project overview and overall evaluation

8/14/2019 Project Overview and Overall Evaluation

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Neil Stewart u0557824 Evaluation

The short return: Evaluation and effects used.

Project overview and overall evaluation:

This part of the assignment gives me as the developer the chance to describe andevaluate my own creations from the basic idea to the overall techniques used inimplementing it. Before I start describing the areas and methods used to create such a

project I would like to say that this module was part of my insight to video and overalla learning curve, so I feel that what I have created this time around must use theslightest of the areas I used in my last production and of course look into the greyareas of post production for me. I used a lot of video co pilot in my last productionalthough very helpful I went around my final production by creating every effect fromscratch giving myself a more how could I do this job. In doing so I felt that I could

produce something that I created, not something that was a tutorial as such. Overallthis section will allow you to understand my thinking behind what I created.

Scene one:

This scene in my eyes needed to create a basis for keeping the viewer attracted to thevideo. The scene itself was of a lone person in a bombed/ wrecked French village.This would be the first sight of our story the spitfire. This scene was very important tome in using new methods of video and post production, for example I used an amountof green screen footage that allowed me to get this feel of my character being in anarea of my choice. To do this I filmed my subject on a green screen with the

behaviour I felt fitting to the scene. Once done I could keylight and tailor the footagein the way I wanted it to look again using simple chokers would only allow me tofurther create a more realistic output of the subject. I could now go about creating theenvironment for my subject

Above you can see a rough idea of the early stages of green screen to the final:


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Once a found a suitable JPG for the environment this could be added to the greenscreen footage, in doing so an adjustment layer was produced to create a old look and to give the feel of an old camera. Using tritons and curves allowed me to get thisfeel again other techniques such as using a real 8mm film reel footage and simplychanging its mode to multiply allowed to me create this feeling that my scene was

being filmed.

Expressions such as wiggle were used to create a more doctored feeling of being bombed in the village. Next the most important aspect of this scene was added themodel spitfire. Once rendered out as RPF image sequences the scene could be

produced, as this was not a multipass scene I used only one RPF to represent the planeflying. Once imported to the stage a simple motion tween was produce to give a feelof the plane low passing my character, once completed the sequence was now startingto look more realistic. As the character filmed on the green screen was filmed toappear to look over his shoulder as the plane passed it started to allow me to play withthe speed of the tween and what looked more realistic than others.

So as you can see from the above we have the character moving in accordance to the planes passing. It looks almost as the character follows the plane in its every move.Once I had the correct tween and rotation of the aircraft I started looking at the scaleoptions to make the plane look and feel as if it was getting bigger as it got closer.

Once this scene was nearly completion I looked at atmospherics such as smoke and

debris, using smoke was integral to the feel of a ruined village, using particle smoke.By creating a pale grey solid then using the particle playground to create a fountainlike effect u could then toggle with various effects such as force and direction etc.One created the smoke element needed to have a fast blur set to around 25 to create amore realistic feel of smoke billowing. Next using a tutorial learnt at University Icreated the feeling of wind sweeping the scene picking up loose paper and rubbishusing again particle playground and again toggling with various effects could create afeel of paper rising and falling, using producer effects and particle effects on thecontrol panel I could create this feeling of wind swept activity, each piece of paper was in its own way different and of course behaved so.

Once completed using various audio allowed the scene to come to life, fly by soundsand battles allowed me to create the unmistakable effect of war torn France. The


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character in my eyes is the only thing that changed the realism of the scene, dressed inmodern clothing did not allow me to get the best out of the scene, but if futurereference if this was a highly produced movie wardrobe and look would not come intothe post production part of the scene.

Above are the two examples of the un doctored scene and the final scene:

Scene two:

In this scene we see a lot of the CGI implementation and of course the multi passfeatures. To start of I concentrated on producing a realistic yet creative animation onthe subject which was a spitfire. I planned my animation and created it while keepingin mind what my scene would look like and would it fit in. Once I had a single pass of the plane I rendered it out again using RPF image sequences. I then imported the files

to the project area and began putting them on the stage. As I was using a multi pass of the plane I needed to make sure all effects that were added to the animation were present including combined, refraction, reflection, specular, diffuse, shadow andlighting. These simply allowed the animation fly past look more realistic and notappear as if the model was not an image but rather looked more like a 3d model. Onceall images were uploaded to the stage I took the upmost image and added a tint to it,this would allow the feeling of when the plane was turning the natural environmentwould change on the paint of the subject.

Again an adjustment layer was used, using a colour correction such as curves I could produce a darker sky and scene. Adding effects such as glow allowed me to pick out a

break in the sky and make it give the feel of tranquillity in the sky. By toggling thethreshold and intensity of the glow allowed me to create this effect, once played back I could see that the multi pass took on the shine from the sky as the plane moved intoits path, below is an example of this:


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As this scene concentrated on the CGI part of the assignment after effects simplyallowed me to treat the images of the CGI something I could not produced in 3Dstudio max. Again methods such as using old film was produced to give the morefilmed feel to the scene, using sounds as we have seen from the last scene is apparenta various amount of sounds including a idle engine of a spitfire and the voice over of the narrative.

Scene three:

This scene allowed me to produce something using live footage that I filmed myself;this scene was an important test in allowing me to create a scene that was treated somuch it was almost believable that it was filmed 60 years ago. Doing so I would usevarious methods live footage and treatment of the footage and of course usingimportant CGI footage, as this scene was live creating a more realistic pass of thespitfire was paramount if it was to fit into the scene. Again the usual treatments wereadded to the scene including old film footage using multiply mode, and other treatments as seen before like tints and tritone effects. This time I added noise to theadjustment layer to again emphasize the feel of old grainy filming.

Next like scene one I created a motion tween of the spit fire cutting across the scene,

position and scale attributes were used to give the feel of movement and the planegetting closer to the camera. One I had the perfect tween I tailored the speed rates bymoving the key frames closer or further apart; next adding a motion blur to the subjectgave this feel that the camera man was seeing a high speed object cutting across hisscreen.


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From the above you can see the effect that doing these techniques produces. Thescene almost looks real, as expected the plane would produce this blur effect , youknow it is a plane yet you cannot make out its features something I wanted to create.

As the poem was emotive I wanted to use footage of the war in the live footage Ifilmed myself, by doing this is almost gave a feeling of the narrative being told in the

pilots mind. By putting various pieces of footage over my main footage and simplychanging their opacity of around 24% allowed me to get this desired effect.

Using similar techniques with audio allowed me to create a more realistic feel of a bombed landscape and plane in flight. To finish this scene I used another animation of the spitfire this time with the plane rotating in the air, once rendered out again I could

bring this to the scene. It gave a feeling of the plane that first past at the start of thescene was now climbing in the air again. This scene was pronominally all abouttreating footage to create something that was tailored to my brief.


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Scene four:

Scene four would be relevant for that simple reason that we first see what hasfollowed the spitfire back from its mission. This scene used various effects in its

production including again CGI, blending, audio, parenting , and expressions and alsocameras.

To start with this scene as per usual I created my model animation in 3D max thistime using the model of a German aircraft, again rendering out RPF again allows meto import to after effects. Using a simple sky JPG I then produced an environment Ithen used imported footage of war again with relation to the voice narrative, this gavethe feeling of the pilots mind again thinking of what was happening at the time of hisflight. Once created I could then tween the plane going across my stage, this time Idecided to use parenting to give a feel of high altitude flying. To do this I created asmoke element using particle playground similar to the effects used earlier to createsimple smoke, by then changing the width of the smoke it started looking more like atrail from a plane. Once done I then parented the smoke to each wing of the plane, thiswas done on the instance of the plane itself, as the plane moved in a straight forwardline the smoke did not need to be motion tracked.

You can see that the RPF footage of the plane again as a motion blur effect fixed to itsmovement creating this feeling of speed. You can also see the use of live footagetailored in order to not disturb the scenes flow. I wanted this scene to be more of adream sequence as the German aircraft was not the focus of this movie, by doing thisI could created more non realistic elements such as blending. Using blending allowedme to create something more artistic rather than real time special effects, Using theimage of a bomb I doctored in Photoshop and then imported into after effects as aPSD I could then start creating something that would further tell the story. Using scaleoptions I could make the whole scene was being played out inside the bomb all along.


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As you can see the bomb then engulfs the scene and begins to fall. Using a simplestencil alpha for the mode of the image would create a mask feel. Once the bomb had

dropped further of the stage I then created a feeling of the bomb exploding. To do thisI used a cloud matte giving the feel of smoke/fire and applied a stencil luma to itsmode settings, in doing so all would be shown underneath it. I then created a firecomp that could be shown within this mask applying it to the correct time on thetimeline gave it a feel of explosion, below is an example:

So as you can see once the bomb had dropped the feeling of an explosion was present,further more footage was then preset to play within this small mask againemphasizing the words of the narrator. Again other effects like in previous sceneswere added such as the old film effect and audio treatments.


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Scene five:

In this the final scene I wanted to produced something that tied in with the narrative of the poem and this was the death of the pilot. I knew this would be the most importantin relation to the effects used in the whole of the project.

I started with rendering out the two 3d max models and the behaviour that I expectedthem to take on for this scene. The spit fire was rendered out in a simple straightforward face on sequence with no animation. The German aircraft took on a barrelrole animation over 700 frames. Once both were imported again as RPFs into theafter effects project I could start working with the scene. Before using any CGIcompositing I set up the environment as usual, using another JPG with a tween gavethe feeling of the sky moving even though it was only a static JPG. Next I could useadjustment layers to create that dark alone feeling the spitfire was finding itself in,using colour curves I could get this effect, now I was ready to implement my 3dmodels. Importing the spitfire to the scene I could add a simple wiggle expression of around (5,2) to make the plane look as if it was moving in this atmosphere eventhough it was a static image. I then added my German aircraft to the right of the stageso it could have a look of flying in from above the spitfire attacking it. Once done Imade another simple motion tween again using motion blurs to give it that realisticfeel of speed. Once I had this done motion tracking was applied to the motion tweento follow the German aircraft once completed I edited a target ( a null object) to the

plane and then created a muzzle flash comp and parented it to the null object. Now asthe plane flew from right to left it had the appearance of shooting its fixed machineguns at the spitfire. It was now the turn of creating a realistic feel of the spitfire beinghit as the plane went past it, to do this I used various free footage of explosions andcannons. I timed the exact second that the German aircraft would enter the scene and

began to tailor these explosions to get the perfect look. I used a sequence of linerockets hitting the spitfire to give it a look of being injured in the attack to do this Ihad to take the pre-recorded explosions and change their mode to add to get rid of anyunnecessary black or imperfections.


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Again as the German plane had already passed I needed to create this feeling of itsslow demise. Various explosions were then used in the same manner to produce thiseffect, at this point it was important to note that no tutorials were used and this part of the scene had to be played by ear and from what looked good. Timing was imperativein making the explosions looking realistic. Next I played with various techniques in

how to finish the scene, at some points I wanted to let the viewer decide in whether the plane crashed or made it home again, in the end I decided to make the visualdecision of showing the plane exploding. To do this a shatter method was used at theexact point the plane seems to explode. By adding this effect to the spitfire object Icould then decide how I wanted the explosion to look, making the pattern a glass feelgive the look of a huge explosion with various sizes of debris by playing with variouseffects such as repetitions and extrusion levels. I then went to the exact point of themain explosion and set a key frame on the radius around two frames before it and setthis to 0%. By moving a few frames now to the point of my explosion I set another key frame and now set the radius to 50%.

From the above you can now see the start of the explosion to the final shatter effect being completed. You can also see the exact point from the first image when theexplosion starts in comparison to the shatter effect taking place.

Next I went around finishing the scene with an emotive feel, using the words thisdeath as a blended image allowed me to show the movement of the sky againemphasizing the pilots love was flying yet his death was also the skies he flew in.


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As you can see this is a very important way of putting the main message across whichis the amount of people who flew and died in the Second World War. I then allowedthe scene to return to a black screen with the worlds of Winston Churchills speechabout the Few I felt this allowed the viewer to sit back and think to themselves what

they had just saw. Again use of old film footage was tailored and applied to thefootage. In this case the audio for this scene was vast, sounds including

Machine gun fire Plane flypast Plane idle engine Explosions And audio narratives

The use of audio had to be exact to match the explosions and fly pasts, one second

later and I feel that the scene could be compromised.

Overall critique:

Overall I feel this subject has helped me flourish in the post production area of media,I have enjoyed working with this kind of media as it has allowed me to use techniquesI have used in other studies through my four years at University and implement themin a new study such as this. Although when I first started at University I had nowant to use or create video in my professional career, now that I have experiencethis side of media it is something I am glad I can put on my CV and overall somethingI would like to continue to follow. In accordance to this project I was weary of usingeffects such as CGI because of my lack of experience in 3D studio max, but asmentioned earlier I wanted to test my own knowledge and skills in this field. Creating

perfect animations in 3d max at times was testing but overall something I have learntfrom well, knowing about RPF files can only further my knowledge of after effects. Iknew by taking on this type of method would create a hard task of creating realisticlooking scenes further more I wanted to use other skills learnt this year, I knew thismodule would now be testing but worth it. Other skills I really enjoyed using was thegreen screen elements, something I would have never seen myself using when Istarted University. Being in charge of lighting and filming and directing gave me afeel of the pre production part of this module something I really enjoyed. The nexthurdle after deciding this was creating a narrative I felt could showcase thesemethods.

I wanted to keep one of the selected briefs that were giving to show that I could work with a proposal and deadline like you would have to in the industry. Picking theSpitfire theme was important in allowing me to bring CGI into the project and alsoallowing me to use green screen to great effect. I knew with this theme it would beabout finding the perfect model that could be used in the scenes, I knew certainaspects about creating a realistic plane in flight from an image would be a pressingissue.


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As motioned earlier I wanted to start this project in a complete different manner thanto that of first. Using minimal tutorials and using my own learnt skills to implement incertain techniques was my main aim. Implementing effects I had learnt in both firstand the second assignment allowed me to showcase my own skills further. I foundthat a lot of the situations I was presented with could not be helped by looking up

video co pilot tutorials but by going away and sketching a way of fixing it.

I feel a lot of my own problems arose from the RPF models , getting such images tolook real was very hard at times I thought that a lot of them looked almost to stiff tolook asif they were flying, but by looking around ways such as motion blurs I feel Icould get around this. As I am also not a massive audio guru I felt that I did alright increating a positive audio environment, I feel at times I could have used a lot morespecial effects. Once the final render was produced I felt as if the special effectscomplimented the overall sound track a lot of things are done by luck but I feel a lotof these effects were created throughout my building experience in this module.

If I was to re produce this module a lot of things could be changed in creatingsomething that was far more realistic: For example assets such as the 3d models inscene two ( the plane pass) would probably have a pilot in the cockpit but as it is veryhard to find online this hindered me. Again as motioned earlier about scene one andthe character used in the green screen could have been dressed in the period clothing,

but again I feel if this was for a large budget campaign then we would see money provided to make sure this part of the scene would be to up to date.

I feel this module has allowed me to showcase what I am capable of, I am surprised by what I have been able to do while taking this module. Not only this but I feel that Ihave not been stressed by this module I think this is truly down to the amount of enjoyment I have taken from it. I have learnt a lot from this module not only theeffects but the time keeping that is expected, I feel that the time limit of the moduledelivery was understood and also the time limit of the project itself was apparent. Iwent around this making sure each comp was around 20 odd seconds to make up thecorrect time of around 2 mins.

Something that I was upset about was a technique I was taught about using, this wasdynamic linking of comps from after effects to the main premier project. This wouldallow me to update any of my comps from after effects automatically into premier.Without this I had to render each comp out each time I updated something, this I

found various tedious.


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You will need to demonstrate an understanding to the technical aspects of your project. To do this you should describe the key techniques used and the operationsinvolved in their implementation.You will also need to provide evidence that you have evaluated your projecthighlighting those aspects of development which went well and those which youwould approach differently if confronted with the same challenges again.Your project overview/evaluation must also be posted to your learning journal.

project overview and overall evaluation

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