Video Copilot Exercise

Particles and Lines

We were advised to search through the Video Copilot website, which houses many tutorials for After Effects. At the time I was looking, I was interested in creating an ambient particle project for my final piece, and completed an exercise related to it.

The tutorial I watched ended up with a much smoother result than mine, but this may be because they incorporated a 3D composition into it. For basic particle movement, I feel this is an okay attempt, but needs fine tuning. The movement is mostly random and needs direction. Alternative camera angles and zooms would make this interesting, as would change of colour and multiple lines. This is something to be explored in the future.

Week 8 Tutorial

Task: Augment the source video by corner pinning the supplied image within the video source file.

Corner Pinning

I found this exercise quite interesting but time consuming. Motion tracking is a valuable technique to learn, and can be used in quite a lot of scenarios. I think the end result is quite good for a first attempt, and I tried to go through all of the frames to fix the jumping image. However, I couldn't seem to perfect motion tracking, and I assume it is something to get used to and practice. Perhaps the image size and quality affected the outcome, as they were a little pixelated.

I am also interested in sorting out the image effects in After Effects. A few were applied to make the image appear to be on the screen, but this wasn't too successful as the black frame is there throughout. Had I spent more time on this exercise, I would have fiddled with the effects further, and finalised the motion tracking.

Week 6 Tutorial

Task: Download an image of a person which is (a) licensed using Creative Commons, and (b) allows you to make derivative works. Stylize and adjust the image towards a darker, sinister tone as seen in the movie Sin City.

Sin City

I don't feel I was very successful with this exercise. The background should be black and there should be lines through it. I found experimenting with the Curves effect was frustrating at times, simply because it would do something I didn't intend. The 'Sin City' look or Threshold effect in general is one of my favourite effects in photo-editing. I would use Threshold than the Curves function, as it is easier to navigate. Had I spent more time on this, it would be more successful.

The image used above was obtained from Flickr: col014 by dorkvater.

What's On Your Radio?

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=1935523

This is one of my favourite film clips in the music industry. The song is 'What's On Your Radio?' by Australian band The Living End.

This film clip is fun and fast and employs an interesting use of techniques. It is depicted as an old, grainy film and makes reference to the early years of horror film and radio with its typography and inserted backgrounds and effects.

What I like about this clip is that it parodies an old style of film around fast, modern music. I think the quick camera movements are done (probably in post production) very well and it has a strong opening and ending. The electricity, radio waves and buildings are true to its genre.

This clip is an inspiration to me, showing you can mix opposites and still achieve a fantastic piece. If I delve into film clip making, this will be a reminder of effective aesthetics in film-work and post production.

I think there are a lot of films/music clips out there which try to parody the olden film genre and aren't quite successful. 'What's On Your Radio?' however, does achieve this effect exceptionally well, making it a humorous, light-hearted piece with a catchy rock tune.

A lot of The Living End's clips use background animation and graphics, such as 'Who's Gonna Save Us?' and 'Wake Up'. More clips can be found in the Media section on their website.

Assignment 1: Dexter Morgan

I included this project to compare how my skills are developing. Masking has been used a lot in this project, which can be suitable for Dexter's style. I'm quite comfortable using masking now, as it was included in this and the Stanthorpe Temporal Identity quite often. I am still getting used to animating objects, but this skill will develop over time.

The show Dexter has a strong style to it, and this was incorporated into the Identity. I feel there is movement lacking but have grown more comfortable with creating compositions in After Effects.

Week 5 Tutorial

Task: Develop a temporal and spatial composition within the constraints of a client brief.

Client Brief - Mad Mack's!

This exercise was fun yet incredibly annoying at the same time. As someone with a personal hatred for advertisements (particularly the 'crazy' ones), I didn't particularly wish to delve into this area. However, I did enjoy fiddling around with all the effects to see how ridiculously crazy the advertisement could get. The style is very close to this form of advertising, and the movement is suitable as well. If alterations were made, I would add more 'crazy' text, but wasn't quite sure how much I could stray from the client brief. Some matching audio would have made this easier to construct, but the effects were fairly simple to begin with.

Week 4 Tutorial

Task: Construct a Temporal Identity for a location using Creative Commons source material.

Stanthorpe Temporal Identity

This was a practice exercise of constructing a temporal identity for a physical location of our choice. Having spent most of my life there, I chose Stanthorpe as my subject. Stanthorpe is a country town 3 hours away from Brisbane and is mostly known for its wine, apples or the Apple & Grape Harvest Festival. As a small town, it is very quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately there isn't much to do there either, but for this exercise, I wanted to portray the serene and scenic side of Stanthorpe.

I think the clip flows smoothly and the masks are well done. It is mostly consistent throughout, except for the the little animation where the bottles fall from the sky. The tagline is well suited for Stanthorpe. If changes were to be made, I would add some more movement to counteract the 'slideshow' look it has ended up with.