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