Miniatures On The Moon

Hello everybody,

I have always found it fascinating how special effects have progressed throughout history. It's fascinating that these artists can trick the mind of a person into truly believing that what in front of them on the screen is "real." I came across some behind the scenes of the sci-fi film Moon (2009) the other day that really intrigued me. Here's the link: http://www.modelminiatures.co.uk/moonbase.htm . "Moon" takes place, you guessed it, on the Moon in a base. In order to create the actual base, the filmmakers choose to build a physical miniature instead of using digital effects. The detail and the effort put into the base amazes me and I believe it really works.

You can see that there are other computer generated graphics in this clip, so it's interesting to see that both physical and virtual elements are used to create this film. I would think it's be pretty neat to film a miniature then animate it in after effects. You could add some unique textures or some exaggerated movement. If you haven't seen Moon, I highly recommend it. A really well done sci-fi film. 

Analyzing Motion Graphics

This past week my favorite record label, Spinnin' Records, released a preview to a new song by Alex Kenji and Leon Boiler.

What I find really fun to do now that I know more about After Effects is to watch videos and try to analyze what they did.  It looks like they put a wiggle expression on the camera to make it shake throughout.  There are also a couple of color flares thrown in here and there that are pretty easy to make in After Effects.

Something I would love to learn how to create are all the "straws" that form the portal around the :48 mark and seen throughout.  They seem to be effected by the sound of the music so their animation must be parented to the audio.  Also at 1:02 and 1:08 the rotating portals are really fun to watch but I guess they were made in Processing and not in AE.  I make that guess based on their similarities to the fractal pattern at the end of the Casino Royale opening.  But alas!  I will see what I can figure out in AE.

Developing a 2D Game

What up doods?

So I'm in a club on campus called IC Game Developer's where we work together to try to design and develop video games. It's student run and a lot of fun, and throws you right into the experience of being a game designer, so if you're interested in joining or just want some more info you should talk to me after class sometime. Anyways, we are currently working on a 2D sidescrolling game about a robot trying to become human. I'm working as the art team leader and have a lot of work ahead of me to get the game at least into a working stage. It's been a bit of a struggle since I have just begun to scratch the surface on programs like GIMP, Photoshop and Illustrator, but since everyone is at that point we are all learning as we work towards a functioning game. My role is to create the enemies in the game, and get them animating in smooth cycles. It is really difficult but I am learning a lot as I go, and hopefully some of the skills will transfer to my animations in After Effects. I've been really inspired lately by a small indie game called Fez... if you haven't heard of it do yourself a favor and check it out. It is a beautifully rendered game with a retro pixel art style that sits in both a 2D and 3D world. It's a platformer and in order to solve the games puzzle and get past each level you have to change the perspective of the camera, manipulating the entire stage of the game. The art style is incredibly original and has a charming appeal to it. Here is one of the games trailers:

This weekend the Game Developer's are holding a game jam to try to crank out as much work as possible. It's pretty much a 48 hour lock in where we do nothing but work, so it's gonna be intense and hopefully extremely productive! I will probably post next week about the results.

I'm also now in charge of the twitter account! So follow us @ICGDC! I'll be posting a ton this weekend to update on our progress!
https://twitter.com/icgdc

Despicable Me (2)

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I was born in the 90's, but I love animated movies. I love the Disney classics like Peter Pan and Snow White as much as I loved more recent animated films, such as Tangled.

One of my favorite recently released animated films (apart from Finding Nemo in 3D, which was epic) is definitely Despicable Me. The film, released in the summer of 2010, is about a super villain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carrel), who is struggling to reach his goal of being the most evil super villain in the world. In order to do so, he decides he has to steal the moon right out of the night sky. First, however, he must steal a shrink-ray from his arch-nemisis, Vector (voiced by Jason Segal). His plan, however, is thwarted, and in order to steal his shrink-ray, Gru needs the help of three little orphans, whom he adopts.

While the film is very much meant for a younger audience, the humor of the film, and the way it was written, makes it very entertaining for everyone who watches it. The characters are all unique and hilarious, and feature voices from actors such as Kristen Wiig, Julie Andrews, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, and Jack McBrayer.

The best part of the film by far, though, is the animation. The scenery is so amazing and looks so real, and all of Gru's things, such as his house and his ginormous car are all so very intricately designed and detailed. No wonder the sequel to the film has taken almost two and a half years to finish. Despicable Me 2 hits theaters this summer, and from the preview alone, I'm pretty excited.

Steve Carrel on his character, Gru

For a second look at the trailer, and for more behind-the-scenes with the actors who discuss voice acting for animation, check out this video. It's a little repetitive, but provides a cool look at how actors prepare for their roles, which is something I've always found really interesting, especially in animation.

Despicable Me 2 Trailer, just because I love it....

From Guitar Legend to Guitar Hero

Recently, we started looking into motion tracking and that reminded me of a video I watched in high school. The video (see below) contains the behind the scenes work for the 2007 Guitar Hero game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock that was out for PlayStation 2&3, Wii, Xbox 360, Windows, and Mac OS X. The video features Tom Morello, American guitarist best known for his work with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and his solo project The Nightwatchmen, and the process that went behind putting him into the game for players to play as or battle against musically, known as Motion Capture.

Motion Capture is the process of recording the movement of a person or an object and is used in many different fields including the military, medical applications, and entertainment. Once the motions are recorded, they are used to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. You may be asking yourself, "Cody, does this mean that motion capture is the same as motion tracking?" Well motion capture, with the use of many cameras, helps track the XYZ coordinates of a joints movement while motion tracking is more about determining how a single camera moves while filming live action so that 3D images could be rendered from the exact camera angles and distances. So the answer is no, but they are very similar and a lot of software can be used for both although motion capture is more expensive to do.

Anyways, rock on!

Expressions

Hey guys! So I was looking up expressions this week because from what I can tell they are pretty important. It is almost like writing computer code, in that you need to be exact with what you are coding and very specific. I feel like once I know how to write expressions it will make a lot of things easier in terms of connecting layers and controlling their properties.

From some of the tutorials that I've looked at, it seems like particle systems can be very powerful/important and using expressions to control them is a necessity. What I found was another blog about Motion Graphics. http://ideastocreations.blogspot.com/2011/02/understanding-expression-in-after.html

On this blog there are free programs and tutorials. What I think will be most useful is a free eBook about the basics of After Effects expressions. It is in the "Free Stuff" tab and can be downloaded from there (It is called "After Effects Expressions Basics").  I haven't had the chance to look through the book yet, but I will keep y'all updated on how useful it is and what I learn from it.

Music Video Project

I was brainstorming ideas for my music video project for class. Since I like sports and have a lot of footage of the football team I film, I was thinking of a way to incorporate that. I like the song, "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly for my project. For this project I would like to be moving through different layers of football footage. This song has a lot of great motivational lyrics that pertain to exactly what the footage is showing. For the lines in the song that are really good and tie in directly to the footage, I want to have just those lyrics come out overlaying the footage. Again, not all the lyrics will display on the screen, just the ones that have a lot of meaning to what the footage is showing. I don't want this to seem like a karaoke style video like most of the lyrical videos on Youtube are. I want to be sure to keep the motivational sports theme in it.

Music Video Ideas

                 Yesterday I posted a video by Coldplay that had similar qualities to the artist Blu.  Today I came across another lyric music video by Ingrid Michaelson.  This gave me some more ideas for the music video project.  I know that I will be using stop motion and AfterEffects, now I just need the perfect song to showcase powerful lyrics!

Holding and Roving Keyframes (with Charlie the Chupacabra)

Hey guys. Just wanted to share a tutorial on holding and roving keyframes.

Holding keyframes will allow you to hold an object in one position until the next keyframe.You'll see this is similar to what Arturo was demonstrating when editing to the beat of music.

Roving keyframes allow your animation to move at a constant velocity.

Hope this comes in handy!

Coldplay - Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall

Since discussing what the class can do for our projects, I have been looking up different music videos with lyrics.  I think this project is a great way to showcase the lyrics of a song.  Last year, when I was filming a music video for another production class, I came across this music video by Coldplay.  I like how they incorporate some words but also drew pictures on the wall as well (ex. trees, hearts, music notes).  I have always wanted to do something similar to this, and now I can with the help of AfterEffects!  I have been on a stop- motion kick recently, so of course this video has stop motion!

Another part of this video I love is the use of glow-in-the-dark paints.  The colors are really bright and capture the audience's eye.  This video also plays with the textures of buildings and bricks, giving an additional layer of interest.  At the end of the video, paint splatters are animated so it looks as though paint is on the screen.  The combination of stop motion, animation, and video keeps the audience wondering what is coming next.  It is interesting and engaging until the very last drum set.

A Monster in Paris

    I just watched this movie this weekend and really enjoyed it! The story is very simple and sweet it follows two friends Raoul and Emile who get into a little trouble whilst making a delivery to the Botanical Gardens. Due to the absence of the professor who usually runs the place, the two friends let curiosity get the best of them and wreck havoc on the garden creating the mysterious Francoeur (a fly turned humanoid with an incredible musical ability) and the plot develops.
     The entire is movie is filled with absolutely beautiful graphics. The colors and the artistic choices I feel are definitely unique to the movie. There are scenes where you get this beautiful washed look, it is almost like you are looking at a very detailed watercolor. If i could explain the animation and graphics in one word for this movie it would be, elegant.
    I'm actually really surprised that this movie didn't do much better in the box office and didn't become an international success. I think a lot of it had to do with their marketing strategies because I know I had not heard about this movie through any medium. The only way i discovered this gem was through word of mouth (which is effective and says something about the power of the movie but its much harder to reach a vast audience when you solely depend on that).
    Oh I also forgot to mention that the music is INCREDIBLE I  think you will notice that in the above clip...

Stimulate Your Senses

So I have been bouncing around through all kinds of cool animated videos on YouTube and various sites for a solid half hour this evening. I came across some super awesome fluid simulation clips for awhile. Much of what I saw seemed to be created with a program called Blender, but there were some others as well. I haven't given much thought to animating liquids before, but the outcomes are mesmerizing. The videos demonstrate all types of things like morphing what appears to be water into shapes like teapots and humans to making liquids "dance" to the beats of music. Some of what I saw reminded me of the clip we watched in class during the first week designed through Processing (where it looked like grains of sand flowing into and out of body shapes). Then all of a sudden I thought of the 5 Gum commercials because many of them have elements that remind me of this type of animation. Specifically the commercials for the React and Rain gums channel the fluid simulation videos I started off watching. The React commercial (which I've included) morphs a black blob into different shapes and the Rain commercial has a giant pool of metallic marbles that pulsate. 5 Gum does a great job marketing in my opinion because those advertisements stick in your mind and make you curious to try their product. But that is beside the point. So I'm left wondering now if After Effects can do any animation that resembles this? Or would Processing be better? I'm not sure, but it'll be something fun to look into!

One of my favorite shows on TV is CSI:NY. I have always been intrigued by the opening sequence. Every season, the title sequence changes, usually with an addition or subtraction of a character. The sequence itself rarely changes. However in season 7, both changes occurred. There was a change in cast as well as a change in the opening sequence. I know it is rather simple, but I like it. I like how the viewer first plunges right into the heart of New York city then we are introduced to characters, in order of importance. There is usually some sort of graphic that is in sync with the character. We first see Gary Sinise and surrounding him are numbers and characters from a murder case he solved in a previous episode. I also think the red blood cells we see before we are introduced to Anna Belknap are pretty cool. The 3-d model that Robert Joy, the coroner, is working on is also an impressive piece of craftsmanship. One last thing that I find cool about the sequence is the bullet fired right before we are introduced to Eddie Cahill. I like how the bullet is fired then tracked to its destination. Again, I understand this isn't really too impressive, but it is intriguing. I just wonder how they came up with the ideas they did or how they created them. I am not even sure if any of this was made with after effects, but I like the ideas presented and thought you might too.

Toy Story:The First Feature Length Computer Animated Movie

The Toy Story franchise has always been very close to my heart. I was roughly the same age as the boy in the story (Andy) when each of the three movies came out, and the idea that my toys were alive was kind of really cool when I saw the first one (I was like 5 or 6 at the time) Part of the reason I loved these movies so much was because of how great the animation is. The toys all have different textures (Rex the dinosaur is scaly, Woody is sewn together, Buzz is plastic) and those textures show really well in all of the scenes. Sometimes the toys act like they aren't alive and the fall realistically (Woody's arms hang while Buzz's are stiff) The amount of detail and thought that had to go into every scene, movement, and action of each toy is amazing. I really do think that Toy Story helped shape my imagination, and I would be very interested in learning how it was made.

From the video I posted, I learned that they had to build their own animating programs, and that it took them at least 6 years from start to finish to make the first Toy Story movie. I also realized how far we have come in computer animation in the past 15 years.

V Squared Labs

      One of the things I am most passionate about in my life is electronic dance music (EDM).  Ever since I was little I have loved its particular sound.  Nearly two years ago I began DJing as a hobby and as a way to make money on the side.  Recently I have acquired a copy of Ableton and now I am learning how to produce this genre of music.  It would be a dream career for me to be a DJ and producer who gets to travel around the world and spin for masses of people.

      Since taking this class, I have discovered a new interest of mine.  Most of the EDM events feature some sort of lighting and visual effects.  In my opinion, poor visuals will break a DJs performance while decent to superb visuals will only serve to make their set better.  I personally think a really fun and exciting career would be to work for a company that has to design all of these background visuals.  One company I find to be top notch and would be fantastic to work for is V Squared Labs.

     V Squared Labs assembles both the visuals and the actual structures on stage.  They work with many of the best artists in not just EDM but in all of today's biggest music genres.  Here's an example of their work below.



V Squared Labs Reel from V Squared Labs Inc. on Vimeo.

      Of all of the set designs they show in that video I find Amon Tobin's ISAM the most incredible.  I wonder how long it takes to produce all of these things!  I would not be surprised if it took much longer to make the actual visual than it does to build the on-stage construct.

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.

Drive

Just recently I watched Drive for the second time. I was showing my roommates because it has quickly become one of my favorite movies. I tell people that its more of an experience than a movie because the story is so loose and the dialogue so sparse that you really need to pay attention to all of the other details in order for the point to come across to you. The soundtrack is so powerful that you could probably get most of the story and tension through it without ever opening your eyes. When I watched it the second time, I couldn't ignore all of the effects that were done in After Effects. Obviously things like title scenes and credits, but there were a lot of moments where the scene was color corrected or the lights were edited. One scene in particular, Ryan Gosling stares down a former client of his until he leaves the scene. The camera stays on Goslings face for the entire action, but you can see the reflection in his eyes of the man getting up and leaving. I believe that this effect was made possible through after effects, and it blew me away both times I saw it. It's an extremely powerful moment. I think that the way the story was told with such little dialogue is so impressive and the scenes with silence are so powerful that the movie will someday be called a cult hit.

If you have not seen this movie, I more than recommend it.

Lyric Videos and Motion Graphics

I've noticed that lately a lot of musicians are releasing "lyric videos"of their new songs. Sometimes they're interesting and set to footage of the band, and sometimes they're simply lyrics of the song on the screen set to the music.

I found one lyric video recently that used the same kind of pop-up style we saw in one of Arturo's films in class. The video is by Taylor Swift for her new single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and it came out a week before the actual music video. While the song isn't one of my favorites, I really like the animation of the lyrics and how they're constantly moving and changing. The transitions are really cool, and they're something I aspire to learn this semester in class.

Another lyrics video that I like and think is really interesting in terms of graphics is by a band called All Time Low. The song is called "For Baltimore" and it's from their new album, Don't Panic that's going to be released in early October. This lyric video combines footage of the band with animation, which I thought was really cool, especially how I recognized some of the expressions from After Effects (the wiggling letters!).

With lyric videos becoming more and more popular, I think they'll present a good example for us as we endeavor to learn After Effects. After watching both of these I kind of want to try and make my own lyric video for one of my favorite songs, and hopefully sometime soon I'll have enough free time to give it a try.

Sports Graphics

Lately, I've been editing some football highlight videos for a high school and I've been learning After Effects in class. It's unbelievable how many graphics you see in a day without even trying. All the time on television I watch Sportscenter and I just can't believe how some of the graphics look so sophisticated. As I learn more and more of After Effects, I realize that it really isn't as sophisticated as it looks on television. I looked for some really cool sports graphics to just get ideas of the design of some of them. Like the one I found below, I think this is a really attractive and well done sports graphic. I would like to try to create something like this by the end of the semester.

Think with Portals, not Safety

So I stumbled across this video while looking to purchase a replica of the Aperture Laboratories' famous portal gun from the critically acclaimed video game series Portal. Portal is a first-person puzzle-platformer released in 2007 by the Valve Corperation. At first it was a bundle package but then later it was released as a standalone game with additional features as well as a port to the Mac OS X.

This video was created Portal fan and Minnesotian Jason Craft. After studying Visual Effects and Motion Graphics for a few years at The Art Institutes International Minnesota, he now works as a compositor for a company called Ghost Productions, a 3D medical animation studio in promotional marketing, surgical technique, and surgeon and patient education. Janson made this video a few months ago and has been tweaking it ever since to get it just right. Using a combination of Maya for modeling & lighting, After Effects to composite, and some more other software.

Public access to professional grade software has really been a great asset to movie-making fanboys as well as people movie-watching fanboys and allows for user created videos like this one and many more. Check them out!