Freddie Wong simple skit

While this video is simply a short comedy skit, it does feature some hints of motion graphics that I thought were good enough to post on this blog. Some examples of graphics added to this particular video are the lasers on the guns, the drone in the sky and the masks that each of the characters take off. The masks, while only being a short segment of the entire scene were interesting to me as they had to map the persons face to the mask mesh that was to be taken off. There is evidence of tracking in this video as well, the laser on the sniper rifle clearly was added during post production. They must have tracked the gun footage and then added that laser to the bottom of it. And obviously the end gunshots and city scape were both computer generated as the wizard city titles came into view. Overall a funny video, this shows that effects like gunshots and such don't need to be over the top to add to the existing footage and make a simple story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHQr0HCIN2w

History of Motion Graphics

I found a website with some pretty interesting stuff on Motion Graphics and what it is. It has a lot of cool videos from older movies and TV shows (including Adam West). This guy also gets into how he made a demo reel in order to find a job. So I guess Arturo was right for once (just kidding, don't fail me Arturo) that a good demo reel really does get you places. Check it out.

hey everybody so for my first post i thought i'd post about How It Should Have End. It's a popular web series and i'm sure most of you guys have heard of it and if you can't tell from the name  they take notable movies and give them a different ending. The interesting thing about the serious is that it uses Photo shop and After effects for all the animation. In the video it has a behind the scenes look at the process they use to make the animation. It cool to think that we have all the same tools that he has and with the skills could potentially do what he does. any way check out this post and see what i mean



also: i'm not sure if it is posting the wicked witch video because it displays the hobbit for some reason

Final Holiday Movie: A Christmas Carol

This is the epitome of motion graphics and animation.  From making Scrooge look like Jim Carrey to the life like images telling a classic christmas story.  They are able to capture the comedic timing of Jim Carrey with the vivd images of Charles Dicken's story.  The 3 ghosts are exactly what I pictured when reading this story.  I love this movie even more than Polar Express.  It always leave me in awe how detailed the images are; from Scrooge's grimy teeth to his large pores in his crooked nose.  It is definitely  a film worth watching this holiday season.

"Tiny Tortures" by Flying Lotus

Hey yall. So the artist Flying Lotus just released another music video from his new album "Until The Quiet Comes." It's really an amazing video which features a ton of 3d and most likely some after effects. Plus you have Elijah Wood in it, which is very surprising. The song is so atmospheric and just plain cool. Hope you enjoy!

Doc Ellis and The No Hitter

It's becoming clearer as time goes on that After Effects is a program that you can basically do anything with. There are simply are no restrictions to what you can do with it. I've been interested to see what kind of animation you can do by importing Photoshop images into AE and playing around. One video that inspired me to start this is Doc Ellis and The No Hitter. Shown to me by a friend, it's a hilarious account of a professional baseball player pitching a no hitter while on the drug LSD.

I think this animation is absolutely hysterical. The use of very simple effects, great sound, and a rare radio interview really adds up to a fantastic animation. The style of using these frozen stills instead of fluid characters is perfect for this story. When I rewatched this a week ago, I realized that this can all be done using the Adobe suite. By importing Photoshop files and animating them with AE, this style is easy to achieve. The mix of black and white to color is most apparent in my favorite scene when they show the rookie "Dave Cash." Or "I'm high as a Georgie Pine!" I would love to find an audio file from an interview so I can animate the visuals and bring to life someone's story. Great stuff.

Titles design for film Thesis project

So, this week I thought I'd just share some screen shots from a title animation I am doing for a friends Thesis film . The piece is a stop motion animation titled "Stick it to the Pattern," with the pun in the title meaning exactly what you think. I started out by developing a concept for each the beginning and ending credits with the filmmaker (Siobhan Cvanagh, if you know her) and then working from there. Since there is a major shift within the attitude of the characters from the beginning and end, we both agreed that the titles should reflect this shift. So for the opening credits, which I have posted a few images of, we wanted to reflect the concept of rigid and exact patterns in the film. The look of the titles is supposed to reflect that of an old-school computer screen, which is actually one of the characters in the film. At first I was just going to use techy looking font but after a long (and worthwhile) discussion with Arturo I decided to bite the bullet and build each individual letter out of blocks. The advantage of doing it this way, however tedious it may be, is that I can now animate the blocks to at first appear random and then eventually form the words of the title sequence. The first image on here will be the last frame in the sequence and is an image identical to the pattern the factory workers in the film are forced to stick to, and subsequently eventually "stick it to". Although this project has already taken up a considerable amount of my time, it is one that I know I will be really proud of once it's finished. I would promise to post it on here once it's finished, but I think it would be more fun to wait to see it on the big screen at out screening, don't you?

Behind the Scenes of Avatar

So for the first ever, I saw Avatar this week and I was immediately amazed at the visual and special effects that were used throughout the entire film. I couldn't help but think of all the long exhausting process that it must have taken to make this idea a reality. Therefore after watching the movie, I went online and started looking for some behind the scenes videos and learning more about the hard work and time that it took to make this. The production of this film went above and beyond the simple use of a green screen and after effects. While I was on my search for videos I did come across this 22min behind the scenes video that covered everything from the casting of the characters to the various types of special cameras and technology that was used in the production process. If you have the time it is definitely a video worth watching, and I personally really enjoyed it and learned alot!!

ENJOY!

Youtube My Facebook

I found this cool project on vimeo. This would be great to use as a commercial for facebook.  I figured I would post this video because it reminded me of our classes about motion tracking.


I also found a tutorial to create light streaks with particles.  This guys does some really great tutorials, and he explains everything so you will learn what everything is actually doing. CHECK IT OUT

simple typography

I was scrolling through random typography and motion graphic reels, and this came up! it is very simple, basic, and kind of boring ha

I really don't know exactly what this was made for or who exactly the artist is, I tried looking him up and came up with this website and his tumblr. Since most of the info was in French and I do not understand the language, Google Translate could only help so much so all I could find is that he is graphic designer from Georgia (state in Europe).

It seems as if he creates unique and interesting images for a living -- some with quotes and sayings, others with just vectors and shapes. the above video was only one of three posted on his website and the only one that was obviously created digitally (unlike the others, which might have been filmed)

my point here is that this flow of words and audio really seems easy, that anyone can pick up AE and create this! obviously it might take some time (especially for beginners); the description of the YouTube was "my second typography animation ... i'm new to AE"

hope this makes sense and you thought was worth watching too