At last, after many nights of painstaking editing and re-editing, the finished product (for now) is ready to be youtube-d 😀 Sorry for low quality:
Category Archives: Principles of Computer Graphics
Critique Ahoy!
With the just 20 days til’ Christmas, the only object darkening our horizon is the Principles of Computer Graphics critique, Todfay has been a day of furious editing, rendering, exporting and re-rendering. So much so that I had time to throw together this making-of documentary! 😀 Have a gander…
Editing proved quite difficult: blending after effect videos with real footage wasnt so much the issue, but the main problem we had , due to transfer of pre-rendered footage, was a steady decrease in quality. After numerous edits, re-edits and exports, the final film was looking rather sorry for itself. However, for a basic youtube video, this wasn’t so much of a problem.
We’ll be right back after these messages…
After several weeks of semi-frinzied activity, its about time another blog post surfaced! The main focus of our work of late has been our “Night Out” Project for the Principles of Computer Graphics module, a brief outline of which as been given in my previous post.
The original concept came from an idea of Rob’s of using iPads as a transition between scenes and locations. Upon expressing this idea, our friend Dan showed us the music video for “Good Feeling” by Rapper Flo Rida (the scene of interest starts at 0:43):
The idea grew, and started to evolve into the idea of what our personal ideal night out would be like. Rob and I share a like of Rock and Metal music: in the local area, “Sound Circus,” a Metal/Alternative club, definitely catered to our tastes more than other clubs (not to say they aren’t good :P).
We initially approached Sound Circus proprietor Keith Grant about filming inside The Circus, but after no response, we had to rethink our strategy. Up until this point, we wrote the idea based around my personal night out experience.
However, finding a person who accurately fits both my physical appearance and personality, we opted to adjust the script to fit the actor playing the Protagonist, in order to give it a more personal feeling, and to be more immersive for the audience.
With scripting being complete AND ongoing, auditioning is still underway, and with the iPad, updating and changing the script on the fly is s breeze, thanks to the EXTREMELY useful Celtx app for the iPad: a (free for pc) program with presets for screenplays, stageplays and radio plays etc, that makes writing on the move a breeze. You can find it here: http://celtx.com/mobile.html
Oooh, and here’s a copy of the script 😀 written by yours truly:
More updates will follow as the project commences 😀
Designing “The Madhouse”
What better name for a student underground bar than The Madhouse; a name that contours up images of men frothing at the mouth, spasmng wildly, and having unhealthy thoughts about their own mothers: so basically your average club then ^^. All joking aside though, when it came to designing the Madhouse, almost every detail had to be considered: who were the typical clientele, what should these or be like, what kind of music is played etc.
Thoughts such as these had to balanced against what could be feasibly done. As nice as Richard Gerrard had been about us renting out the Loft, I doubt any of the SU staff wold have been pleased to find us removing furniture, changing light bulbs and setting up a DJ booth and sound system (although all of the above were considered).
In order to at least superficially implement the design aesthetic we had in mind, our first step was to design logos, posters and flyers (which will show up somewhere in the blog no doubt). I.n the end, we decided too tone down the hardcore, underground nature of the club in favour of more relaxed, rock club environment, much like The Inferno on old christchurch road in Bournemouth.
This made our job a lot easier, as the decor would not need such heavy adjusting, and we could take control of the lighting to achieve he desired effect. Originally intended for a heavy red colour scheme, the lighting plan evolved into a less aggressive Purple-based palette of blues and reds, win a few greens for balance. Although more generic, the new design scheme was designed to be a lot less threatening, and more friendly to a camera lens, especially if we wanted to use the GO PRO-HD Hero that Rob had been advocating. Whether or not this wold prove to be a fatal move is anyone’s guess….
This concludes todays instalment 😀 til next time!
Thunderbirds Are Go!
Exciting times on the POCG module! A venue has been booked! (huzzah!) After out initial rebuttle by Sound Circus, which definitely put a damper on our enthusiasm, we noticed, on a menu in the loft, that it could be booked out by students for private events! And possibly for free no less! Struck by an ingenious thought.
Enquiries were made, emails were sent, egos were flattered, and thanks to the extremely helpful Richard Gerrard, manager of Dylan’s bar and the Loft at BU, we had ourselves a venu, booked from 6:00pm onwards on Thursday the 24th November 😀
With this secured, the second phase of our plan came into play: making our own club. With Sound Circus unavailable to use, we decided to recreate a venue at the Loft, using lighting, selective audio and a crowd: that way we could have full creative control on a safe, controlled environment, where we could capture the frenetic atmosphere of a club using extras, therefor significantly reducing the risk to personnel and equipment.
So, now that that’s out of the way, it’s full steam ahead as we design our perfect club.
The Story so far…
Well, on the POCG module (not very catchy is it? XD), it’s full steam ahead! With the script written, and our concept nailed down, the process of casting has begun 😀 the role of the main character is still being debated by Rob and myself, as, in the script, the main character was based around me. In order for him to be portrayed accurately, it would be far easier to adjust the script to the actor playing the character, in order to make it authentic as possible.
As it stands, 3 candidates are in mind for the main character: Rob’s housemate Jack Sleeman, Rob’s friend Tom Harrison, or Me/Rob (who also could step up the the plate, as this was a joint vision of what we consider a good night out)
Other characters have set themselves: the Fergus character, written around Robs housemate Fergus Coltsmann, has agreed to play the role. The role of lead female is currently a toss up between Kate Copsey, a friend of Rob, and our coursemate Kai. After much deliberatiob, I decided fo scratch the role of “Damien, the nutter.” A dynamic of 4 guys, each with their own niche, seemed to have a nice feel to it, while having 5, and the camera character in the film, will just end up being cluttered.
After all, look at shows like The Inbetweeners and The Big Bbg Theory, where the programs focus on a group of 4 young men….could it be that 4, not 3, is the magic number?…
The Perfect Night Out
CGI. Computer Graphics. Films from the Lord of the Rings to Avatar have all been brought to life by the digitally generated image. In the industry companies such as Framestore use software like Houdini, Silhouette, Nuke and Mya to visualise, create and render such images for use in blockbuster productions, but for us lowly DMP, Adobe After Effects is the staple of our CGI production.
For our first soirée into Computer Graphics, we were tasked with producing a short film/video/animation on that which most students live for: The Perfect Night Out. You can find our brief for it here
Although initially tasked to work on our own, fellow DMP student Rob Moore and I decided to work together after a confluence of ideas. You can find his blog here. In addition to getting on well with him, the guy has worked extensively with After Effects, and has a wealth of Production resources and knowledge that have already enriched the project. Among his greatest contributions to my personal knowledge include works by the YouTube based film team “FilmRiot”:
FilmRiot short film “LOSSES”:
FilmRiot Tutorial on DIY Special Effects:
From the get-go, we really wanted to use our iPads for this project: not just for planning on the go etc, but also for use in filming and post production: camera remote, iMovie,app etc. Naturally, filming with it is far from easy, especially when working around the general public.
A little research into typical footage surrounding “The Night Out” naturally led us first to promotional footage. Having recently atended the Bedlam Event in Bournemouth’s 02 academy, I was eager to see what promotional material was used for that: VJing and the use of imagery is always present in live music, especially at the Bedlam events:
Tracking!
Motion tracking: for some, it’s making a “Shoop Da Woop” Laser face stick to your finger while you move it around the screen. For others, it is a relatively easy way of creating surprisingly sophisticated CGI which stands up on the big screen.
For this particular Tutorial, we once again had the enviously talented Elliot Trent (who’s work you can find here: Elliott Trent) who gave us a brief but valuable tour around After Effects, and the principles of tracking. Granted, there were more than a few puzzled faces, mine included, but to be fair it’s quite an advanced concept for someone who’s never used after effects, which made the successful completion of my first motion track all the sweeter .’D
Motion tracking on After Effects works around a fairly simple principle: a tracking point locks onto a colour that stands out from its surroundings, and attempts it follow it around the screen as the scene progresses.
It requires creating a null object (an invisible object that exists purely for the sake of tracking). Within that object is the tracking point, which you assign to the pigmented area, and assign a small search area around it to allow the tracking point to try and find the spot if it loses the spot.
The effect has its limitations of course: make the tracking point too large and it’ll easily get lost; the same applies for making the search area too large. In either case, when the image starts moving too quickly for the point to track, then it will quickly lose its way. For faster images, a larger tracking point and search area is required, but at the expense of accuracy.
After a small amount of trial and error, I successfully managed to tack on a laser-face to my finger via a tracking point, which worked very well 😀
Pegg’s wild and wacky ride through Motion graphics
As ever, the legendary Chris Pegg has led us forward into a new specialisation within After Effects: that of looping background animations. Many side-scrolling games, old and New, rely upon layers backgrounds in order to convey a sense of depth and scale, and while the more simplistic ones have flat, one dimensional backgrounds, most try to use multiple-faceted backdrops incorporating looping, individual animations and continuous background images that could scroll across to represent the movement of the player, or “Sprite”.
In this exercise, Pegg challenged us to create our own backdrops and animate them. Initially, we had to come up with 3 individual backdrop ideas, then choose one, create it in photoshop, then render and animate it in after effects.
My 3 ideas
The trick to creating a successful, intricate backdrop appears to be having as many successfully rendered, independent layers and parts, so that you can give the background a sense of activity and life, which makes it more realistic to the gamer, regardless of graphics. More independent layers will create the illusion of depth of field, and even on side scrolling, 2D games, multiple layers can create quite an impressive effect…
In this case, a lot of different layers of forest background have been captured with a 3D camera and have been pinned to a fixed aspect, so as the sprite moves across the world, the background alters according to the P.O.V of the player character. This technique allows independent game developers to create visually impressive games using fairly basic game design packages such as Blender, Unity 3D or GameMaker, which in turn is fuelling the Indie Game industry.
The Fascination with Stop Motion
Well friends, today highlighted an interesting undercurrent in Digitally Manipulated Imagery: Stop Motion.
Stop motion is essentially a film comprising of a series of still images. It is an older method of film-making, often used in conjunction with creative mediums such as clay (Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run, Art Attack) or wood or even Lego blocks.
It was used to represent scenes that would have been impossible to create with (then) contemporary special effects in conjunction with real actors/locations. Such were the surreal/fantastical settings and scenarios (a dog fixing a boiler) that the creative medium was completely embraced and accepted by the audience.
However, today, computer graphics are sufficiently advanced to completely digitally render scenes, characters and locations, theoretically rendering the need for traditional stop motion photography obsolete in a largely digital film industry.
However, it is still in wide use in television, advertising and, some extent, film. Films such as “Chicken Run” and “Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit” were filmed completely in clay animation. The reason it seems, is simple: clever charm.
Detractors from Modern Computer Generated Graphics often state that it lacks “soul”: referring Ito the cold, completely digital image that lacks the “warmth” of 35mm film or the physical nature of the set and projected image.
Although today, modern CGI is almost hyper-realistic, and easily capable of imitating real scenes, early CGI was indeed sterile and un-realistic, and seemingly lacking the dedication and effort required of clay animation, where every movement had to be painstakingly modelled and photographed, with Continuity being a major concern.
The continued use of “Claymotion” in the film industry today seems to be born purely of nostalgia for older films. Indeed, no major stop motion films have been made since 2004, mainly due to the incredible quality of CGI today. But in mainly Internet videos, including advertisements, but especially personal artistic projects, there is still a fascination with Stop Motion production techniques, mainly due to the appeal to younger audiences.
The reason, again for this, is whimsy.
-UNFINISHED-
pneumatictuna 