kind of thing the team at Dvein strives for. Pumping out a killer title sequence, it shows the awesome style that Dvein has.
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Josef Lee - The Days
Except for the camera moving in 3D space, this is a great 2D animation in which almost everything is a flat layer. Watching this makes me think of how I would recreate it in AE using the puppet tool and a ton of layers.
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Battery - Pause NYC
The opening titles for Pause NYC by the Battery crew is a killer mix of thin metallic typography with very organic backgrounds. The combination creates an awesome sequence that has a truly unique feel to it.
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Imaginary Forces - The Mummy III
Because all of the artwork is animated on and off as though it were brushstrokes on a canvas, this piece has a very painter-ish feel to it. It has a great 2D feel to it, and has some great silhouetted characters and battle scenes in it.
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Digital Kitchen - True Blood
Warning! This video is NSFW (Not Safe for Work) and R rated. That being said, it's one of my favorites in the list. Its got a creepy redneck southern feel to it, utilizing old looking footage and wierd timelapses like rotting fox corpses. Pure awesome.
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Fake - Kid Svensk
This sequence reminds me of a tutorial I saw once, but done so much better. It is an underwater scene with tons of bubbles flowing upward as the titles dissolve into the water.
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Jaime Caliri - Madagascar II
Lots of 2D paper looking animation in this one. The titles feature all the characters in the movie in the situations they get themselves into.
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Various - 3:19
One of the coolest title sequences I have ever seen is the ones for the film 3:19. Envisioned and created by Mucho Motion, Onesize and Rune. It takes your through a space-like environment with the titles of the crew and cast etched in the metallic workings of some kind of machine.
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Shadowplay Studio - Juno
Juno is the subject of tons of tutorial requests because of the opening titles and the unique way in which they are portrayed. Using a sketch type of animation technique it creates a very interesting drawn-on effect.
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Reel FX - Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium
This reminds me of walking through a toy shop or flipping through a pop up book. It really sets the stage for what the movie is about and what you are in for.
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PIC - The Kingdom
The only politically themed title sequence in this roundup, the opening titles for The Kingdom takes you through the history of U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia.
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Prologue - Dawn of the Dead
This title sequence is actually the reason for this weeks' article. Fellow author, Satya Meka shot me an email showing me this sequence, and I got hooked on title sequences. This one is freaky as hell, and if you watch the final credits as well, it gets pretty crazy once they hit the island. Oh, and the final credits are NSFW.
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Digital Kitchen - Dexter
Dexter's titles are full of metaphorical macro shots depicting some macabre scenarios. If that was too much alliteration for you, it basically takes you through Dexter's morning, as he eats his eggs, ties his shoes and all that, but the whole time it still has you thinking about the serial killer he is.
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Jamie Caliri - The United States of Tara
This piece was actually composited in After Effects, and has a true pop-up book feel to it. All of the characters and pieces were photographed as pieces of paper, then composited together to create the final scene.
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Framestore CFC - Sahara
I love one shot scenes when the camera is cotinuously moving without any cuts. Even though a lot of people hated the movie Sahara, I still thought it was actually pretty cool, and even before I was into motion graphics I found myself saying "those opening titles are pretty sweet."
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Perception NYC - Hulk VS. Wolverine
I was searching for the opening titles of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when I stumbled upon this beauty of a title sequence. It is for an animated movie, but I would have never guessed given the opening titles. I still recommend checking out the beginning of Wolverine if you can find it, though I couldn't.
Most of the titles in this list came from Motionographer, WatchTheTitles.com and ArtoftheTitle.com, simply because they are the best resource for rounding up the greatest title sequences you can find on the net.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that Video Copilot's Andrew Kramer recently created the titles for the new Star Trek movie but they are not online yet for viewing. You'll have to go to the theater to see them for now.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Sebastian June 12th
More title sequences can be watched on: http://www.artofthetitle.com/
( )viaria June 13th
thanks for the site are there more site
( )Topher Welsh June 13th
watchthetitles, and motionographer, are where i got all of these from… but FEED, Stash, and Vimeo are all good places to check out. I don’t know of any more sites that are strictly titles though…
inerxia June 15th
My favorite: Pause NYC
Check this Topher:
( )http://vimeo.com/videos/search:title+sequences/sort:likes/
Fadzil_A June 12th
Supercool, PROLOGUE Always the best
( )Ziga June 12th
Nice Thanks! Once I’ve tried to remade Dexter’s intro, here it is :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktx2py20yI
( )Daniel Jones June 12th
I think this years Big Brother UK Title Sequence is very good and inspiring
( )Xyne Brix Punzalan June 12th
lols thanks
( )very inspiring
Matt June 12th
I love Stranger Than Fiction’s opening… you can find that at artofthetitle.com too
( )Satya Meka June 12th
Yes MK12’s stuff is epic. Strangely, all of their stuff are done in After Effects
( )Gabriel June 12th
I know the guy who made the tiles for 3:19, he is an extremely talented guy, his name is Jose Luis Monzon
here is his website…..
http://muchomotion.com/
( )Rafael Guerra June 12th
I love Dexter’s intro, I mean, compared to others in this list it doesn’t have a lot of 3d and visual resources, but its so creative…and fits perfectly with this psycho story. Well…nice list anyways.
( )Daniel Jones June 12th
Another really good inspiring one is that of the TV show Fringe where Andrew Krammer from videocopilot.net did the title sequence
( )http://www.videocopilot.net/fringe/
Arrow23 June 14th
man this is very nice intro, I have one question about the finel text(title) and that is
Does somebody know how can i make something like that?
It is great man, thanks for sharing
( )Topher Welsh June 15th
If you wanna do it in AE, you have to do a reverse shatter animation, i have an example over at my Vimeo: vimeo.com/toefur
hmmm maybe a tutorial idea?
Shadowzproductions June 12th
The True Blood one just creeped me out. -.-
Nice list.
( )Micheal June 12th
CAN ANYONE PLEASE ME THE FONT THAT IS USED IN PROLOGUE: OFFF 2009 TITLES…..please
i know that someone must know this as it is a very common font its just that i can not place my finger on it.
any help would be appreciated
( )also great post
Boudewijn June 13th
I Believe it’s the font apple used, back in the days an apple came with a powerpc processor. Download an old usermanual from their site and see in acrobat wich font it is.
( )Micheal June 13th
Thanks a lot man i will do
( )at least someone replied
cheers
Arrow23 June 13th
Ok, it is just great man, I mean I dont believe that this titles has and movies promos has been made by only after effects but there is also other softwares of this, ANYONE please
( )Joss June 13th
Hey Arrow23, we did the 3:19 titles and some other titles, and you are right, most of this titles are done with different software, in general you would use a 3D software like Cinema 4D, Maya, 3D Max, etc, when your titles need 3D stuff… then you bring that 3D stuff to After Effects to do the compositing, more animation, keying, special effects, color correction, etc. then you would go to a editing software like Final Cut Pro or Avid to do the final edit of your piece and ad some sound design, music, etc… there is not a specific order for this, usually you go back and forth between these software, you will also use Photoshop a lot and Illustrator for the vector images, for After Effects and 3D software… Andrew Kramer has an amazing product at his website called “The Bullet” check it out http://www.videocopilot.net/products/the_bullet/
But remember that the most important part of this titles is the way that they tell you the story… story and concept is everything… take some time to write a little script and make some storyboards, you can do some amazing stuff just with After Effects… the Spiderman 2 titles were done 100% with After Effects and a Mac G5 by just one guy, Kyle Cooper, the creator titles for the movie SEVEN, which I’m sure were done only with film footage, stills, composited in After Effects and a editing in Avid or other editing software.
i hope this helps
Cheers
Joss
( )Arrow23 June 14th
Man thank you very much, it really helps what you just said to me, and the products of Andrew Kramer is like you said AMAZING.
thanks again
Will Moyer June 14th
I think the opening sequence of Watchmen was pretty fantastic
( )Topher Welsh June 15th
I was totally looking for that, but the studio had it pulled off of Motionographer.com! Drats! haha
( )jacky June 14th
Topher,i always like yr posts, collection, lists.!
( )it gives people something they haven’t seen b4!
nice!man!
Patareco June 14th
The second I saw the true blood opening I thought it was one of the best title sequences ever in existence! Glad you agree!
( )Kasper June 15th
Hmm, nice stuff
( )Karpathia June 16th
I think The X-men Origins Wolverine title sequence is not that good…
( )Topher Welsh June 17th
Reallly? I thought that it was amazing… like taking them through the ages… sooo awesome! Maybe its just me… haha
( )Bubunya June 21st
Prologue – OFFF – is it hardcore version of Kin-Dza-Dza?:O)
( )sergey kritskiy June 25th
what do you think of titles I made for school project?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TJkNA4_a_8&fmt=18
( )Melody June 29th
Something as “simple” as the animations for the opening titles of a movie add so much to the overall experience..
lovely collection…
( )