Motion tracking- review

Hi everyone, so here is my review on motion tracking, and also what Me and Connor achieved, enjoy....

Motion Tracking- research

Hey everyone, so Me and Connor want to add the title of the song within our music video, but we want to use motion tracking to create this, as 'normal' text can look boring. I found a very useful youtube clip on how to create this as we wasn't sure how to make this effect.




The effect seems simple to make so I won't be making notes on this new skill, I'll let you know how it goes...

Disappearance effect- feedback

Hi guys, so I've just attempted the disappearance effect, and it wasn't successful, I decided to complete a PowerPoint on how I felt it went...

Disappearance effect and how i found it from 10lowean

Disapearing to dust effect- notes

Hi guys, so I decided to watch the clip multiple times and make notes throughout the video making it easier to refer to when editing my clip, here are my notes...

Disapearing to dust effect- research

Hi everyone, so Me and Connor have been trying to think of ways to transition from one scene to another within our music video, we felt that using the appearance effect can look boring at times so I decided to carry out some research on how to achieve a similar effect.
I found a tutorial on how to seem like the character is disappearing to dust which I felt looked really cool. The video is easy to understand and teaches you along the way. I'll make sure to keep you updated...

Here is the clip I found;

Cloning effect- Evaluation

Hiya, so I thought I'd give a small evaluation on the cloning effect and my experience.
I really do think it looks much harder than it is, I used Premier Pro to create this cloning effect. This programme is not something I'm familiar with, as I feel the programme looks overwhelming, however, making this cloning effect, did not take me long, The overall process took me about 45 minutes/ one hour, which isn't what I'd expect as it looks so technical.


This effect however is all about concentration. When I did this, I noticed I couldn't move the tripod as I needed a stable, consistent shot, so the two clips would match up when it came to the after effects, Dan did mention to me that no matter how hard you try, the lighting may always be off, either it be the sun or  a artificial light, the lighting will always change even if its minutes apart, this is something Me and Connor must take into consideration as when we use the cloning effect, it will be outdoors, and as we will film at night time, the lighting is always unpredictable, so we need to focus on the lighting, or when we come to edit this, it will be obvious that the two clips are different.


Overall I feel that this effect is very achievable and looks fantastic, without being too time consuming, but be sure to be careful when filming as, if something is slightly off, it will come through when editing.

Cloning effect-practice

Ahhh, so guys, I finally had a go, I will be honest, it took me less than an hour, obviously in the real thing, it may be harder as the clip will be much longer. I asked a year 12 media student, Jaden, to act in this for me, and he did a great job. Hope you enjoy...

Cloning effect- Notes

So guys, I've mentioned a few times that Me and Connor want to create the cloning effect within our music video, so before we went straight into it, we wanted to have a practice at this. I've researched a lot into this effect, and couldn't find a helpful video, however, two media students (Dan and Alex) recently used the cloning effect within their preliminary (I'll link this down below), so I decided to ask their advice. Dan recently showed me what steps to take in a simplified form, and it doesn't seem as hard as it looks. Here are the notes I made whilst Dan taught me the steps, beware, they are in note form, so I apologise if you struggle to read these.

Here is Dan and Alex's preliminary where they used the cloning effect.

Making a GIF

Hi everyone, so I made two GIFS, however, I didn't make these GIFS using makeagif.com, instead I used https://giphy.com/gifs/kxwW71sL2o5Vu, as makeagif.com didn't work as well as I hoped.

Here are one of the GIFS...
via GIPHY
I used ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUY0k4oTmgk, this clip in order to make it a GIF. The website allows users to decide on the duration of the GIF, users can also use a clip of there choice, either through pictures or youtube clips.

How to make a GIF

Hey everyone, so I've recently mentioned that Me and Connor wanted to create a GIF for our website background. I've been doing some research into these, and they're actually really simple to make.



I found this YouTube clip very useful as it gave me a tutorial on how to use a site which this clip suggested, I then went on to look into the website.

http://makeagif.com/- This website, allows people to make GIFS from pictures, videos, and youtube clips. It seems really simple, and quick to use, so make sure you keep tuned on my blog to see my attempt at a GIF.

Appearance technique- review

So, I thought I'd do a little review on the appearance technique we created today in order to give you an insight about our thoughts about the transition. Personally, I feel that we will definitely use this technique within our final music video, its a good and effective way to transition from one setting to another, yet its so simple. The whole filming and editing took us about 30 minutes which isn't a long time in comparison to the hand drawing effect we recently tried.
However, although this was easy to create, next time we use this technique, I feel we need to plan what gesture we will use to transition from one setting to another. For example, the character closing their eyes and then opening them up to find their in another setting, I think this would work well to start the video off. I recently researched previous A2 students who used this effect, so thought I'd link it below so you can get a feel for what I'm trying to describe. This student went underwater and then came back up to find their in another setting, its almost like they just appeared there like magic, which is similar to what we want to create...

Appearance technique- practice

Hey guys, so today Me and Connor gave the appearance effect a good go. It didn't take us very long to do. We aimed to keep the camera still, but as the clip was filmed on my phone ( hence the bad quality of the clip :( ), I didn't have a tripod so was difficult at times. The editing didn't take long either which is a bonus, as its simple to create but also really effective. I feel maybe the clicking of the fingers was hard to perfect the timing, so in our final music video we may use the opening of the eyes to transition and create the appearance effect rather than the clicking of fingers. In order to edit this we used windows movie maker however, for our final music video, we'll be using Adobe after effects and premier pro so editing will be simplified.

Appearance technique- Steps

Hey guys, so I recently mentioned that Me and Connor wanted to feature an appearance technique within our final music video. This simply is a transition and mainly requires a lot of attention on filming, camera positions and the subject (actor) making it more believe by using facial expressions. I tried to research into this, but nothing was quite similar to what we wanted to create so instead I wrote out a few simple steps for us to follow when filming to give us prompts on how to achieve this effect.
Here are the steps we created...

Hand drawing effect- behind the scenes and advice

I feel overall the hand drawing effect is very simple to create. Although a points it is rather time consuming and can become repetitive when editing large clips but the outcome is all worth it.
Here is My step by step way on how to produce this effect...

To begin with, import the clip you wish to add this effect on, into Adobe After-Effects, the programme itself seems rather over whelming as there so many buttons and you feel everything can go wrong, don't worry, just follow these steps.

Be sure to render your clip before you start editing. To begin with, I thought 'oh its okay it'll work without rendering...it wont! Rendering allows us to work on the clip with the brush tool.

  One you've rendered the clip, double click the clip itself and a 'paint' icon will appear in the bottom right corner- nearly close to the fun parts, I promise- the duration is usually set to 'constant' in order to create this effect, you want single frame, feel free to use any duration type you want, but this is the one you need to create this.

THE FUN BEGINS! Me and Connor chose to use a rather small brush size so we could get into smaller parts of the body, If your clip is a close-up shot, I'd recommend using a bigger brush simply because the smaller brush size won't give the same effect. We used brush size 9, this was the perfect size for us as the clips were birds eye view and a long shot, so was the right sized brush for us. You can also change the colour of the lines if you prefer to.

Make sure to have fun with this as much as we did, it may seem daunting and rather time consuming at first, but once you get into the swing of things, you'll fly by.

 

Hand drawing effect- The making

So today, we did it! It took an hour to do two clips,  which I don't thinks too bad considering we're beginners. Thought I'd share with you the two clips we did...






This is our practice piece number one. We simply used the white paint tool to create this. From the research process I found that a lot of videos highlight feature of the mis-en-scene which I think would be effectice when using the hand drawing effect. This skill is simple but effect, it can make a plain video come to life with something so simple.






The second example is my personal favourite. I started to use the white brush tool effect, Connor suggested to use different colours to make it seem more fun... straight away, from the use of a simple coloured brush stroke, added life to the clip. We will defiantly use this skill when producing our final music video, it a simple trick that adds character to the clip.

Hand drawing effect- Step by Step

Hey guys, so Me and Connor are going to give the hand drawing effect a little go, but first I wrote up the tutorial I watched in a step by step way so we can quickly refer to it whilst practicing... I also added a few After Effects keyboard shortcuts, as it'd get us used to working quickly as we have to work to a deadline for our final music video... Hope our practice piece turns out well, I'll keep you updated, but, for now, I'll just upload my step by step notes...

Hand drawing effect- The research

Hey guys, so recently I've really been interested in the 'Hand drawing' effect that a few music videos have included lately. For example, disclosures front covers include this;

 

and Justin Bieber's 'what do you mean' video also includes this effect. Me and Connor really want to create this in our final video so I did a little bit of research and watched multiple YouTube videos on how to create this within after-effects, thought I'd link below my favourite tutorial I found and the most helpful video...