I’m Abandoning You…

Just to let anyone who has actually been following this blog know, I’m abandoning it for the time being because I’m moving on Tumblr. It’s prettier and easier to use etc. so… You can now find me here http://paradux.tumblr.com/

Computer Graphics for Animation and Film

Principles of Sound and Video : Riot Shield Viral Episodes

Principles of Computer Graphics : Night Out Image Project

It’s finished! Many frustrating hours of After Effects later and it’s finished! (My first time really producing anything using AE) Before I sit down and relax here it is, followed by how and why I did everything:

HOW

Step one: Grab all the images/assets

First thing I had to do was get hold of all the images. Everything you see in the finished thing are photos of objects found around my flat (excluding the ‘average guy’). The ketchup bottle is labels are altered in PS as you can see (explained later). The desk on which the animation sits is actually a chest of drawers with a lamp on top and against an open door. The image of the ‘average guy’ is created in Illustrator by drawing over two different images I found on facebook (one for the upper-half and one for the legs). I then exported this to Photoshop.

Step two: Cut out all the images/assets

I brought these photos into Photoshop and cut out their backgrounds (excluding the background image obviously). In order to create a top surface in 3D, I cut the front of the desk into a new layer (explained further later…). The Illustrator image I then imported to Photoshop so I could arrange/tidy up the layers, this way he’d have limbs that I could animate.

Step three: Bring everything into an AE composition

I already knew this animation was going on youtube once it was finished and 720p is currently the highest resolution youtube supports. With this in mind I thought I’d make use of it and I set the composition up in 1280 x 720 with square pixels.

First I added the background assets (background and plate with toast). I flipped the front part of the desk on it’s axis so it faced upwards and duplicated the layer twice to fill in the gaps. I now have a 3D desk! (debatable I know but it’s the effect I’m going for!)

I imported and placed the ketchup bottle and the ‘average guy’ PSDs. I then placed the average “inside” the ketchup bottle!

Explanation! OK so the ketchup bottle is made up of four different layers: the bottle, the middle label, the upper label and the cap. The labels and caps are parented to the bottle in AE so they move with it like a group. By placing the ‘average guy’ behind the bottle and dropping the opacity of the bottle layer, the bottle is transparent but the labels and cap aren’t! This way as long as the ‘average guy’ remains behind the bottle he can be see though it but not the labels and cap! It’s like he’s actually inside!…

Finally I added the guitar above the rest of the composition.

Step four: Animate!

Now everything  is in place I can animate it. Getting the bottle to rotate and shake was the first and possibly easiest bit of the animation. After this, the ‘ejecting’ of the ‘average man’ from the bottle was fairly easy. The fact that the two objects were parent and child proved the only problem here, If I moved the ketchup bottle the ‘average man’ image would move aswell. I got around this by removing the ketchup bottle once it is completely off screen. Aligning the figure and the toast properly was also difficult as they are both 2D images in 3D space. The figure appearing to be lying on the toast is an illusion as long as the camera remains in front.

I originally wanted ketchup to come flowing out of the bottle as well. I even created an animation using a blob of ketchup image and the liquify effect as a separate composition and brought it in.

Try as I might though, I just couldn’t get it to work. I actually think I prefer it without anyway so…

Feel free to have a look though:

When the legs come forward into 3D is where the animation became complex! I had to keep switching views to the top view in order keep the legs aligned and ensure they didn’t swing too far. Getting the keyframes  in the correct positions here was difficult aswell. I decided not to worry too much however as I could do a fair bit of speeding/slowing in Premier afterwards.

Getting the guitar to be the right size, shape and rotation for the ‘average man’ to play took a while. Possibly the most frustrating part of the guitar playing sequence (and the whole project!) was getting his hands in front of the guitar itself. Obviously the layer sat in front of the figure which meant I had to keyframe the arms to move in front of the guitar at just the right point. I kept on getting this wrong somehow and the arms would appear outside the ketchup bottle earlier in the sequence! I managed eventually to get the playing arm in the right place at the right time but the fret arm for some reason I just couldn’t do! Grrr…

Finally I added some little animation detail just as a nice touch. The right leg and the head swing back and forth (sort of) in time to the guitar playing. Just some minor detail that most wont even pick up on… but I know it’s there. He also floats around in the bottle slightly at the beginning. You probably don’t even see it but again same principle.

Step five: Polish!

With the animation finished I could work on the finishing touches! My favourite addition to the composition was a ‘spot’ light source just in front of the bulb in the background image. It was really nice to get this in and I spent a while getting it just right. I think it really adds to the atmosphere of the whole animation and creates that little bit of realism in such a surreal piece. I also turned on ‘casts shadows’ on all objects so this light has a further effect. I had to add an ambient light however because the spot light didn’t provide enough light to see everything!

I also created two cameras and did two separate sweeps of the animation with them. The first one was purely a mess around to experiment with camera movement, point of interest, focus and zoom etc. The second was an actual attempt to make good looking camera work. I played both cameras to anyone I could grab  nearby and sods law they all preferred the first!

Once everything looked nice I applied motion blur to the final render so it looked that little bit more impressive.

Step six: Edit in Premier

I exported the finished animation into Premier so I could piece it with the music. A couple of things are sped and slowed to desired effect as planned. The music here is really the icing on the cake  though. I was really happy that this piece went so well with the animation actually. There’s a nice, slightly climatic pause just before the ‘average man’ begins to play.

OK so it’s not that convincing that he’s actually playing the guitar, but it works mostly…

Step seven: Export and upload

Soon as this was done I made sure all settings were correct and exported the finished video. I used the source resolution and H264 compression for optimal youtube viewing…

Why

So now you’ve seen it you’re probably wondering why the hell I did this.

OK, let me explain.

Please note

The animation and everything I am about to say is not intended to offend anyone in any way. I’m sorry if I comes across this way but this is really an expression of my personal opinion and everyone who watches/reads it will have their own.

If you imagine it this way:

The whole thing is based on a pub quiz I went to with some friends… One friend in particular. He shall remain nameless (for obvious reasons), and this is why I refer to him as the ‘average man’. This was actually a  nickname given to him back in college by various people. Yeah it’s very ironic, because he is far far from what you or I might call average. I’d like to have uploaded the image on which is is based, however it does have the person in question in it so I can’t really… He’s very different from anyone else I know in the way that he seems so immature by comparison. I’m not going to go into detail, and as I mentioned this is my opinion, but I can tell you that he has more child-like characteristics than anyone else. He has very little common sense and always needs people to go with him and help him with something (otherwise he tends to do it wrong). Just general little things that people who know him (especially me!) pick up on. I don’t know how to fully explain it but some people say it’s signs of Asperger’s syndrome. Who knows…

Some Maya Basics

Here’s some very basic polygons (two planes, some spheres and a load of cones to be precise), texturing, lighting, and gravity. In case you had no idea what I was going for it’s some boulders rolling down a mountain… shut up it’s not high poly I know…. it’s a basic example!!! The cones and planes are ‘passive rigid bodies’ and the boulders are ‘active rigid bodies’ with gravity applied. This basically means the boulders will move and collide with the environment. I have no idea why the texturing on the boulders show up black. Some sort of error (I’ve rendered the thing about 5 times!) 

Rigging in Maya

OK so I didn’t actually model this random blue guy but I did animate him using rigging. It basically means you create a 3D skeleton inside the model and you can assign invisible objects to IK chains in order to keyframe movement.

More After Effects Basics (inc. some Photoshop…)

Here’s an animation I did in AE to practice basic animation keyframing. The warthog used here is the one that was built by Peter Jackson’s WETA workshop in New Zealand for the live action Halo shorts. I spent most of the time cutting this out in Photoshop as the edges of the tyres are really dark and blend in with ground. The windscreen has lowered opacity so you can see the background through it. The warthog and the background are actually on two different planes in 3D space. As it crosses the gap it moves towards the back (except you probably can’t see it.).

More (This Time Bad) Viral

So Windows 7 looks like it could be quite good this time round (don’t hold your breath), and at £30 quid with student discount can I go wrong? Whilst doing my research I found this. Yeah it’s just some Family Guy footage dubbed with new voice-over, and yeah it’s bad.

Seriously what is this? M$ just went up to Seth Macfarlane and said “Hey everyone thinks Family Guy’s cool, how’s about we ruin some exisiting with some unfunny jokes about our ’741′ campaign.” Would have been brilliant if M$ had actually put themselves on the line and made a joke about what a failure Vista was! Brian – ” You don’t know what 741 means? The 7 is Windows 7, the new OS from M$ which is basically M$ realising that Vista was BS just after is got released and scrapped it and started the f**k again” Stewie – “Wow so Windows 7 is stable without a service pack a month after release?” Brian – “Who cares, it has this Aero thing so it looks cool so people will buy it”. (It’s true because I probably will also.)

Honestly I love Family Guy but this is LOOOOWWWW.

Some After Effects Basics

Here’s a brief summary of the After Effects skills I have been developing recently. When I made an attempt to start using AE several years ago it was complicated and well over my head… Now I’m doing an ABC in Maya and AE seems like baby steps by comparison (than again once apon a time I never thought I’d get my head around Photoshop)…

Here’s an example of an image in 3D space and lights with shadows enabled. The composition contains two lights and a camera with keyframed movement. Yeah sorry the starange compression glitch at the begining of the video means you don’t get to see the second shadow…

Sorry…

Haven’t posted anything in a while. I’ll post everything important I’ve worked on ASAP…

My bad…