Camera animation and rendering in Maya

Before Alex left the other day, I asked him to remind me how to track a camera animation in Maya and what the correct settings of how to export it are. With this new knowledge I decided to get up early this morning and I was able to complete the animation in an hour or so. I tried rendering the whole thing, this took a much longer than anticipated and even though Maya claimed it had completed my render I found it had only done the first five seconds.

Is it me or does nothing ever go according to plan?

This is first time Alex and I have met up since we finished for Christmas. We set up the camera and plugged it into Alex's Mac, only to find that everytime we tried to capture the live footage Final Cut would unexpectidly close.We spent a couple of hours trying all the different settings yet no matter what we try Final Cut crashes everytime. We decided there must be a problem either with his Mac or with his phony version of Final Cut. Either way we decided to come up with a new plan as to how we can film it another day. Unfortunately this won't be until atleast the 5th of January now due to Alex's work commitments.

Re-writing the script - NXT

Since it's become apparent that it will be atleast a week until we can film I have decided to make the executive decision of experimenting with more camera animation in Maya. I refer to my previous post eleven days ago where I pitched this idea to Alex. We decided against it at the time however now we have three weeks to try make it work so I feel there's no reason it can't be done. I have also considered scrapping the idea of the NXT building up as it difficult to film right and if it doesn't work accordingly it becomes a vary time consuming process.

Filming takes another big set back

After spending much of last night building the legs for the NXT I decided to contact Alex to find out when was convinent for him to come round and get it filmed. He informed me that he has work most of nights this holiday period with the exception of a couple of days between christmas and new year, with a week off before we go back to Uni. This should be ok aslong as we film on one of the days before new year to allow for unexpected technical difficulties.

This should have been over a long time ago

I felt like a bit a spoon asking Matt to borrow a camera, tripod and green screen again today because he asked me what I needed it for. When I told him it was to film the NXT again he laught and asked, 'you still filming that piece of shit?!' Yep, my thoughts exactly. I can't believe I'm doing still trying do this. Anyway that's not point. The fact of the matter is that while I dragged myself out of bed to ensure we are prepared to get this over done with during the holidays, Alex lays in bed nursing a hangover. Oh well it's nice to know that we both have the same motivation needed to get this project completed to a satisfactory level. Right, Im going to spend the rest of my day building this NXT, I'm finding it hard to contain my excitment at just the thought of it.

Looks like it's going to be late submission

With no animation rendered and no film good enough to present we have been left with no other option but forget about meeting the deadline. I don't really know where to start on this one to be honest. I think the best thing to do is learn from the problems we've encountered and and try take the equiptment out over the holidays giving us a good few weeks to reserect this project. In the meantime I feel like asking for extension on this project, after all I think you will agree that the lack of eqiuptment and the inconsideration of others are simply factors that are out of my control.

NXT - The final shoot looks appauling

The reason why this footage is so sketchy is because of the modeling light we used to light the front of the NXT is now nowhere to be found. According to Matt somebody loaned it out and didn't return it on time. Fantastic, that is all we need right now, when we finally manage to get hold of the NXT the other eqiuptment goes missing. As you can see this footage is far too poor quality to actualy composit with 3D footage and still expect a half decent result. To add to our problems Alex has spent the last two hours trying to render the Maya footage, to no avail. I hate to admit defeat but I'm afraid that in this case it is our only option. At this late stage in the game we have nothing worth presenting in tomorrows final crit. Oh well so much for best layed plans, ey!

The Final Rant

OK these are my final words on the NXT... It vanished last Thursday and came back this afternoon, two days till the project deadline. So thanks, much appreciated. You've given us a day to film and edit our entire project. I know there were a couple of groups who faced the same difficulties we did surrounding the availability of the robot this can be indefinatley put down to the fact that there was only one complete kit coupled together with the fact there were such a high percentage of the class that chose this brief. I feel that if people put the NXT back when they weren't using it like Alex and I did then there's no reason why everyone couldn't have done their filming atleast a week before the deadline. Anyway what's done is done let's hope for the best in this final shoot

Green screen podium didn't work!

Apart from the fact that someone bought glossy spray paint (moody), the lego parts were not strong enough to hold the nxt. This was rather irritating as I had doubts about this from the start. Anyway shortly after the discovery was made, the green screen podium was quickly destroyed out of frustration. (Sorry no pics.)

The NXT has returned!

The NXT appeared in the classroom again this afternoon, interestingly it was out of batteries and it looks as though it has been put back together by a special needs artist. There were many parts from top to bottom that were either missing or in the wrong order, causing it to fall apart under it's own weight. I spent nearly an hour and a half putting it back together in the correct order. By the time I was done there were not enough hours left in the day to film. All I can do is leave another note on it explaining it is required for filming tomorrow. Out of pure desperation I made it clear at the end of the note that great harm will come to anyone who moves the NXT, takes it to pieces or does anything to it which would result in it not being available to be filmed by Alex and I first thing tomorrow morning.

I've had an Idea! A way to make our NXT advert run with complete continuity

When Alex showed me this animation for an idea of how we could incorporate the film of the NXT into the 3D logo over two weeks ago I must admit at first I was a bit dubeious as how hard this would actualy be to materialize. However after giving it some time and thought then looking into how it could be done, I discovered it is much simpler than I first imagined. So I decided to expand on this by proposing the idea of positioning the camera inside the letter 'S' of the 3D Mindstorms logo. The camera could then track through the 'S' until it reaches the NXT. At this point the camera could curve around to the front of the logo. This might be quite tricky to composit possibly envolving key framing it frame by frame. Anyway after the camera curvers around to the front view of the logo it would zoom out unveiling the full logo. I admit it would be a fairly time consuming process however it would mean that our final footage would have much more continuity. So I suggested this to Alex, unfortunately he rejected this idea claiming we wouldn't have time to do it. However I think we would have time if we film it within the next day or two then we would be left with plenty over a week for editing still. Anyway I'll forget about it for now but if we get chance I feel it would well worth it.

How to make a green screen podium

1. Take an economy size tub of luxury mayonaise.
2. Take a stanley knife and cut a small hole in the top.
3. Using the stanley knife cut the rim from where the lid would be attached. If that fails, seek advice from a product design tutor.

...

The first attempt using a mini circular saw fitting on an electric was difficult to keep steady. This was replaced with a small sharp blade, a much safer however more strenuous method.

...

4. Take a piece of card and draw a circle around the rim and cut it out then tape the card to the top of the tub.
5. Apply green card around the visable edge and tape up.
6. Finaly spray paint green your podium evenly.

The NXT seems to be playing hide and seek

After my previous notes were ignored, we were left with no other option but to hide the NXT in a locker on Friday afternoon so that Alex and I were sure that with no further set backs we would be able to film first thing on monday morning. Yep, you guessed it. By the time monday morning had come around the NXT has gone walk abouts again.

Lighting test - Optional Pathway

After the NXT took a short vacation it has mysteriously reappeared late this afternoon, this left us not quite enough time to film it completely although we did have chance to do a quick lighting test to assure we know exactly how the lighting needs to be for the best possible results in front of the green screen. They show the exact position of the lights and camera in relation to the location of NXT robot. One thing we had trouble with is the material that the screen is made from. This makes it difficult to keylight in After Effects when the subject matter is so small and film from close up. To avoid this we are developing a 'green screen podium' to film the robot on, according to Matt in the AV Suite this will make the section of film that will be composited into maya much easier. I'm not entirely sure this will work out as planned however I'm not exactly one to mock it before try it, so lets see how it goes.

The availability of the NXT is a joke!

Someone in the class is illiterate, either that or they are extremely inconsiderate. The note that I left on the NXT last night clearly stated the fact that Alex and I are all set up and ready to film this morning. If you think I'm pissed off about this wait until you hear what Alex has to say about this. After all, he was the one who spent hours rebuilding it yesterday so we could be ready to film this morning. We spent a few hours trying to locate the NXT but nobody seems to be any the wiser as to where it has gone. This is incredibly annoying as there are only a couple of weeks left on this project, we had carefully planned this out so that we could have all our footage shot by today giving us a healthy few weeks to edit and apply the finishing touches. We also decided upon filming today so we could avoid the rush of people that are less organised. It is clear that for a project that uses a prop that nearly half the class needs to film it will take a certain degree of cooperation to ensure things run smoothly, for example at the start of the project Tom knew he had to go away skateboarding so Alex and I agreed to let Tom and Rory use it first as they wouldn't have time later on in the project. It is this consideration and ability to negotiate resources that certain members of the class lack, it is because of this that the project is becoming more difficult that it needs to be.

Shot location and prop ideas

I mentioned to alex about hiring the equpitment out and filming the NXT at my flat, this way it will be easy to film rotating smoothly on a turntable, with the green screen behind it. Alex pointed out that by filming it at college we could get help from Matt in the av suite and we would also be to use the xd camera for better picture. Following this discussion we went to ask Matt about using the xdcam, he told us we could use it in the av suite whenever. The NXT needed rebuilding again so we prepared to film the next day. As alex set about building the robot, I was given the task of making a green screen podium for the robot to rotate on. It needs to be round so it doesn't create to many shadows.

Finished Animatic

I added some pictures taken of the NXT building up to rest of the animatic made the other day to illustrate the fact that in our advertisement we wan the robot to build up piece by piece.

Lego mindstorms animatic

I spent most of yesterday developing the middle part of my animatic. This merely shows the part of the commercial which will explain how the sensors work. The sensor will open in a new window blown up for clarity with another window opening to show the NXT's interaction. It is still unclear wether the robot will keep rotating or not. I had the idea of having the NXT still rotate in the bottom right hand side of the screen, however the original plan was to edit it like this so we'll just see what looks best. I still need to show the NXT building up piece by piece whilst alex is working on creating the logo sequence.

Lego mindstorms illustrations

I started out by digitally illustrating the NXT parts and how they look in robot form. I then filled the robot in block colour using photoshop. I think you will agree the illustrations are really neat and it does look pretty cool coloured in however this method of illustrating for a storyboard is far too time consuming given the length of the project. I would like to do the rest of the illustrations to finish the storyboard although at three to four hours per illustration it's probably best to get a fully realised animatic in order to present my idea in Thursdays crit.

Lego mindstorms Logo

I spent the best part of today making this, a 3D representation of the lego mindstorms logo. I plan to animate this with the cubes flying in and getting blasted away to leave the logo looking like this. Another Idea i've had is to film the robot and have the camera zoom out to expose the logo.

Lego mindstorms Logo - How it was made

I started off simply with a cube, copying this many times to create a wall of cubes. When there were enough I started to delete them one by one in accordance with the original logo this was the most time consuming part. After deleting all the right cubes I changed the colour of them and gave them transparency. Finally I added the Lego logo, this was the most difficult part as the image kept being imported mirrored which was a pain and even bigger to figure out why.

optional Pathway - Lego Mindstorms adverts

Here are the official lego mindstorms nxt adverts found on the lego web site, interesting... I need to say no more.

Optional Pathway - Lego Mindstorms advert

Optional Pathway - NXT Not the first of its kind

I had never heard of Mindstorms or robotic Lego before this project. It appears this has been a work in progress from Lego since 1985. (Although motorised Lego first came about in the late 1970's) The first of the three (the Cybermaster) ran on radio waves picked up by the massive antenna on it's back. Then came the RCX, the closest relation to the NXT, there is clear comparison in the way these two work compared with the original. Below is a picture of all the parts that build up the RCX Mindstorm robot and below this is an enlarged image of RCX computer note the similarities in comparison to the new NXT kit.

Optional Pathway - Lego Mindstorms advert -

This shows some good 3D modeling skills however the animation is rather poor, the movement of the robots is unrealistic and a inaccurate representation of what the robots can actually do.

optional Pathway - Lego advert

Rather than doing stop motion I could simply film what I do like in this advert and time lapse the footage to speed it up. I don't want to show it being built or unbuilt which ever way round will be best. I want to show this NXT bot to be more intelligent than previous Lego kits this is why I will then remove the frames with me taking the robot apart.

Moving Image - Examples of stop motion in advertisement

This example of stop motion is rather impressive, obviously I can't expect to get such a quality smooth motion finish like this but I can try. I realize this will be incredibly time consuming so I plan to start the production of this within this week.

Optional Pathway - Moving Image

I have decided to go with the lego mindstorms project as it seems this would look best in my port folio. I had the idea of doing a stop from animation with each of the models being built up step by step. I realize that the program that runs the robobot has to be shown, I havn't yet figured out how I plan to go about this. Most probably in a similar manner to the robot itself. Do stop frame in front of a green screen so the background can be edited.

Optional Pathway - Moving Image

This morning we were briefed on our next assaignment. At this early stage in the brief I am still fairly undecided as to which sub-brief to take on. There are many aspects of all which are appealing to me, for example; The DVD Menu would be good as the independent film scene is an area I would like to get involved within. Whereas the Machinima would be helpful in the long run as it will give me an insight into the ever growing 3D virtual worlds. Finally the most interesting of the three, Lego Mindstorms commercial, this would also be good because it would add another advertisment piece of work to my port folio.

Hobbies - DJ/Producing

I have been attempting to DJ now for around a year and half. At first progressed seemed slow and after a brief period of playing out in pubs and clubs of spring 2008 I took some time off over the summer. Now, after the recent success at the launch party of Standard Procedure DnB/Dubstep night in Liverpool I am now most definitely back on the scene. Being offered residency for the night was highly unexpected but has been a major boost in much needed confidence. The debut night of Standard Procedure was a first for me in many ways, it was the first time I had played at a night purely for the genres of Dubstep/Dnb, mixing on the mighty 7000 watt Dangerclaat Sound-System was a worry of mine at first although in hindsight it turned out to be less of a challenge than first expected. The main thing I gained from this night was the networking which led to a few promoters asking me if I would be interested in playing at there nights/parties. The demand for this type music is constantly growing but the scene is still fairly small so I feel I've jumped on the bandwagon at the right time. With the production of my own music on the way I expect my promo to be released early in the new year with my EP following shortly. So by mid 2009 I hope to be 'big in the game.' Above is one my first tunes it still needs mastering and the quality is a bit poor because of the streaming but this will give you an idea of how one of my debut promo tunes might sound.

Visual Effects and Motion Graphics Evaluation

Overall I am fairly satisfied with how this project was managed and therefore I quite impressed with the final results. Unfortunately due to a prolonged illness I was prevented from finishing the project exactly as I had intended. If I had more time I would have liked to develop some voiceover content as I feel this is the only thing the Ident is lacking. As was often the case with my projects last year it took a while for me to get started, this makes life much more difficult in the long run. After doing this project I have realised that everything runs much smoother when it is well planned out.

If I am to be honest I don’t think I could have created a piece of work much better than this in the allocated time however in future projects I should investigate other ways of creating footage that isn’t so time consuming. I must remember to take screenshots of every stage of my development as I feel that this will be the main thing that lets my mark down. I also spent a lot of time in Maya for this project as I didn’t feel confident enough to create my animation project in it last year. This is the main reason I decided to do the Sci Fi sub brief as I felt I needed some much needed experience in 3D modelling.

I should take encouragement from this piece of work as for the first time on the course I have come across an area I could see myself working in the future. I really enjoy using Adobe After Effects as it seems a lot more user friendly than Maya for example and it also has many similarities to my previous most favoured program, Photoshop. I am also fairly proud with the amount of time and effort put in to this project when compared with much of my work created last year. The effort is rewarded with the quality of the final piece and as I am beginning to take more pride in my work I plan to put more and more effort in to my projects through out the coming year.

Finished Ident - Web version

Here is my finished Ident. It's not a bad effort when you consider just how much work has actually gone in to it in such a short amount of time. I aim to improve throughout the year as finally I am begining to develop work that's port folio worthy.

After Effects - Screen Shots

The Effects I used to blend the materiel created in maya are mixture of colour correction tools, lens blurs and noise. This was probably the most difficult part of the project, trying to make 3D models look authentic when placed over HD footage. After doing this I created a lens flair by creating a new black solid and selecting the add mode. The scenes where the UFOs travel behind a building are simply masked out this was also rather difficult if the camera zooms out because the mask needs to be constantly moved

Ident; Final Footage

After realizing much of my original footage had to much shake on it to edit successfully I decided to re-shoot much of it. I struggled with trying to get many of the original shots with a tripod so many of the scenes vary from the first footage.

Maya UFO

After creating my UFO's I animated them in a simplistic way that would work my footage. This technique was repeated for the rest of the scenes.

UFO Creation - Maya

My knowledge of Maya was pretty much none existant before creating this UFO, I will admit I still find it difficult as it is not what I'm used to. On the other hand this project and my decision to create UFO's in Maya has given me the basic understanding of extruding shapes and rendering, these are aspects that unfortunately I was unwilling to give the time of day in last years animation project.

Example of poor motion tracking and masking

I spent hours today messing about with motion and tracking. For some reason it hasn't worked as well as the footage edited yesterday. This is probably because there is far too much camera shake on this bit of footage. The masking was done after, it's fairly poor I know but I decided not to spend much time on this as it is obviously not going to be used in my final film. This means I will have to re-shoot a lot of my footage, it's probably best film on a tripod or with minimal movement.

Motion Tracking In After Effects

I watched a tutorial on creativecow.com which showed me how to motion track. I then applied this process to my background footage. It makes the 3D model move as the camera does or at least it appears that way. After doing this I added some finishing touches to the colour of my UFO by using the curve tool, finally adding a noise filter to my 3D model to give it a film grain effect. It almost looked complete however the space ship appears to be moving much faster at the start of the footage. I decided to solve this by taking the whole film back in to Final Cut and slow the speed of it down. When slowing the film down I became aware of the reverse tool in the speed options, sampling it I decided that the footage looked a lot more convincing in reverse.

Visual Effects and Motion Graphics - Original Final Cut

This is my original cut, most probably how my final footage will be. This depends on whether or not I can master motion tracking and use it with this this sketchy footage to get some realistic results. Another factor would be if we are now able to take cameras out over night. I want to get some evening or dawn shots as I only have one and it's incredibly short, this is a shame because it is in this shot that the sky has the best lighting. Too much camera shake meant that the majority of this footage was useless. This is something I must keep in mind for filming in the the future.

Visual Effects and Motion Graphics - UFO Footage 2nd attempt

This was my second attempt at putting maya material into camera footage. This time I used the camera in maya to follow the spaceship as it moved in a similar way to how the camera moved in the footage. This gave a better perspective of the UFO making its movement seem much more realistic. In After Effects I added a mask in front of the tree to give the effect that the UFO comes out from behind the tree. I quite like this idea as it is simple to do and it makes the whole film look more realistic. The thing that is most noticeable with this film is the camera shake but the UFO does not move with. I need to learn about motion tracking.

Visual Effects and motion Graphics - First UFO footage

This is the first UFO footage created yesterday. It looks rather ridiculous I know. I think I will be able to get better results by doing the following; Panning the camera in maya so it moves in a similar fashion to that of my footage. That should give the viewer the feeling that both the UFO and the footage have the same perspective. I need to learn about motion tracking as well, this will make the footage more realistic too as hopefully it will cause the UFO to move if the camera shakes. Finally the lighting and blending effects will be what determine how realistic these UFO's look. At the moment it is clear that this has just been stuck on over the top of the film. I need to find a way of making my maya content have a film grain on it as this will stop it from looking so fake.

Visual Effects and motion Graphics - First Edit

This is my first edit of the footage i shot last Friday. Much of it is fairly crap to be honest, it has far too much camera shake and movement therefore it will make motion tracking rather difficult when it comes to making my UFO's look authentically placed in the footage. Next I plan to put one of my UFO's in some of the footage. This will give me a good idea of how easily I can make some of this UFO footage look realistic.

Ident problem

After searching more intensely for sci fi channel idents, i came across this. It appears that the name UFO Hunters has already been used for a program on UFO's. To avoid issues of copyright looks like i'll have to think of another name for the new ufo series on the sci fi channel.

Sci Fi channel Ident

Another example of how the logo and overall layout of the sci fi channel's idents vary. This is also a good example of how text can be layerd over moving image and how different bits of film can be edited together changing smothly fom scene to scene.

Sci fi channel ident

Again found on dailymotion.com in this ident the logo appears differntly. Infact in all of the Sci Fi channel idents i have analyzed the way the logo appears is different everytime. I found this rather strange as this seems to be a continuity issue. Ok so there not intirely different the still use the same logo and colour schemes. However i expected it to be the same or incredibly similar to show brand ident like channel 4 for example. Never the less this promo for battlestar gallactica has some nice space ship scenes, one in particular about 10 seconds in. The UFO's are rather small and hard to make out any particular detail. This is probably the best thing for me to do to avoid making my content look cheap and poorly produced.

Sci fi channel ident

I found this sci fi ident on dailymotion.com. I wanted to find out how the sci fi logo appeared on the screen at the end of the ident. A couple of things I have noticed are the way the sky has been edited to make the image more sci fi orientated. Finally the way the purple and black fades in before the logo appears. This has been done in after effects although I'm not exactly shore how.

Zeitgeist

I came across this film searching for conspiracy theories on google. I will admit it is a little slow to get going but if you manage to spare a couple of hours to watch this, your very own understanding of who you are will change dramatically. I know it is quite an intense viewing but if you manage to break it down it becomes clear that our intire civilisation is built upon lies, plagiarism and intimidation. The question is now, what are you going to do about it?

Location Animatic

Seen as my original animatic didn't have any specific scenes outlined I decided it was best to scope out some potential location shots before filming.

Post final crit analysis

After Thursday's final crit it has become much clearer to me what is expected in a final crit session. Before this i was under the illusion that final crits were used purely as expression of my final idea eg storyboard or animatic. It was explained in Thursday's final crit that that all work produced up until this date should be displayed showing how and why i reached my final idea. The best explanation for this used by one of my tutors which is to imagine that the group is a company that the idea is being pitched to and that they are completely clueless as to what I am wanting to do.

Sci fi Ident Animatic

This animatic is more of a working preview of how the final thing mite look had I created my own footage. These images are simply high quality photographs found on the internet edited in photoshop with ufo's super imposed over the top of the background. I also experimented with moving image at the end of the ident, the full version of this film is available in a previous post. As you mite have gathered this Ident is designed in a cliche X-files style eg the type and the sound track. Some of the critism recieved in todays final crit consisted of using either photographic images or moving image, putting the type over the footage or photo, maybe changing the font and changing the typewriter sound to a keyboard clicking while making sure that the ident fits into the allocateted slot. This isn't really an issue as it can easily be put right when producing my own footage.

Green Screen

Using some of the footage filmed in front of a green screen by one of the 3rd years we were taught how to erase the green. It was amazing to see just how simple this process is. Finally to make it more interesting I inserted one of the kaleidoscope films made earlier as the background.

Channel 4 logo; using filters and 3D settings

This shows my understanding of a few basic filters.

Kaleidascope; created using the cc kalieda filter

This was created rather easily using a simple kaleidoscopic filter, simply adjusting a few of the settings over the time line. This gives some hypnotic visuals that are often used for big screens in clubs and would be useful VDJing.

UFO; Sci Fi channel Ident

During the first visual effects session today we were taught a variety of basic skills using Adobe After Effects. This was incredibly interesting as there are many similarities to Photoshop and Flash. This meant it was easily picked up so that by the afternoon sufficient knowledge had been taught allowing us to create basic moving image like this. I decided to create a mock up of the sort of Ident that could be designed for the Sci Fi channel; UFO Ident. This is simply an image of a city sky line with the sky cut out. It has been replaced by a short film of moving clouds, which has then been distorted to make the perspective of the sky match the city. I then got an image of a UFO and gave it a path in the time line adjusting the scale and movement. Finally finding a not too pixelated image of the SCI FI channel logo I edited in Photoshop and faded it in the out again at the end. This was easily and would be much better when using my own content, rather than low quality Internet source images.

Visual Effects and Motion Graphics - Original thoughts

When I first recieved this brief I decided to narrow my options down by choosing two possible candidates for the ident production. Here are the following reasons why I didn't choose these two options; "Custard" I feel that this sub brief would contain no film footage as this is the current trend in children's TV idents. Pop Trash; I think this would be difficult because of the lack of copyrighten material allowed, I would find it hard to create eighties footage/music.

On the other hand these are the two ident options I found more interesting. The "Fear seaseon" looks promising as I have already had an idea of a girl working down a dark street with a man following her, she keeps looking over her shoulder as you can hear her heart beating faster. The main the problem with this is the fact that everyone I've spoken have said they are considering doing this ident. I think I my struggle making this ident authentic as channel 4 has a very distinct style. UFO; this ident is probably most likely as I feel it will give me some much needed knowledge in maya and I would also like to learn about importing 3D models into video via After Effects because SFX has always been a big interest of mine.

Enterprise and Innovation

In advance of the coming sessions commencing from monday the 29th of September we were asked to think of an idea for a business plan which we will develop of the final two years of the course. Since last thursday I have been focusing on one main idea; The idea consists of a project of consolidation of the up and coming artist's within leeds, focusing on the muscial and artistic talent. Much like a record label but with an aim to unite musicicians and artist's in a way that would be beneficial to both. I hope to create a brand identity that will be widely recognised as the face of developing talent in leeds. Further more I have an Idea for it to branch out starting with art & music, expanding to film, clothing and eventualy culture. My inspirations for this would most closely be related to the bauhaus movement but with a modern touch. Through this I plan to promote the individual artists as much as a new way of thinking and the culture unique to the art students of Leeds.

Yogi B SS Music Channel; Ident

This ident uses a mixture of a photoshop and illustrator combination with sum 3D modelling at the end. It seems as though it has not been completely finished however it the what it is trying to convey is clearly presented.

Music Box; Ident

An ident of this style would most easily be created using after effects, it is difficult to determine how this would have been created originally as it is fairly dated. As an ident advertising '80's music it does the job however without the music in the background it could also represent early '90's, this is possibly due to the time period in which it was designed.

Sci-fi Channel Ident

This Ident seems to have been created by an ameature group, possibly designed for a uni project similar to this one. The message is clear as it is obvious from the animation and sound that this is an ident for a sci fi channel. It is interesting to see how many people have worked towards this as it underlines the amount of work that will have to put into an ident like this, especially seen as we are asked to work solely on this project with a time allocation of less than a month.

Sci Fi Ident; AXN

This sci fi ident has been created using a 3D modelling program such as maya with possible use of after effects. Simplistic yet seems to be lacking meaning, either this or the message is poorly communicated. Without the words sci fi in the logo at the end of the clip, the viewers would be left clueless as to what this ident is trying to advertise.

Ident; Children's ITV

Very simple but effective. To create something like this, the easiest and quickest method at the time would be to use stop motion with a camera facing down onto a desk. This could be done using flash nowadays and would be much simpler.

Ident; BBC Children's TV

An Ident from the early 90's for children's TV on the BBC. It's incredibly simple and gets the message across, identifying the fact that the viewer is watching kids TV. It is difficult to determine how this would have been created.

Ident; Horror Channel 4

This is a good example of and advert for the fear season on four. However this would not be allowed for this brief as it contains media which is subject to copyright.

Ident; Horror, Sky Movies

A fairly basic use of film which portrays the message of a series of horror films on sky movies.

Ident; Horror BBC 2

A simple but effective advertisement for the BBC 2 horror season

First Brief. Module Title; Visual Effects and Motion Graphics

During this brief you will produce a Moving Image Ident / Title sequence for one of the following :
(see breakout sheet for more information on each of the production’s needs)

FEAR (season) - Ident for a series of psychological horror and thriller movies - Channel 4.
POP TRASH –Music Channel strand - VH1
UFO – 20 Second ident for SciFi Channel
CUSTARD –Children’s Sunday Morning Show - Channel 5

Each of these projects will require you to consider collecting, creating and shooting your own material. You will need to create appropriate logo’s and related typography for the ident’s too. Sound is also a keyfactor, and you must consider the use of sound fx, copyrighted music, original composition and voiceover requirements, as part of the production.

For the DEADLINE you will produce :
A Quicktime Movie in 1440 x 1080 in HDV 1080 50i codec plus a h264 conversion suitable for
youTube or Vimeo.

Inevitably during this project you will take on many roles and responsibilities, from creation of graphic assets and logo design – through to Editing and Sound Design. Your 500 word Evaluation should critical break down the production of this project and your achievements.

Behind the scenes - Horror Film

Behind the scenes - Horror Film

Behind the scenes - Horror Film

Location Animatic (Scene's)

Personal and Professional development

This white board animation is one of my favourite styles. I'm seriously considering using this as the use of media for the coming Personal and Professional development brief entitled, "learning journey." This is a good example of whiteboard animation however there is a lot of poor attempts out there. To avoid adding to the poor example's I think I mite give this a miss as my illustration isn't great.

Film for Interactive Media

The following films are some short clips found on "youtube," I plan to use some of these for inspiration and edit them down for another use of media to help explain the story of my
interactive media project

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Collecting Film for Interactive Media

Flash animation

Fundamentals of interactive design

It is required of me to turn a well know fable in to an interactive animation with a modern day spin on the storyline. The main idea i am considering at the moment is trying to explain the mess that western civilizations have created in the middle East. The target audience should be people of a similar age group to myself (16-21) In order to do this I must consider what's relevant. There is a lot of information on this subject, much of which is only opinion. The story i plan to shows the division of the Ottoman Empire shortly after the second world war, the USSR and western intervention and how betrayal caused mistrust between the super powers of the world. Starting with a short film or animation of what happened, for example the last 90 years in the middle east, the cold war and US led intervention, 9/11 and how this was a turning point. The viewer will then become the player making key decisions which could ultimately avert World War 3.

Fundamentals of interactive design

This brief requires an interactive design for a modern day spin of one of Aesop's Fables. The moral must be as clear as shown in the original Fable whilst incorporating a degree of interactivity into it. In other words the use controls what happens with multiple opportunities which will eventualy result in the same conclusion. The best way to go about this would be to design it like an early video although the user has less input. This is going to be rather difficult as it will require a decent level of design and scripting to make the brief worthwhile. I have decided to focus my aim on this brief to the scripting side as in previous projects throughout this year I have mainly aimed to make things look quality rather than venture into the more technical side of things.

How to DJ short video

Animatic

How to videos... DJing

How to videos... DJing

How to videos... DJing

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

How to videos... Ideas

National Museum of Photography Film and Television

Regretfully I didn't take a camera with me to the museum however i did manage to track down some image on the BBC website of the film cameras the BBC uses in television, from this vintage one at the top, through the 1970's to one used nowadays which can be controlled yourself. It was actually much simpler than I had previously expected. At the Bottom is an autocue, set up in front of a news desk with a camera filming you as if you were presenting the news. I couldn't help but have a go.

National Museum of Photography Film and Television

I went on a course organized trip to the National Photography, Film and Television museum today, this was quite an experience and important in the course as it gave an insight into our final module for this year, Film and video editing. Amongst other things I learned about techniques in how television is Filmed and broadcast, the development of technology in moving image over the last century and a half. I also spent some time learning techniques of conventional methods within animation and how in the digital era many of the processes are very similar.

After spending a short amount of time viewing the development of photographic film, I watched a short 3D film on Dinosaurs in the Imax, this was the most impressive part of the day for me as i have not previously seen a 3D film. However after recently designing a poster for the 2020 brief on the 3D home entertainment for cinematic holographics, i couldn't help but wonder how long it would be until it is possible to view a film in 3D without the irritation of glasses. After all the technology for 3D film is fifty five years old and is rather primitive in terms of how technology in film and television has developed.

I had just enough time at the end to view a first series episode of the League of Gentleman in the TV Heaven area before it was time to leave. In all it was an interesting day out, educational and informative. Unfortunately they're were i few displays that were broken and there was a whole floor which was currently undergoing construction.

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