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Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly / 0354180
Motion Graphics and Compositing / Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
PROJECT 2: COMPOSITING EXERCISES
Table of contents
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
Week 6 - Week 7 - Week 8 - Week 9 - Week 10
3.1 Rotoscoping & Camera Tracking
1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)
This is the Module Information Booklet for this module:
2. LECTURES & ACTIVITIES
Week 6
This week we played around with the 3D camera in AE added text with different distances to achieve a depth of field effect .
After that, we started to edit our rotoscoping and camera tracking video that we took from last week.
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/VZb7HI6F6H0
Then, before we went back home, we showed our progress on our proposal.
Feedback:
- Idea for the motion graphic is nice.
- Maybe try to storyboard first then we'll see.
Week 7
This week, we started on our SFX exercise where we'd use Blender and AE combined to create an interesting video of a robot tracked to the floor of a video that Mr. Martin provided us. However, whilst working on it together in class, we encountered problems in Blender that led to postponing the exercise to next week as Mr. Martin tried to figure out what was wrong with the steps. The main thing we had a problem with were the textures and shadows as during class, everyone experienced a sort of glitch where you could only have one or the other present.
Week 8
This week, we continued working on what we stopped on last week. This time though, we started from a different footage of the Taylor's campus. The process was slightly the same as last week's with a bit of change in settings like for the shaders and all. We first tried to make the robot static to the ground to see if the exporting and shader methods worked or not.
Then for next week, we'd start to animate it landing and adding effects to it.
Week 9
I couldn't go to class this week because of transport problems. Because of this, I mostly focused on working up on backlogged assignments. I asked my classmate, Janaan, for anything I'd missed during class which turns out, they continued working on the Blender tracking exercise because last week's session had a problem with animating in Blender.
Week 10
Since I'd miss class last week, I tried to catch up on what I'd miss which wasn't too much since I had to only animate the robot landing within the Blender file then export it to AE. My first attempt was quite slow in the landing motion, according to Mr. Martin, so I adjusted the speed and keyframes to make the robot land more quicker and have its motion on the ground be more jittery.
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/ui5oFk5EyUI
Then, before we went back home, we showed our progress on our proposal.
Feedback:
- The mood board makes idea look promising.
- Looking forward to see how everything will turn out.
3. PROGRESSION
3.1 Rotoscoping & Camera Tracking
We recorded a very short pose video outside the classroom and used that footage for the exercise. Then, I learnt how to use the rotoscoping tool to get the mask of the subject to then create a track-matte where the graphics we'd downloaded would be added into. I played around with the colours of the video to match with the vibe of the pose and graphics.
Then, we tracked sunglasses onto the video to practice our tracking skills. I'd previously done a lot of camera tracking during my freelance work so it was quite easy and straihtforward to work with.
Fig 3.1.2 Tracking glasses.
Afterwards, I chose a song that fit the "pop" part of the video and I decided to use a piece from a movie's soundtrack: "Cannister Catch" in the Project Hail Mary Movie Soundtrack.
Music Link: https://share.google/dGp5L9va9QIrU3Cuq
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/VZb7HI6F6H0
3.2 SFX
Starting off the exercise, Mr. Martin basically walked us through the process during class. We'd do the same tracking we'd done previously but now we did it in 3D. So the start had many tiny tracking dots that we had to select in order to add in a solid that convincingly tracked with the movement of the video.
We then brought the tracking footage into Blender via some scripting and added our preferred 3D robot model into the Blender file.
Note: In Fig 3.2.3, the file glitched and footage of the original video was corrupted hence the purple rectangle.
At this point, we'd all restarted the work because of some problems we had faced with shaders and textures that didn't let us render the file as what we wanted. So, we'd use a different footage altogether but applied the same similar steps from the previous work.
After successfully fixing our problems with the shaders, we exported the footage from Blender into AE to see how well it'd fit into the original footage.
After making sure everything worked well on the static robot, we'd started to bring in the animation. The plan was to animate the robot landing and have a bit of animation as it "jiggies" on the ground. My first attempt was quite slow in the landing motion, according to Mr. Martin, so I adjusted the speed and keyframes to make the robot land more quicker and have its motion on the ground be more jittery.
After finishing up the animation, I'd exported it all into AE (which took about an hour to render everything; shadows and all) and started to edit in the effects into the composition. To my surprise, one of the effects' file size was really big since it was basically a very detailed smoke effect. To make it more believable, I had to edit in keyframes for the opacity and scale of some of the effects. Of course, I'd also parented them to the tracking solid so that they followed the movement of the camera too.
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/ui5oFk5EyUI
3.3 Final Project Proposal
For the final project I'd already had an idea/movie in mind to make an intro for. But before that, I'd try to consider some other ideas for the project too. In mind, I had three different media choices:
Project Hail Mary - Movie
Mob Psycho 100 - Animated Series
The Nice Guys - Movie
File 3.3.1 Final Project Initial Ideas [PDF]
From there, I'd finalise on working on the Project Hail Mary idea because it was and still is sort a hyperfixation of mine and I almost couldn't go a day without consuming media of the movie ; whether it be posts or drawings. So, I developed the idea further into a more sound and detailed proposal that focused on my art direction of the video which was to make it a sort of retro-futuristic kind of vibe with the graphics.
Below is the final version of the proposal for my final project:
File 3.3.2 Final Project Proposal [PDF]
Google Drive View Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pTX2Isu8LVXZadnvm_OOD3RsXdgKmZjY/view?usp=sharing
4. FINAL
4.1 Rotoscoping & Camera Tracking
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/VZb7HI6F6H0
4.2 SFX
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/ui5oFk5EyUI
4.3 Final Project Proposal
File 4.3.1 Final Project Proposal [PDF]
Google Drive View Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pTX2Isu8LVXZadnvm_OOD3RsXdgKmZjY/view?usp=sharing
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For the full project files of the project, you can view in the link below.
Google Drive Folder Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11XlbOoPmd-gQMiyc3ppN0t_nC6AMkN0s?usp=drive_link
5. REFLECTION
The exercises for this project at the start felt quite simple with the rotoscoping and camera tracking. It was only when we started the second exercise that it started to be a bit more complicated. I had a hard time adjusting to the Blender UI since I'd only used Maya previously and they both have very different interfaces and controls. At some point, I'd accidentally activated a mode in Blender that confused me 10x more but thankfully I managed to get back to the normal UI afterwards with some help from my classmate.
As for the Proposal, I created it with excitement because all three ideas were things I was interested in and had ideas for quite a while. So to lay them out in a proposal-like format for the initial ideas was fun and made me think that maybe I could bring forward the unused ideas someday and create something on my own accord. The idea I'd chosen though (Project Hail Mary) was the most certain thing I'd thought of when we were given the brief about the final project. I love the film to the moon and back so it was exciting to hear that we had freedom for our choice in the final project!
Overall, I'm satisfied with the things I'd done in this project and am gladly looking forward to the final project!
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