Of the effects that we were learning this week in Adobe After Effects, the one that stood out the most for me was Monday's exercise with the Sure Target plug in. When I saw the film Star Trek Into Darkness over the summer I was captivated by JJ Abrams' retelling of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I was even more drawn by the closing credits they created for this movie.
As we worked with sure target this past Monday, my mind instantly went to this particular credit sequence. While sure target was a small element that made up this credit sequence, it was encouraging to see one of the techniques we learned in class being used in big productions as one of the basic parts to function.
The other reason this credit sequence stood out for me was the fact that it was made by by some of the members of the video copilot website. Some of the other plug ins I saw used to make this sequence was Elements 3D, the particle replicator along with different particle effects to make the illusion of the solar flames on the planet. One of things that I was hoping Video Copilot would mention, was how they created some of the 3D objects like the various planets and asteroids. I understand that they only had a limited amount of time to present the information they did, but this would have been another element of this intriguing sequence I would have loved to know how they created.
I've been watching a lot of Lost recently with some of my friends. Most of us have seen the series, but one of my roommates is completely new to it, and with each little discovery she gets into it more and more. It's really amusing to watch first-timers discovering Lost. Every little thing seems so much bigger to them, because everything is fresh. I sometimes wish I didn't know the whole story just so I could watch it again and have the same reactions.
Cast of Lost, Season 1
But anyways, the reason I decided to write about Lost was because I read an interesting fact about it recently. The creator of Lost, JJ Abrams actually also created the intro sequence to the show as well. This seemed pretty cool to me because I didn't think that this happens very often. It is modeled after the Twilight Zone because he was inspired by the black and white theme and the mysterious use of focus.
Lost intro
It's such a simple opening, even at our current level of After Effects experience, any one of us could probably replicate this if we really wanted to. But this is also why it's so effective. The mysterious music, and the drifting of the title only add to the themes of the show. Rather than having a cheesy opening with collected footage set to upbeat pop music, they chose to add to the already mysterious effect of the show, which makes all the difference.
Lost outro
Additionally, the end of the show featured this same logo. However, for the end shot of the show they rotate the title so that it faces the audience head on. My friend made the observation the other day that it's almost like a challenge, the way they change the title format. It just makes you want to watch more of the show, which is completely true.
My favorite part about the end logo is the accompanying music. JJ Abrams is also responsible for the music of the intro/outro. He created the majority of it with parts from the plane they used as the Oceanic Flight 815. The "boom" noise at the end comes from hitting a piece of the plane.
I don't know about you guys, but this just about blew my mind.
