What techniques are used to create this 1-minute motion graphic?

Question

Here's a 1 minute After Effects (?) production about The Noun Project (an iconic website):
https://vimeo.com/48846655

I really like the style of it and would like to learn how to create something similar.

Questions

What effect is used for the letters to animate per-letter vertically?
How is the scene setup so that element gradually fade in and out from the top/bottom?
How can the "elements-to-globe animation" at 0.54 done?
Where can I find or create sound similar to that used in the film?

enter image description here

Hi dani -point 4 is going to be off topic here. As for point 1- what do you mean? Are you asking about animation, motion blur, panning or what? There are a range of techniques in use in this video and asking about all of them is a bit too broad a question. — Dr Mayhem, Feb 2, 2013 at 8:00
Thanks for your comment. Ideally I'd like the answer to outline how I could create a similar film in AE, perhaps giving examples of settings used to achieve these specific effects: What values for motion blur and how is the camera set up? How is the typography animated and what about the other vertical movement? — dani, Feb 2, 2013 at 17:41
I think this question may be to broad to get a good answer. It would be better if you split it up into several questions about specific portions of the video. — Friend Of George, Feb 4, 2013 at 14:34
Yea you are essentially asking, how to do motion graphics... — Chris James Champeau, Feb 5, 2013 at 1:20
Thanks for your comments. @ChrisJamesChampeau, I rephrased questions to be more specific. — dani, Feb 5, 2013 at 8:34

Chris James Champeau · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-05 19:04:55Z

Okay, now that you have updated your question I think we may be able to answer your questions better...

But keep in mind this could have been done 100 ways and we are simply hypothesizing on how it could have been done.

The individual letters coming in like this could be done 100 different ways, it could be done via an effect in aftereffects, a preset in livetype, etc. I most likely would simply make each letter its own layer and tie that to a slider via expressions and then be able to keyframe the slider to initiate and finish the animation...this allows me to change the speed of the animation easily and the in and out points of the animation etc.
My guess is that as the items are sliding in and out vertically there is a mask of white with a high feather so that as it goes from center to bottom or top...it is going beneath a layer of white that is feathered to solid at the tops and bottom and feathered to transparent at the center.
I am going to say this was also done with expressions, he had a gride of icons, in a circle...made the middle icons slide from the - in the z axis and arrive on 0, with a crossfade of an icon of the world.
This is more of an audio question, "how do you make music?" but I would say digital performer, or even on the super cheap side is garageband which is free with mac os, and theres millions between, burn-studios.audiotool.com is free, theres audacity, theres fruity loops

Hope this helps you a little bit

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