(3.11.15) Yesterday was another great session, we started off looking at different camera settings to achieve the best recording to work with, and what composition settings to use in after effects to minimise compression and loss of pixels. Our first task was to set after effects to the motion tracking workspace layout, then track a dot on a box, from footage Jon recorded in his office. With after effects being on the less advanced/powerful side of motion tracking, Jon told us about a few ways that will stop the tracking spot from keeping on top of it’s target, and how you can stop this before you even start recording, never mind getting into post production. The first part was a dot on a box with a fast shutter speed, which ran off screen. Everyone soon realised that as soon as the dot we were trying to track went out of frame, after effects had a panic attack and the tracking dot went all over the place, even when the original point came back into frame. It’s not clever enough to automatically find it again, so don’t let your tracking point go out of shot.

We then had to do the same for a slow shutter speed. It turns out a lower shutter speed works a lot better, as it has a less erratic pattern for the software to follow, and a way to make the tracking point lose it’s target is make it so fast it can’t keep up with the rapid colour change and follow it. The slow shutter speed footage also didn’t leave the frame which is a bonus. After we got a complete track of the selected point, we had to match up a checkered square to move in the same motion with it, however it was a little off centre while moving, so we moved the anchor points, and adjusted the rotation and position so they matched up. However we still had to add depth as the box rotated along a Z axis. We’ll come back to this bit.

Next task: Sky Replacement. (9.11.15)

Apparently the most common thing to do in VFX, we started by importing our footage and tracking it with two points. The sky is supposed to move at a slower speed than everything else, so we drew a null object and attached the motion tracking we had done to it, then parented the sky to the null object. After this we messed about with the blending mode to remove a black strip at the bottom of the image, and adjusted it as needed to blend in with some feathering to look realistic. Finally we messed around with adding a sun, by creating an eclipse and adding a fast blur, changing the colour, opacity, and sharpness.

Sorry about the vagueness of the sky replacement, I forgot to publish this because I was meant to come back to it to add to it, but didn’t remember until updating the blog for this week. My bad.

Last week we learned about augmented reality, starting with what it is and all the available softwares/devices out there that use it. Using apps on Clive’s phone and portable projectors, we found that the more lumens, the further away you can have the projector or device, without losing quality or colour. Blippar was the primary app used for today’s lesson, and we projected different shapes and objects onto the ceiling, adding textures and moving insides for effect. There was also another app, of which the name escapes me, but it was used to photograph a design/logo, recognise it, and recreate it in  a 3D presence (unfortunately it didn’t go too well though as we tried to do the Coca-Cola logo and it didn’t work, I think it may have been a little too complicated).

I’m not 100% sure on how I would incorporate this into my 1 minute me video, and think my time may be a bit more well spent on Motion Graphics or Motion Tracking, to achieve a professional level. I’ll have a think and a play, it would be really cool if I could make a character like the Little Big Planet Sackboy to interact with in the video, but we’ll see.

This week was fairly interesting. We looked at a lot of things we can do with projectors and learned about different sizes, distances, and lumens, then got into the workshop and started messing with projection mapping software like HeavyM. It was nice to see what can be done be with what Clive showed us but we didn’t get to test the software and product individually because of the amount of time we had, but we’ll see what next week brings. I don’t really know how i’d incorporate this into my 1 minute me video but i’m not ruling it out completely. To be continued.

Last week we were given a homework task, with a brief, to research a logo for a pet grooming/training/teaching service, to design a logo that was suitable for multi-platform, that gave off the right image to fit the brief. In groups of 3 (Dan, Adam & I) we had to design a logo that we thought was a good fit, and bring it to the workshop this week. With this we agreed to do a bit of research each and put it onto a google doc, then design 3 logo’s each to show to each other on Monday and decide on the best one to show to the class. I decided to focus on logo’s that would go well as a small square, but then have text on as well to fit as a banner on a website.

I decided to do two versions of my favourite logo, and changed to design a little by adapting the text as the leash, to show a connection between people and the pets. In the workshop however Dan did a really good circular logo, and he incorporated colour into it too when we created them on illustrator, of a dogs head been stroked by a human hand, within a circle. This was a good choice for our final logo as it didn’t involve text, meaning it would’ve made a good vector graphic, and was only two colours (white and blue) so can be printed or scaled easily.

Today we also had an amazing lecture, we were shown the difference between VFX and SFX, and how much of a film is actually green screened in, and it was great. The Wolf of Wall Street Video was really enlightening and and really set in how much you can control a scene, and how much money it saves. Also did you know Ugly Betty wasn’t actually filmed in New York, it was filmed in LA in studio’s with green screens. That one had me a little disappointed.

Until next week bloggers.

This week we were tasked at looking at good and bad branding, one of each. I opened Chrome and before I even typed anything into the search bar I had found it. Google. Google has one of the best branding i’ve ever seen, it’s clean and simple, maintains the same colour scheme over several different platforms, and has practically been here since the dawn of the internet. It evolves with time but never makes immense changes so it is still recognisable.
For poor branding we looked locally, and found anybooks.biz. The logo is disorientated, not looking like a fully complete square, until you realise it’s actually supposed to be a semi-open book. That and the fact the website looks like it was last updated in 2009, (the only thing that proves otherwise is the copyright 2015 line on the home page), complimented by a clip art smiley face on the ‘How it works’ tab, would make any visitor of today zoom for that red X. To be continued next week.