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Well I did in fact complete my 45 second advert in it's entirety inside After Effects, a risky, foolhardy task for me to take on indeed... Yet some how it payed off :) I received quite a lot of positive feedback from fellow students on the quality level of the piece, helping reassure me that it wasn't a complete amateur disaster lol. The advert has resulted in a mixture kinetic typography and sci-fi interface elements, assets derived from live-action green-screen, motion graphics, text, particles and camera flares. I believe it efficiently display ATRG's core framework and existing achievements, while simultaneously branding them as an exciting futuristic institution with impending innovation for investors. I'm glad that my After Effects project for the year is over and am looking forward to concentrating on my camera skills, ie. interviews, cinematography and documentary for the second half of the year. Bring on the end! Here is the extended addition for my personal us...

I have completed various mock up designs for scene one and two of my promotional advert to get an idea of the logistics behind my project, I believe I am going to have to produce one scene at a time and then dynamically link the pre- compositions after with a 3D camera in after effects: I have also begun arranging suitable locations to film my sports performance scenes in, I am in the process of talking with Clair Moore, the head manager at NTU's city campus gym to see if I can get permission to film in there with my actor and cameraman. A green screen session has also been arranged for next week. Other than that I have been on the lookout for good textures to incorporate into After Effects assets. A selection of my favourite are below:  

 After my initial inspiration search I began to brainstorm some rough ideas to incorporate into my kinetic typography themed promotional adverts, this included keys words and actions I wanted expressed in the lenghth of 45 seconds. Integrated Electronics (word), After Effects electric particles, Heart beat monitor, Sports Performance, Thermal Glove and Effect, Beating heart, World map for security tagging, Green screen cloths, Character Profiles, Green screen Narrator, Mechanical Arm, Computer Chip, Company Logo, Silhouettes, Puzzle Pieces, Futuristic, Scientific. Fabrics. I then went about formatting my ideas into a coherent structure by means of video story boarding, action and sounds are both displayed. My advert will have approximately  six scenes running at an estimated five to ten seconds each. sd jjs

As the brief consists of showing a slick, stylish advert and the company in question is very tech  oriented, I believe displaying the majority of my advert via after effects would be suitable. This would allow the integration of futuristic looking visuals and fast-paced titles, content that would not be possible or practical to capture in live-action. I want to integrate live action footage, effects and titles in the spirit of kinetic typography... In the sense that each scene will transition dynamically to the next one via a camera movement or effect to create a fast-paced visually intense advert.  Here are some kinetic typography examples which sparked up a fair few ideas for title movements and backgrounds : Notice the way something is always moving to retain the atmosphere,I particularly like the way the gunpowder streak in the batman kinetic typography leads to the next word, I believe i can achieve something similar but with electric current to representing the company...

Just some more after effects practice I did over the Holiday to stop myself from stagnating, they consist of title intros, flare elements and some 3D practice. I did a lot which I won't bore you with sharing on here, let's just say particular has given me some good ideas for year 3 :) Retro/Futuristic Title Intro   Planets Align

There has been heaps of development since the last design practise 3 post I wrote here, two separate filming sessions have gone by, scenes have been built up in after effects and tweaked. Finally new ideas entirely for scenes have formed around the development of my existing ideas and I'm working on incorporating them into the 4 and half minute music video. Lets start with the filming sessions as that's a chronologically suitable place to start: my first session fell last Wednesday and was a combined arrangement by me, Jordan Brooks and Joe Burns, we helped each other set up equipment and act/model in each others videos. The lightning went well, we had an evenly lit green screen with no shadows and a correct exposure on the 7D. A main outstanding problem I believe disrupted filming and limited what I could achieve was the inherent time restrictions we had on our DSLR camera. I hate being rushed and that's exactly what it f...

Now that my Influence search is over I brainstormed what it was that I actually wanted to do, these ideas are far and wide and completely preliminary. It is to be noted that I have selected my music track, the track I have chosen to accompany my visuals is track 8, mainly for its slower pace and sadder tone, which believe will match my visuals betters. Brainstorm ideas include: Time lapse streets/cars and people, time lapses with stills, sky changes colour, travelling through 3d corridors, travelling through 3d with stills, travelling through 3D with green screen person, particle effects, energy effects ,3d earth, spinning stars, mirrors, running from mirror, surrounded by mirror, alive in mirror, ambiguous light, ipod style movement, static on a tv, cloning objects, white stripes style scaling, ink blotches and primitive shapes. Obviously they wont all be included but I have some good ideas to go on. Here is a mock up video for some of my ideas including mirrors...

Yep, so After Effects had pretty much been my creative zen this past week, I'm working under the philosophy that It'll be less painful to learn now than a year down the road, when the vast majority of employers and clients are going to want to see evidence of AE competency... film and visual effects are becoming ever more intertwined and I believe it's a necessity to understand both in this modern society. More importantly though I want to gain a greater understanding of how this technology can be incorporated into my projects personally. How can I work out future scenes if I don't realise what AE is capable of? I'm finding it quite complex at the moment, more so then any other program I've used (bar 3ds MAX), but that's fine as it is in fact widely considered a steep learning curve for most beginner. So all in all I feel that I can gradually build up my knowledge of the program through online tutorials...

Just a really crude test of parenting in Adobe after effects, got the basic grasp of pivot points and their hierarchical structure now, could be useful for special effects, titles and credits in future projects Justin Bieber robot?

So during Thursday's seminar we were set some rather interesting tasks, we were put into groups and had to film an exterior and interior shot that screamed metaphor, which in practice helped us think about composition, we had to film a classic three point lighting scene to develop understanding of light and finally an interview on the move. I enjoyed this session and hope for more like them, If it was up to me my university course would be nothing but these 'down to earth' sort of practical sessions, I learnt much more about the cameras, lighting and composition in this session than in the first month of lectures combined, very useful. I brought home the raw footage from the session and basically took the opportunity to have a mess around and test out my new Quadcore I7 desktop rendering speeds, Its not at all serious but I had some immature fun editing it.