After Effects Text Tutorials

I found some After Effects tutorials that describe how to use the Text tool. I thought they could be useful for those working on their Title assignments. Ranging through a number of different styles, the tutorials cover many different kinds of text effects.






















For my title sequence, I'll probably end up using the jitter type or maybe the handwriting tutorials. I think either of them make the most sense for the good dinosaur.

Animating Pirates of the Caribbean

This weekend I decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean in honour of Pirates Week back home. I was very interested in the visual effects and how they created everything. I have always wondered how they animated Davey Jones and his crew. 

The movements of a computer-generated character such as Davy would traditionally be recorded by an actor in a motion capture suit as he darts around a meticulously controlled studio environment. The filmmakers would shoot plates without the actor in the frame, and then the CGI beastie would be inserted into that blank space in post-production. 

These videos were very informative and interesting to watch. Enjoy!

How the Director of 'Peanuts' Created a 3D Charlie Brown

The new Peanuts  movie is definitely an animation classic as it brings an an age old blockbuster animation into the 21st century. The new animation is fantastic, particularly the animation of the main character, Charlie Brown. Creating Charlie Brown's head was one of the biggest challenges for the animators as they wanted his profiles to be different from the front view of his head. They eventually succeed as the front view of Charlie Brown has his hair in a loop, meanwhile, from the side view it was shaped more as a candy cane.

It was quite a time consuming process to create Charlie Brown's head, along with the other characters. One of the animators goes in detail about the process, as he said "We modeled them for each perspective [roughly six models per character, including the front and side views] and then wrote software to allow the animators to transition these separate models together to help them move. The style [of the classic animated cartoons] also is more akin to holding the pose and 'snapping' [to the next pose]."

This commercial by PARABELLA for "Twinings Tea" reminded me of "The Adventures of Tom Thumb". Not the little claymation of Tom but the actors whose movements almost seemed like they were claymated. After doing some research I found that PARABELLA was heavily inspired by the Golden Era of musicals and multi-plane animation techniques which was pioneered by Walt Disney back in the 30's. The animation blends CG with pointilism, and includes 100,000 tea bags and 50 different paper folding styles to bring vivid and intricate movement throughout the piece. The heroine was also shot frame by frame, and several 3D models were shot on layered planes to captivate an amazing sense of depth and perspective.

The lies of the media

Social media is a lie. Media is a lie. As students going into media, we need to be aware of this. We can sit here and say that we can make media better but we all know that's not true. But one famous Instagramer is trying to make a difference. Some of you may be aware that Australian Instagramer, Essena O'Neill recently quit all social media because it's not real life. She changed her account name to "Social Media Is Not Real Life" and changed several of the captions to what really happened when she was taking the photos. Some examples of them are below:

As you can see, she's just 16 and was trying to be something that she wasn't just to get attention and love. Nothing about the photos she post was real. Social media is not always real. We need to stop being so ignorant and start educating ourselves on what we read and see. It's not just with self esteem through images but with everything else as well. We just think if we saw it on the Internet it must be true. No, research it before you talk about it. Form your own opinions on the subject matter. If we are the future of the media. Though like I said earlier we probably won't do anything about it or change it, there's still that possibility. If people just stopped being someone else through the computer screen, maybe we can start to spark a change.

Green Screen Edit Tutorial

As most of us are doing our last project I thought it would be helpful to share a green screen tutorial. Here is one I thought was very helpful! Good luck with your editing and I hope this tutorial was helpful to you guys!

Advanced Keying Techniques

So seeing as everyone will be keying their footage over the next few weeks, I'd like to share this tutorial. I used it for my scene, and it makes a tremendous difference. Traditionally I've always boosted greens a tad through the Hue/Saturation effect, then applied Keylight. Asides from that though, I don't do much else with green screen footage.

However this tutorial from 8 Bit Digital TV, shows a way of keying which preserves the colour of your footage, while using the matte from Keylight. See, normally the Keylight effect will not only remove the green background, but also green tinge in the skin. While this is helpful, since it's trying to remove so much green, it can take too much away from the skin and make skin tones look off. Whereas in this tutorial, you'll learn a way of simply using the matte Keylight creates, then taking away the right amount of green tinge in skin.

Check out the full video for a more in depth explanation, I'd highly recommend it for this project.

Performance Capture

Performance capture is a type of acting involving body sensors that track movement. Cameras at different angles record the movement in order to create a three-dimensional position of the character. The data is mapped on a digital model in 3D software, like Maya for example, so that the digital character moves like the recorded actor.

Below is a video featuring James Cameron and the performance technology used in Avatar.

"We don't have to necessarily believe that they're 100% photo real and we don't necessarily have to believe that they actually exist--but we do have to believe them as emotional creatures," Cameron says on the Avatars in the film.

I find the head rig most interesting. It's a helmet like structure that fits comfortably on the head, along with a camera that captures the facial expression and performance.

Blue screen vs Green screen

As we are all working on our rotoscoping projects using green screen, I wanted to give a little more information on what blue screen and green screen do and what they differ in.

The obvious reason for choosing one or the other is the object or person in front. So if you are filming Kermit, you probably don't want to use green screen and if you are filming a Smurf (they're real), you probably don't want a blue screen,

i found this video below to be super helpful in further understanding the difference and learning more about why we should use one or the other and when.

Gravity BTS

Gravity is definitely one of the most Visually stunning films ever made. It's one of those movies where you feel like you are actually there in the moment and it just seems so real.

And yet 95% of the movie was CG. Almost everything you see was generated in post production using advance 3D software. The only things that were practically shot in production were the actors. But everything else from Space suits to ships to satellites and more were CG elements.

This behind the scenes look at Gravity explains the process of what it was like to make this movie, knowing that majority of it was going to be CG.

3D Shorts

One Day, I'd really like to make a 3D Short. Wether I have a great story or not, one day, i want to be a part of the creation of something like the video's below:
Some of them are funnier than others, but, I think any of them would have been a wonderful learning experience to gain an Understanding of Animation Workflow, Group Dynamics, and General Roles for creating Animated Stories.

Women in Animation

I am involved in the Ithaca College Women in Computing club and I just felt like exploring the representation of women in the field of animation. I found a cool organization called Women in Animation (WIA).

WIA Mission: “Women In Animation brings together a global community of animation professionals to empower and support women in the art, science and business of animation by increasing access to resources, creating opportunities for education, encouraging strong connections between individuals, and inspiring excellence.”

I thought one of the most interesting things that WIA offers is the mentorship program.

With more searching I was also able to find a very awesome comprehensive history of women in animation. Eunice Macaulay was the first female animator to win an Academy Award. She won for her creation, Special Delivery.

Motion Graphics and Science

Yes, this blogpost also talks about particle systems! Can't help it!

Motion graphics and animation are used for a bunch of different things outside of the entertainment or media industry. One of theses uses is science. Motion graphics are often used to explain scientific processes, mechanism, and body tissues - all in great detail.

This video below is a unique combination of art, science, and of course motion graphics. The video shows an incredibly dense yet invisible world of the cytoplasm in biological cells. All the tiny molecules, minerals, ions, etc. in the body can be seen in a fluid dance-like motion. These cytoplasmic playgrounds are reimagined using dynamic particle systems that play out and evolve differently each time, mimicking stochastic processes in nature.

The creator of this video, Markos Kay, has a great Vimeo channel with incredible motion graphics stuff where he combines art and science. Do check it out.

Motion graphics and animation are in many ways a science. I found this really amazing article that talks about the physics behind animation films and how incredibly complex it is. The article also mentions how hundreds of scientists from academia, NASA, other physicists, and engineers have left their careers to go work in the profitable movie industry because it offers so much exploration of scientific concepts. 

Interstellar black hole

Working together with a prominent astrophysicist (Kip Thorne), the film's visual effects team created what may be the first scientifically accurate display of a black hole on the big screen. To fully realize director Christopher Nolan's vision for "Interstellar," visual effects studio Double Negative was tasked to "produce images of things that aren’t even in our dimension, and furthermore have them accurate to not only quantum physics and relativistic laws, but also our best understanding (guess) of quantum gravity.”

Thorne shared his knowledge of black holes, and how he envisioned they would appear. Instead of the typical movie version of a black hole, which is depicted as a breach within space, Thorne’s research indicated black holes might be more like three-dimensional spheres. The physical appearance of Thorne's black holes is colorfully described in an interview with Paul Franklin in the Warner Brothers behind-the-scenes video "Interstellar: Building A Black Hole" (below):

An amateurs guide to working with color

So something that really helped me improve my graphic design game was dipping my toes into the wide and wonderful world of color pallets. When I first started animating, almost all of the colors I used for my projects were chosen from the default color map. Let me tell you that the color map on most programs is not there to help you, it's there to destroy your life. They're incredibly one note and even someone with a novice eye would be able to spot them out. Instead try going to sites that already have user uploaded color palletes (like this one: http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes), bring them into Photoshop, and using the color picker see how the different colors interact with each other. You may find that a color you thought looked yellow actually turned out to be closer to turquoise, or that you enjoy the look of muted color pallets more than overly saturated ones. Tastes in color vary from person to person, and often times the style you like may have not have been someone else's first choice.

Below are a few animations that do a wonderful job at using color to set the mood:

Live Action mixed with Animation

I came across this pretty cool video on Youtube the other day. Typically when watching videos you don't see too often people combine live action and animation because it's not an easy thing to do, but this video does it. The concept itself has no meaning but the actual animation is pretty good! Here's the original video:

After I watched that video, I watched how it was made. That was cooler to me than the actual video. At first the video shows how the film was originally shot compared to how they edited it. I found it interesting that they used a rubrics cube for the cube, but everything else the actor had to just guess the size. After that it goes into detail on how each animation was made. I believe the program that they used was called Blender which is a 3D modeling program. I don't really know anything about it though and why someone would use that over Maya lets say. But there were a few things that they did that we learned in class so that got me excited like tracking. Though I don't know how to do that through Blender, I do know how to use it in After Effects! Here's the video on how the first video was made. I highly suggest watching the whole thing:

SPARK

This afternoon, I was greeted by this video on Vimeo.


RALF HILDENBEUTEL - SPARK from Boris Seewald on Vimeo.

I was immediately draw to it. Initially, because I saw dancers; they're so poised and elegant. As I watched, I was amazed at how beautifully the graphics (all done in After Effects) complimented the music and movement of the characters. Those styles of music and dance generally are not paired together. In this piece, however, they work. The director, Boris Seewald, describes the work as "an encounter between classical dance, geometry, and electronic music."

The 2 minute mark is where the piece really starts to get intense. The dark character meets the innocent one. I'm wondering if this has any Swan Lake influences... The lighting changes are truly incredible and only add that much more drama to the already ascetically interesting piece.

Holographic Performers

Did you know there have been concerts that bring the dead to life?

A few years ago, during the Coachella festival, Tupac returned for a performance with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Tupac's Hologram

This slightly-eerie reincarnation was pulled off using 2D Holograms. While not quite a futuristic, 360˚ 3D hologram, the diagram below shows how the effect was pulled off.

Me personally, I honestly think the idea is kind of cool. While it has weird associations, the fact the performer is performing without their permission, it would create an incredible atmosphere in a concert, having one of your favourite artists return. What I especially love though, is how the animation is pulled off. A combination of intense studying of archival footage on how the artist performed, mixed with motion capture animation of alive relatives is used to pull off the effect. Then, the animation is played using the technique shown above.

Brick Like Me

So on one fateful day last may, two of the worlds greats came together to create one of the most absolutely spectacular half hours of television ever created. These two greats are The Simpsons, and LEGO, and they bestowed upon us the masterpiece that is "Brick Like Me". This is the LEGO episode and the 550th episode of The Simpsons.

The episode is set in the idealistic and basically perfect world that is the LEGO universe. All is well until Homer starts to see visions of his other life back in the Springfield that we all know and love. Throughout the episode more and more of his old life leaks into his new one in the LEGO world, and in the end, he must decide to stay in this new near perfect brick world, or to return to his old 2D classic world.

This episode took two year to get on air, and took over twice as long as a normal episode would to make. I would say that it was definitely well worth the wait! This episode is so beautifully crafted it almost hurts. The LEGO version of Springfield is so bright and brilliant, but still has the hilarious vibe of the Springfield we've know for over 500 episodes. It also added some new comedy to the show when dealing with things that only LEGO people have to deal with; like the water,

and being able to mix the two kinds of animation that LEGO and The Simpsons both are giants in.

From animation, to story, this episode is absolutely brilliant, and I loved watching it on its premiere last summer, as well as over and over again after that. 10/10 would recommend

Social Change Through Animation

I find that some of the most effective ways to trap people's attention about something important is with well designed motion graphics. Below are some social messages I found on Vimeo promoting social issues, and what we can do about them:


The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo.



Water Changes Everything. from charity: water on Vimeo.





TakePart: Participant Media - Waiting For 'Superman' - Infographic from Jr.canest on Vimeo.



Beyond Bytes from Florian Köhne on Vimeo.



The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.



History of the Internet from Melih Bilgil on Vimeo.



Master Plan - About the power of Google from Jonas A on Vimeo.