Assignment 7 1/2? Pre-Green Screen

When we filmed last Thursday in front of a green screen, I was the first to go so I didn't really know what I was doing. Luckily we had a little Harry Potter wand so I casted a spell ("Wingardium Leviosa!") in hopes that I will be able to animate a feather or something hovering in the air. Then I casted some kind of shield of invisibility around me (or something) that I will hopefully be able to use particles when we learn those. I had a lot of fun watching everyone else's little skits, especially Ben's fight on a rooftop. I may end up animating that clip instead...

I'm still not quite sure how I would animate the feather realistically, so I may also end up doing a tracking shot like we did in class, in which I'd film something around campus, key out the sky, and put something ginormous in the background, like one of those tripod alien ships from War of the Worlds. Or maybe an oncoming tidal wave. Hmm....So many options....

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking so far! I had never really thought about how difficult it is to film in front of a green screen before last week. There are so many parameters you have to make sure are working correctly before getting a good shot. I have to say, I'm still a big fan of building your own sets, just because it gives the actors and audience something "real" to look at, but a green screen can be sooo helpful. Adios!

~Becca

Assignment 7: Text & Talladega Nights

One of my fav quotes from Talladega Nights. I know this movie is stupid, but I love it.

Made this in After Effects. I was surprised I didn't use any presets like I was planning on doing. Instead I just had fun rearranging the text around the screen. The audio clip is from The MovieWavs Page (www.moviewavs.com), which I was highly impressed with. They have a huge database of downloadable audio clips from different movies.

Anyway, I think this project actually took longer than I thought. It was a breeze at first, then I realized that many hours had actually passed... I never realized just how many words people say in such a short amount of time! I had fun doing it, and it was surprisingly easy, so hopefully I'll make more soon!

~Becca

Assignment 6: Shadow Puppets

This kid has too strong and disturbed of an imagination.

Or maybe that's just me.

Here I have made a few billboards as you saw from my last entry. The hands and sheet (background) were done in Photoshop and imported into After Effects. I used only one camera to zoom in on the shadows and one spotlight to cast them.

There are a lot of things I want to change about this, but I have run short on time to get the assignment in (my own fault), so I'll submit this and then correct it later this week to my liking. :) I've been out of town since Friday for a grad school interview/program, so, naturally, nothing got done for school this weekend! And I'd do it tomorrow before class but I just got a job (yay!) that I have to work.

But enough of excuses! For the things I would fix: SOUND EFFECTS. I have a folder full of potential sound effects that I really want to play with, like the sound of a kid laughing, dogs barking, birds squawking, and a monster laughing. And a burp. Like I said, once I get enough time I will mix them all in Logic Pro. I also really hate that little jerk the camera does at the beginning when zooming in, but it just takes so long to render out (this one took about 30 minutes, maybe a little more) that I didn't want to sit through it again. Finally, looking at it now, I would like to experiment with making the sheet a bit transparent and adding one or two low key lights behind it, just to add a little realism. Oh, and the shadows need to be darkened. I can see a bit of the edge of the left hand where I had attached it to the arm.

I really enjoyed this assignment and I'm actually pretty pleased with how mine came out. (I had been scared to death of doing something in 3D!) I gave myself nightmares creating that monster hand. It actually looks kind of like a dragon in its shadow form, but if I were to pull the camera back and let you see what the actual hand looks like when its mutated...it's just terrifying.

And for the record, I don't hate children, I promise.

~Becca

Assignment 6 1/2: Shadow Puppets

Here is my progress so far in making a short bit in AE called "Shadow Puppets." The idea is with one camera and one light I can show a kid playing with shadow puppets against the backdrop of this sheet here:
Here are some of the hands I'm using. We've got an alligator:

and a dog:
I have already set up the scene in AE, but I haven't recorded any movement yet to show you. You'll have to wait till next week for that!

All of these files were made in Photoshop using the pen, brush and paint bucket tools. I also have versions of them where the hands are actually separated from the arms so that I can animate them separately in AE. My only worry is that the files are too small and will end up pixely when animating them. I'm planning on using the puppet tool on the hands to make them bend. That way the pinky can move on the "dog" so it can bark and the "jaws" of the alligator can move. All you will see is their shadows, so it doesn't really matter how distorted they end up being.

I'm going to try and find some nice sound effects in the UT sound library once again. The dog should be easy enough, but what does an alligator sound like?

~Becca