Final Project: Sarasota Film Festival

This project was started in our Concept class, where my process for creating the storyboards and concept for this animation can be found here.

Below is a simple animatic of my storyboards with the original sound byte of interviews.

---

Beginning

Critique:
. Replace elements
. Find new image of globe
. Introduce globe earlier on anticipation
. Increase stroke width on square
. Slow down the globe!

---

Middle


1) In the beginning, instead of the square expanding out before bouncing back into the shape of a circle, we made the transition quick and simple.

2) Rather than the globe be far back in space, having it popup and come to the front, mimicking the same movement of the way it appeared, was more effective so the viewer could see the cutouts better.

3) Tilting the globe on it's side so the equator pointed up made it easier to see the iconic popups.

Critique:
. Work on the rotation of the objects on the globe
. Add a camera movement [Of it swaying back and forth? Forward or back?]
. Figure out how to make cutouts! 

---

Final

Looking back, we ran into a lot of challenges with this animation. Although both of us grasp the storyboards, we had never actually made a 3D sphere completely in After Effects before. I managed to find a simple way of making the globe work, however, it was a flat shape, so actually forming "popups" out of the globe was far more difficult than we anticipated. With our combined efforts, we managed to create something that looks and feels 3 dimensional and we are both extremely proud of the final outcome. Enjoy.

Exploration 6: Image examples

I find the mood the light gives each of these images very compelling. Its a strong directional light giving clear contrast between the shadows. Its almost as if its giving a calming, reflective, or lonely mood.

LIGHTS VIDEO

I wanted to tell a small story with only using lights and sound within a 3D composition in after effects. The idea was to make it seem like someone broke into an empty abandoned house and were caught by the cops.

20 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT AFTER EFFECTS LIGHTS …

            

1-Which type of light would be best to replicate a bare light bulb?

            Point.

2- How do lights affect 2D and 3D objects differently?

            2D layers ignore lights where 3D layers are affected by them.

3- What is Ambient Light?

            Light that does not have an identifiable source.

4- How is an Ambient Light different from a Source Light?

            Source light has a clear and identifiable source and direction, which can be positioned within            the composition. Ambient light doesn’t consider a specific source and illuminates compositions evenly.

5- What is a Parallel Light, and why would one use it?

            It is a variation of point light that lacks a cone structure.

6- Describes what happens to the illumination of an object as it moves away from a light.

            The further you move the object away from the light source; the illumination of the object itself begins to decrease.

7- What happens to a layer as it rotates away from the light source.

            The illumination of the object decreases.

8- Describe a light's Cone Angle?

            We use the cone angle for a light to control how spread out we want our light rays to be. The wider the angle is, the more area is illuminated. The smaller it is, the more focused on one area we become.

                  

9- How do I move the light without moving the POI?

            You manipulate the light’s actual position and location.

10- How do I move BOTH the light AND POI at the same time?

            By manipulating the position of the light within the comp layer.

11- Which type of light is the ultimate 'FILL' light?

            Ambient Light.

12- What does the term 'Diffuse' mean?

            It is the scattering of light. It will generally soften an object, reducing sharpness an reflection.

13- What does the term 'Specular' mean?

            The area of reflection of light that is the strongest highlight on an object.

14- Can a precomp layer cast shadows?

            Yes

15- What are the 5 requirements that must be met for shadows to work?

            1) A non-ambient light must be directed at both the layer you want to cast a shadow and a layer to receive the shadow.

            2) Cast shadows option enabled.

            3) The layer casting a shadow must have cast shadows on.

            4) The layer receiving a shadow must have accepts shadows on.

            5) There must be space between both layers in z-axis.

16- As objects get closer to the layer receiving it's shadow, does the shadow get sharper or more diffused?

            The closer an object is, the sharper it becomes.

17- If a layer's  'Light Transmission' is set for 100%, how does that affect the layer?

            It mixes with the layer’s colors. The back of the layer are also illuminated and become transparent.

18- A 'GOBO' is like a stencil placed in front of a light.  Does the layer have to have an alpha, or can             the luminosity of the image work?

            It must have an alpha.

19- Adding lights really slows down the render of a scene, what are 3 things that you can do to speed up visual feedback?

            1) You can turn off lights that you don’t need as you work.

            2) Turn off realtime updating by pressing Option (alt) as you scrub.

            3) Enable Draft 3D.

20- Can I adjust the brightness intensity of a light below the value of 0?  What happens if I do?

            Yes, it removes illumination.

Exploration 5

With this exploration, we developed knowledge on camera movements with After Effects. We were to select a high resolution image, cut it up with photoshop in order to fake a 3D believable space with the use of a simple camera movement.

With a previous blog entry, I posted several images I wanted to use for this animation with the help of shorpy.com's high resolution historic images. I chose the one with the girls looking at a roller coaster because I felt as if it told a clear enough story and illustrated enough depth for me to work with.

The easiest aspect of this exploration was cutting up the image with the use of photoshop. I feel as if I already have such a clear understanding of how to use photoshop that I knew exactly what I wanted to do to fake a 3D environment with this image.

The hardest part of this exploration was actually moving the camera. However, once I realized the smaller or the simpler the movement of the camera, the better everything looked. I even had fun trying to play around with focusing and aperture.

One thing I absolutely took away from this project was setting up my 3D space; knowing how much distance to put between layers and how important that distance is.


Version One

Critique: Pull back on the use of aperture
make the tree less noticeable as it moves to the left
play around with the movement of the roller coaster so it isn't so slow-motion but more real-time
pay close attention to the edges around layers to make sure there is no fringing
add music.




Version Two

Critique: Fix the roller coaster.






Version Three

Exploration 5: Images examples

This is a shot of the city I grew up in:  Jacksonville, Florida Main St. circa 1910. Its a charming shot of life back 100 years ago, people just populating the streets. The wires would be really hard to get around but the file is big enough to cut down into it.



 

 

This is a little charming photograph of one of the first roller coasters. I thought it gave a charming little story of two girls planning to go ride on it one day as they looked at it from a distance.

A little bit of action. Fire. Rescue. I thought it might be a little dynamically interesting.

PROJECT 1: Videos

FIRST PASS


Notes: One major problem I was having was trying to figure out how to make lights and shadow. This was a failed attempt at using a 3D light with After Effects.

Critique: Actually 'fake' lights and shadows with masks. Don't have the text centered in the screen. Make the colored 'bubs' the light source.





SECOND PASS

Notes: I was having a lot of trouble figuring out exactly how I wanted to animate the shadows. And then after I rendered the shadows seemed to be really light and soft. Also, I noticed later that the color lights should have some movement to them.

Critique:





FINAL PASS

Notes: I got a really helpful video from Ed and I changed a lot of things around. Like I made the logo a little bigger and instead of white on white, its now black on black. Also, I animated the color lights so I could add a bit more motion to the piece. I like this effect a lot better.

PROJECT 1: Sounds & Style

Stings

Story Boards

Style Boards