Harry Potter Magic Wand Lightning Effect Tutorial

This tutorial is a bit old but most of the instructions still made sense. I was looking through youtube the other day and came across this video under tutorials in after effects. First off I don't know anyone that can say they don't like Harry Potter and beyond that I can't imagine that I was the only one that always wondered how they did the wand effects when dueling out in the forest or wherever potter would duel out. The directions are pretty simple and I wouldn't be surprised if some kids in our class already have an idea on how to create these effects in AE. Hope you guys enjoy

The Story of The Deathly Hollows

Through middle school and high school I really enjoyed the Harry Potter Books and enjoyed seeing the films as they came out. One of my favorites of the series was the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2. When I read the books I really enjoyed the idea and story of the three brothers and death. I remember being hypnotized by the story when they made it for the film and now going back to that scene I'm blown away by the animation. It's so fluid and I love the style.  Enjoy!

Side note. As I was reading through the comments of this video there was a theory that Voldemort is the first brother, Snape is the Second, and Harry is the Third.

The OMEn Chronicles: Make-or-Break Effects

    Let me introduce The OMEn Chronicles, written by RJ Aguiar and directed by Wren Weichman. The short film takes place fifteen years after the events of the world-famous Harry Potter series. Although not a lot of information is put forth, it can be inferred that some serious business is going down amongst the wizarding community. While the plot and acting leave a little bit to be desired, the main thing I'd like to address are the special effects. Because this wouldn't have been nearly as half as good as it was, if it had not been for the effects. Especially for a movie about magic, the special effects could be argued to have acted as another character by themselves.

   It's always fascinating to me, watching the before and after shots of any film with a high rate of special effects. It really does make a difference between what was initially shot and what came after. In this case, the post-production work that went into the film was something to be commended. Maybe not for its perfect performance, but by its ability to transport this footage into an entirely different type of world: where magic looks just as real as you and me. Even the color-grading that went into the making of this worked to present an atmosphere that was in synch with the tone of the film.
    And like any other filmmaker interested in this field, I love to know just how things were done. Which is why his tutorials are worth it to check out. Much like other tutorials we've experienced, he provides footage so that we're able to follow along as he teaches us. It's not a perfect system, but it's definitely something you can learn from.

    Even if special effects aren't your thing, The OMEn Chronicles are worth it to check out.

Green Screen Goodness

Hi there,

As I learn more about the green screen process, I become more confused and in awe of the spectacular animations that are produced via a single colored wall and a computer. Looking back at some of my all time favorite movies with this new, analytical lens has really led me to appreciate the amount of work and organization necessary to produce these graphics.

For example, take a look at these Harry Potter screen shots with the animation removed. This leaves only the actors, some set and the almighty green screen who is responsible for creating so much within the magical realm.

The movie certainly looks a tad empty when you strip away all of the magnificent backgrounds and beautiful locales that are expertly created by a green screen and a person sitting at their computer. Without this the film would simply be silly, and unable to portray the true essence of the work. Green screen technology has revolutionized modern cinema and has literally allowed films to soar to greater heights.

I've also included a still from the set of Alice in Wonderland...just for giggles.

Until next time,

Alex

The Tale of the Three Brothers

http://vimeo.com/42287792

This week I decided to post the Tale of the Three Brothers, the animation from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this animation when I first saw it in theaters and now that I have some experience with animation I really just appreciate it more. It's a beautiful piece that is extremely well planned out and incredibly executed. The character design is really what gets me every time though, and that's what I want to talk about the most. The fabric on these characters is just stunning I think. The transparent quality of all of the three brother's limbs along with the smoky quality of death's cloak all adds up to some really nicely created characters. The look of this animation is also very purposeful which I think is important. The over all look of this animation helps to reinforce the idea that this is a children's story being read aloud. The colors, the design of the locations, characters, and even the movement. You can see this being illustrations in a children's book, a creepy one but still. that kind of blending of genres can be very easily messed up and because every part of this animation is done very purposefully  it isn't.

An Unlikely Band of Misfit Effects

Earlier in the year, a friend of mine recommended I watch the English show Misfits on Hulu. Being a fan of all things superhero related I decided to give it a shot and I loved it. The series came out in the UK in November 2009 and since then there have been 4 series, and have received a numerous number of awards. The show is produced by Clerkenwell Films and has a lot of visual effects in it. After doing some research, I was able to find out that the promo for the show was created by a group called Machine Shop but the majority of in-show effects are done by a second group, known as Shadowjack Visual Effects, which has worked on many different projects including the Harry Potter series. Below is the promo for the first series and the Visual Effects showreel, put on YouTube by one of the show's compositors, Antonio Rodriguez Diaz. Enjoy!

Harry Potter

Earlier I was thinking about the Harry Potter movies, and how much compositing was done in those films. Because it is a fantasy world, there are so many different elements that needed to be added using special and visual effects. In looking for information about that, I found an article about the compositing process in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It talks about the companies that worked on the effects for the movie, and some of the different steps that went into making the effects. The part about rotoscoping for the room of requirements scene was interesting because it showed the types of challenges that they face in post.

Tale of Three Brothers Animation

I recently remembered the animation from the second to last Harry Potter movie. It was done to accompany Hermione's narration of the Tale of Three Brothers story. When I first saw it, I was blown away by how cool it was. Watching it again it's even more amazing. The figures are beautiful and the way it moves seamlessly from scene to scene is incredible.

Looking up more about the sequence, I found out that the look was based on Asian shadow puppets and early animator, Lotte Reiniger's style. The programs they used were ZBrush and Maya. The director says that "in terms of the animation it was a pretty standard affair," which I can't believe. It looks so complicated to me as a beginner. Here's a link to an interesting interview with Ben Hibon.

Peter Szewczyk - Dark Clouds

Peter Szewczyk, a man whose name I hope I never have to type out again, has done remarkable visual effects work for over 15 different titles, including but not limited to: Avatar, 2012, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, and Shrek 2. Clearly he is a very gifted visual effects artist in the movie business.

With quite the workload with movies the past few years, I was surprised to find out that Szewczyk had any time to work on anything else, but I did see that he posted on Vimeo a short film he did with visual effects entitled "Dark Clouds". It really is a remarkable piece, it's beautiful to look at and only about a minute and a half long. I will post the video below, but just in case it doesn't work, you can find the video here.

Dark Clouds | Short Film from Peter Szewczyk on Vimeo.

Strata Stencil

When the first video revealing Pottermore came out this summer, I was truly excited to have something to continue my childhood journey with Harry Potter. However, after watching the announcement, I found myself distracted. I was more preoccupied with the "paper cut-out animation" used in the sequences with the book, than I was with the actual Pottermore site. It was just so beautiful. Well as time passed, this type of animation has started to pop up everywhere.



After reading an interview with Simon Lloyd and Christine Turner, who led the animation team for the Pottermore announcement, I discovered that "Nothing in this piece is CG. Every element was shot in camera and painstakingly cut, piece by piece, and then moved bit by bit to create a stop frame animation. The book is actually very large in scale to make creating the elements easier. This book was made by a specialist book binder and was a complete replica of an ordinary printed version."

I decided to continue my research and discovered quite a few other techniques that are similar to the animation done for Pottermore. One of them is Strata cut animation which uses cuttings from layers of clay.



Eventually I found, what was to me, a combination of the two animation techniques, "Stratastencil," which is an experimental animation technique that Javan Ivey uses in his animation, "My Paper Mind." Ivey says that "Stratacut removes material to reveal another layer, while this technique adds another layer while still showing the layer before it."



My Paper Mind from Javan Ivey on Vimeo.

Finally I arrived at my final goal, "How do I achieve this amazing effect?" Well, now you can learn how to create a sequence similar to "My Paper Mind" or "Pottermore" in this After Effects tutorial, without the large consumption of paper or time. I think it's quite a beautiful style of animation and I have a feeling it will not be disappearing soon. Enjoy!

Sean Kinnear

The television show opening I chose to use for the first project is from the series American Dreams.

It was one of those shows that I would always look forward to watching every week and was very disappointed when the series was cancelled. When we started working on the opens on Wednesday, it made me wonder about what went in to creating the open as well as visual effects in the show.

Sean Kinnear is listed as visual effects crew on 36 episodes of American Dreams (the most out of any other crew listed). I decided to search for him on Internet Movie Database and felt surprised by the information I found. There never seemed to be a large audience of American Dreams viewers, at least out of my friends, and it was cancelled because of low ratings, so I was sort of expecting to see their crew working on small projects I'd never heard of. However, Sean Kinnear boasts such credits as visual effects for Soul Surfer and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

To me, it's proof that no matter where you begin in the industry, you can climb the ladder. From a show cancelled after only 3 seasons, with unnoticeable visual effects to the untrained eye, to a movie that earned $125,017,327 in the United States on opening weekend alone and is very obviously filled with beautiful effects, is certainly inspiring to all media-focused individuals our age.

Ideas for the first project

So I'm stuck between a bunch of ideas for my first project! My top three ideas (which seem wayyy too complicated) are:

Option One:
The opening title scene of Chuck but I found something really cool on youtube that someone did using supernatural within Chuck's title sequence!

Original:


Supernatural Version:


Option Two:
Community:


Option Three:
Skins:
Skins (British version of course)(can't be embedded)

This is Harry Potter version someone did of the opening!


Then simpler ideas (but really short openings) I was thinking about were Lost or Gossip Girl!

Harry Potter Animation Sequence Ben Hibon

Its is always an interesting sequence when a live action film incorporates a fully animated sequence. An exceptional example takes place within the seventh Harry Potter film. The animation and tone set by the piece compliments the entire piece. It is used to help fill in backstory to explain a crucial point in the story line that movie viewers need for a fully comprehensive story. The animation depicts a children's story (Deathly Hollows) with a voice over from an actor in the live action sequence which leads up to this piece. I enjoyed the style and details the animation was comprised of. In animation I feel that the directors don't receive the credit compared to those that direct strictly live action films. I wanted to learn more about the director, Ben Hibon.

Ben Hibon directed the project while Framestorm was responsible for creation. Hibon kicked off the project by brining in some of his artwork and suggesting a technique to use. The technique used was a form of eastern shadow puppetry. The objects where projected on to cloth in the form of shadow by using flames. The image becomes more crisp as the object gets further from the flame and closer to the projection surface. Creating the designs and concepts to be sent for approval took six weeks. A big concern of the team was the need for the objects not to be simple they needed complexity. This lead to the decision to give the objects a 3d appearance instead of creating a flat world. They hired a texture design team to create color and displacement maps in a program called Zbrush. This provided the sequence with rich composition. The overall appearance has a paper texture. The 3 minute animation can be found here (embedding disabled). Programs used to create this project include: Maya, Zbrush, Mental Ray (for rendering purposes), Houdini, nCloth, and Nuke (for compositing).

The ultimate goal of the project was to create a "gritty and hand-made feel"- Dale Newton, sequence supervisor. They wanted the characters to be deciphered through the poses they took so the faces were kept relatively simple and plain. A well done piece. I'm looking forward to Ben Hibon upcoming project, Pan a fantasy action thriller.