Personal Project: Portfolio – Audio Spectrum

 

 

Guardians of the Galaxy themed Audio Spectrums:

Synoptic Project: NextGen News Intro

Before the character watches the news program in our film, we wanted an intro to play.

I have taken a world map and added CC Sphere to it, to make the image into a globe.

Create Rings:

Apply new lines comp to globe comp and CC Sphere, then change scale and rotation

Add Adjustment Layer, edit Hue and Saturation, then add Gradient Ramp and Calculations to create a blend of the Nextgen logo colour.

Add Dimension – glow and shadow, then edit drop shadow – white glow, drop shadow – dark halo 1 and drop shadow dark halo 2.

Edit Background and add Text for countdown, then add expression for slider in  null object to change the number.

Export Comp and track onto the tv screen.

 

 

Synoptic Project: CG Enterprises Track

17/05/17

During one of the scenes in act 2, I was given the task to create the logo to go onto the side of the building, “CG Enterprises”.

I made this within photoshop and then exported it into illustrator to create a vector of it.

This then meant I could put it into after effects and create a 3d Object from the logo vector.

Originally I was going to create a 3D model of the logo within Maya, then export it out into after effects to make the track.

However, I used the vector from Illustrator, created outlines from it within After Effects and turned it into a 3D image.

I then added a spot light into AE to allow the shape to project shadows and have a slight glossy look to it.

18/05/17

I had a few problems withe After Effects crashing a lot, due to it not being able to RAM Preview. I found out that I had RayTrace 3D enabled as the chosen renderer, which is why it was taking ages to just preview the scene.

Classic 3D rendered almost instantly, however, I need to use a 3D renderer to be able to see the 3D effects of the logo, so it was a choice of either CINEMA 4D , or RayTrace 3D.

I eventually went with CINEMA 4D, as this rendered things quicker than RayTrace, but still allowed me to use the 3D logo.

22/05/17

I came across a few problems with trying to add effects to the vector, due to it being, a vector.

So I have pre-composed the vector, lighting and null object into a new pre-composition , which has finally allowed me to edit it properly.

I have added a mix of effects onto this, Curves, Hue and Saturation, CC Vector Blur, CC Light Sweep, CC Cross Blur and Drop Shadow.

Tweaked the brightness of the sign to make look more real.

Created Breakdown video.

 

Personal Project: Porfolio Work – AE: Pulses

As we will be needing different types of work in our portfolio, I have made a pulsing motion graphic using circles and the repeater on multiple shape layers.

 

Synoptic Project: Testing DTNC

As some scenes in the project are set in the night, we may have to film them during the day and perform Day to Night Correction within after effects, so I took some footage from around the college building and practiced the DTNC on them.

One example of some test footage I took

I decided to leave this piece of footage as while I was doing some colour correction, I realized that there was a lot of sunlight in the shot and it would be best to use some footage that was all in the shade, or all in sunlight as it is easier to convert.

Footage 2

I then tried to correct the other footage, this time tracking a section of the sky as well to change its colour

I did originally try to track within mocha, but for some reason the software crashed every time I launched mocha, so I needed to track it myself with in AE.

With and without mask

Unfortunately, after effects kept crashing again, so I changed to another piece of footage to try out on.

 

Synoptic Project: Previs for Act 2

During the previs section of the project, we were all given tasks to create a short clip of what is going to happen in the shooting within maya for each of the acts.

I was given Act 2 to pre-vis.

I did this within Maya and then added all the footage together within Premiere Pro.

 

Synoptic Project: Eye Test

I decided to do a test on the eye effect for our project within after effects, as the characters eye changes from normal to a red colour.

I tracked the shape motion in Mocha AE, as after effects track motion wasnt very reliable for this.

Once I exported the shape motion from mocha, I pasted it onto a solid object in after effects.

But it had a few issues with lining up properly, so I needed to adjust some keyframes so that it was more accurate.

From here I then added some feather effects, a blur and overlayed another layer so that it created a yellow ring “glow” around the red of the eye.

 

I then created a “pulse” effect on the other test to see if this worked any better than just the original eye, but I feel as though the first test worked better.

Personal Projects: Mocha AE

Some more of my work using Mocha

Added Effects: Three Graffiti Arts on wall

Added Effects: Smoke out of chimney, logo on house, logo on metal storage.

Added Effects: Logo on side of train, text on front of train

After Effects: Mocha – Tunnel

Today I was shown how to use Mocha in After Effects, So I will be practicing more using different shots and images.

I imported some test footage of the tunnel. This footage is really “shaky and rotates” a lot, this would be very difficult to track with 1 or 2 point tracking.

Next, you go into animation, then click Track in Mocha AE.

Next, you find a clean frame, and click on the Spline button, then draw around a shape that you want to track, as well as adjusting the planar surface.

To track this, I then tracked “backwards” and then “forwards” to ensure there was no errors.

Due to where the footage is saved, it takes a while to track, so it looks jumpy.

Next we copy the tracked information back to after effects.

Then you make a new solid, and paste the tracking onto that solid, but must make sure that it is on frame 1 otherwise it wont work properly.

Once this is done, we pre-compose this and import the image file above the composition.

Sometimes the image needs an adjustment, so different modes such as Overlay or colour dodge will work, depending on the image and footage used. But for this one, I have used Exclusion

However, the image still looks quite sharp, so we add a CC Force Motion Blur to the image, giving it a more realistic feel.

I then changed the curves slightly so that the colours arent so bright.

After, I then did another track on the other wall and added another image.

Final Comp:

 

Personal Projects: Destroyed City – Video CoPilot

To practice more with after effects and with Tracking, I followed a tutorial from VideoCoPilot on how to make a destroyed effect on a building, this may also come in handy for the synoptic projects later on.

To start with I did a 3D Camera Track, which can be seen below

Once the tracking is complete, I selected 3 points on the top of the building to create an ‘Origin Point’ then chose to create a Solid on that plane.

From those origin points you can also chose to add text, null and other objects to the area.

I then created a  solid on front of building, however this needed to be rotated slightly so that it was aligned with the beams on the building, and then transfer building damage onto the solid shape.

I Changed the size of the damage so that it was larger and aligned it once again.

Added Colour Correction to base plate and to the damage with CC Curves

Pen tool to cut out certain area, this could then be changed in 3D space

Subtract the drawn shape

Duplicate layer, add mode, tint to red to be able to see it and feather both layers.

Duplicate another layer, change track matte to Alpha matte mask, move it back in 3D space and scale it up to create a 3D effect.

Duplicate layer, draw ellipse and feather out the shape to create extra gouge

Add smoke effect from action essentials 2

Duplicate background plate

add alpha track matte to “Beams” Layer

Create beams with pen tool

Beams

Breakdown So far

Add rough edges effect to beams so that they look bashed up

Adding in broken windows

Cracks on top of building, multiply mode

Mask around it and feather

Add more cracks to side of building

Precompose front building pieces

Gets messed up so need to change settings.

Final Composition and Breakdown: