NEW BLOG!!

As its a new year I decide to start a fresh with a new CLEAN and easy to navitate blog. I'm finding it alot easier to update my progress through the year and well, it does look pretty if I say so myself.

So check it out =)

http://amberhyde.wordpress.com/

Cinematography.

I've been working on a film project for our Cinematography class.

Working alonside Zuzana Vranka Ziakova, Sebastian Lord Brænde, Luke Ridgeway, Marc Cullen and Omari McCarthy we produced a 2 minute silent short film.

The film idea came from Director Zuzana, supported by Directory of Photography Sebastian. Marc acted as Producer and Omari and Luke assisted with lighting and sound. Marc and Luke were also actors within the film.

For my role, I assisted with camera shots and lighting setup, but my main responsibility was to colour correct the edited footage. It was decided that we wanted our film to resemble the Film Noir genre. With this in mind, I researched key shots and practices and tried to apply it to the footage.

This was my first go at colour correcting anything and I really enjoyed the rather LONG process. I know I have alot more to learn in this area, but it's definatly something I'd like to improve on and get more involved with.

Below is the edited cut from Zuzana, followed by my corrected version.

Red or Dead....the beginning....

The Red or Dead project is now over and I'm rather behind on all the updates.  It's gone through MANY stages and the story has somewhat changed.

The filming aspect has now been completed. However it took 3 shoots to arrive at our final footage.

We had planned to film the entire story on greenscreen and then later composited our animations designed by the lovely Sophie, Alice, Luke and Lee ontop of it. However as soon as the 1st shoot was completed, we realised we had a problem.

SHOOT 1:

For the first shoot we used a pre-viz of the shots to be taken that was inspired by our original storyboard designed by Luke and myself. It was made in Maya and I definatly reccommend its use when planning a live shoot. When directing the actors/ camera I found having a visual reference of the exact shot and movement I wanted extremely helpful. (Below are a few rough stills).

However when filming, we struggled with lighting the greenscreen enough to get a good key and when the footage was eventually edited together, although it looked good in a storyboard, it didn't flow right in terms of the style we wanted within the time allowed (1 minute). Plus...I think...as a Director...I underestimated the amount of roto/ keying and work that we would have to do to enable the animation patterns to be incorporated. So simply. The idea had to be completly reworked.

To explain what I mean...here's our terrible shoot which includes some pre-viz shots that weren't taken at the time. Some of the shots won't make sense as a room is needed to establish angles and perspective. It's not a great edit as it was obvious from the go that the concept wouldn't work.

I would like to thank Alice, Sophie, Brian and Luke who were helping shoot and light on the day for all their patience. It was a rather stressful day. But things got better.

So, overnight as to not waste time or worry the group (as we had little time left to film and animate) I reworked the idea.

[New Idea]

It begins with the girl (Princess) trapped in a room where we, as an audience, would not know why. She would see a door close and try to escape...but to no avail. As she bangs on the door, the patterns would emerge and it would be in these patterns that the Persian imagery and bike would appear. The girl would then walk into the patterns where we would she her riding the bike and become the final ‘wow’ image for Red or Dead like initially planned.

Because of the problems regarding the first shoot, I decided to change the location of from a studio (white sanatorium), to a real life warehouse building at an abandoned boat workshop. The building and room itself was so cold and dreary, that it was perfect for the new concept and would help the actors ‘get into character’. With Brian's technical advice, we also limited the amount of greenscreen that would be used and instead decided to track the animated footage onto the walls.

SHOOT 2

Thankfully the group were really supportive of the new idea and the shoot went amazingly well. All the footage was correctly lit and shot to how the storyboard went and no extra shots were added or needed. I assisted Brian (who was lead Camera Man) with shooting as well as lighting and green screening.

Luke was a real trooper and helped on all the aspects of the filming process and recorded the continuity of the shoot.

I cut the footage the same night and the following day, Insa Burch helped me re-edit to make the footage more snappy. Thanks for that Ins.

Here's the new edit. Minus of course any form of colour correction/ VFX/ Sound. It's a rough template for the composited patterns from the Pre-Prod guys.

SHOOT 3

We decided to change the scene where Kate (our model) actually pulls the bike from the wall as it didn't flow right. So we instead shot her already riding the bike infront of greenscreen. Luckily she was nice enough to come into the studio so that we could get a good enough key with all the lighting equipment available.We then planned to comp the footage (minus the green) onto the wall for the final shot. So when the camera pans out she'll be seen riding the bike with all the patterns surrounding her.

Below is the last shot which was given to Christian Smith (a late comer to the group) to key out all the greenscreen. A link is attached to his name if you wish to see his work.

Background Design for YYYN.

This is a quick background design I did for the project. It's nothing special, just a few free stock images merged with some screenshots of the city enviroment Seb made. I made it rather dark, as to limit the amount of light we would have to use when lighting the scene. Having a dark sky meant that we could focus more on using streetlights as our main source and hopefully enchance the feel of the shots.

It's rather rough as it won't be too much in shot and will be placed onto a sphere that encompasses the city. (I'll post up that when I can grab a shot. It's a rather nifty trick)

(Above) Shots incorporated.

(Below) Finished design.

YYYN Character Update.

This is rather a late update, as we've actually passed the hand in date for the YYYN project. But I thought I'd still post up the work that I've done thats gone into it. So here it is...the finished character I initially designed...rigged and modelled by Seb and textured by myself.

It's the first CGI character I've designed from start to finish and I'm pretty happy with it to be honest.

'Hanna' modelled and rigged by Sebastian

(Above) Skin texture on Lambert

(Below) Experiments with shaders...I started off with testing a Blinn and adding a biege tint in Maya, but settled on using a skin shader instead, as well, it just looks alot better. Unfortunatly I later learned when I tried to render out a simple turn around using this shader, that it took far too long and would make rendering our final film a real problem. So I had to settle for the Blinn. But I'll still show the process below as it's a rather impressive difference and something to definatly consider in the design process if I  ever get the chance to texture/design a CGI again.

Before I forget to mention. She might look abit scary, as she's lacking eyelashes and hair. Seb didn't include them when he gave me the UVs as they've already been textured. Safe to say...in the final film however she does have hair as shown in the first image.

(Below) Finished textures...I've show a few development shots of the hoody as it took bloody ages. I had a real problem with understand the UVs of the character and getting around seam issues. Trying to give a character a 'messy textured look'...in a controlled way. Is a pain. But I eventually figured out a process and I can confidently say she is seam free.

 

Yes, Yes, Yes, No Update.

Alots happened since I last updated on the YYYN Girl character design. Sebastian has now finished modelling and rigging our "Hanna" character and has also finished the enviroment.

He gave me the old animatic (which was a mixture of 2D and 3D) so I can update it with the new enviroment and character. The point of the update was to tighten the timing of certain sequences/ shots and put the character in key poses.

OLD ANIMATIC:

NEW ANIMATIC:

Red or Dead: Initial Ideas/ Concept

Before we even began to think about a narrative for our advertisement, we created mood boards based upon what we believed were the key areas of the brief to highlight. These areas were:

• Red or Dead: They're known for pushing the boundries of the fashion market in terms of clothing, footware, accessories and recently bikes! But although they market themselves as a 'all british' company...what 'says' Red or Dead? How does branding reflect their personality and style as a company?

• The Product: Simply. The bike. What does it look like?!

• Enchanted Horse Arabian Knights: As the brief stipulates that ideas must come from and ultimatly resemble/show traces of the story...what are the key points and concepts to be taken from it?

• Style: We chose to focus mainly on the imagery behind the story in terms of style and colour. Looking at Persian Art and typography followed by examples of colour we found rather useful.

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OUR STORY.

Taking influence from the RoD brand, Arabian Knights, Colour/ Art styles and finally Rod's requirement for a dark and humorous animation we eventually arrived at our narrative.

Our story centres around a girl (Princess) trapped in a mental ayslum. She's in a white padded room, gesturing wildly to Doctors (one being our Prince) at marks and imagery that only she can see on the walls. They ignore her behaviour and leave, leaving her trapped in this sterile white enviroment. Her angry gestures then turn to poundings on the walls, but with each mark, an image errupts and morphs, forming patterns and moving designs. The doctors now see what is happening and try to desperatly get back into the room, but it's held shut by the graphic imagery. She then pulls out a physical bike from amongst the patterns and rides around the room, all the while the doctors eagerly trying to enter and stop her. But it's too late, as the door becomes free...she rides into the wall and disappears leaving behind an array of bright graphical markings amongst splashes of cold, white walls. Our Prince character, who at the start showed pity towards her, walks towards the wall, sadded at her departure. As he stares up at the still images left behind, a hand shoots out and pulls him forward, so he himself disappears into the world of Red or Dead.

 

MODELS

We have managed to find the perfect models for our story. Our Princess (Kate Alizedeh) is a friend of mine and her half Iranian, half English self looks amazing on camera. Our Prince however (Ben Upton) was found a little differently. I actually saw him sitting in a corridor and luckily had the courage to 'proposition' him to play a role in our film. I'm rather grateful that he didn't think that I was some deranged stalker and agreed to act almost intantly (after a bit of embaressed explaining by myself). Here they are: