Check list (1/2)

After having some difficulties with filming; the time before the Interim Crit was running out and due to my poor planning and time management, i needed to make a check list (something that i should have done at the start, not half way) because of this my project had reached a

This Check list mainly focuses on the CG element and compensating if the project (last 40 seconds of the 1 minute piece) it was so i could see what needed to be done and in what order, rather then staring at a screen, jumping from one part to another or working too much on one part.

*BackPlate	Done
*Set camera angle	Done
*Model Proxy geometry -Model Street(path/side walk) -Buildings balcony(s) -Car outline             -lamp posts	[set] -Done -Done -Done -Done
*Create CG Nature             -Vines growth path             -Grass Growth path             -Moss Growth path	[set] - Done - Done - Done
*Render layers passes             -Colour pass (Nature)             -Shadow pass             -Occlusion	[set] - Done -Failed -Failed
*GreenScreen (Aftereffects)             -Select pre-animated Mini Meteor             -and motion (left to right)             -add effects, Smoke (look into smoke)	[set] - Done - Done - Done
*Compositing             -Add Nature over Growth to back pate             -Manipulate still image for slight movement             -Add pre composited meteor into the shot.             +remove sky              +                         +Remove still sky/clouds                         +Add video./still red sky                         *tint red sky to a Green-ish colour             -Alter final colours and add fog (fog needed??)	[set] - Done - - Done - Done - Done - Done -Needed? -
*Add some camera shakes (meteor strike)	-
*Edit (Premiere Pro)             -fine tune edits              - Collect sound effects and music             -Add sound effects           -and Music (Midnight Society Pack #1 - myuu)             -render/export 1080p Pro=Res and Quick time h264	[set] - -Done - -

bad planning (mini blog 01)

So this is the was my very basic planning for this project..its pretty much just a copy of the over view Mat gave is, i just modified it so it would be relevant to "Man vs Nature". but alas it wasn't very helpful with time keeping, pr-planning, and due to this poor effort at logging i fell behind on the work. I was still researching and testing in November by this time i should have started on filming.

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(X) Week 1(04^th):  VFX Briefing, VFX Breakdown Video, Q&A about VFX,

-Research

(X) Week 2(11^th): Maya Refresher how-To-Use Render Passes

-Practical exercise

-Planning

(X) Week 3(14^th-18^th): After Effects Induction 1, Premier Pro Induction. And Audio Workshop

          -Practical Exercises

          -Blog about sound

          -Planning

          -Character Design (Nature)

          -Research into “nature”

(..)Week 4(21^st-25^th): After Effects Workshop 2, DSLR Induction, and Location Shoot

          -Finalize idea and character(s)

-Practical Exercises,

-Start storyboarding

-character Modeling

(..)Week 5(28^th-1^st): After Effects Workshop 3, Green Screen and Lighting Induction, Compositing 1

 -Practical Exercises,

-Finish storyboarding

-finish Research, planning and Development

(..)Week 6(4^th-8^th : After Effects Workshop 4 Seminar - History of Compositing - Compositing 2

-Practical Exercises,

-Organising research, development and experimentation for   presentation next week.

(..)Week 7(29^th): Interim Crit 10 Minute Presentation

-Presentation of all developmental work so far including production schedule, storyboards & animatics and any proof of concept work.

(..)Week 8: (13^th/ Dec) Self directed study with support and individual progress reviews.

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-Continued project development based upon feedback from interim crit session and beginning production of final solution. 

(..)Week 9 (10^th Jan) Seminar - recap of brief requirements including Q&A

- Finalizing animated solution ready for presentation next week

(..)Week 10: (17^th Jan) Final Crit 10-Minute Presentation

- Presentation of finished animated solution in a professional manner.

(..)Week 11: (24^th Jan) DEADLINE

-  submission between 4:00 and 4:30pm.

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1st steps (update)

For this project we were instructed to choose 1 of 4 themes 

"Your short film must connote at least one of the following themes within it's production and it must be clear to the viewer which theme it is that they are watching..."

- Good Vs Evil.

- Triumph Over Adversity.

- Death as a Part of Life.

- Man/Woman Vs Nature.

So as you can see, i choose Man/Woman Vs Nature.  and started making a,, um, mind map of related items, locations, evens and elements that are related to the theme, using this small over view i came to the conclusion of having a plant like creature roaming through a street, leaving a trail of plans, grass and vines until the area the creature walked through is taken back by nature. 

This idea would imply that the "VS" does't imply that a 'human' would be fighting. instead it would be more of a take over "nature's take back", or the idea that we as mankind destroyed areas on nature. and Nature as a creature is taking its land back.

How ever having a creature roaming the streets would be problematic, this idea would fail, since it would look strange with a creature waking in a street and no one reacting to it so...

I re visited the  mind map, and focused more on the Nature side then the mankind side. so with this in mind i narrowed down the areas of focus, mainly "plants" and "Weather" and looked into Natural disasters, or in this case "Un-Natural Disaster" where a meteor would hit an area, causing Plant like tendrils to spawn and grown from the meteor towards the camera (person/viewer),, next up finding a quiet location.

Bad timing to film

For my VFX i had decide to film down the side of the o2 Academy, but due to my lack of time planning, filming in this location in November was almost impossible, since in November the o2 academy hosts "Movember" as well as some gigs ( the place is a club area). in addition to this, the location would have a fare amount of foot traffic and deliveries to the club.

i tried multiple times to film in this location, at different times, but always had the same problems...people and filming. since filming is not my strong point, nor will it ever be. so here is one of many failed attempts at filming

With the deadline fast approaching, i was getting irritated, and after having a small talk with Annabeth, And she suggested that i take a still image, large enough so it could be manipulated it after effects too give it some depth and the allusion of motion.

Man Vs Nature storyboard

After some planning and finding a suitable location i made a "basic" storyboard, since the buildings were going to be the main point of focus (until the meteors and vines arrive). i needed them to LOOK like buildings. so i kinda cheated... after taking a few photos of the location i sent them into GIMP 2.8 (or Photoshop,) and began to trace them..

*note: Basic story idea*

In the 1st shot, we are waking down the street, a normal-ish boring day, till and abnormal flash, followed by the faint sound of thunder attracts you to look up...

After looking up to see the sky get  darker as a red and black storm cloud rolling passed. with it you see a few meteorites rocket across the building out of eye shot. then there is another flash as a larger meteor falls towards you..

The meteor lands  by the side of the o2 academy. as the person (camera) moves closer to investigate, vines and plant life starts to grow from the meteor and an un natural speed and erratic motion...

The vines continue to grow across any surface it passes, and screamingly towards the camera (you) untill,,, the area that was once beloning to 'Man"' has now been "Re-Claimed By Nature"









With the storyboard done, it was time to make an animatic, here it is, basic sound effects were added.

Green screen meteor

for my VFX the green screen element would be a hand made meteor that i would animate in a stop motion fashion for 10 seconds,

After importing the images into a sequence and setting the frame rate to 25 fps. i proceeded to mask out the un needed areas and keyed as much as possible. 

 once the un needed junk was keyed out, i added a "keylight effect" to the comp and proceeded to remove the remaining green areas. by setting "Screen Colour" to green, and changed "view" to matte

 after removing the last of the green screen, i set the clip black and white balance to remove any grey, after i adjusted the "screen softness" to reduce any hard edges.

using the "screen shrink/Grow" i pulled the mask to remove any left over sharp edges. after moving the layers into a new composition, it was time to add some colour correction. using "Curves" to add a brown/green tint to the silver meteor. and final using both "tint" and "Exposure" to darken the meteor so it would fit a little better

last but not least, with the meteor keyed and ready, it was time to animate it passing over the building, and finally landing beside the o2 Academy 

sounds

since my VFX is image manipulation, since i was unable to film the required footage. this meant i would need to find and make my own sound effects,. since sound is key to making an atmospheric feel. adds the mood, and builds up suspense to a some what dull VFX piece.

the sounds effects i would be using are mainly atmospheric and ambiance, faint wind, foot steps, light breathing maybe?. but there is a small problem, the main focus of my FFX are the vines,, but plants make no sound when growing,, therefor i would need to use sounds like leaf rustling and distort it, to sound natural.

But nothing would be complicate without a little bit of creepy ambiance, a low level music, not too distracting, but enough to add some additional depth to the VFX, so for the music, i chose to use "Midnight Society Pack #2 by Myuu. Myuu remakes known music (ie Silent hill) and re plays them on the piano. but he also makes his own music. all the music he makes is free to download, and free to do (providing credit is given). his music is most seen in creepypasta Narration, 

VFX Vines

the vines, Oh the vines were annoying, what a mistake, anyway, my VFX would focas on the erattic Growth of the vines. to do this i would be using Maya. at 1st i was gonna hand model and animate each vine using curves,,, then i found out i can use Paint tools to crate them and paralysis animate them 

Test one, making a mock area, i created some vines that would grow across the areas of the building, i randomly placed a path and added some smaller once that would connect to the main vines, . after messing with some settings, to change the sizes and shapes, this was the result.

Following test one, something was missing,,, GRASS!, so i started to mess around with grass, but they were two problems, the grass was too uniformed, and "popy", in addition to this,it added a lot of polygons, making the render time rocket.

With the testing over and done with, it was time to create the mock back plate, and animate detailed vines that would interact with a car, and frown behind, across, and along the floors. sadly, i had to remove the vines interaction with the lamp post, i also had to remove the Glass,,, the Render time was far too long without it. once again the the project sufferd from my lack of planning,,, the render times was too long, in the end i was only able to render out 390 frames out of 420,, and only a Colour pass,,, so yeah

Faking motion

Now for the fun but stressful part. time to manipulate the images,After putting the original image into PhotoShop, and splitting the back ground, sky and buildings. i imported the layers into After effects, created a 3D layer for each put them on a small angle.

To give the sky a little Extra depth, i added a Distortion plugin so the clouds would have a small bit of motion. the 3D layers gave me a little ore "realism" with the meteors, it meant i could animate them moving away from the camera, rather then shrinking them.

here is the other scene, again using 3D layers to give added depth, i had a small problem with the vines, when rendering, i rendered as a single flat image, so when it was over layed on the back plate, it looked un natural. so i had to rotoscope parts out, until i was happy with the out come