One of my favorite areas of exploration is how typography can work in 3D space. Most type is created to be used in design in a flat way. Some type faces are to remain this way as they are very flashy and don't translate well into three dimensional mesh. The typecfaces that do work can enter into a whole new style by layering them, combining them with shadows, changing their textures, putting them in simulations, adding lighting and emission parameters. The potential is endless. This page is an ongoing collection of experimenting with type in this way.
This first animation was one I created to start with a tired and overused design approach and give it a twist at the end to define the world with color instead of size.
This little animation was a fun experiment in the sense that it was a micro/macro approach to the type story. Energy is a reaction that starts in an infinitely small space but can create some very large and potent effects. I used simulations to create the attraction clusters and allowed the simulations to drive a sense of frenetic energy.
There are new techniques that come along in 3D that draw nearly every designer in to experimentation. One of the latest iterations in that space is the balloon and soft body type experiments. Having spent a little time here, I enjoyed creating some experiments that look like pool floaties, but even more so, when combined with surface attracted cloner objects and put inside metaball nurbs I was getting these really cool, mucous looking, type compositions. This whole space is one that deserves far more experimentation.