Time Art Is Finally Over!

So it's finally over with and I have never been more relieved, lots of trial and error and far too much time exporting. (9:18pm - 2:15pm rending into png + 1h rending into mov).

I used a variety of effects on the assumption that individually the effects are quite simple so together they couldn't be that difficult. I created a force field with ripple, I added a lightening effect to my hand and tracked it, I found a great tutorial on how to create the 'Matrix' effect [x] and managed to get a free trial of particular to put that in action. I then tracked and masked the effect onto my hand (rather badly in the end, my poor computer really wasn't up this task but you can't download any programs/plug-ins on the Uni computers). After this effect I used the magic/energy effect I practiced earlier in the month and matched the two screens up so that partial world would transition between the two.

The final effect that I used (aside from colour correction/pentatone) was the energy ball,  had already the energy ball about a month ago and recently tried tracking it to my hand as practice for After Effects. However when practicing I decided that adding a shadow beneath would be really effective, I had to look at a lot of different tutorials which included pre-composing the orb scene and adding a floor layer and making that and the orb a 3D layer, after doing this and adding a light I had a shadow. This was the first time I had ever worked in a 3D space with my own footage and it was proving difficult.

When I finally cracked this effect I was so happy, this had taken hours of trying different things and I was having real problems with the preview screen since the rest of the project was so big my computer just didn't have enough RAM to cope with it. So after all that time adding the shadow I had to get rid of it before exporting because my computer just wasn't going to cope with it, especially with the idea of having the track the camera, 3D layer and 3D orb.

Overall this project wasn't as straight forward as I expected and caused a lot of problems and really tested my ability for time management (and even though I tried and it would have worked but I was over estimating my abilities in AE). If I were to do it again I would do it on a more powerful machine so I could preview the footage properly, I would try to get a lot closer with the edges of the masks and I would just be overall a lot cleaner with the execution of the effects. I would also not do it one long take, that was a very stupid idea, I do not know why I did it. 

I tried and this time you can judge me....

So I finally booked out two cameras, set them up and started trying to frame my twin screen correctly. On Thursday I thought I had it cracked but at this point the sun had gone in  meaning my shoot for the day was over, however I was so sure that the framing was correct I just didn't move the cameras from their spots or the markers on the wall (post-it notes, anything else and accommodation would kill me). Come Friday I came home and immediately started shooting only to import the footage to find out one camera was shooting in the wrong resolution (I know, I know never assume. I'm starting to learn my lesson!), I re-shot straight away and when replaying I thought that would be final shoot.

I imported the footage and everything seemed fine, I then decided I would edit the footage over the weekend and work on some other things that night. Now I'm here with the 'perfect' footage realising it's not so perfect because basic maths exists and I didn't use it. 

I framed the cameras so the middle edges of the cameras matched up so when my arm went though it was pretty seamless aside for the slight difference that really can't be helped. What I didn't take into account was the 20px gutter that would separate the two screens in the final composition, meaning when the gutter was in place the screens just looked odd. Here was this one arm that should have been passing through the screens but instead was getting cut off at one point, carried over and continuing.... it looked weird basically.  

I tried to fix it in AE but the only way I could do it was by zooming in on one side and zooming out on the other meaning they were out of proportion and one had a slight border. So tomorrow I re-film (thankfully this is only a shot piece) and I leave a slight gap between the cameras. I will eventually crack this project, it will happen. Preferably sooner rather than later. 

I tried therefore no-one can judge me!

So I sat down with my own camera again and played around with filming the 2 screen part of the project with just one camera... which could have went better.

I want to film my project with a neutral background that has flaws in someway (dents or scratches, not completely noticeable but there nonetheless) I think a perfect background (like a studio space) would take away the grounded look I want it to have so people associate it with humans rather than robots. The idea for this piece is that as human we invite technology into our lives and eventually they will take over the spaces that we inhabit.

Filming two parts that have to match up perfectly proved difficult although I didn't realise how much so until I got to editing. I decided to edit each segment individually, pre-compose and then add everything together at the end however I didn't get past the first scene because whilst filming I had managed to change my position making me a bit closer to the camera than I was when shooting the left side of the screen, I also moved faster and didn't match up with the other side. I tried editing them in different ways, scaling up/down, changing the speed ect. But honestly it just seems more trouble than it's worth when the same effect can be made by simply putting two cameras next to each other.

I did get some bits to match up but only for a few seconds before they were out of time again, although they did look pretty cool when they matched up.

Now tomorrow I'm going to ask in the equipment store if they can help me out with 2 cameras (that film video) and hopefully I'll get filming this project over with so I can get started on the fun part - actually editing it. I'm quite surprised at how excited I am to see this project turn out, on the condition that from this point onwards nothing and I mean nothing at all goes wrong. But let's be honest it's inevitable.

Time Art Practice

So after trying and failing to film my Time Art piece over the weekend (Note to self: Never assume anything, you will pick up the only cameras that don't shoot video) I felt like I should be doing something somewhat productive in regards to my twin screen projects. Now I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do and a very badly drawn storyboard to back it up but I've never actually use the effects I'm planning to use. They seem pretty simple and I'm competent enough in After Effects now to work out problems when they arise and try new things that tutorials may not cover.

I took my own DSLR and set up the worlds worst studio in my bedroom (equipment consisting of a desk lamp, tripod and camera against a cream wall) and started filming a vague idea of what I storyboarded. I then imported into AE and just got to work, playing around with what I can do and basically doing what I wanted, my ultimate dream in life, I gave myself magical powers.

The tutorial I was following was useful for getting the idea but the guy was using stock footage that I didn't have access too so I had to play around with what I had already learnt in AE and see what happened. I ended up using partial world and a new generator I hasn't used before to create lighting effects, this added with a bit of colour correcting and a 'mystical atmosphere' called quad-toning I made it appear as if I was deflecting magic.

Whilst it sped up a lot when exporting (I still need to figure out why) I'm pretty pleased with it for a first attempt.

I then took a magic orb I created a while ago and decided to make it hover on my hand as if I was the one creating it. Here I was focusing more on making the orb look as if it belonged in the shot than the accuracy of the tracking hence why the exit is a bit dodgy but again I'm pretty proud of the result, now I only need to figure out how to add a hovering shadow beneath it and I think it'll fit into my twin screen nicely.

I'm going to keep playing around in AE with different tutorials I've found in the hopes that I can use everything in my final edit, I have the Panasonic until Friday and after speaking with Simon I think I've came up with a way of filming using just 1 camera instead of 2 - hopefully this will work. We'll see!

Time Art Brainstorming

So I did a bit of brainstorming and I've finally had a breakthrough with what I want to make my Twin Screen Project about! I got the idea from one of Bills lectures when we were talking about dystopian lands and how we rely on computers so much in futuristic settings. My idea is show the connection between humans and robots and have a narrative following a person as they slowly turn into a robot. A person will reach from one screen where they are human into the other where whatever they are showing the 2nd screen (Hand, foot ect..) has a robotic feature. As the piece goes on their feature will get more and more robotic until the final scene in which they reach back into the original screen (where they would normally turn back to 'human' features) and their robotic feature stays the same.

Now that's very wordy but like I said at the moment it's just an idea, I'll be working on this a lot more when I've made the final edit of my photography project which should be complete soon.

I tried!

So when I first set out to learn After Effects I was pretty useless (and still am, let's not get ahead of ourselves), but I am getting better. However after hearing from the class that the Set Extension tutorial would prove difficult I sat down only to fall at the first hurdle. I was trying to do the Optics compensation and I did everything that the tutorial was telling me to but it just wasn't looking the same or even remotely similar. 

What I was supposed to get

What I actually got, a zoomed in version of the original clip

That aside I have been playing around with AE in my own time and created a 'Magic Orb' thanks to a tutorial on VideoCoPilot, I never finished the entire tutorial (It was supposed to zoom through the sphere but AE wasn't having any more rendering that night) but I did like the effect I got in the end.

I also exported some of the files we've been working on in class, here is the 3D text trial and the Mocha trial.

So there's a bit of an update, I do now have an idea for my time art project and I'm currently researching around it, if it's possible and starting to storyboard the idea.