Resub// CG on Live action

My CG on live action file broke and I had no way to recover it so I'm going to explain the way I did it before it broke. Firstly I had to get my boxhead character spaceship to perform a simple drop in, in maya, by way of making a simple vertical moving down animation. Once with was done I had to use a virtual camera on Maya to record this animation, so what I would be left with is a black screen with a small red spaceship descending into it. This was saved as an image sequence.

Above is what I was left with after taking the animation into after effects. Now it was time to layer this onto the live action footage I had so it would look like the alien ship is dropping down onto the actor below.

I then added some shadows too make it look a bit more realistic. I would have liked to have spent more time on this as towards the end of doing these visual I actually started to enjoy it, but under the pressure of resubmission it was hard to enjoy it fully. 

ResubPPP// Filminute

After being sent a link to this I decided to enter it with something I had been putting together for fun in the previous weeks. The video i had been making was mostly just to get me to grips with premiere pro but as I learned more and more about the program the video started to evolve and I thought it would be a good idea to submit it

The video is mostly moving mirrored panning shots which i have edited together so they flow into one another, and I experimented with the mirror tool and key framing the the opacity to create some interesting effects. Here are some screen shots:

ResubPPP// The Film Till Now

 The Film Till Now is a book I have recently started reading which gives a vast and intricate look at film from its start to now. My first impressions are that Richard Griffith and Paul Rotha know exactly what they are talking about and from what I've read share a lot of the same opinions as I do, about how the industry is developing and the dangers and threats to good quality motion pictures. I did a bit of research on the book as well and this book is essentially the filmmakers bible to quote the author of the blurb, so this encourages me that i'm looking at a credible source.

I plan on studying this book heavily throughout the rest of the summer and next year as I think it could hold a lot of interesting secrets that maybe others (threats) may not know about either. I also think I need to start reading more again as books hold such a fountain of knowledge that won't be hampered by a poor internet connection or running out of battery, like most things these days do. There are also many chapters in this book which I'm looking forward to reading, such as, The American Film. As we all know Hollywood has dominated the film industry since, almost, it began, and because of this i am fascinated by the world of Hollywood and the immense value and quality of their pictures. But as I have already read there are many people in the industry who's only concern is too churn out pictures that only appeal to the widest audience to get the maximum amount of revenue. I totally agree with Griffiths here that, that is a terrible way to make a movie as it pushes out the artists and visionaries who want to make a film because they want to say something or make a work of art because they love films.

I'm also interested in the British film section as despite Hollywoods dominance I still think Britain can contest America for greatest film producing country. A modern example of how these two countries rival each other is in films like 'This is The End' and 'The Worlds End' both seem to be similar movies but with a british or american take. I haven't seen either but I've seen others which have precluded these and despite the general hilarity of the american ones I think the cleverer and more relatable british films are better, such as 'Hot Fuzz' and 'Shaun of the Dead', as opposed too american films like 'Pineapple Express' and 'Knocked Up' which are both hilarious films are both are well made, but don't have the same level of comedy that the other two do. It may be because i'm british but in 'Shaun of the Dead' for example, there are many 'easter eggs' and things you may miss the first time round watching. For instance in 'Shaun of the Dead' Ed points out a man in the pub called 'Snakehips' and that 'he's constantly surrounded by women''. Later on in the movie when they're all making their way back to the pub to hunker down. Lizz asks shaun if they're close, to which the camera pans to the body of 'Snakehips' who is being eaten by only female zombies. It doesn't seem like much but I think its these little details which makes these films better.

I plan on reading this book much more fully in the coming year as it seems that it could be very helpful.

Resub// Compositing

After completing the live action on live action it was time to move on to the live action on CG background. The first step for this was to key out the character from the green screen background. After having done this before I found this straightforward and it took a lot less time to acquire a well keyed out character.

I also had to make a background for the clip to be composited onto. The background was made in Maya with the cube tool and hyper shade and I think provides a rugged simple background for the actor to stand against. Its important to change the colour between the wall and the floor as it adds a better depth of field

I was going to add some shadows but there already appears to be some at the actors feet so I thought it was best to leave the shadows incase i added some which didn't blend with the environment or the original shadows.

This was a simple enough process to get my head around but I know now that I can definitely take these skills to the next level with some more practice, and apply these skills to future pieces of work. 

However I know I have to get better at this as my CG will look too much like its CG and then ruin the film and make me look like a hypocrite. But as long as its done well  I can get away with some green screen.

Resub// Spaceship and Character design.

For the CG on CG and Live action on CG portions of the module I have decided to take a very much simplistic approach as I can't operate maya to an acceptable standard any more, after much time way from it. However simplistic doesn't mean bad and I'm obtaining influence from an internet game called Boxhead. The design of their characters is very simple but works really well in a low resolution game environment

Above is a video of boxhead zombies. Doesn't look similar to mine really but it was the simplicity of the design which I took inspiration from. The animation was also very simple which again I took inspiration from as I'm not the best at it.

These screen shots are showing the development from the drawings I have shown previously of blockman. Like I said I have taken a more of a minimalist approach this time as time is against me. So I decided to go with the Blockman idea. I just simply create a cube on maya. Then I used to insert edge loop tool to create two squares on the front face, from which I could extrude eyes and eyebrows from. As the blockman design is very simple I decided to extend this principal to the spaceship and simply extrude two of the sides, narrow them a bit at the ends, and then create a tail out of a bit more extruding of the shapes left on the back face by the insert edge loop tool. The eyes were simple enough, two spheres, which were then inserted into the block eyes.











The next stage was to colour the blocks with something a bit more interesting than the stock grey. I decided to use toon shaders again as my skills with texturing are about as good as my maya skills. I used the colour from the examples I had drawn to get the scheme accurate then I used the toon shader to mirror the ones from my own swatch,

The colours definetly bring the block to life especially when you select the front face of the eye and change it white, I also changed the pupil black so you could see it against the white.

 I think I prefer the red most for the spaceship and I dont know if the colour of the ship necessarily dictates the colours of the little cubes.

I prefer the difference in colour on the blue and It might show up better against the live action background

 All the greens are too similar, resulting in little definition. So I wont use this colour scheme for the ship.

The white of the eyes shows up really well on the green so i'm going to make one of the cubes green.

As they show up so well here as well Im going to have one of the cubes blue and the final one red all in a red space ship.

ResubPPP// SWOT Analysis of myself.

SWOT Analysis

S - Strengths
W - Weaknesses
O - Opportunities
T - Threats

I've never felt that comfortable with evaluating myself as I never know whether to be too harsh or to lenient. But here goes,


Strengths

I think doing my SWOT now is a much easier task than doing it at the beginning of the year as my film related skills have improved a lot since then. I feel like i'm most improved in the area of editing and getting to grips with editing software as a general medium. I first started on Final Cut Pro X, this piece of software confused me as it was a slimmed down, user friendly, and just not the same of Final Cut Pro 10.0.0 which I learnt in first year. Despite Final Cut X being vastly less superior than its predecessor it did give me a good basic understanding of editing software before moving on and up to Premiere Pro.
        Premiere Pro is a vastly more intricate and better laid out than Final Cut X. The software is far more detailed and more simple in a lot of ways. It flows much better and the drop downs and location of tools are much easier. Premieres simplicity enabled me too get to grips with editing much better and I think this has helped me improve as a director as a result. Because after learning how something will be edited together enables you to vision your own films more easily

I think i've got a good eye for comedy and know what is and isn't funny, as well as knowing what is and isn't scary. Which will help me with writing stories for films which i'm not very good at currently. I also have now purchased a camera which has massively helped my drive and will to go and film things no matter what it may be. A bonus is that i'm using my camera and always learning about it and the things it does and how to improve the quality of the shots I make.

I'm pretty handy with a computer in general as well and this is definitely a sought after talent, in this day and age. Even though thousands of people know how to operate one they don't know how to solve a problem should it arise and I can.

Weaknesses

I believe my weaknesses lie in areas like networking. In the sense that I need to do far more of it so I can help advertise myself as a director/filmmaker more easily. To help combat this I've set up a facebook page called 'The Film Files' which gives people an idea of what to watch and what to not and this constant exposure too films and how they are put together is helping my internet presence and my knowledge of what a good and what a bad film is. I also have a flickr and youtube accounts to upload screenshots and videos respectively.
Despite making leaps and bounds in my editing skills I still think I am fairly weak in this area and I have been editing all sorts of random things purely to improve my skills. Premiere Pro is an extensive program which will need a lot more
I've also had a lot a of problems with organisation and time management, for next year I need to apply certain rules to myself in order to make sure that I hit deadlines and I am on time for studio sessions. I've started to combat this by getting started on my dissertation now so i'm far more prepared for the coming year.

Opportunities

I've had a fair few opportunities recently which will be a big help too my development as a filmmaker/director. Recently I have been asked to do some shooting at a local clothing company, no details have been disclosed yet but I think this is a great opportunity to get my first professional video done. I have also received some emails with production news for the next few years. This document has provided me with many places where I could potentially get work experience, like harbour studios and the Imaginarium. These are opportunities which I can't afford too miss as the film set experience would be invaluable, it would also give me a lot of good connections in the film world which would probably lead to my next job and so on. Imaginarium have said to me that it doesn't start shooting until next year but they've put my name down so i'm in their minds early on. I also have heard that Leeds council are looking to sell abandoned warehouses cheap to make film studios, as this is a better use of the space. If I could accomplish getting something like that it might be very profitable in the long run, but its just a pipe dream at the moment.

Threats

The only threats I can potentially see are from competitors in my own field as well as people competing for the same jobs i'm looking to work at. I also see money as a threat because It will be needed to help fund my own aspirations with equipment and I hope one day have money for a studio. Getting into the industry will be really difficult so I intent to arm myself with an armada of knowledge about video editing and film construction. I will learn new software like SpeedGrade and Dreamweaver so I make myself more employable across a wider range of jobs and so I can put myself ahead of my rivals, by knowing things that other filmmakers don't necessarily.

ResubPPP// Nest Magazine

A while back Leeds College of Art's Nest magazine approached a friend of mine, Tom Stephens, to see if he wanted to film their second launch party. He agreed and then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to help and I obviously jumped at the opportunity to be behind the camera again. We weren't paid for this in any conventional terms but a free beer for a few hours work wasn't that bad at all.

I really enjoyed the experience despite it not being one of my most favourite things to film. Everything we did was valuable experience and experimenting with shot selection with close ups, pans and zooming shots all helped me to analyse the situation and deduce which shots would work the best.

As the launch wasn't that big there weren't a massive amount of variety of shots that we could use. But what we did get I thought was really good and the jazz band they hired did a really good job. I also liked getting to grips with the Sony XD cam which is more experience I can take into the industry should I ever have to use one.

I was only involved in the filming of the event as at the time my editing skills were less than average. However knowing this at the event gave me the motivation to go and start to learn how to use programmes like Premiere Pro. Which I am now very competent in using as a result.
However here is the link to final Nest video edited by Tom Stephens.

https://vimeo.com/63394156