Sculpture Fest

We're on for Sculpture Fest! I'll be projecting your work from 9pm-10pm tonight. Come by and say hi!

More info on the event (which involves live music as well as sculpture) is here:

http://renosculpturefest.com

Planetarium directions

Here's a map from Inline to the Planetarium:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Incline+Village,+Nevada/Fleischmann+Planetarium,+1664+N+Virginia+St,+Reno,+NV+89557/@39.3864288,-119.9572027,11z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m2!1m1!1s0x80996ff06d251165:0x6d65149fbd9c544b!1m2!1m1!1s0x80994716f8adcd1d:0x1d8b8cd413f7d327!3e0

Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center is located north of Lawlor Events Center on Virginia and 16th streets, on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, 1.5 miles north of the downtown Reno arch. Free permit parking is available in the West Stadium Parking Complex, level 3, just east of the planetarium.Park between designated planetarium parking signs.

Feel free to call me at: 415-845-5670

Really looking forward to this one.

End of Term Survey and Planetarium Mask

Course survey link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/lanier-10207-201710

Planetarium "hole" template:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/63cuqyw3neyw6ri/planetarium-hole-1440.png?dl=0

After Effects Final

Hey everyone. Our final for this class will start at 11:30am May 5th - a Friday. This isn't the official time, since we're pairing up with the other DART class, so please check the linked finals schedule below to make sure you don't have any other finals slotted for that time. We are going to leave SNC at 11:30 and drive down to the Flieschman Planetarium at UNR – and our screening goes from 1pm-2pm. It will take about an hour to get back to SNC, so the ultimate time frame you want to have clear is 11:30-3pm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xulgjiux1f2vwdv/Spring-2017-Final-Exam-Schedule-011717-FINAL.pdf.pdf?dl=0

Planetarium cutout

Here's a link to the "hole" for the planetarium dome - place it in the top layer of your AfterEffects or Premiere document. The dimensions for this piece are 1440px X 1440 px.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/63cuqyw3neyw6ri/planetarium-hole-1440.png?dl=0

For Monday (4/3)

Just a reminder we're doing an experimental shooting day Monday, using the dome camera. So please bring toys, dollhouses, objects, textures, what have you - that we can place around the camera, or drape over a glass bowl that we can use as a dome over the camera itself. We're just going to try and shoot as many "environments" for eh green screen as we can.

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

For Wednesday (2/22)

At the start of next class (which is Wednesday, since we have President's Day off), 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 Monday'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. Also, you don't want to zoom in for the shot, or pan so far that your original compositional elements move out of frame.


 Here is that clone video Nick Cahill passed my way:

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

What I showed in class – HYPER-REALITY:

https://vimeo.com/166807261

Madame Tutli Putli:

https://vimeo.com/17081933

Fonts:

http://www.dafont.com/

Cloning Project - homework

For Monday's class, you need to have a printed-out, or written script for your "cloning" video.
And here are some cloning project parameters:

1. It doesn't have to be too long. One or two minutes (which usually maps to 1-2 pages of script) is plenty.

2. There must be one shot where there are at least two "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, below – 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.

Remember that you should write your script so that it can be filmed in the art building.

Welcome: Spring 2017

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:



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 Monday, 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+.

Also due Monday, 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):

 

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