Visual Effects Compositing - Week 2


18/07/2019


 Ignace Aleya. (2018, September 8). Glowing neon footsteps in after effects - tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73RbOiJTKuE

 It looked like a cool effect, but it was hard for me to understand motion tracking in Mocha.



SonduckFilm. (2017, October 28). Create an infinite zoom | photos, videos, motion graphics | after effects tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-mOW_B4NH4

 An effect that I would be good to at least try and achieve on After Effects





Plate means live action and green screen element or layer in VFX

 I'm unsure what VFX to include, especially since I'm expected to do more than just one VFX shot. I'm also stumped on a story for the project that has a beginning, middle, and an end. I'm also concerned about making the VFX believable, which I can't guarantee at this stage.

 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots had a flicker that supported a continuity error, which showed us 

 Shrunk down in a garden like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or 50s B-movies.
Rotoscoping (masking on After Effects), forced perspective, green screen (rear projection)

 Looker must have aged well because I didn't notice what was VFX was in it.

Live actions characters in a 2D world like Pagemaster and would be the opposite of Tron
- If I'm thinking about going ahead with this, I need to think about whether the protagonist has been in this world before and whether he will get out or is stuck in there.
- I could even include the portal effect from that tutorial if I succeed in learning it.
- Driven by nostalgia and wants to return to his imaginary world of his childhood.
- Internal conflict as an obstacle

 I will need to research about filming with green screen and lighting.

 We learnt about the History tool, where you can revisit every action you have in Photoshop project and select one action or more to remove or bring back an element like move, draw, or paste

 I simply adding a person on a grass field, which easily done by erasing and selecting parts with Quick Selection and Magic Wand. It was good refresher on photo manipulation for me. I also adjusted brightness and contrast with the necessary layer mask for the background to suit the background to the person in the foreground.



We were shown how to link one layer with a layer mask by holding Alt with the mouse cursor hovering over between the layer and layer mask.

It was quick to do the photo manipulation with field and the person, so I tried to up the ante by having the Hulk on a Timaru Street. I pretty much used same tools as before, but I tried to be more precise with erasing the edges, even though they come out quite soft from too much feathering.

 Getting the colouring right to be make it believable, I adjusted the background with levels, vibrancy, and hue / saturation layer masks. It was more to do with adjusting the contrast in the Levels layer mask and taking down the vibrancy in the colours of the background with the vibrance layer mask.

 I may paint on highlights to cover the soft edges.







Dr Strange portal
I gave the Dr Strange portal a go at generating on After Effects, but this version of After Effects doesn't have the Saber effect, so I tried to apply what I managed to get done up until that point into footage. At this point, it looks like a supernova or some sort of black hole.


I placed another piece of footage into the portal effect and applied an eclipse mask like the portal onto the extra footage and even got the opacity from 0 to 100% in the same duration as the portal does. However, it looked pasted on like a graphics, so I tried to reduce its scale and position, but it didn't make a difference. 




I created a solid layer and made it into a thin shape (with the Pen Tool) to put under the portal to serve as a shadow. It would probably not have a shadow, but it's just an exercise in getting the effect look believable. 




21/07/2019

I tried to get think and getting things done in forming a story for the VFX project to do with a person finding and exploring the inside of a different world, but I had a creative block and I couldn't get ideas for the other papers out of my head.

 My character is a weird, sentimental young adult who misses his childhood and finds young adulthood depressing.

24/07/2019

I spoke with screenwriter Duncan Sarkies to get help on how to form a short story. He advised to generate weird ideas and stuff I have never seen before in films before, and try and add personal experiences. He also told me to not worry about pressuring myself with the story.

 Talking to him really gets the creative juices going. I am concerned that I won't have enough CGI aspects into this concept.
  • He's pacing towards and away from the portal, debating whether to enter or not. He becomes a big baby about it.
  • He worried about never returning back and if he's just going insane and if really he's having allusions and that's he (he did have Weet-Bix this morning that was one day past its best before date).
  • He posts the video online and is not taken seriously. It's believed to be done on a computer.
  • He discovers a voice coming from the portal. Protagonist is weirded out.
  • The voice dares him to enter. He does and he cautiously approaches, his hand transitions into a 2D drawn version of his hand. The protagonist enters the portal. A loud slurping noise. 'Mm. I forgot how humans from Dimension XA10 taste so good.'
  • The portal is really a straw into a inter-dimensional being's mouth.
  • The being is really just playing with his food by talking to the character.

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