Inspiration for final assessment

This piece has many aspects that I am aiming to incorporate in my final piece. I watched very closely on how they animated objects that i hope to use in my piece including butterfly, flowers and leaves. With some knowledge of AE i can see how they have used simple transform properties to create the effects of flowers blowing in the wind- how ever i am not sure how they did this as a group. Watching this video i can see how they have created cohesion through consistent style of vector graphics and coloured background. This video is successful in taking the viewer on a journey using smooth transition of one object to the next. This can be seen when they use butterfly's. They have successfully used the 3D space to create depth by making objects constantly shift to and from the camera.

Presidentti - Fantasia / Stardust

This video piece inspired me to incorporate vector lines and small objects into my final piece ,as it adds another level of interest and option for animating. I admire how they have used trapcode particular to add depth to the piece and how this can be further enhanced using blurr. It is hard to believe this piece is about coffee, well rather the experience you will have after drinking such coffee.

DEGAUSS Into

This piece is only short but is a really good example of how creating visual depth is about using a combination of camera properties-blurr, object placement-near or far and trapcode paticular to create atmoshpher.

Inspiring

Very cool new personal piece by Gkaster. Sound Design by Philippe Gully.
http://www.kurtzmedias.com/user/pierre/VIDEOS/LEGERETE-DIGITALE+ZIK_CD.mov

This piece is inspiring because of how he uses light to create the focus and to give depth to the scene. This is useful because it is a way to capture and direct the viewers attention.

The audio is also similar to my selection-simple with only one instrument. It has also inspired me to possible included sound effects, as it ads another layer to the piece.

And OneSize "Anything you Synthesize" by The American Dollar

See the article at Motiongrapher.

It is a beautifully soft piece that's uses light and colour to indicate mood and emotion-very inspiring. It has also used a piano in the sound track-another indication of mood. The video is also a example of consistency -as the motion is kept consistent throughout the whole piece.

Example-effects and audioe

I selected this piece because it has a similar mood that i am aiming for, for my final piece-in particular the start. This is a video that has a lot of scenes that i would like to do in my final piece using trapcode particular effect. I like in this piece how they use it to outline a plane on the bottom of the screen. The music is also similar to what I am after in terms of rhythm and mood.





More by Pierre Michel who works are inspirational because like Motionographe says "Pierre Michel uses vfx-powered visuals and water-based tableaux to create drama, but I find the editing and sound design to be just as powerful as the imagery. Both spots have a kind of a over-the-top, melodramatic flair that some may be turned off by, but personally I want to crawl into these worlds and hang out for a bit." (motionographer)

His works are very inspiring because he uses simple technique but uses them wisely. He is concerned in all of his videos of angles-how to best get the effect-that emotion. This can be seen in the rain video where he uses all angles to get that sense of being overwhelmed - of something bigger then us-something out of our control. In my final piece it won't go to these extremes in terms of darkness of emotion.

week 9- mood board and rotoscope walking

50's mood board

I think that this mood board is a success because at a glance is conveys what colours, style and objects of the 50s I will use. The colours will be based around yellow, red, grey and white-which occur consistently throughout the board. In the board there are a lot of geometric forms and lines which will assist in conveying that style from that period of time. Large areas of blank colour also convey the 50s time period with typography from this time having a writing aesthetic.

week 9- mood board and rotoscope walking from lara hughes on Vimeo.

I think that with this weeks tutorial what i produced is a reflection of the mood board. If i had more time i would of tried to make the shapes appear more realistically on the wall-rather then just stuck on top! in terms of the mood board i think it correlates well as i used similar shapes and colours to achieve the 50s look.

I added some extra stripes on the corner but i don't think they actually add anything to the piece now i look back-it just creates clutter. So if i was to do this again i would remove those and maybe use the lines as an outline to the walking logo or part of the background a bit more.

week 8- track motion and corner pinning

week8-motion tracking and text 2 from lara hughes on Vimeo.

With this weeks tutorial i understood what to do pretty easily. In the case above however i didn't edit every frame so the text appears to jump around a bit. If i use this for assignment it would have to be more stable and therefore edit to 'appear' that the text is in the environment. What i learnt from this is that it can be very time consuming and can change every single time according to your reference point- so pick carefully.

week8-cornerpin from lara hughes on Vimeo.

Again a case of not going through ever frame-the image jumps around and doesn't 'appear' to be in the environment of the video or in this case the screen. I later found out from my good friend Laura that if you expand the other boxes it can help in stabilising the inner image more efficiently.

bokeh examples

It is made in after effect using tapcode particle illusion.



Real world example.

lens flare and audio

This is a really good example of how the lens flare can be used to match the audio or signify a change in the audio. I also like how they have varied the speed of the camera-creating even more focus on the motion and the light.

flowers and light

Im getting interested in flowers-keeping to the theme of light and spring. I chose to show this video because it shows how you can embed flower pattern into a video. Looks very neat and clean-flowing through the video like its growing-realistic.

This ad by Chris Cunningham is amazing. I would like to have similar lighting effects that he has-the light towards the camera, and the light specks. However in my piece the music won't be as dramatic or the actress! I feel that the audio makes the visuals look ridiculous-its a fine line between cheesyness and greatness-but im sorry chris but you have crossed it with this one.

This is inspirational because he has taken light and shown its beauty. He has used simple camera properties including blur to to focus on light as a object. He has emphasised this with a simple piano audio the further creates that focus on the light. The audio selection successfully syncs because like light, it can gradually builds up and down. In my piece i hope to have the same focus but with also a women in it and with a brighter overall feel.

light tutorials and reflection

star logo tutorial from lara hughes on Vimeo.

Did this tutorial using stroke, glow and fast blur-start & end properties with wriggle expressions.

light streaks tutorial from lara hughes on Vimeo.

Really like this tutorial- use hue/saturation, comps within comps, glow and trapcode-particle. Thinking of hopefully using this for my last assignment where the light or the line follows something or appears to go around something.

car lights tutorial from lara hughes on Vimeo.

Another variation of light streaks using hue/sat, glow, warp and trapcode-3D streak.


Reflection for assignment 3: I think I'm attracted to light because it represents the passing of time-but that light is also how we see beauty-how something is highlighted-we see images on the screen because of light! Light is most prominent in two season i think-spring and summer. Im tending to lean towards spring because of the beauty of that seasons with flowers and seeds everywhere!

Assignment 1-temporal identity and reflection

My visual diary from lara hughes on Vimeo.

Now I look back on my assignment one i think i could have even more control over the camera. At the time I felt like it did but I think this can be improved. The camera's other settings could of also been used-like blur and aperture. This could of added another layer to the piece as I am a person who doesn't focus 100% on what they are doing.

The introduction screen could of also been up there for longer-now i look back you can't read the text in that short amount of time. The next part the camera should of also been out further- i did originally have this-and be lighter- i also had this but decided to change this.

Upon showing it to people, a couple of people asked me if the paint marks represented the world-this was not my intention at all- it was just meant to say that i use my visual diary for exploration and spontaneity with art-represent by random paint marks. So next time i would have to make sure nothing is meant to look like something else.


And the last thing- something that normal stick should not float into a scene- I'm not sure if you noticed but now I look back I'm like-post it notes don't do that.. if anything it should of been introduced using the cc page turn effect- thats more realistic! Making the post it notes fly in looks cools but odd and ill fitting to the whole piece. But at least the gliding of the paper looks right- should of just used scraps of paper.

The masking of the birds could of also been done better-changed the pace-for a more smoother and realistic effect at least.

What i did really like in my submission was that it had a beginning - middle and end. It didn't just start and end for no reason-the book opened , stuff appeared , and then you look back at your result- like you do in art and design.

week 7-3D camera

week 7-3d space and camera from lara hughes on Vimeo.

My focus of this tutorial was to really experiment and play around with the camera properties and understand how they work in relation to other objects on the screen. I used a 35mm camera and manipulated the properties including focus depth, aperture, blur, position and orientation. My focus was not on the content but what and how the camera works with objects and how to achieve a further sense of realism using the cameras focus, aperture and blur.

The focus of this tutorial was to explore space to create a sense of depth within the frame. I successfully achieved this by using the mask tool to select parts of the images and after making them 3D objects-altering their z, x and y position. I then used the camera to pan around the composition - to reveal the different layers position in relation to the camera and other objects.

What i also learned from this exercise is that the camera is a very powerfull tool in terms of possibilities and that control and constraint must be used in order to not over use these tools. In future project my aim is to use theses techniques that i have learnt to give the composition more depth and space.

week 6-sin city and animating masks

Before ------------------------- After

Part A of the tutorial-create sin city look
For the first part of the exercise we were asked to alter an image to have a sinister look. I tried this in both after effects and photoshop. Above is what i did in photoshop after completing a sin city tutotial. In this exercise i finally sucessfully used a font that added another layer to the piece and fitted in with the overall style.

Part B graffiti video

week6-graffiti exercise from lara hughes on Vimeo.

This weeks tutorial explores the concept of animating masks.

I used this opportunity to use try a camera flash transition( as seen in a music video i published earlier), achieved by using levels to get the white out effect and 'fast blue' to achieve the blur. I used to as a means of an event. As the aim of the exercise was to make it street style - I feel that because graffiti is often photographed that this fitted in well with the piece.

I used stickers as my graffiti in which i animated using the cc page turn effect to appear that the stickers are being put on and off. I tried to randomise this event -to look like it was peeling. Because stickers are used often to graffiti I found that by using the cc page turn effect and by layering the images that this successfully fulfilled the tutorial brief in creating a graffiti wall. I added a light and a camera to further create a sense of street-mysterious and secretive. However I still need to show more control over the camera- i just alter its position, not thinking about how this affects the visuals or the mood.

Looking back and looking at other students tutorial exercises, I could of also tried to change the look of the graffiti stickers -to look all the same- to create a sense of style to the piece.

week 5-mad macks

week5-Mad Macks crazy ad from lara hughes on Vimeo.

This week we were asked to make an ad for mad macks. The brief was to create a crazy ad that was consistent and showed a hair drier, toaster and a blender.

On the logo I used the effects-'stroke' to get the variation in the strokeness thickness.
-wigglerama
-(transfrom)-wifflerama
-transform-scale

I think in a sense i made the logo too crazy because it becomes hard to read. I also had a lot of trouble matching up the different files to each other using the Wigglerama effect. I had so much trouble trying to get the 's' to appear to be attached to 'mack' that i ended up getting rid of it-because it would moved out of time and could not get it in time with the other words. I used the wiggleramma effect to create a sense of instability of the text and thus craziness. I also used scaled for the logo tag line - to emphases its presents and in your face 'craziness'.

Besides the trouble with the logo I feel however that I achieved a consistent style animating the products and prices in. Cohesion and consistency was achieved by using the colours red, blue and white consistently and by animating the products in, the same. I used the 'transform-rotation and scale' to achieved the sense of energetic movement-out the door prices and products bouncing towards you-that the viewer can not but take notice of them.

Now i look back what I would of also done is used the crossed out price technique.. it was $59.99 now its only $24.99, to add even more craziness. This exercise was about exageration and i feel that more can be done to achieve this. Again i didn't think about the font-its type or colour. I need to ensure that every time i use text -to use it as a opportunity to answer the client brief -crazy!! If i was to do this tutorial again i would make the prices bolder, red and trasnform shape more.

music videos: light

All these videos i found use interesting effects using light. I find these very inspiration and am going to try to do learn how to do them through the tut exercises if I can! I am attracted to light becuase i like how it can be used for transition-to represent not only a passing of time- but that everything can only been seen in the light. That light is the true beauty.

I really like the old film effect added here-which is match nicely with the audio-grungy and rustic.

camera and audio

Suddenly from Magnus Engsfors on Vimeo.

I really like how the music starts before the audio-the viewer becomes anticipated. The visual slowly appear (opacity, colour and light). He has used trapocode particle to add depth and interest-taking the viewer further into the piece. I also noted that the visual changed when the beat did-making the visual and audio appeared to be in sync. This is evident when the audio appears to be stuck and the camera shakes back and forth-like it is also stuck.

I also like how he used a camera flash to represent time-time gone by. I also like the blurred spots that seem to appear in the environment-this created visual depth and visual interest. I also like the spot light towards the camera to signify a change in the audio- the audio sync with the visual perfectly and is an example of what assignment is about.

notebook image resource

Although i could scan my own note books and/or pay for paper-its easier to use cc content.

This is a really useful flickr account with images of different notebooks. I am thinking that maybe animation could go over it, in or around it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseoftext/collections/72157600111762918/

colour, lightness and texture

I like the colour, line and texture of this image-inspiration for temporal identity

It uses colours that i use for doodling-red, black, white and blue and also yellow for highlighting!

I also like the yellowness of this image-bright, happy- a sense of energy.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/playingwithpsp/2536606448/

pen, paint, ink, paper

http://www.hasimachtsachen.com/paperhouse.html

I like this video because it uses every day things like paint and pencil to create images. By animating them using masks -it brings them alive-it personalises them to the viewer understand the importantcey of them. I like how this video uses a wide variety of tools-pencil, paper and paint-things that are related -createing a sense of connection and style. By using these objects-objects that are used to create - it creates that sense of time and creativity.

ripped paper

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/trabalho_download1_file_0269_file.mov

In this movie they have used ripping paper to create there whole sense of style. Although not as aggressive as the previous- it demonstrates how a simple thing like ripped paper can be used to animate still images. The movie however does not convey the action required to rip the paper but rather the sense of puzzle pieces ripped apart and brought back together to make an image. Combined with the fast pace of the music and continual addition and subjection of pieces - it creates a dynamic but coherent piece.

paper and ink

http://motionographer.com/theater/amnesty-international/

This is another video that uses paper and ink. However they had used paper and tearing of paper in a more aggressive fashion. They have used it in a way of convey an action in time. For example -the killing of someone-the paper being stabbed. My relationship with paper is more positive and thus I will portray paper in a more softer manner.

The grey scale pallet is also used effectively here to convey as sense of misery. I'm looking to convey a positive object that I like for assignment 1-so are going to use lighter and brighter colours.