Update on Project: 09/12/11

After my last post I discovered that this assignment does not have to be fully completed by Monday 12/12/11, and that we are just required to show what we have done so far. I therefore decided to take a short break from this project to concentrate on another module as this project is at a good point for me to show people in the crit session on Monday. I have added the text element to the footage and have completed my models. All that is left to do is to add the models to the footage and animate them, which I will do next week. I will also write my evaluation next week once I have finished the project in time for the deadline on Friday 16/12/11.

Update on project: 05/12/11

Today I continued working on my project for this module. With some help from my tutor Jem we worked on a 3D model of a thee for me to use in my footage to hide the joins in the green screen footage. The tree model will be place right in front of the camera so it looks as if the camera has panned past a tree when following the characters.

The remaining things I have to do to complete my project is to add all of the 3D elements together in my footage and animate them. I am going to try and do this in 3D Studio Max, but I may use After Effects if I am struggling with the 3D software. I also need to add the text element of the project which I will do in After Effects. I am going to chose key phrases from the song I am using and 'write' them on the grass or sky using the handwriting tool in After Effects.

I am confident that I will finish my project in time for the showing on Monday 12/12/11 and have time to write my evaluation by the deadline (Friday 16/12/11).

3D work:28/11/11

Today in class I have begun working on the the 3D element of my project. I started tracking the footage ready to use in 3D Studio Max, but the computer was running very slow and I had to stop the tracking as we ran out of time. I will track again at some point this week.

I also began experiementing with modelling in 3D Studio Max. I worked on modelling and texturing a heart and a balloon, as well as looking at a tree to use in the footage.

I will continue this 3D work this week and will hopefully progress quickly with my project.

Final footage- Ready for 3D: 28/11/11

Below is the footage for this project, containing the background plate, the edited green screen footage and the audio track for the piece. It is now ready to be tracked and to add the 3D elements and text to it, which will complete the piece.

Green Screen footage: 17/11/11

At the beginning of the week, with some help from a classmate, I discovered some things I could do in After Effects to fix my footage. rather than having to reshoot it.

After keying out the green and adjusting some colour levels/brightness& contrast, I managed to fix the areas of the shot where the actresses top disappeared. However, my classmate also pointed out the shadows in the footage. I therefore had to sit and rotoscope the footage, drawing masks around the shadows and animating them to move with the footage.

I figured this would take hours and hours to do, but luckily I managed to edit, rotoscope and key the 1 minute piece of footage in around 2 and a half hours. I am very pleased with the results and am looking forward to continuing with the next step of the project, tracking the 2 pieces of film and adding the 3D elements.

Update on green screen footage: 14/11/11

As planned, I captured the green screen footage in class on Monday, and edited the footage on Wednesday. However I came across a problem. The female actress on the shoot was wearing a white t shirt, and I hadn't noticed that some of the green from the studio had reflected onto her top. Therefore when I came to key out the green and change my characters into silhouettes, some of her body disappeared when she moved into certain positions. I have tried altering the colour levels on the original footage, to see if I could get rid of the green flare on her clothing, but I have been unsuccessful.

I think I will have to reshoot the footage and edit it again, which is a pain because I thought I'd got it all sorted out and could finish my assignment fairly quickly after learning the 3D element of the project. However, I am not too worried at the moment because luckily I have shot my footage fairly early, so I will have time to reshoot the shots in the green screen studio. In the mean time I will work on my 3D elements that I can add in later.

I hope to reshoot this week, once I have arranged a suitable day with my actors.

Green Screen shoot: 04/11/11

Today I shot the green screen footage for my project. At the beginning of the week I asked my course leader to book the SIF (Sheffield Independent Film) green screen studio out for me so I could film.

Myself and my actors, Nisha and Brad collected the equipment and headed down to the studio. We set up the equipment and rearranged the studio so it was suitable for the shoot. I then ran through the concept of the short film and, using my storyboard and 'acting', showed them what I wanted them to do. Thankfully they were very cooperative and helpful and did exactly what I asked. We split the filming into three 20 second parts, so that I can composite them together in After Effects to create one 360 degree shot.

We managed to get several takes of each section within and hour and a half. We then used our remaining time in the studio for Nisha to take some test shots for her assignment.

All in all today has been very productive and I should be able to capture and begin editing the footage on Monday.

Green screen shoot: Edited footage- first pass (first 20 seconds)

Edited footage- Second Pass (second 20 seconds)

Edited footage- third pass (third/last 20 seconds)