Arturs Reinholds: AFTER EFFECTS

Showing posts with label AFTER EFFECTS. Show all posts

1st Project me and Ivan is cooperating - "Gosha"

Locations

1. At home - Buying drugs, preparing drugs for swallowing, sniffing.
2. At Jakes House (Summer garden house) - Swallowing and waiting for the flight
3. Airport - Still in progress
4. Ambulance - inside of the car (bed)

Splitting responsibilities

We have found a very good way to work together. We try to stay in our qualities. Pre-production is one of the stages where we both work together, risk assessments, permissions and contacting actors. While Ivan is writing and directing, I am responsible for light, camera, and post-production.

We have done some test shots at home to see if our idea can possibly work out. We are filming in flat a colour profile with FujiFilm X-T2 (4K camera) and Nikon D5100. This year I am learning new ways of colour grading. Flat colours will be more flexible for the final edit. I am watching videos on Lynda.com and Youtube.com how to create and work with LUTs (Look up tables).

Stepping up with LUTs I can now choose my own colour scheme and use it in any footage we will film. I am creating individual LUTs for each scene.

LUT's I made are done separately for each video clip. I tried to look up is there a simple description what the LUT colour grading means in simple terms. What I figured out - Look up tables actually explains themselves. In an extreme way, I could tell the camera to see all blues as green colour. Each colour has its colour code or address in a table. Each colour code is captured by the camera sensor. Applying LUT basically means to change colour code to a different one. There are two different LUT systems - 1D which I see as a point system and 3D which uses curves and regenerated colour palette.
I am exporting certain frames in .TIFF to manipulate more colour information. Using still image I redo colour coordination. When that is done, divide all adjustments from the still image and export in .Cube (LUT format). Import the LUT into Adobe Premiere Pro and apply on the video clip it was made for.

It took me time to learn all of it, but once you know it, it saves a lot of time in post-production.
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Next bit is about my workspace. Quicker editing and improving quality.
As I said, I want to use my last year in university to prepare myself for the industry. So I learned a new programming language (.INI). This language lets me code peripheral devices (anything that is plugged into the computer, like a keyboard).

Many editors spend a lot of time going through navigation panels to find the right tools or adjust something, it takes a lot of time. There is a solution like Tangen Ripple or DaVinci Resolve Controllers, but they cost 2000 pounds and more.

Basically what these controllers do - Each button or slider works as a shortcut for certain actions. One button can apply colour adjustment layer, edit sound levels or buttons can be assigned to certain colour channels. Editors do not have to go all panels through to find colour editing tools or transformation tools. Everything is on one controller - physical buttons.

It is also really hard to always remember long shortcuts like CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+R to start 3D rendering.

I know that there are keyboards with macro keys (MACRO KEYS - shortcut buttons that can be customized for certain actions). My main keyboard has 6 macro keys. But it is not enough to apply all necessary tools.

Windows do not understand if there is another keyboard plugged in. It will register both keyboard keys as one. So I cannot assign keys to my own shortcuts.

I looked up online and I found a forum (Flight Simulator) where people assign 2nd keyboard for gaming. They use a separate keyboard to assign keys for radio, distance, altitude, temperature and other controls that are not easy to access while you are flying a plane. They use .INI code to program the second keyboard as a new device.

So first I coded my second keyboard. the script basically divided both keyboards and I can assign hotkeys to one.

After that, I am writing a code for Adobe Premiere Pro. I am still in the process, but it looks promising. When it will be done, I will have 141 extra hotkeys to play with. Technically I can assign new keyboards as much as I have USB ports. I can have an individual keyboard for each software and ease my workflow.

In the end I am also saving a lot of many as well.

Don't push your weaknesses, play with your strengths (Jennifer Lopez)

At first, I wanted to find myself in other areas, like directing or script writing. I tried to push myself in directions I have not done before and therefore I struggled for weeks coming up with my first idea (hacker short-film). After class presentations, I thought once more what do I really want to achieve with my portfolio and where I want to end up.

It is the last year of university and I need a good portfolio in order to get the job I want. I would like to work in a team where I am responsible for visuals. I want to push myself to the limits, proving directors that what is written on a paper can be achieved easily. I am gaining knowledge of new gear, new editing software, and filming techniques as much as I can. I'm going to realize the visions of film directors to the last detail. For industry, I want to improve the way how the story has been told. If the story is developed and presented in a better quality using creative ways that have not been seen before it can reach a lot more people and spread the story further. So because of me, the story can be told better.

Teamed up with Ivan.
The journey starts here...

The Wolf of Wall Street
Intro

"+"

I learned Adobe Illustrator Basics using Lynda.com ( 17.5 Hours )
I learned how to make 2D photographed room into 3D space
I learned how to control animation speed
I learned how to make original transition using only layers
I learned how to work effectively with compositions
I was able to refresh my knowledge working with Audition
I liked the whole workshop in total

"-"

I did not enjoy the workflow on Illustrator at the beginning
I gained weight sitting long hours at the computer

I am happy about my animation bearing in mind the time we had. I would definitely look up more for Cinema 4D usage in After Effects, I would like to make nicer shapes and drawings in illustrator. I am very happy with the result and I think I put a lot of time and effort to bring it up in a level the video is.

The Wolf of Wall Street

It is a 2013 American biographical black comedy crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay by Terence Winter is adapted from the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort and recounts Belfort's perspective on his career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm Stratton Oakmont engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street that ultimately led to his downfall.

Here I was, sitting at the desk and drawing circles around this title. I did not know where to start and I basically did a brainstorm. Draw things that I could relate to this film. I watched a documentary about the real wolf of Wall street who has represented in this adventure movie.

Okay...
I was ready to draw all props in illustrator... BUT
before that, I promised myself to find music. A soundtrack that works together with the time when these events that are represented in a film happened.

I chose
The Dead Weather - Hang You From the Heavens
But that was not it. It has a lot of lyrics and parts that were very repetitive, so I put the audio in Adobe Audition and cut it in pieces. I also add some effects on drums and edit the transitions...
I worked on levels and on stereo channels to make the video more immersive.

I actually went back time to time while I was editing the actual animation. I wanted some bits longer and some bits shorter, therefore I worked on both programs at the same time.

Next part was doing all illustrations.
I started with a bus. That's how the film starts with a young guy in an NYC bus looking for better life.

My inspiration comes from intros
Catch Me if You Can Opening Title Sequence

I liked the simple look and use of colour.
I loved the transitions the most, they are very clever and you cannot predict the next one.

Next - title sequence of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Position all layer in 3D space using After Effects was not challenging, I did it once with a bus and everything else was just natural. I got use to the points and axes very quickly.

I used some silhouettes of buildings to represent big city

All animations I keyed to change the speed more realistic.

Here I am changing speed for bus animation and camera

Many moving layers. starting from a wheel to the whole city.

I animated in a rhythm of the soundtrack. I like pop-up texts and seamless transitions for animation. I liked bright colors and very simple backgrounds. I used a lot of compositions, so the actual project contains 2D and 3D compositions. Some were moving, some were just stills moved by keyframes.

TITLES
I wanted very simple and visible font. I did large scale letters to be readable in time they are on the screen. Each title was replayed many times to make sure that it has on the screen for long time enough, but at the same time not for too long time. I find very annoying if titles are too long on the screen. I like that it is possible to read the text and still appreciate the animation.

I very liked the process of keyframing the camera angles. I have to say that the longest process in the whole project was the illustrator. I spent around 10 hours learning it and about the same time to make all shapes you can see in the next blog post.

How did my workshops start?

I believe that I was one of the last students who started work around the actual work. I did not waste my time, I simply explored as much as I could in this software I was using. I did motion tracking, 3D layers, Adobe Photoshop 2D file making into a 3D model. I learned Illustrator and add layers into After Effects. I used colour techniques, I also explored particle world effects and many text effects. I learned After Effects inside out before I took my mind around this project.

We were given a lot of technical stuff around this project, what possibilities we do have and what kind of video we can use.

CineStock by Mitch Martinez
Free 4K UltraHD Stock footage shot on RED Epic - Brought to you by Mitch Martinez
https://vimeo.com/cinestock

For Green Screen

FX - Keylight

pick the background colour

[view] - screen matte

clip black around 25

Philip explained us and showed examples of shape and text animations.

I did some techniques and push myself to do some actual tests:

Here is also things from class, what I was trying to achieve and explore from "0"

I really like the idea of moving shapes in 3D environment. THERE WAS A PROBLEM. The image software what I know very good is Adobe Photoshop. But it uses only raster graphics. I needed to learn Adobe Illustrator to work with vector graphics. The reason why, when you move raster graphics too close (zoom in) you can see pixels. Vector graphics uses only shapes which have coordinates and you can zoom edges no matter how many times.

I used UCA provided free membership for Lynda.com
I watched like a half of 17 hour and 30minutes tutorial for illustrator. It was very good and everything was explained step by step.

Now I did know how to make shape layers, different paths and actual drawings quick and neat.
I spent hours just trying. It actually is not as simple as it looks. these shapes have to been drawn on an artboard which contains specific picas and points.

It was difficult for me because I am only used to do digital graphic design on Adobe Photoshop.

After this creative work, I decided to get the brief. I chose the film "The Wolf of Wall Street". Read more in the next blog post.

Special Effects in the film industry is something that actually pulled me into this course.

I have always wanted to do some computer animated effects. I decided to go with DFSA because it included special effects and different computer-generated installation. When I was a little kid I was always amazed by all these animations, they had never been drawn on a paper. they were generated by a computer. Even now I am still amazed by this film area. I love the fact how special effects have been developed adding physics and very complicated maths to make artificial look almost real. I like the beauty of CGI that immerses the audience in this fake reality.

Adobe After Effects

This is one of the most interesting Softwares I have been using in video making. Philip thought many new things in the 1st year of DFSA. We were given basics for text animation, video digital stabilization, mapping, rotoscoping, masking and layering using different layer modes.

It was very bizarre at first but I had a huge interest in this. I fall in love with this fake reality that I can merge together with real life footage.

In my opinion, After Effects is a tool to make you vision and put something of your dreams. It is a tool that fully gives you the potential to change the reality, given material. I believe at one point I can achieve a level where it is hard to tell what is real and what is not. That's what I like about VFX. A power over others. To make them believe something that actually is not there. It makes me think that Special Effects is something very close to a chance of sharing dreams. It is my creativity, right? I can share my vision even if it is not possible in real life and represent it on a screen.

SOFTWARE

Adobe After Effects itself left my mind in a mess. I had basics... But it is a tool that can do way more than just text animations following an object in the video. The second year is the year where I actually explored it very indeed.

I got my mind around it, there are few bugs, but there are always an option to do it in a different way. I like AE, because it lets us think. there is not only one way of doing things, even technically there are many options to achieve the look you want.

The story behind unknown dreams.

There is only one concept, but two ways how to play it. Therefore I will be introducing the main idea first.

There is a guy or a girl who has danced all life. The dancer was very good at it, a talented and strong competitor to others. It wasn't only a hobby, it was a lifestyle, it was everything. Life for her or him changed in only one day. A wheelchair is not what you want in your dance career. You still can dance, but there are limits that may hold you.

DRAWING OR PAINTING?
PUPPETS?

DRAWING OR PAINTING- The Story Behind Unknown Dreams

The actor will be filmed in two different environments. First, an apartment, second the green screen studio which will be made in the post as an endless space (Dream).

1. The actor prepares his or her workspace for painting or drawing. Poors some water in the glass, takes pencils and brushes, clean the paper, find a rubber, sharpen pencils, find some colours.

2. Few strokes on the paper, a B shot and back to the drawing or painting, seeing a person who could be called a dancer.

3. At this point, the artist falls into a dream...

4. It is himself in the endless space. He or she is on the floor, slowly standing up and paying a lot of attention to leg movements.

5. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements.

6. The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast.

7. At one point it becomes so energetic and precise.

8. But... Soon he or she runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.

9. Filming face and it morphs from the dream to an apartment.

10. Next shot - slides out of this drawing or painting which already finished, and the camera reveals, that the dancer in the dream is disabled, sitting in a wheelchair. As an alternative, we can use crutches.

PUPPET THEATRE- The Story Behind Unknown Dreams

The actor will be filmed in two different environments. First, an apartment, second the green screen studio which will be made in the post as an endless space (Dream).

1. The actor prepares his or her workspace. He or she finds sewing kit, puppets, strings, a bit of paint and some glue.

2. The doll is attached to these strings. The actor paints some new facial expressions and cleans the puppet. It starts to play around with it.

3. At this point, the artist falls into a dream...

4. It is himself in the endless space. He or she is on the floor, slowly standing up and paying a lot of attention to leg movements.

5. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements.

6. The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast.

7. At one point it becomes so energetic and precise.

8. But... Soon he or she runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.

9. Filming face and it morphs from the dream to an apartment.

TECHINAL INSPIRATIONS

I chose two very different videos that represent art in different centuries. The thing that I learned comparing them, no matter how old or new is the video - the idea will live further on. It might be and most likely is done again and again in different ways, using techniques that have never seen before, using post-production that may change the original message in many forms.

Dance is a performing art. It is like an active meditation. For me personally, dance is a relaxation, it is a circulation of energy (I am using my energy into physical motion and gaining it back through happiness). In my opinion, dance is like a music, it has its sequence. Dance can be a chaotic, coordinated, performed individually or in groups - it has no boundaries. Dance can symbolize deep feelings or everyday jokes, the value of which people do not think so much facing different problems or fun situations.

FIRE FLIGHT

Fire Flight is a promotional music video featuring the dancers from The Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds, England. The project was shot on the Phantom Flex camera at 1,000 frames per second. It was produced by Ink Films (www.inkfilms.co.uk) and the creative and director by Uber Agency (www.uberagency.com).

Directors idea was to add fire in the post to make it look like dancers have been set alight. The project took just over a year to complete with 6 months being dedicated by Ben Daure to create the rendered fire in Maya. Daure had never even opened Maya before and it was Chris Birks of VTR North that showed him how to use the program allowing him to focus on creating the fire post work. The video was edited using Maya, After Effects and Adobe Premiere.

Phoenix Dance Theatre is the UK’s longest standing contemporary dance company outside of London. I think the video stands out and works for the dancers how hard-working they are... Phoenix Dance Company was formed in 1981 by David Hamilton. Almost 40 years of work has been filmed in this art-piece to reach attention to their achievements over the years.

Watching this video, I try to notice all those tools they have used to implement the movement. VFX has been used a lot and it works amazing bearing in mind that the editor has never been using Maya before. I like the fire because it reminds my eyes where the motion was a second ago. It leaves a trace after every motion the body does. It is something that performer is in front of every thought.

GIRL HUNT BALLET

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, 1953. This dance piece is from the musical film “The Band Wagon (1953)”.

First, it reminded me music videos of Micheal Jackson. It is very different from the first video. It is more theatrical performance art. The power the man use to show his personality has been reflected using the group of people. I think it reflects world's idea what makes his or her personality. It is not the position but the people who are around you. For example, the leader of the country can come in the room and no one will stand up, later on, another leader is coming in and everyone will stand up and will give an honor to him or her. It is about the respect from others not about the name of the position. In this dance video, it is well performed. The main guy is in a light gray suit. Everyone around him is in black. The red colour in the room sets the mood to anger, to some actions. He is challenged later on by a lady in red dress. That is his opportunity to be more powerful over others. He uses it and there is a competition between both dancers.

It well though out. Starting from lights and environment. Using different outfits, ages and using specific space. ending with an actual story behind it, ending with changes and interesting actions that turns out differently than expected.

As I mentioned in previous posts, our installation is presenting the result of evil behavior. It is about the communication nowadays... The source can be completely innocent so as the speaker, but the messenger is the one who makes the rules. Particularly in our installation, the way of changing the message is cleared in three ways.

Still playing with the spread of information we wanted to base the piece on the passing and delivery of words, how things said by others can’t be monitored nor controlled. In the piece, you are viewing five separate screens working as a vocal circuit. Four of the Screens act as distributors of information. Starting from the left (Screen 1) something is said, moving along it reaches the middle screen, upon receiving the news the middle screen reacts, the reaction is later heard/seen by another passing on the story. The middle screen acts as a Breeder and Target for gossip it plays a victim of rumor. Shocked by the words it has come to hear, it addresses the viewer with the words “just between you and me” in hope to seal the spreading; in natural fact, nothing stays private. The circuit loops again, middle screen reacts with anger “Beat the shit out of a pillow” yet making another headline.

CIRCUIT

I am working together with Ivan and at the very beginning, we both agreed what are our roles. Ivan is the author of pictures and digital drawings. He was in charge of characters. Meanwhile, my role was "HOW TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE?". To learn 3D animation in less than one month - I did not know how able I am to do it, so I did not risk it. So, Ivan found a solution, he showed me video of Micheal Jackson and I decide to look deeper into the production process

Having in mind this interesting video I look for another. Each video took my attention more and more.

After a good research, I found out what is Morph Motion - Still to Still. Soon I had a RE:Flex plugin on my Adobe After Effects.

I run few tests and realized that on trial version nothing is going to work. It put a huge cross over the image - watermarked.

Having this problem made me think of ways around it. So I came with a solution to generate huge pictures, edit them with the watermark and then just crop needed frame in Adobe Premiere.

I ended up with 11.5K footage on my computer. All videos and sequences were about this size leaving portrait area for FULL HD resolution. 1080x1920p PORTRAIT!

I watched tutorials how to use RE:Flex motion morph for different files - videos, still images and animations. I was very into this technique and I am glad I explored it. First tests went bad, but I got use to it. One portrait took me about 4 hours to turn sideways and open its mouth.

What motion morph does is basically takes the points defined by me and blends together with the image next. I have to go frame by frame and move shapes that are different for two frames between.

Here is a video that is taken for 4.5 hours.

In total, I made fully 6 portraits. Morphing and later on exporting through Adobe Premiere in .MOV H.264 1080x1920p 25fps.

After generating motion from still, it was time for motions. Each motion was trimmed separately like sequence. It was more like a sequence of the sequence of the sequence. Files on files.

As you can see. For each face, I had approximately 22-30 masks and each mask has to be keyframed. Well, that would be easy, but each mask, like layer for hair consisted of 200 points which need to be separately moved because masks are changing their own shape.

In my opinion, we set roles very clever. Ivan was in charge of characters. As soon as he finished one face I began to draw shapes and move pictures in After Effects. I think his process was not easier, all layers and texture took a long time. Meanwhile, I was working with different sizes, trying to figure out pixel ratio and frame times in certain seconds.

We had issues, particularly my Adobe crashed for like 5 times.

I would say that I was excited by the process learning a new technique... but closer to the end and I got very tired. Every single point needs to be checked in all frames, keyframed every single second and because of different drawings, all shapes changed their form every single frame.

It was challenging, even more, because of something I have never been aware of. I got new experience and a feeling of great teamwork.

Making the set.

No matter who you are - camera operator, director, gaffer - you have to help to make the set.

I was involved a lot. We had difficulties in human resources and because of that we had arguments and problems in further work.

I would say, making a set was the most stressful part. Okay, let's stop talking about everyone else. I was involved in...

Attaching the walls together

Scratching the walls from wallpapers left before.

Abrade the walls making smoother.

Gluing wallpaper to the wall and smoothing them out.

I help with painting walls.

If I am right the next task for me was helping with floor.

At the end me and Dan worked together.

We both installed blind holders and hanged the blinds.

Dan's task was to sort out how the TV will be installed in the wall... I helped with the solution, drew some sketches and worked on the set. I cut pieces of wood to make a gap between the wallpaper and wall behind.

After installing TV I tried to look for other small jobs to help with. It was a creative week at the end.

Next thing we had to sort out was props for the set. We went to charity shops to look for chest of drawers and lamp. Anything pastel, minimal and futuristic. We also got fake plant. Everything looked neat and natural.

As soon as set was almost fully decorated, it was Umor's part to do lightning. As camera operator, this was part that was very important for as well. I was looking what could be a problem for be, where I can move, am I not going to affect some light and cause shadows? Those were the questions I had all the time looking at Umor's job. When I was confused I talked to TJ (DoP) to update me about the scene. If I saw some difficulties for myself filming, I told TJ and Umor that it might not be the best for me.