Cutting out in Photoshop to get a full view of the NXT

At first we were unsure how we would get a full size front view of the NXT to put at the point that the animation first comes across the NXT. The only method I could think of is using is an image that could be cut out in Photoshop using the the lasso tool. After doing this I took the still image of the nxt into After Effects to try match it up with the other footage. The lighting wasn't the same so I decided to take the image back into photoshop and use the dodge/burn/sponge tool along with the curves to try match it at much a possible to the othe footage.

Things aren't looking so good

After going into college to edit the final footage early today I discovered that the footage shot in Imovie didn't key out nicely. Because of this we will just have to make do with the footage we already have. Furthermore, because we chose to to re-shoot it yesterday it's meant that all the editing and compisiting will have to be done on over the weekned on my PC. This I can see being a nightmare as it is incredibly slow, All I can do is hope for the best in order to get this in on monday morning. Anyway I've edited the footage filmed to tape on tuesday this can be seen below;

The Final Shoot

Alex and I figured we had put so much time into this already that it was worth one last chance to get the lighting perfect. Especially seen as it appeared Final Cut didn't work properly due to one hidden away setting that we would have never of suspected. So we set to work filming one final shoot. It wasn't long before we realised that the non-controllable device wasn't the cause for Final Cut unexpectantly quitting. We were about to give up and just start compositing the footage from the previous shoot when Alex suggested using Imovie to capture the live footage. To our amazement it was incredibly simple to capture live HD footage. We couldn't understand why it worked so well with Imovie yet didn't seem to work at all in Final Cut. Anyway we filmed it all again in Imovie and all the lighting looked much better than any previous shoot we had done. I tried editing this in After Effects on my PC but I couldn't seem to open it fully. I'm going to go into college tomorrow morning to edit it and turn into a regonizable format for my PC.

How many times have we filmed this now?

I took the footage shot yesterday into college this morning and managed to capture it. The quality of footage after keying out the green screen is rather good in the rotating sequence however the walk cycle is only just acceptable. We weren't strict enough with the lighting so the two pieces of footage don't match up completely. I also explained the trouble we had been having with Final Cut to Matt, he suggested changing the audio/visual settings to a non-controllable device. If that doesn't work then it's most probably an issue with Alex's Mac apparently.

Possible final footage filmed today

Final Cut is still refusing to let us long and capture live footage so we've had to film to tape. I think this footage should have come out nicely because there has been a strong sun today giving us the ideal lighting conditions. I will not be sure of this however until I take this footage in to After Effects. Fingers crossed, I should be able to find out tomorrow as long as the AV suite is available.

Rendered 3D animation

After trying over and over agin to export my Maya animation in one 45 second I began to realize my computer couldn't handle that sort of work. So I decided export scenes with footage no longer than 5 seconds maximum. I already had the first scene done so it was just a case of rendering of four more scenes. I also knew that I was able to map this animation in After Effects, this cut down on render time which always a great bonus when your computer likes to render at an average of one frame a minute.

If worst comes to worst... We will have to record to tape

Since we made the discovery that we are unable to capture live footage into Final Cut I have been worrying about how we're going to get this filmed. I remebered the other day that I have a few old DV tapes knocking about from previous projects. I am prepared to try Final Cut once more but if we still have no look it appears we will just have to film to tape and hope the AV Suite is open next week. Although this offers a solution it is still not exactly ideal. It is difficult to determine just how well the green screen will key on a tiny camera screen plus this will envolve trekking back and forth to college all the time. I guess if worst to comes worst we will just have to make do with the resources we have.