Week 9 Exercise

Task 1: Create a Mood Board in Relation to the 1980s

I found this exercise pretty fun. I really like this sort of task and I found it quite interesting to research the 80s style and try to replicate that style in a mood board.

For the task we used Photoshop. It was quite simple. We used tools we've used before, like the pen tool, masking, lines, etc. The technical part was quite easy, and the best part was deciding whether to include images and trying to show a theme in the mood board.

My mood board depicts a woman from the 80s who's face a cut in half. Her hair, the colour and what she is wearing all seem to eminate what the 80s was about, which is why I chose this picture. I cut out her lips, because they were bright and vibrant and copied them so they made a repetative pattern. This I found was what a lot of designers did in the 80s. I used text that was fluro, bright, big and round, as this is the type I found was most used in this decade.

I quite like the overall composition and visual appearence of my mood board and I will apply what I learnt in the tutorial when I create the 5 panel mood boards for my audio driven animations.

Task 2: Attempt to cut out Characters from Video

This task I found extremely difficult. It was quite hard to follow what was going on, and what I was meant to be doing.

The task was to import a video (Duck and Cover) and try to cut a character out from it. Firstly we had to cut out a section that we wanted where the character we were going to cut out was displayed. Next we had to go to the first frame and mask the character. This part I found was easy enough as it was all techniques we'd used before. The next thing we had to do was Rollerscope the character. This means we'd have to go through the sequence frame-by-frame and remask the character to make the rollerscoping easier for the program.

This was easy enough, but what I found most difficult was trying to get the character to stay in shot. Like, everytime I tried to complete it, he was somehow not in the shot, even though I was cutting him out and remasking him. I found this technique extremely frustrating and I realise I need a lot of practice to get somewhere even half-way decent at it.

Note: The file was wiped from the computer and so I couldn't attach a video as an example (even though it was a ridiculous video, I still attempted it and gave it my best go) however, I thought I'd still include my reflections on this task.

Week 8 Exercise

Task 1: Motion Tracking

For this task, we had to import a video of the CI precinct and add a piece of text, then try and get it to stay in the one place throughout the video. This is motion tracking.

Firstly I had to open the Tracker window. This then allowed me the option to track a certain part of the video. I was told there needed to be a lot of contrast so it was easier for the tracker to pick up a point. I chose the top of a building where the buliding was relatively dark in comparison to the light blue sky. We then had to apply the tracker. After this we put a text layer on and made sure that it was to pan behind. If the confidence of the tracker was relatively high, then the text should remain fairly still.

The text on my video, for some reason, moved around a little bit, even though the confidence was 99.6% so I'm not too sure why that happened. I found this tutorial quite helpful and learned quite a bit. I wasn't overly impressed with my end result, but I realise that with after some practice and experimenting, I could get the text to look a part of the scene.




Task 2: Corner Pinning

For this task, we had to attach a picture to the screen of a computer and get it to stay there through the video by using corner pinning.

I found this exercise quite easy as it was pretty much the same as the previous one, apart from the fact that in the tracker controls we had to select perspective corner pin under the track type section. This would give us four corners to which we pin to the corners of the computer screen.

The most difficult part of this exercise was getting the pins to stay in the corners of the screen, and it became a very tedious job of having to go through and fix up the errors that the tracker made by physically going in and repositioning the pins.

After this, we were to apply the tracking to the picutre we chose. After this it became ur job just to try and get the picture to look as though it was on the screen. To do this we applied motion blur and even feathered the outside of the image so it was harder to see the screen.

I wasn't too pleased with how mine turned out, because even though the tracking was good, it jumped around alot. And even with the motion blur and feather it looked too fake to be on the screen of the computer. However, I was pretty happy with what I learned in the tutorial considering it was my first attempt at motion tracking and corner pinning. I guess I can only get better.

Week 7 Exercise

Task 1: Emphasize the Theme of 'Space'

This week's tutorial was completed in the last week's tutorial as there was no lecture or tutorial for this week. However, I will reflect on how I went with it in this week's blog post.

The task was to emphasize the theme of space using the images provided. To do this, we had to mask parts of photographs and make them 3D layers. We then created a camera and experimented with moving it accross the scene.

Overall, this exercise was exactly the same as the second half of Week 6, the only difference being that we had to concentrate a lot more on 'Z-space'. To do this, the masked out parts of the photographs would be moved away from the actual picture (or first layer) and then we would move the camera around these layers to experiment with 'Z-space'.

I went quite well with this exercise, although I'm still having a little bit of difficulty with understanding the ways of the camera. I understand the basic functions of it, to pan, orbit and now to experiment with 'Z-space' but I think I could do with more practise on how this could look visually appealing in animations. At the moment, all experiments that I conduct with the camera all look like experiments and not professional animations.

Week 6 Exercise

Task 1: Turn a photograph into Graffiti Art

For this exercise, I had to turn a photograph of a person into a peice of graffiti art. For that task, I used a photo of actor Jared Padalecki attending a conference (within Creative Commons on Flikr.com).
I found that turning th photograph into a 'Sin City' type of style was relatively easy. I first turned him black and white, and then adjusted the saturation using the Curves effect. I think I found this more easy than other tasks, possibly because it was based more on how I thought it should look, rather than what a client might want.
I was pretty happy with how the picture turned out (which can be viewed in the video below as the man in the bottom left hand corner), although I wasnt very pleased with how rough the edges seemed to get. I will look further into this and see if there is a way (other than using the feather tool) to get a softer appearence so that it seems that the picture has been 'sprayed' onto the wall.

Task 2: Create a Temporal Composition that Reveals 3 Peices of Graffiti

This task I found very interesting. The class had to use 3 peices of graffiti (2 were supplied and the other was one that I created in the previous task) to create a composition. In this composition, we were to exploit the graffiti and make it seem as if it were sprayed on a wall.
We had to first mask the graffiti and then adjust the colour saturation so it would stand out on our picture of the wall. We then had to give it a softer look so it seemed that it was sprayed onto the wall. I used a lot of the Curves tool throughout this exercise, which helped to saturate the colours I wanted to stand out the most.
In this class I learned how to use the Camera tool. I found the camera fairly difficult to understand to begin with, but as I used it more and more, it soon became a little easier to understand.
In this task, I used the Camera tool to zoom in on certain features of 'the wall' that I created as well as track the wall. These features are known as XY Tracking, Orbiting and Z Tracking. In this exercise, I didn't use a lot of the Orbiting Tool because it didn't fit with how I wanted to convey as though I was moving all over the wall.
Overall I was quite happy with how my video turned out.

Week 5 Exercise

Task 1: Create a 20 Second Reel for Mad Mack's

For this exercise, we had to create a 20 second advertisement for the company Mad Mack's, which was likened to Crazy Clarks.
I really enjoyed doing this exercise because we could be as cheesy and crazy as we wanted and it didn't matter.
For the ad reel, I used lots of basic techniques, like positioning, opacity and rotation to achieve a really 'cheap ad' kind of look, but I also experimented with a few of the animation and effects presets. These, I found, gave it a really rushed and cheap ad kind of look, which is what I got told was wanted.
I used red and yellow for basically all the text, shapes and outlining, just to keep in with the theme and colour styles, but they were also pretty bold colours, so that gave it a more 'look at me' kind of appeal.
In finishing the reel, it looks like an ad that would be played extremely late at night, because it's so cheaply done. I was actually quite pleased with the result.

Week 3 Exercise

Task 1: Create Moving Text to Audio File

This task was quite easy. Even though I was still relatively new to After Effects, the mechanics of changing and manipulating the text was simple. The hardest part of the exercise was trying to get everything to run smoothly and look as though it 'fit' together.
I found that making the text look like it was made for that piece of audio was hard, but if it was done right, it would be really effective. I quite enjoyed this exercise and feel that I will really make use of what I learned in future assignments and/or projects.
I'm not overly happy with how it looks, but for my first time in doing this, I think it's okay.

NOTE: The file I saved for this tutorial was wiped from the computer. I thought that even though I was unable to attach the actual file, I should still include my reflections for how I went with this exercise.

Week 4 Exercise

Task 1: Create a Temporal Identity for a Location

I found this exercise interesting. As I was still getting used to working After Effects, I still find it quite challenging to produce work that looks visually appealing. In this task we were told to create a temporal identity for a location. We were told it could be any loaction, even made up, as long as we were giving it an identity and trying to convey that through the temporal identity we made in After Effects.
For this, I decided that it might be easier if I made a location up. So using images from Creative Commons on Flikr.com I found images of a castle and green fields with rolling hills. In this, I'm trying to convey the sense of wonder and fantasy. Like it's a magical location that people could only dream existed.
Using the masking tool in After Effects was easier than I thought. I used the tool to hide certain parts of photographs and then to keep others.
I really like how the exercise turned out.
NB: My original file was lost, and so I had to try and recreate what I'd already done. I am not as happy with these results as what I was with my original temporal identity as the photographs are not the same, and therefore are not as effective (to me).



Task 2: Create a Tagline for the Location

To create the tagline for my location, I had to consider the feelings and emotions I was trying to convey. What type of identity was I trying to give this place?
As I mentioned above, I want my place to feel magical and almost imaginary. Like it doesn't really exist but people really want it to. And so I realised I wanted to use fantasy somewhere in the tagline.
I also want the tagline to convey that the location is a reality (for the purpose of the exercise, as I obviously just made it up). So as well as fantasy, I contradicted myself and used reality.
The tagline can now only be a question as I found it too hard to use contradicting words in just a short sentence. And so the tagline is: Fantasy? Reality...
I really like this as it's short and I think fairly memorable. It isn't wordy, which makes it easy to remember and because of the two opposite words, makes the tagline interesting.

Week 2 Exercises

Task 1: Photoshop

I have never used photoshop before, so I found this task a little difficult. Our class was told to use the images provided and create a meat sky background in a spacial montage using photoshop. However, as we were meant to use 5 of the images provided, my spacial montage turned out a little crowded and the sky is barely visible.
I find photoshop very effective and would really like to learn more about the program.
In the majority of the exercise I used various selection tools, like the lasso tool. Then after spending much more time then necessary outlining a picture of a steak, I was told about the magnetic tool. I found this tool a much more helpful one in this situation. I also used the magic wand quite a bit in the exercise as well.
I found this exercise to be a good introduction to photoshop for me, but I don't expect that I'll be producing any beautiful works of art with the program anytime soon.

Task 2: After Effects

This was my first attempt at using after effects. The task was to use 5 images and experiment with the basic functions of After Effects and using them to show the relation between the objects.
I clearly only used basic effects that changed the opacity, positions and rotation of the images, but I was happy with how I managed to get quite a rough guide to what the program has to offer.
I realise that there are many skills that I'll need to brush up on with After Effects if I ever expect to produce something worth while.
However, I was fairly pleased with how this turned out considering it was the first time I'd ever used the program. I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing, but as the class progressed, I got a very basic understanding of after effects.