The Final: Response to Avengers 2

Hi everyone. Here's the assignment for the final - your response to Avengers 2. You have till midnight, this Friday (5/15) to submit it to me by email.

Answer each of the following questions, with an answer of one or two paragraphs.

1. What did you think of the movie overall? What were some of its good points and some of its bad points?

2. Pick one of the characters, and explain how costuming/design and special effects were used to enhance or explain that character's personality traits. For an example – there are several choices that were made to make the Vision look not-quite human, from the texture of his skin, which looked like a corrugated plastic, to the camera-lens-like irises in his eyes. The fact that he has red skin also puts him, to some degree, outside of human racial types. The fact that he wears a cape, like Thor, gives him a sort of regal bearing – as if Thor and the Vision are kings, a step above the status of mortals. The fact that the gem from the scepter is placed on his forehead like a Third Eye also implies a sense of enlightenment, as if he is above the day-to-day concerns of ordinary humans.

3. Pick a shot or sequence that used special effects that stood out for you – in particular, one where the special effects really supported the story or the development/understanding of the characters. First, describe the shot/effect, and explain how it served a storytelling purpose. Then, to the best of your ability, explain how you think the shot/effect was put together. As an example – a shot that stood out to me was the shot, towards the end, where the Hulk is jumping to one of the flying "life boats," carrying Black Widow in his arms. The shot is fixed on Scarlett Johansen's face, as if attached to her, and it's cropped to that her face fills the screen, with only an edge of the Hulk's shoulder showing, while the background races by behind her. The static nature of the shot makes it seem calm, despite the fact that they're zooming through the sky - an effect that's enhanced by muffling the audio. The relative quietness of the shot (visually and aurally) provides a sort of grace note, or a breather, from all the preceding action – and it gives the atmosphere of a "calm after the storm." Also, in terms of character, this is a moment of rest – since she and Mark Ruffalo have been dancing around the edges of a romance during the film, this is a moment when she can just be held by him, in his arms. Before the deck of the "life boat" comes up behind her, and there are only clouds streaming past, you can imagine (and you suspect that she herself is imagining) what it might feel like for the two of them to run away from it all – having finished their job, just flying away from their responsibilities, and leaping off the grid together. I'm assuming most of this shot, down to the Hulk's shoulder, is CGI – perhaps the deck of the "life boat," with the extras on it, was shot in real space, and then composited and motion-blurred for the background. Johansen would have been shot against a green screen, with someone off-camera blowing wind at her hair, to help give the feeling of motion.

Or - if you're Ben, you can explain in detail why the movie is everything that's wrong with America. And write about one of the shots/effects.

Final Time/Location

For our final, we'll be meeting at the Galaxy Fandango in Carson to see the new Avengers flick. I'll post instructions for a written response to the movie, which you'll submit as your final.

Ian is going to caravan with Kevin, Max, Payton, and Dylan. Meet up at the art building at 11am and you should get there in time.

Keifer and Melissa will drive themselves.

Ben and Jacob are going to be lame-os and miss out (but are still going to watch the movie and do the write-up).

See you there.

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Survey Link

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/lanier_chris_DART_480_10089

Local bands with music

http://www.hollandreno.org/2015/04/music-for-film/

http://www.reverbnation.com/ryanriffcassidy

For TUESDAY (4/20)

A reminder that for Tuesday, you should come armed with an idea for a location you want to create in After Effects, and an exercise move for Payton to perform.

And if you're Payton, remember: costumes, costumes, costumes!

Thursday (4/9) Class

Hello there everyone. I have to miss class today because of an out-of-town appointment – but here's what is on the agenda today. At the start of class, Payton's going to play the movie "Hero" – I think it's a good example of a film that uses special-effects enhanced stunts. There is a combination of wirework and digital manipulation that gives each scene a distinct emotion and visual feel. All the effects really serve a strong storytelling purpose – I hope you enjoy the movie as much as I do. At any rate, it's way less gross than "The Fly."

After watching the film, I want you to write a brief one-to-two page response to the film. I want you to choose one scene to specifically focus on, and I'd like you to describe the use of special effects in the scene (so, obviously, pick a scene that relies on effects). Answer these questions:

How do you think the effects were achieved?

How did the effects serve the sense of story, or serve to illustrate the thoughts and feelings of the characters?

Also, beyond the use of special effects, I want you to pick out at least one shot in the scene, and describe that shot, and the visual choices that went in to filming the shot. How did elements like composition, camera movement, and color contribute to the way the shot communicated its message? Feel free to expand on editing choices as well.

So part of this requires you to look at the film with an aware, critical eye. Hopefully the exercise of having filmed a few short videos will help you think more critically about the choices the director and cinematographer made in setting up and executing their shots.

I'd like you to print out your one-to-two page response, and bring it in at the start of Tuesday's class. We'll discuss the film then. You can also use the remainder of today's class to continue to edit your flying video. See you next week, and have a great weekend.

a fine example

Terry Crews and After Effects:

Terry Crews.....This Guy Is Hilarious

Posted by Gerardo Gabriel on Saturday, April 4, 2015

Flying "Cheat Sheet"

Marking a point in the timeline:

Pull marker icon from far right of timeline (just above the top layer), or move the playhead to where you want the marker and hit *. To edit the marker label, doubleclick the marker and a dialogue window will show up.

To duplicate your layer, select it and hit command-D.

To cut the footage in the layer, hit alt-]. (alt-[ will cut footage at the at the start of the playhead).

To freeze-frame your footage, right-click on the layer, and in the new menu go Time > Freeze Frame. (It's a little confusing in the tutorial, bur he's freezing the second layer from the top, and then cutting the topmost, unfrozen layer at the point where he want time to freeze on that second layer).

Mask out your actor on the frozen layer.

"Soloing" a layer - if you click the box below the circle (next to the microphone icon) on a layer, it will hide all non-solo layers.

To change the position of your masked actor - select your masked layer, and hit "P" to reveal the position values (rotation might be relevant too, if the actor is spinning as well).

The "hitch" on the jump initially in the tutorial is caused by the moving footage essentially repeating the frame that's frozen in the frozen layer - so he cuts the moving footage back by a frame.

For the blur effect, you can right-click on the layer (or alternately go to the "Effects" menu) and keyframe some blur options.

The video copilot action essentials toolkit is here:

https://www.videocopilot.net/products/action2/

For the rain effect – Layer > New Solid (or Command+Y).

On that layer, Simulation > CC Rain

To blend it with the other layer, he toggled switches/modes (there is a button below the layers that allows this - otherwise, hit F4). Then he chose "screen" as a blending mode.

Colorista, which he used for color correction:

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-colorista-free/

How to do a camera shake:

Set two keyframes in the Position property of your footage layer, select them, go to:

Window: Wiggler

Adjust the parameters there, and apply.

Tutorial here:

Homework over break (and today's class)

Hi everyone - very sorry I'm missing class today, I had some logistical things blow up in my face. But! Before you run off for break, I want you to read this, and take care of three things (that include the homework over the break).

1. There is a visiting artist talk today during our class period – starting at 1:30 in the main open space of the second floor of the art building. I was going to take the class to attend - they usually last between 1 hour to an hour an a half. Please attend, and take some notes – after break, I want to hear what you thought of the talk.

2. Because of the artist's talk, you won't have a full class period to work on finishing your "face warp" videos. So I will give you one extra class period, on the Tuesday when we return, to finish those up. You should at least finish your actual "face warp" shot today in class, so that in Tuesday's class, you just have to worry about editing the rest of the footage together.

3. For homework over the break, I want you to watch the below tutorial, which shows how to make someone fly (or leap, of get kicked out of frame, etc). This should give you an idea of the parameters of how the shot should be set up in order for the effect to work easily. The main thing is to design the shot so that it's a static, tripod-supported shot. As with the "face warp" project, I want you to write a short script (with dialogue written out), and a storyboard (which can be stick figures), to create a short story around the effect. Why would someone fly? Do they have friends or enemies that would be surprised by the event? What causes the action of the story, and what's the reaction to that action. Again, these should be very simple and short scripts - with a maximum of maybe a dozen shots. Come to the Tuesday class after break with the script typed and printed, and the storyboard drawn out. Thanks, haver a great break, and sorry again for missing class today.

"Stunt work" – making someone fly:

Face Warp "Cheat Sheet"

The most confusing part of this tutorial is the section on "reverse stabilization" in the first part. Here's a cheat sheet to help out with that and other details:

MORE DETAILS FROM THE TUTORIALS

When filming, make sure the actor's face stays square in frame (this will make the tracking easier).

When tracking the footage, in the Tracker window, click "stabilize motion" in Tracker window. Make sure your track type is selected as: stabilize (this is a different setting than from the previous tracking exercise – that track type was set to "transform"). Select both Position and Rotation.

The corners of the eyes are usually good tracking points. Under "analyze," click the "play" button to analyze forward. If the track isn't doing a great job, you can go to middle of footage, reset track points, then analyze forward and analyze backward. Also, you can manually adjust points frame-by-frame (click on the frame and re-position the big square targets). Hit "Apply," then you will get your footage floating with black corners (as the edges of the tracked footage rotate through space).

To fix the black edges, you'll pre-compose the footage. To keep track of which is which, use this naming convention – call your first comp "Original Footage," and the new comp "Pre-Comp Footage."

Layer > Pre-compose > Move all attributes into new composition. This is the one you'll call "Pre-Comp Footage." A "pre-comp" is essentially a nested layer of series of layers in another composition.

This is where it starts to get confusing in the tutorial. But here's a summary.

View both comps ( "Original Footage," and "Pre-Comp Footage") stacked instead of tabbed (pull one of the tabs down until they both pop out).

Increase size of "Pre-Comp Footage" (in Composition > Composition Settings).

In your  "Original Footage,"  comp, make anchor point, position and rotation visible.

Alt-click on the stopwatch for each of those layers to see the expressions. 

Pick-whip FROM "Original Footage," TO "Pre-Comp Footage." Link the following properties.

FROM Position TO anchor point.

FROM Anchor point TO position.

Rotation goes to rotation, and AFTER you do that, add the "*-1" to the expression on "Original Footage." 

Once you've done this, you should have your footage reverse stabilized. Your subsequent adjustments for the demon face (or sunglasses, or what have you) should be don on the "Original Footage" comp. In the "Original Footage" comp, for example, you can bring in sunglasses on a new layer, and parent that layer to the "Pre-Comp Footage" layer. It will then inherit the motion values from the "Pre-Comp Footage" layer.

THE LIQUIFY FILTER

Effect > Distort > Liquify

You can keyframe the distortion percentage overall.

CHANGING COLORS 

You can do this via an adjustment layer, which has a mask attached to constrain the effect to a specific part of the footage.

Layer > New > Adjustment Layer

You can apply a number of effects to the masked area – glow, color correction, etc.

Bonus link: Transformation scene playlist

Due Thursday: A short script for your "Face Warp/Transformation" video

Just a reminder – at the start of Thursday's class, come with a brief written (and printed out) script for the "Face Warp/Transformation" video you'll be making, to give the effect a little bit of a story around it. I recommend being brief – 1 to 2 pages, three pages max. This should be something that could be accomplished in 5 or 6 shots.

The script should include any dialogue, and brief directions for what happens onscreen.

One other constraint is that it should be something that would be possible to shoot in or near the art building.

You'll read your script to the class on Thursday.

You are not required to write it in official screenplay format, but if you'd like to, here is a reference for screenplay formatting:

http://www.scriptologist.com/Magazine/Formatting/formatting.html

Motion Tracking "Cheat Sheet"

Here are a few pertinent points, extracted from the Motion Tracking tutorial:

1. You must define a "Null Object" - a layer in which the tracking data can be stored. Eventually, you will apply the motion information stored in the Null Object to other layers - namely, the layers of your text items.

Get the null object by going

Layer > New > Null Object

2. Set your After Effects project to "Motion Tracker View" to pull up the appropriate windows.

Window > Workspace > Motion Tracking

3. In the "Tracker" window, make sure the target for the tracking data is set to your Null object.

4. You can create a text layer by clicking on the capital "T" in the toolbar (if you'd like to manipulate the text in ways that go beyond what the character and paragraph windows give you - or even beyond what the "effects" menu will give you, like blur, warp, or bevel edges – you can always bring in text that has been manipulated in another program as a graphic).

5. To get the motion tracking info to map to your text layer, use the "pick whip" (the spiral to the right of your layer) to go from your text layer to the Null layer.

Homework for Tues (2/10)

At the start of next class, have your clone project edited and ready to be exported. You also need to have footage shot for the next project.

The next project is a project where you'll be using motion tracking to stick text into an environment, so that the text has a sense of "camera shake," as if it's embedded in the scene that's being captured.

Instead of doing one shot with one title, I want you to film an entire  sentence. The sentence must be at least five words long (and think of marrying each word to a separate shot - so that the whole sequence should be at least five shots long). You'll be creating a sentence, word by word and shot by shot – but also think of the "visual sentence" you'll be building, image by image.

For Tuesday's class, come to class with the footage for those five (or more) shots done. We'll composite the text elements in class.

Because you'll be integrating text into your shots, you'll want to plan a bit beforehand - so that you have room in the shots for the text to fit, without crowding out elements of the shot, or making the shot feel unbalanced.


 Here is that clone video Nick Cahill passed my way last time I taught this class:

Snow Clones

Motion Tracking Tutorials (which we'll look at on Tuesday):

Basic –



More advanced –

Tracking an object that moves through the frame:

http://www.surfacedstudio.com/tutorials/after-effects-motion-tracking-tutorial/

Step-bystep breakdown of motion tracking elements (for CS3, but still applicable):

http://www.cgsutra.com/adobe_after_effects_tutorials/a0008_motion_tracking/how_to_track_motion_in_after_effects_cs3.php


Madame Tutli Putli:

https://vimeo.com/17081933

Two articles on the motion tracking process used in Tutli Putli:

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/Eyes_are_the_Window_to_Madame_Tutli_Putli/

http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/node/44525

For Tuesday's class

A big reminder: by Tuesday's class, you need to have two things –

1. Raw footage for your (non-post production tweaked) special effect. We'll have an hour to edit that footage into shape on Tuesday's class.

2. A storyboard (which can be stick figures) for your cloning project idea. This will help you think through the number and composition of the shots you'll need.

We'll also be starting to work our way into that "cloning" assignment. I'll want you to have your footage shot, and ready to be manipulated, by Thursday of next week. We'll have two hours of Tuesday's class to shoot footage for it.

Here are a couple of tutorials I'll show in class to lay some groundwork for the cloning project.





And here are some cloning project parameters:

1. It doesn't have to be too long. One or two minutes is plenty.

2. There must be one shot where there are at least three "clones" of the same actor in frame.

3. There must be at least one moment where two of the clones physically interact – where one visually crosses the space the other one is occupying.

4. You'll get extra points for creating an interesting scenario – some sort of "story" to frame the action. Think of this as an opportunity to create a short film, not just to do an After Effects exercise. That's the difference between the footage in the first tutorial and the second tutorial – the first is just an exercise, and the only reason you'd watch it is to learn the exercise – the second has a bit more intrinsic value, to be watched on its own terms.

First assignment (in two parts)

I'm giving you two assignments right out of the gate: one that's due next class, and one that's due a week from the first class.

Due Thursday (8/22), I want you to bring a scene or shot from a movie or TV show that shows some sort of special effect that you find interesting or effective. If it's on youtube or vimeo, embed it on this blog, or at least have the link ready in the comments to this post. You can also bring it on DVD/Blu Ray for us to project. I'll want you to show the clip, then explain to the class what you like about it. If you know, or can find out, how the special effect was actually achieved, I'd like you to present that as well. If you can't find a definitive answer, I want your best guess as to how the special effect was accomplished. The highest grade you'll be able to get on this assignment, if you can't present how the special effect was achieved, will be a B+.

Due this coming Tuesday (8/27), I want you bring footage you have shot for a "special effect" of your own devising, so that it can be composited/edited in class. Keep it simple, so that you can do the editing/post-production in an hour or so. As I said in class, I think the essence of "special effects"" is to make the viewer believe that they've seen something that didn't actually happen in real life – something beyond what a camera could capture without post-production interference. You will present something that you shoot and edit yourself (you're encouraged to work in teams), that shows something that did not actually happen in "real life." I don't want you to use any special effects software to get your result - you can build models or costumes, use double exposures, and any sort of framing or editing trickery you like – but the special effects you use should be "practical effects." You choice of the effect is up to you. Is it a car crash? A monster attack? A ghostly haunting? A stunt? A firefight? A natural disaster? An act of magic? A space flight? Time travel? That part is up to you to figure out. This doesn't have to be shot on HD video – a video camera on your phone or computer will be sufficient. It's more important that this be clever than pretty.

In class I talked about the difference between effects that are supposed to be "realistic" and effects that are intended to be stylized. You can choose to go either route for this project.

And here are two things I'd like to show in class:




Lights Out - Who's There Film Challenge (2013) from David F. Sandberg on Vimeo.



Tuck me in (short film 2014) from Ignacio F. Rodó on Vimeo.

And just for laffs, when special effects go wrong:


The Manster (starting at 1:09:30 or so):

 

Megalodon:

Welcome – Spring 2015 class

Welcome to the "After Effects and Special Effects" class.

The syllabus can be downloaded here.

And here are links to tutorials for some of the effects we'll be covering in this class:

Cloning (using and keyframing masks):



Motion tracking for titles:



Physical Transformation:



"Stunt work" – making someone fly:



Green screen effects, digital "matte painting," and virtual cameras:



And if we have time, simple animation with puppet pins: