I am sharing my export settings as I know it gets quite tricky and I have had to resubmit to the BlackBoard twice.
So here are the settings for I used for compressing files and uploading across the multitude of different media types.
Premiere
Premiere CS 4 and CS3 may seem vastly different when it comes to exporting but mainly just on execution of the render, once you get past that the settings are still very similar. The big difference between the two is that in CS4 the Media Encoder opens as a separate App and in CS3 it appears to be a dialog box opening inside the main program rather than a separate App.
The settings I use are the same across the two so here goes.
Format: Quicktime
Range: Entire Sequence
Preset: Pal Source to Download 1024kbps
Export Video & Audio
768x576 25 fps Progressive ( I have an NTSC handycam unfortunately and this setting sorta matters about this for broadcast TV etc but not so much with Web distribution)
Audio: AAC 44Khz Stereo
Video Codec H.264
Quality: 50
Frame width: 768
Frame height: 576
Frame rate 25
Field order: none (progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels
The rest can be left standard as I feel it does a fairly good job with presets for Bit Rate, but if you are trying to compress more for web distro at this point then you need to choose
a lower delivery preset than the one above.
Process is very similar in CS4 but when you select File, Export to Media in CS4 the Media Encoder opens up as a full size separate App.
This is the slowest of the two to Export and will take a while so sit back. The other trick I learnt is not to Export to DVD from Premiere. It must double the time frame if its a second. So I Export to Media and end up with a pretty large .mov file (my 2 min doco was 932MB) that you cant really use for web delivery but you can burn to disc. I hope this was acceptable from a Uni perspective but isnt as pretty as building a full fledge DVD with a nice menu etc but as that wasnt in the brief I took the fast option!
From here, if you want to compress for BlackBoard then import to QuickTime Pro and see below.
After Effects
In AE once your file is added to the Render queue, I go straight to Output To in the bottom right of the queue and select QuickTime movie. If you have got your compositions set right from the get go of each project you dont need to play with these settings to much. I do make sure that I know exactly where the files are being saved which I set in the Preferences section of AE at the beginning as well.
From AE I pretty much always recompress with QuickTime Pro. It sharpens things up and produces a nice compact file.
QuickTime Pro
As a video publisher this is one of the best tools I have purchased to date. No matter what you receive ie wmv, .mov, swf, mp4, mpv etc etc you can almost always open it in QT Pro and re-export it into something small and compacted at a high output that you can use. It is really worth the $79 to upgrade from the free version you get with iTunes.
My tips for this are simple. Always chose File, Export and not Export for Web.
This brings up the Save Export As dialog box and the important setting here is the Export drop down box in the bottom left corner. Select MPEG - 4 and then click on the Option button.
This is where I specify 640 x 480 or whatever size needed and just check that audio is being included if necessary and pretty much leave the other settings stock. They are very flexible if you do need them just don't forget how to find them again!
My 932MB file compressed through QuickTime ended up being only 22MB and quite reasonable quality mp4 file which uploaded quite quickly to BlackBoard and Cathie was able to quickly confirm that she could receive and view.
I hope some of this make sense and perhaps helps out.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Final project uploads
I think I need to review all of the notes and triple check I havent forgotten something!
The weekend was NUTS.
Trying to cram it all in with such little time was just ridiculous and I blame myself and poor time management for the less than fantastic results I had hoped for! But I am always being told that I am being too critical of my work and self so I will just have to live with the outcome for now. I know it isnt terrible but I had hoped to do so much more, especially with colour correction and effecting some of the lower quality handheld footage shot at live gigs.
After Effects is simply amazing, I definitely wont be stopping playing with that anytime soon, the possibilities are endless. Seeya FLASH! Nice to know ya, but I have a new friend!!
Anyway, I will prolly post more stuff tonight after I review my notes and see if anything is missing, but for now if you are looking, here is my YouTube page with a stack of different flavours of bumpers, interstitials and of course my doco for MA3 which has just been the best learning experience.
http://www.youtube.com/danblack72
The weekend was NUTS.
Trying to cram it all in with such little time was just ridiculous and I blame myself and poor time management for the less than fantastic results I had hoped for! But I am always being told that I am being too critical of my work and self so I will just have to live with the outcome for now. I know it isnt terrible but I had hoped to do so much more, especially with colour correction and effecting some of the lower quality handheld footage shot at live gigs.
After Effects is simply amazing, I definitely wont be stopping playing with that anytime soon, the possibilities are endless. Seeya FLASH! Nice to know ya, but I have a new friend!!
Anyway, I will prolly post more stuff tonight after I review my notes and see if anything is missing, but for now if you are looking, here is my YouTube page with a stack of different flavours of bumpers, interstitials and of course my doco for MA3 which has just been the best learning experience.
http://www.youtube.com/danblack72
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Final Project Analysis and submission
I have done it. While I was working away frantically towards the end goal I didnt realise just how much content I had created.
I have burnt my final copies to a DVD and have the address to send it in tomorrow. Phew!
What a gigantic ball of fun has this been!?
In my creative zone I have created a Bumper for my original concept ARG, Humanoid:
A bumper for my Doco 'A Day in the Life of the Blow Waves'
An interpretation of an Interstitial:
And messed around with the idea of a Tag... but not sure that I got this right.
I have had heaps of fun and a few tense moments trying to work this all through and overall think that all I need is practise practise practise!
I have burnt my final copies to a DVD and have the address to send it in tomorrow. Phew!
What a gigantic ball of fun has this been!?
In my creative zone I have created a Bumper for my original concept ARG, Humanoid:
A bumper for my Doco 'A Day in the Life of the Blow Waves'
An interpretation of an Interstitial:
And messed around with the idea of a Tag... but not sure that I got this right.
I have had heaps of fun and a few tense moments trying to work this all through and overall think that all I need is practise practise practise!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Analysis of project update
I have been thinking about my aim to set out and create a version of the participatory documentary and I having been giving it plenty of thought over the course of the morning about how successful or not that has been.
What I haven't yet decided on is whether the narrative I intend to overlay, which really is the synopsis read in a newsreader style by me, adds or detracts from the participatory documentary aim. Plus no matter how hard I try to use a news reader voice it just sounds ridiculous.
One thing that I have really struggled with in this course is the definitions of the genres and sub sets of these genres. It was a very difficult essay for me and I dont think I did it very well.
Even in documentary there are so many academically documented styles and modes as per Lecture 11 I think it was. Putting these frames and fences around something that in the past I wasn't aware of as a simple punter of film watching has changed the way that I look at films forever. I now feel more insightful and armed with understanding about so many more aspects of films now that I am no longer just passively observing or only following a plot and storyline, I now immerse myself in the directors chair and think about what it might be like to be involved from that angle trying to get actors to work with my vision. I look at film and camera techniques used. I can even name some of them! I look at special fx and CGI completely differently and this course has amplified what I learned last trimester in digital animation.
I watched an old fiction classic last night intently, called The Butterfly Effect and was amazed at just how much more I got out of the movie with my new eyes and ears. The film itself is quite powerful graphically and has quite well chosen moderate special fx to convey the plot and emphasise a point which the audience must be involved with to understand. Although many topics were brought in for added viewer interest and shock value the film is largely about a psychology student with an interesting and colourful past who has memory blackouts and his journey to understand the things that have seemingly been lost and his struggle to control those blackouts.
Back to my documentary though, and I think I have got a few parts of different types of documentary style. For instance I believe I am acknowledging the camera and my involvement in shooting the interview section where the band members are talking about completing their profiles. I think I come from a position of argument but maybe I am being persuasive in the positive light I am taking to the bands success. That for me is inevitable because I do want them to be successful but I have tried to shy away from being overtly positive and let the footage tell the story. I believe I have truly stepped away from a position of authority or expertise! My handycam work is shaky when I want it to be dead still and still as a rock when I want the 'Blair Witch' effect.
Something I am doing until now subconsciously is the use of severe fast montage editing. It featured in my own MA1 assignment of me, and I have again gone and chopped up the photo shoot scenes. I think it is just a personal preference or style that I am leaning towards personally, but I disagree with Eisentsteins view in my shots because I don't think I am creating any sort of intellectual contexts just yet!
I have just re read the lecture in a short interlude from this post and discovered that a part of the definition of The Participatory Mode (No 4, Pge 14 lecture week 10) that there are no voice of god commentaries, no unmediated observations etc... so if I write a creative narrative that tells us about the band and about what you are seeing, have I steered off course and off genre? If so, does it matter? And what does it become?
I tell ya, this genre stuff confuses the claptrap out of me! Ayeh Carumbah!
What I haven't yet decided on is whether the narrative I intend to overlay, which really is the synopsis read in a newsreader style by me, adds or detracts from the participatory documentary aim. Plus no matter how hard I try to use a news reader voice it just sounds ridiculous.
One thing that I have really struggled with in this course is the definitions of the genres and sub sets of these genres. It was a very difficult essay for me and I dont think I did it very well.
Even in documentary there are so many academically documented styles and modes as per Lecture 11 I think it was. Putting these frames and fences around something that in the past I wasn't aware of as a simple punter of film watching has changed the way that I look at films forever. I now feel more insightful and armed with understanding about so many more aspects of films now that I am no longer just passively observing or only following a plot and storyline, I now immerse myself in the directors chair and think about what it might be like to be involved from that angle trying to get actors to work with my vision. I look at film and camera techniques used. I can even name some of them! I look at special fx and CGI completely differently and this course has amplified what I learned last trimester in digital animation.
I watched an old fiction classic last night intently, called The Butterfly Effect and was amazed at just how much more I got out of the movie with my new eyes and ears. The film itself is quite powerful graphically and has quite well chosen moderate special fx to convey the plot and emphasise a point which the audience must be involved with to understand. Although many topics were brought in for added viewer interest and shock value the film is largely about a psychology student with an interesting and colourful past who has memory blackouts and his journey to understand the things that have seemingly been lost and his struggle to control those blackouts.
Back to my documentary though, and I think I have got a few parts of different types of documentary style. For instance I believe I am acknowledging the camera and my involvement in shooting the interview section where the band members are talking about completing their profiles. I think I come from a position of argument but maybe I am being persuasive in the positive light I am taking to the bands success. That for me is inevitable because I do want them to be successful but I have tried to shy away from being overtly positive and let the footage tell the story. I believe I have truly stepped away from a position of authority or expertise! My handycam work is shaky when I want it to be dead still and still as a rock when I want the 'Blair Witch' effect.
Something I am doing until now subconsciously is the use of severe fast montage editing. It featured in my own MA1 assignment of me, and I have again gone and chopped up the photo shoot scenes. I think it is just a personal preference or style that I am leaning towards personally, but I disagree with Eisentsteins view in my shots because I don't think I am creating any sort of intellectual contexts just yet!
I have just re read the lecture in a short interlude from this post and discovered that a part of the definition of The Participatory Mode (No 4, Pge 14 lecture week 10) that there are no voice of god commentaries, no unmediated observations etc... so if I write a creative narrative that tells us about the band and about what you are seeing, have I steered off course and off genre? If so, does it matter? And what does it become?
I tell ya, this genre stuff confuses the claptrap out of me! Ayeh Carumbah!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Blow Waves bumper
This is way fun, I could sit here and crank a thousand different options out playing with layers and multiple special effects on top of one another.
This one was a good twisty unexpected outcome by combining just three basic layers, solids and a text layer, importing the graphic and then applying a background fx (the curtain) then on top of that laying down some fractal noise and jigging with it a bit before adding a lens flare and some glow and the outcome is quite cool!
I've also loaded a new version to my YouTube page with some extra footage and changed titles sequence. I have found the whole experience a bit rushed due to my indecision but on the whole filming the band and then very quickly editing a rough cut and then interviewing band members and manager Fred to get their perspective on what the story should be has been very productive. I have felt really immersed in this project and that has made a big difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyLqQm9uGZM
One stumbling block I have had with the technology is dealing with a monitor that isnt enormous really sucks when you have huge timelines and intimate sharp cuts to do in Premiere, and the way the layers are different between Premiere and AE is weird to me. I get used to working in one and then have to change a core principal between the two is confusing. I wish I could also grasp the conccept of working in compositions and layers in AE and how to effectively work between the two with sections of footage in a project line in Premiere and a Special FX composition in AE. I cant quite work out how to match the too.
The other area that still really needs work is the sound composition. It is very hard and roughly edited needing more colour and tweaking in spoken parts and observatory interviews.
I think the bumper is looking interesting but in honesty I think I will revisit the lecture on bumpers and interstitial (which coincedentally is the hardest word in the English language to pronounce and say correctly) segments and freshen up on exactly one should look like!
Everyones projects are looking amazing, some people have really grasped the complexity of compositing layers and soundtracks with special effects while others have done great titles and bumpers, it keeps inspiring me which is great in the distance learning community.
This one was a good twisty unexpected outcome by combining just three basic layers, solids and a text layer, importing the graphic and then applying a background fx (the curtain) then on top of that laying down some fractal noise and jigging with it a bit before adding a lens flare and some glow and the outcome is quite cool!
I've also loaded a new version to my YouTube page with some extra footage and changed titles sequence. I have found the whole experience a bit rushed due to my indecision but on the whole filming the band and then very quickly editing a rough cut and then interviewing band members and manager Fred to get their perspective on what the story should be has been very productive. I have felt really immersed in this project and that has made a big difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyLqQm9uGZM
One stumbling block I have had with the technology is dealing with a monitor that isnt enormous really sucks when you have huge timelines and intimate sharp cuts to do in Premiere, and the way the layers are different between Premiere and AE is weird to me. I get used to working in one and then have to change a core principal between the two is confusing. I wish I could also grasp the conccept of working in compositions and layers in AE and how to effectively work between the two with sections of footage in a project line in Premiere and a Special FX composition in AE. I cant quite work out how to match the too.
The other area that still really needs work is the sound composition. It is very hard and roughly edited needing more colour and tweaking in spoken parts and observatory interviews.
I think the bumper is looking interesting but in honesty I think I will revisit the lecture on bumpers and interstitial (which coincedentally is the hardest word in the English language to pronounce and say correctly) segments and freshen up on exactly one should look like!
Everyones projects are looking amazing, some people have really grasped the complexity of compositing layers and soundtracks with special effects while others have done great titles and bumpers, it keeps inspiring me which is great in the distance learning community.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Major project progress update
Well it has been a mad week since our visitors left, and work has been totally mental so I have been having really late and less than a lot of time to spend on this project which really needs LOADS of time to work on.
Feeling the pressure right now and just very tired mentally.
But I am pushing on, so here is a very first cut of all the footage spliced together and a very basic title slide that I threw together using presets in AE. Thats it. No narrative, no colour correction, no spiffy splicing just rough edits with the razor tool and thrown together on a timeline. I have done some rearranging a few times following my concept brief layout which has also been such a great learning this trimester. After struggling with it last year and then having to use it again I can really see the value now and think that future projects will lean heavily on their use in the early days of developing concepts to develop digital video.
So this project has a long way to go, and I have not a lot of time but I am hoping by dedicating every minute of my spare time over the next two nights and then the entire weekend I might be able to shape it up into something quite fun to watch.
For those of you following me you will know I changed concepts right in the middle and so you might be thinking how does this fit the brief? When I spoke with Cathie she did mention I could put forward my own ideas and after struggling with my ARG concept for a few weeks I suddenly had a flash of inspiration that was just such a late bloomer when if I had of thought of it earlier I could have been so much further along that I am now.
Oh well... so the main takeout from this little sneak preview is not to judge too much about what isnt there (especially the narrative as that is the key to telling the story behind the imagery) I would like to get your thoughts on what you can see so far.
It might look better quality wise on my YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvaaXyQPLck
And I have been playing with the title sequence that I will use on the front and back of the intro but again it isnt much more developed yet than what is in the video but I have been playing with composits and layers of some graphics to give it more visual appeal.
Feeling the pressure right now and just very tired mentally.
But I am pushing on, so here is a very first cut of all the footage spliced together and a very basic title slide that I threw together using presets in AE. Thats it. No narrative, no colour correction, no spiffy splicing just rough edits with the razor tool and thrown together on a timeline. I have done some rearranging a few times following my concept brief layout which has also been such a great learning this trimester. After struggling with it last year and then having to use it again I can really see the value now and think that future projects will lean heavily on their use in the early days of developing concepts to develop digital video.
So this project has a long way to go, and I have not a lot of time but I am hoping by dedicating every minute of my spare time over the next two nights and then the entire weekend I might be able to shape it up into something quite fun to watch.
For those of you following me you will know I changed concepts right in the middle and so you might be thinking how does this fit the brief? When I spoke with Cathie she did mention I could put forward my own ideas and after struggling with my ARG concept for a few weeks I suddenly had a flash of inspiration that was just such a late bloomer when if I had of thought of it earlier I could have been so much further along that I am now.
Oh well... so the main takeout from this little sneak preview is not to judge too much about what isnt there (especially the narrative as that is the key to telling the story behind the imagery) I would like to get your thoughts on what you can see so far.
It might look better quality wise on my YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvaaXyQPLck
And I have been playing with the title sequence that I will use on the front and back of the intro but again it isnt much more developed yet than what is in the video but I have been playing with composits and layers of some graphics to give it more visual appeal.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Participatory Documentary - A day in the life of a Blow Wave
Today has been all about setting up and organising my project, well my second attempt at my project that should be, now that I am doing a documentary I needed to start from scratch. But it has been a good day. The project is formed in Premiere with scratch disks setup on a a remote portable HDD as there is a lot of raw AVI files that take up heaps of space, and new BINS created and split into three parts, Movie files, graphics files, and soundtracks.
Everything is organised and named, some footage is trimmed but most is just raw imports and I have started to pour through the bits and pieces as the story forms in my head.
The graphics are imported and I have four unreleased to public singles from the new Blow Waves self titled EP as the soundtrack.
I feel good about this one, its going to come together well.
I have also done a new Concept Brief but as it is a word document I dont see how I can attach it to this blog which is a shame. I am working on a storyboard to help get my story sorted out but I have a good idea of it in my head so I am not too panicked bout that but it will help me draw the story out of the observational aspect of the footage. Tonight I am off to see the band play live and hope to get more inspiration from that, and today I actually filled in for the guitar player who was at his day job while they sound checked. I learnt the song this morning and went to the venue at 2pm and played it! What a rush! Pity I couldnt film that and include it in this doco!
I was watching funniest home video this evening and was inspired by a bumper sequence introducing the top 4 funniest home videos and I am going to try and emulate that for my title sequence and bumper.
The text was 3 dimensional and had created these 'wakes' behind them as they bounced onto the screen. I have seen it before and find it difficult to explain but am thinking I could work up an effect to emulate it in AE.
Tomorrow is a big day and hoping to come out with some rough cuts to post up. The clock is certainly ticking to be this far behind!
Everything is organised and named, some footage is trimmed but most is just raw imports and I have started to pour through the bits and pieces as the story forms in my head.
The graphics are imported and I have four unreleased to public singles from the new Blow Waves self titled EP as the soundtrack.
I feel good about this one, its going to come together well.
I have also done a new Concept Brief but as it is a word document I dont see how I can attach it to this blog which is a shame. I am working on a storyboard to help get my story sorted out but I have a good idea of it in my head so I am not too panicked bout that but it will help me draw the story out of the observational aspect of the footage. Tonight I am off to see the band play live and hope to get more inspiration from that, and today I actually filled in for the guitar player who was at his day job while they sound checked. I learnt the song this morning and went to the venue at 2pm and played it! What a rush! Pity I couldnt film that and include it in this doco!
I was watching funniest home video this evening and was inspired by a bumper sequence introducing the top 4 funniest home videos and I am going to try and emulate that for my title sequence and bumper.
The text was 3 dimensional and had created these 'wakes' behind them as they bounced onto the screen. I have seen it before and find it difficult to explain but am thinking I could work up an effect to emulate it in AE.
Tomorrow is a big day and hoping to come out with some rough cuts to post up. The clock is certainly ticking to be this far behind!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
A weekend of revelations
Well after I busted my gut to get all the stuff together for my final project, including being really late with the development and submission of my storyboard and concept brief to Cathie (sorry!) I have done my usual and come a complete 180 degree turn and am changing my entire project.
This must sound a little ridiculous, but the pressure it puts me under is quite frankly when I do my best work, and although I think my ideas and some of the execution of them are coming together (see my past 4 or so blog entries) I had really hit a bit of a wall in getting the desired affects and composits out of AE and quite frankly I was starting to feel like it was going to be a fizzer. I really needed a good green screen trick to pull off the Machinima stuff I was imagining and the screen capture software I trialled was expiring and bringing up a hideous TRIAL VERSION watermark and most of all I was losing enthusiasm fast.
Not to ditch the idea completely, as a friend suggested, shelve it and also write up some critical analysis of where the project had fell over and then come back to it for the next thing, or it may be something that I can develop further in Software Engineering later on. That makes me feel much better about it.
So, I hear all my fans asking, what are you doing now?
Well, a bit of background first. I have been very actively involved in my best mates band from a punters perspective, and also honing my skills as Guitar Tech and Stage Manager.
His band is called The Blow Waves, and they are a very camp Aussie act that play quite a lot and are really trying to break into mainstream commercial success.
They played on the main stage last year at the Mardi Gras in Sydney and this has landed them local government support to tour the world later on this year. They will be playing at Manchester Pride Festival in London, several gigs in Berlin, Amsterdam and Greece. I think they have what it takes to be the next 'Scissor Sisters.
On the weekend I was asked to come over to rehearsal and help out in a working bee for Bios, Artwork, Tour promo's and any professional CV writing that I could offer cause this is something I have been doing for years and feel like can really help with.
As a side I asked if it would be ok to film the session so that I could maybe compile a mini doco-vlog for YouTube. As you can imagine from there it wasnt far on that I started to turn my thoughts to developing the idea as a full blown Major Assignment.
I have so much background with these guys, I know their music intimately, I have the fully blown mastered EP and full permissions to use it, I have professional photography, hours of video performance footage and the intimate knowledge to know how they would most like to be represented.
To me this is a natural progression to completing my Major Prac with enthusiasm and passion and as I said earlier the pressure it puts me under to perform just makes me more enthusiastic on the whole to do a really good bloody job!
So, I will be posting some screen grabs of my work in progress over the next few nights and getting some early rough cuts together and loading them up for comment on here and my YouTube page and I think the over all synopsis will be to 'show the inner workings of a punk-trashy pop disco band as they make the hard decisions about profile and image as they head overseas.
I will do a stunning fast paced loud but intimate 2-3 minute documentary on the band.
I will do a title sequence.
And I will do some bumper type promo's with the intent of web broadcast.
Stay tuned. As big Kev would have said, 'I'm excited!'
This must sound a little ridiculous, but the pressure it puts me under is quite frankly when I do my best work, and although I think my ideas and some of the execution of them are coming together (see my past 4 or so blog entries) I had really hit a bit of a wall in getting the desired affects and composits out of AE and quite frankly I was starting to feel like it was going to be a fizzer. I really needed a good green screen trick to pull off the Machinima stuff I was imagining and the screen capture software I trialled was expiring and bringing up a hideous TRIAL VERSION watermark and most of all I was losing enthusiasm fast.
Not to ditch the idea completely, as a friend suggested, shelve it and also write up some critical analysis of where the project had fell over and then come back to it for the next thing, or it may be something that I can develop further in Software Engineering later on. That makes me feel much better about it.
So, I hear all my fans asking, what are you doing now?
Well, a bit of background first. I have been very actively involved in my best mates band from a punters perspective, and also honing my skills as Guitar Tech and Stage Manager.
His band is called The Blow Waves, and they are a very camp Aussie act that play quite a lot and are really trying to break into mainstream commercial success.
They played on the main stage last year at the Mardi Gras in Sydney and this has landed them local government support to tour the world later on this year. They will be playing at Manchester Pride Festival in London, several gigs in Berlin, Amsterdam and Greece. I think they have what it takes to be the next 'Scissor Sisters.
On the weekend I was asked to come over to rehearsal and help out in a working bee for Bios, Artwork, Tour promo's and any professional CV writing that I could offer cause this is something I have been doing for years and feel like can really help with.
As a side I asked if it would be ok to film the session so that I could maybe compile a mini doco-vlog for YouTube. As you can imagine from there it wasnt far on that I started to turn my thoughts to developing the idea as a full blown Major Assignment.
I have so much background with these guys, I know their music intimately, I have the fully blown mastered EP and full permissions to use it, I have professional photography, hours of video performance footage and the intimate knowledge to know how they would most like to be represented.
To me this is a natural progression to completing my Major Prac with enthusiasm and passion and as I said earlier the pressure it puts me under to perform just makes me more enthusiastic on the whole to do a really good bloody job!
So, I will be posting some screen grabs of my work in progress over the next few nights and getting some early rough cuts together and loading them up for comment on here and my YouTube page and I think the over all synopsis will be to 'show the inner workings of a punk-trashy pop disco band as they make the hard decisions about profile and image as they head overseas.
I will do a stunning fast paced loud but intimate 2-3 minute documentary on the band.
I will do a title sequence.
And I will do some bumper type promo's with the intent of web broadcast.
Stay tuned. As big Kev would have said, 'I'm excited!'
Friday, April 10, 2009
StoryBoard - Work in Progress updates
Finally got storyboard scanned in and submitted to Cathie for final marking of MA3, felt pretty good about it and as always helped me geerate some other ideas for my major prac.
Been watching a few films lately trying to understand how the plot works as compared to the story and find it quite a difficult to discern the two which I can only assume that the director and scriptwriter of the films I have been watching have done very good jobs, as the story and plot have become one.
I watched Monsters vs Aliens in 3D at the cinemas the other day and it was terrific and very inspirational as I think animation is more where I want to head at the end of the day and this lead me to thinking that perhaps my ARG 'Humanoid' should focus on that using AE as the puppet pins look quite powerful.
Up front I must say that my characters are a bit of a rip off from Cyanide & Happiness but only because I find them easy to draw and my drawing skills are crap! So what I plan to do at the moment as I mess around with filming Second Life and Exit Reality web pages is do some illustrations stick figure style and see if I can import them as composits into AE and mess around with Puppet Pins animating them.
What I think I am lacking a little bit of so far is being able to tell a story, maybe its the plot thats missing, am I plotless? Oh dear...
Anyway here are some images of my storyboard which hopefully explain a bit about my project thus far.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Crazy ideas!
I've been having some crazy ideas for my ARG and as I am at work I have nowhere to jot them down so I am putting them here.
Create some 2D flat zombie looking freaks in Illustrator
These zombies could be the people that have been online too long in the 'unreality' world and could be the things you need to help escape by unplugging them
Could have become so digital that they are 2d instead of 3d like my avatar
More to come...
Create some 2D flat zombie looking freaks in Illustrator
These zombies could be the people that have been online too long in the 'unreality' world and could be the things you need to help escape by unplugging them
Could have become so digital that they are 2d instead of 3d like my avatar
More to come...
Machinima & Compositing in After Effects
I have been getting so excited with the prospects of what is possible with After Effects this weekend has been great.
I know my last post was pretty boring, simple lightning effects with some exploding effects but this is really the first time I have built my own compositions with artistic license usually bound by the boring corporate monkey life that I am forced to live to pay the mortgage - &*%*&$?!!!
Anyway, got that off my chest, got The Kooks on in the background, a puppy dog on my lap who is watching every movement of the mouse cursor on screen quite curiously, I am sure she can read, and a successful (albeit only mostly) composite Machinima creation of my very own - my very first! Secretly quite chuffed with myself.
And on top of that I have successfully combined multiple effects, and I wont say mastered, but now I do understand each of them better by virtue of practice I am sure things will only get better. The key effect I needed was green screening (Keylight 1.2 in AE) to get rid of most of the look of second life and plunge my avatar (note UoN t-shirt I am wearing - kitsch!) into a bleak and dreary yet kinda shiny world of digitisation. I didnt want to remove everything from SL but rather I wanted to more B&W look with the ocean glow effect beneath and although I am not convinced I entirely understand how I did it, I did it. :P
I have also done some colour correcting and then composited two compositions together to create this (see movie below). I also needed to mask out the ID of my avatar which I just couldn't turn off in SecondLife. Another downfall to overcome. I also had to download some trial software to capture my Machinima action which was clunky and I am not the best at camera control in SecondLife so the footage actually is not that desirable either but in concept it is coming together. Masking out the ID title has left a nasty black hole which I am not sure how to get rid of as I had to change its layer propertie to Subtract to remove it but that has gone through the composited footage as well so it looks pretty tacky people, but I am getting there.
I just published and previewed the movie and it looked terrible! All gone to crud because of the smaller quality I exported out of QuickTime Pro so I have had another go on different compression rate setting but I cant promise you it will look much better! If I had much more time I would fix this right up and export it at a much higher frame rate and post it to my YouTube page but right now other things are calling me away from the darkness of my studio/office/room/computer...
I know my last post was pretty boring, simple lightning effects with some exploding effects but this is really the first time I have built my own compositions with artistic license usually bound by the boring corporate monkey life that I am forced to live to pay the mortgage - &*%*&$?!!!
Anyway, got that off my chest, got The Kooks on in the background, a puppy dog on my lap who is watching every movement of the mouse cursor on screen quite curiously, I am sure she can read, and a successful (albeit only mostly) composite Machinima creation of my very own - my very first! Secretly quite chuffed with myself.
And on top of that I have successfully combined multiple effects, and I wont say mastered, but now I do understand each of them better by virtue of practice I am sure things will only get better. The key effect I needed was green screening (Keylight 1.2 in AE) to get rid of most of the look of second life and plunge my avatar (note UoN t-shirt I am wearing - kitsch!) into a bleak and dreary yet kinda shiny world of digitisation. I didnt want to remove everything from SL but rather I wanted to more B&W look with the ocean glow effect beneath and although I am not convinced I entirely understand how I did it, I did it. :P
I have also done some colour correcting and then composited two compositions together to create this (see movie below). I also needed to mask out the ID of my avatar which I just couldn't turn off in SecondLife. Another downfall to overcome. I also had to download some trial software to capture my Machinima action which was clunky and I am not the best at camera control in SecondLife so the footage actually is not that desirable either but in concept it is coming together. Masking out the ID title has left a nasty black hole which I am not sure how to get rid of as I had to change its layer propertie to Subtract to remove it but that has gone through the composited footage as well so it looks pretty tacky people, but I am getting there.
I just published and previewed the movie and it looked terrible! All gone to crud because of the smaller quality I exported out of QuickTime Pro so I have had another go on different compression rate setting but I cant promise you it will look much better! If I had much more time I would fix this right up and export it at a much higher frame rate and post it to my YouTube page but right now other things are calling me away from the darkness of my studio/office/room/computer...
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Playing with lightning
I've always been obsessive about lightning in all its forms, so to be able to play around with special effects lightning on screen well its like a dream come true.
This probably seems a bit weak putting this quick title sequence together cause it is very basic and I need to master the advanced lightning effect parameters a lot better but I got so excited when I first saw my creation I just had to post it.
More to come.
This probably seems a bit weak putting this quick title sequence together cause it is very basic and I need to master the advanced lightning effect parameters a lot better but I got so excited when I first saw my creation I just had to post it.
More to come.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Work in Progress - Major Assignment
Well it certainly has been an interesting course thus far!
While I tortured myself thinking 'too big' about my final assignment and harboured badly over the written essay, a really good phone catch up with Cathie on Monday night has pulled me into line.
While I havent got any screen grabs to show examples of my Major Prac just yet I have plenty of stuff in my head so here is a bit of a written run down on where I am at.
I am pitching for financial backing for the creation of an ARG. My ARG is called HUMANOID. In Humanoid the typical Web 2.0 user is gradually overcome by too much time spent online in chat rooms and social networks and turned into Avatar and becomes completely digital!
In the digital world the Avatar will roam through 3D web simulated pages (software created by Exit Reality) where all the social network sites are represented by buidldings of the pages which look really cool.
I am going to use Machinima to simulate some footage for the digital segments I need to create (it gets a little washy here but will concrete as I get film on tape) and I will simulate this using the Second Life platform and an Avatar I created last year in Second Life for the lectures that took place at the UoN island created by Roger Quinn on 3D animation & rendering. I can use this simulation for some of the 'gone digital' time.
I also intend to film either a) myself at my computer or b)a friend using a computer in the 'real world' and then hope to use After Effects and a morphing simulation where the two worldsd 'tween' together and become one.
I have been working on some drama treatments, synopsis developments and general writing of ideas to help me cement these ideas down, and this is where I started to bog down and thinking way too big for this trimester.
I am now committing to creating 3 pieces of footage to meet the specifics of the brief, although I worry about my ideas still being too large!
The 3 ideas I am developing are:
1) 3D title sequence "Humanoid - how will YOU get escape WHICH reality"
2) Bumper - something exciting and fast paced
3) Video segments - some eye catching action from real worl to digital realm
All of these ideas are still a bit loose and will tighten up over time, but Cathie in discussion over the phone agreed that this is a good approach.
Still very excited about getting 'pen to paper' with this project, just very time poor at the moment.
As soon as I have some draft ideas exported out of After Effects I will post more regular updates here and on my YouTube page.
PS - After Effects is amazing! I love morphing using the paint brush and using 3D space to change block text stuff, I wish I knew all of this when I did my first video!
DM
While I tortured myself thinking 'too big' about my final assignment and harboured badly over the written essay, a really good phone catch up with Cathie on Monday night has pulled me into line.
While I havent got any screen grabs to show examples of my Major Prac just yet I have plenty of stuff in my head so here is a bit of a written run down on where I am at.
I am pitching for financial backing for the creation of an ARG. My ARG is called HUMANOID. In Humanoid the typical Web 2.0 user is gradually overcome by too much time spent online in chat rooms and social networks and turned into Avatar and becomes completely digital!
In the digital world the Avatar will roam through 3D web simulated pages (software created by Exit Reality) where all the social network sites are represented by buidldings of the pages which look really cool.
I am going to use Machinima to simulate some footage for the digital segments I need to create (it gets a little washy here but will concrete as I get film on tape) and I will simulate this using the Second Life platform and an Avatar I created last year in Second Life for the lectures that took place at the UoN island created by Roger Quinn on 3D animation & rendering. I can use this simulation for some of the 'gone digital' time.
I also intend to film either a) myself at my computer or b)a friend using a computer in the 'real world' and then hope to use After Effects and a morphing simulation where the two worldsd 'tween' together and become one.
I have been working on some drama treatments, synopsis developments and general writing of ideas to help me cement these ideas down, and this is where I started to bog down and thinking way too big for this trimester.
I am now committing to creating 3 pieces of footage to meet the specifics of the brief, although I worry about my ideas still being too large!
The 3 ideas I am developing are:
1) 3D title sequence "Humanoid - how will YOU get escape WHICH reality"
2) Bumper - something exciting and fast paced
3) Video segments - some eye catching action from real worl to digital realm
All of these ideas are still a bit loose and will tighten up over time, but Cathie in discussion over the phone agreed that this is a good approach.
Still very excited about getting 'pen to paper' with this project, just very time poor at the moment.
As soon as I have some draft ideas exported out of After Effects I will post more regular updates here and on my YouTube page.
PS - After Effects is amazing! I love morphing using the paint brush and using 3D space to change block text stuff, I wish I knew all of this when I did my first video!
DM
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