Assignment 2 - Combined

Title: Aftermath

We have filmed the video in the evening at around 3 - 7pm instead because we are worried that it will not look good or cannot really see our face if we film at night. Thus, we did some color corrections by adjusting the brightness & contrast, auto levels and creating a vignette. All of the scenes have different values for color correction because of the different lighting due to the sunlight.

Below are the links of the tutorial I have used.

1. Title Sequence:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

2. Orbing/Teleporting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhM-RY_y4Q

3. Force Field:
http://vimeo.com/6833954

• Explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6MrB-ltmxQ
  

4. Light Saber:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/light_sabers_v2/

• Blue Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUgxX6dHDo
  

5. Illuminating Light Painting:
http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/create-an-illuminating-light-painting-effect/

Assignment 2 - Individual Storyboard

Assignment 2 - Final Storyboard

There are some changes in the camera angles compared to the draft storyboard.

1. Environment: We have rotate the camera from left to right to film and introduce the environment.
2. Carol appearing: Full body view of carol appearing by ground burst jump to "surprise" the audience.
3. Zhen Hong appear: Long shot of zhen hong appearing because he is appearing through orbing and walking/moving forward.
4. Camera filming carol's foot and moving up to her head to give a "powerful" or "evil" look.
5. Same goes to Zhen Hong, to give a "powerful" look.
6. Extreme close up of carol's face to focus on her serious expression.
7. Extreme close up of zhen hong's face too, to focus on his serious expression.
8. Half shot of zhen hong and to also show the sky because he will be absorbing the lightning from the sky for powers.
9. Close up on Zhen hong's face in order to allow audience to pay attention to the eyes (with eye replacement effect)
10. Camera moves from left to right to show zhen hong's lightning attack towards carol.
11. [Continuous shot from previous] To show the lightning moving/attacking carol and carol dodges it
12. Same camera view as previous, showing Carol dodging and shooting a fire ball.
13. [Continuous shot from previous] Showing the fire ball reaching zhen hong and zhen hong defends with force field and fire ball explodes in front of him.
[Transition] So that it will not look so weird because of the sudden changing in camera angle/position.
14. Long shot of zhen hong attack carol with energy ball. Long shot because the camera will have to move/rotate to the right to show the energy ball travelling towards carol.
15. [Continuous shot from previous] Carol dodges the energy ball .
16. [Continuous shot from previous] Carol counter attacks with airbender. It is a continuous shot so that it will not look draggy but carol's fast reaction.
17. [Continuous shot from previous] Zhen hong is unstable due to carol's airbending.
[Transition] To slow down or give a pause so that the video will not be too busy because everything is continuous and quick.
18. Long shot of Zhen hong taking out his wand and lighting up as a light saber.
19. To film in a different view, we have decided that the camera will be back-facing zhenhong and showing him charge towards carol.
20. Long shot of zhen hong still charging and very near to carol. Carol then use hancock fly.
21. Close up of zhen hong to show his blur expression.
22. Camera positioned with Zhen hong on the right and quite a big empty part on the left to show/give more focus of carol landing there, behind zhenhong. And also, audience can see zhen hong's blur expression and also that he is looking for carol.
23. Camera nearer to carol to focus on her shooting a blade at zhen hong.
24. Close up on zhen hong's face with wound and healing of the wound.
25. Long shot and camera is nearer towards carol because she is squatting down while zhen hong is charging towards her once again.
26. Long shot showing both of them with carol's laser eyes and muzzle flash effect and zhen hong's protego shield while holding on his light saber. There are more spaces on the right so that audience will also notice the light saber that zhen hong is holding.
27. Half shot of zhen hong's protego shield fading out, light saber's light also fades out and he took it up, pointing towards carol. Nearer view so that audience can clearly see the protego shield effect.
28. Side view and half shot Zhen hong swinging his wand and shooting an energy ball. This can show the audience, the direction he is aiming.
29. Another camera view of the energy ball travelling or shooting out from his wand.
30. Front view of carol cloning or double image and explode after being hit by the energy ball. It will look better if carol clone out to the side.
31. Half shot of zhen hong looking proud and the camera is filmed with more space on the right so that the audience will know that something is going to happen there.
[Transition] It will look better if a transition is used and carol appearing later on.
32. Same camera angle as the previous and showing carol appearing from the back. Because this is a half shot, we can clearly see carol's facial expression too.

Assignment 2 - Illuminating Light Painting

This is a tricky effect to do because I do not have the "Particular" effect and if I use a trial version, there will probably have a watermark or X mark which will not look nice. Thus, I have used the CC Particle Systems II effect and I tried to create a similar effect/look. I am quite satisfied with the result and it looks like Zhen Hong (the actor) is casting a spell as the light is following the wand/pen that he is swinging.

The Particular effect and CC Particle Systems II effect have different effects control. From the tutorial, I have to parent the "Position XY" to the null object(finger track) which was not found in the effects control for CC Particle Systems II so instead, I have parent the "Position" to the null object.

For the position of the null object(finger track), I have dragged/shift all the keyframes forward by 1 frame because the light did not really follow the finger but appears after the finger have move to the next position.

I have changed the displacement of the turbulent displace effect to "Turbulent smooth" instead of "Turbulent" (from the tutorial). This is because the CC Particle Systems II effect does not show the effect/line smooth like the Particulars effect.

Displacement: Turbulent

Displacement: Turbulent Smooth (what I have used)

I was also once stuck when creating the glow for quite long but after that I found out that the visibility of the black solid at the bottom was not on. So the black solid is actually connected to all the other layers and if I turn the visibility off, I will not be able to see the particle effect.

Tutorial link: http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/create-an-illuminating-light-painting-effect/

Steps (what I did):
1. Layer> New> Solid.
2. Go to Effect> Simulation> CC Particle Systems II.
3. Layer> New> Null Object.
4. Alt + click on position, delete away the expression.
5. Click and drag the circle or parenting icon and drag it to the "position"(hit "p" to reveal it) of the null object.
6. Set keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch beside "position" of the null object (finger track).
7. Re-position the null object so that the edge of the null object follows the finger (frame by frame).
8. In the effects control,

• Gravity to "0"
• Velocity to "0"
• Longevity to "0.3"
• Change the birth rate to "1000"
• Radius X and Radius Y to "0.1"
• Size variation to "20%"
• Birth size and death size to "0.1"
  
• opacity to "25"
  

To create glow:
9. Duplicate "finger track" layer select it with the "particles" layer and pre-compose.
10. Go to layer> new> solid to create a new solid layer (choose black color), place the layer at the bottom.
11. Create a new adjustment layer, Layer> New> Adjustment Layer.
12. Apply fast blur effect for the adjustment layer (Effect> Blur & Sharpen> Fast Blur) and set the bluriness to "5".
13. Change layer mode to "screen".
14. Duplicate for 3 more adjustment layers and change bluriness of:

• 2nd layer to "20"
• 3rd layer to "40"
• 4th layer to "200"

15. Go back to main composition.
16. For the lightswirl pre-comp, change mode to "add".
17. Hit "T" to reveal opacity and change it to "80".

18. Go back to pre-comp.
19. Select particles layer, apply turbulent displace effect.
20. Change displacement to "Turbulent smooth" and reduce the size, amount to about "30".
21. Select the particles layer, hit "T" to reveal the opacity and set keyframe for the opacity so that the light painting will disappear/fade out (at last frame, change opacity to "0").

22. Create a white solid layer, Layer> New> Solid.
23. Use eclipse tool, at the start point, hold shift and drag to create a circle.
24. Change the mask feather to "10".
25. Reduce mask expansion.
26. Duplicate another layer, feather to "2", expansion to "-2".
27. Apply motion blur for both layer, and also change mode to add.
28. Parent both layer to finger track layer.

Assignment 2 - Light Saber Effect

I like the light saber effect, it looks really cool. In the video tutorial (link below), it shows a saber being lighted up but I would prefer to light up a wand/pen so that it looks really magical (set the "extend" from "0" to "100" to show up the light saber effect). For enhancement, I have added/used a fire footage to create a blue fire around the light saber.

Light Saber

Tutorial link: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/light_sabers_v2/

Steps (what I did):
1. Drag out the "Light_Saber_V2".
2. To make the light appear, in 1st frame, key in the value of "0" for extend and further down the frame, change it to "100".
3. Change the thickness.
4. To dim out the effect/intensity, choose a darker color.
5. Make sure to turn on the motion blur (the icon beside ur layer).
6. Set keyframe for start position and end position, and adjust the position.


So that the light saber is behind the actor:
7. Create a new solid rename as "mask".
8. Mask out the actor with pen tool.
9. Change the blue saber to "alpha matte inverted" and turn off the visibility of "mask".


Blue Fire

Tutorial link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUgxX6dHDo

Steps (what I did):
10. Drag fire footage in.
11. Change mode to "Add".
12. Hit "s" and scale it.
14. CC Toner effects (highlights: choose a bright blue color, midtone: choose a darker blue color).
15. Effects> Glow, bring down intensity, adjust radius.
16. Duplicate another layer of the mask and place it above the fire footage layer.
17. Change the TrkMat to "Alpha Inverted Matte" so that the fire footage will also be behind the actor.
18. Hit "p" to show position and alt + click on the stopwatch beside it.
19. Delete the expression and parent it to the light saber's end position.
20. Set keyframes for the scale and rotation of the fire footage so that it follows the light saber.

Assignment 2 - Force Field Effect

This is the most complicated effect I did (there are a lot of steps to do) and also the effect I like a lot. I have also added an explosion footage and did some adjustments so that the fire ball (the effect that one of my project group member, Carol, will be doing) will be "bounced" onto the ground and explodes. The footage is not long enough because I have just thought of adding the explosion so I have duplicate another footage, freeze frame for last frame and extend it longer.

Tutorial link: http://vimeo.com/6833954

Steps (what I did):
1. New composition name it as "Hexagons" with the width "70" x height "100" duration "5" secs
2. Double click on the polygon tool, change poly path point from "5" to "6".
3. ctrl + d to duplicate layer
4. Effect> Distort> Offset, shift center to "0,0"
5. Go to composition settings, change the width to "64" and height to "110"
6. Scale both layer, change to "0%" in 1st frame, insert keyframe
7. In the 20th frame, change the scale to 100%
8. Select both layer's 2nd keyframe, Animation> Keyframe Assistant> Easy Ease

9. Create new composition, name it as "Hex Grid", width "800" by height "400"
10. In Hex Grid composition, drop in the Hexagons composition
11. Scale the Hexagons composition to "60%"
12. Go to Effect> Stylize> CC Repetile
13. Change the values:

• expand right "700"
• expand left "700"
• expand down "400"
• expand up "400"

14. Drag Hex Grid composition to create a new composition
15. ctrl + k name as "Hex Transition"
16. Create new solid change color to white
17. Select solid layer, Effect> Transtion> Iris Wipe
18. Change the value for Iris Points to "32" and feather to "400"
19. In 1st frame, set keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch beside the outer radius, in the timeframe go to "2"secs and change the outer radius to "650"
20. Layer> New> Solid, change color to 50% grey with R: 128, B:128, G:128
21. Place grey solid layer below white solid
22. Select both layer, Pre-compose, name it as "TD Map", disable visibility for TD Map layer
23. Select Hex Grid layer, go to Effect> Time> Time Displacement, set Time Displacement Layer to "1.TD Map", Max displacement to "-3"

Texture:
24. Drop Hex Transition composition to create new composition , press ctrl + k and name as "Shield Texture"
25. Create solid, Layer> New> Solid
26. Go to Effect> Noise & Grain> Fractal Noise and change,

• Fractal Type to "Strings"
• Noise Type to "Spline"
• Complexity to "1"
• Contrast to "150"
• Brightness to "-5"
• Transform> Scale to "20"

27. Alt + click on stopwatch beside Evolution
28. Type in the expression, "time*150"
29. Drag the Fractal layer below the Hex Transition layer, change TrkMat for Fractal layer to "Luma Matte"
30. Turn on the visibility for Hex Transition
31. For Hex Transition layer, set mode to "Multiply"

32. Drop Shield Texture composition into the Main composition, rename the Shield Texture as Shield Back
33. Go to Effect> Transition> Linear Wipe, Wipe Angle to "0", Transition Completion to "30%"
34. Go to Effect> Perspective> CC Sphere, set Radius to "110"
35. Change the Offset Value for CC Sphere so that it will sits on the ground nicely, set Rotation X to "-7", Rotation Y to "-90", Shading Ambient to "100", Diffuse to "0"
36. Change the Render to "Inside"
37. Move the Shield Back layer below the Actor layers
38. Go into Shield Texture composition, select Hex Transition layer, go to Effect> Distort> Offset, shift center to "200"
39. Ctrl + d for Shield Back layer, rename to "Shield Front", place the layer in front of the Actor Layers
40. In the CC Sphere properties, change Render to "Outside"
41. Ctrl + d for another Shield Back layer, rename to "Shield Glare", disable the visibility

Create ripple effect:
42. Select Shield Back layer and Layer> Pre-compose
43. Select Shield Front layer and Layer> Pre-compose
44. Turn off the visibility for both layers
45. For the BG layer, go to Effect> Distort> Displacement Map,

• Set displacement Map Layer to "Shield Back Comp 1"
• Max Horizontal Displacement to "0"
• Use for Vertical Displacement to "Luminance"

46. Turn on visibility for Shield Glare layer, select layer and set:

• light direction to "40"
• light height to "20"
• shading ambient to "0"
• diffuse to "100"
• turn on Internal Shadows

47. Change the opacity for Shield Glare layer to "30%", change the Mode to "Add"

Make the shield look like glass:
48. Ctrl + d for the Shield Glare, rename it to "Shield Outer Highlight"
49. Turn on the solo switch
50. Effect> Generate> Ramp, set ramp shape to radial ramp, place the "start of ramp" crosshare near the center of the sphere
51. Effect> Color Correction> Levels, Input Black to "164" and Gamma to "0.49"
52. Turn off the solo switch
53. Hit "T" to reveal opacity, change value to "100%"

54. Ctrl + d for "Shield Outer Highlight" layer and rename as "Shield Bottom Highlight"
55. Turn on the solo switch
56. In the effects panel, delete the Levels effect
57. In the Ramp effect, change Ramp Shape to "Linear Ramp"
58. Move "Start of Ramp" crosshare down to create highlight at the bottom
59. Turn off the solo switch

60. Duplicate Shield Outer Highlight layer and rename to "Shield Color"
61. Turn on solo switch
62. Delete the Levels effect
63. Change Start Color to dark blue, End Color to pale blue
64. move the "start of ramp" crosshare up a little
65. Hit "T" to reveal the opacity, change value to "30%"
66. Change the Mode to "Soft Light"

67. Duplicate Shield Glare and rename to "Shield Floor"
68. Place the layer below the Actor layers
69. Turn on solo switch
70. In effects control, turn off Linear wipe effect (disable the "Fx" beside Linear Wipe)
71. In the CC Sphere, set Shading Ambience to "100", Diffuse to "0", Rotation X to "-90"
72. Turn on 3D Layer
73. Rotate X axis to 90degrees and move it down and position on the floor, scale it to about "77"
74. Set Mode to "Multiply"

75. Select Shield Bottom Highlight, Shield Color, Shield Outer Highlight, Shield Glare layers and go to Edit> Copy
76. Select all the layers in the Main composition except Shield Front Comp 1
77. Layer> pre-compose

78. Edit> paste
79. go to each layer, change the CC Sphere Render to "Outside"
80. go to Shield Bottom Highlight Start of Ramp to "400,310"
81. go to Shield Glare, in timeline at around 1 min, set opacity, go to next 20 frame, change opacity to "0%"

To create a reflection:
82. Ctrl + d Shield Glare layer, rename to "Shield Specular Highlight"
83. Hit "T" to reveal Opacity property and delete the keyframes, change opacity to "30%"
84. Turn on solo switch
85. In effect controls, change Shading Diffuse to "0", Specular to "100", Roughness to "0.102"
86. Turn off solo switch
87. Change the CC Sphere light height to "0"

88. Select Scene Elements layer, go to Effect> Distort> Displacement Map
89. Set the Displacement Map Layer to "1.Shield Front Comp 1", Max Horizontal Displacement to "0", Use For Verticle Displacemet to "Luminance"

Impact on force field:
90. Create new composition name as "Particles"
91. Create new solid and go to Effect> Simulation> CC Particle World, turn off Grid, change Gravity to "0"
92. Go to Effect> Perspective> CC Sphere
93. Change Mode to "Add"

Assignment 2 - Orbing Effect

The tutorial (link below) only teaches me how to create the effect (by doing adjustments in the effects control) and not how to apply it on a footage so I have to keep trying/experimenting to get the result I wanted.

Tutorial link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhM-RY_y4Q

Steps (what I did):
1. Layer> new> solid, pick "Black" color
2. Change Mode to Screen
3. Effect> Simulation> CC Particle System II

• Change Gravity from "1" to "0"
• Change Animation to "Twirly"
• Particle type: faded sphere
• Change the death size to "0.20"
• Change Longevity to "0.1"
• Transfer mode to "Screen"
• Birth color to "white"
• Death color to "blue"
  

4. Create a solid (Layer> New> Solid).
5. Change mode to screen.
6. Change the TrkMat of the particles/effect layer to "Alpha Matte"
7. Draw an oval with the eclipse tool.
8. Mask Feather to "30".
9. Place/position the mask on top and outside of the stage.
10. Set keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch beside Position.
11. Go to the next few frames, drag and hold shift to position it will vertically down.


12. A few frames before the current frame, set keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch beside Mask Path.


13. Go to the frame of the 2nd position and adjust the width of the orb/mask a little.


14. Select the particles/effect layer and in the effects control, set keyframe for Birth Rate and change it to "100".
15. Go to the next few frames and change the birth rate to "0" so that the particles will fade out.

Assignment 2 - Title Sequence

I have chosen this title sequence because it gives a mysterious and cool look/feel which is more suitable for our story, compared to other title sequence tutorial. This tutorial is also interesting because I can create the smoke effect with just an image by rotating it and it looks like it.

I do not have the background as seen in the video tutorial (link below) so I have used or created a dark blue solid background instead. I have also added glow for the title/text to make it look nicer.

Tutorial link: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

Steps:
1. Create a composition with the image "Smoke Element.jpg"
2. Create a white solid (Layer> New> Solid)
3. Create an adjustment layer (Layer> New> Adjustment Layer)
4. Color correct the Adjustment Layer with "Colorama" (Effect> Color Correction> Colorama)
5. In the effects control

• under the input phase, change Get Phase From to "Alpha"

• under the Output Cycle, change Use Preset Palette to "Ramp Grey", back color to blue and bring the transparency down (alpha)

6. Apply Turbulent Displace for some movements (Effect> Distort> Turbulent Displace)
7. In the effects control

• set size to "10"

• alt + click on stopwatch beside "Evolution", type in the expression box "time*100"

8. Create a new composition, "Main Comp"
9. Drag the "Smoke Element" composition in
10. Create a new background (Layer> New> Solid), drag it below the Smoke Element composition
11. Select the "Smoke Element" composition, hit "r" to reveal the "Rotation", alt + click on stopwatch beside "Rotation" and type in "value+time*5"
12. Hit "f4" and turn on the 3D layer switch
13. Create a camera (Layer> New> Camera), presets "35mm"
14. Create a new dark blue solid background
15. Duplicate for another "Smoke Element" composition, rotate, scale and position it (repeat/duplicate for more smoke layers)
16. For the background, go to Effect> Color correction> Curves, RGB down to darken it, Red down and Blue up a little
17. Create a null object (Layer> New> Null Object)
18. Parent the Camera to the null object
19. Set keyframe in the 1st frame and at about 4 secs in the timeline, change the position (so that the clouds move to the left)
20. Duplicate another "Smoke Element" composition and move it closer to the camera
21. Create text/title, turn on the 3D layer and i would prefer to add glow to it to look better (Effect> Stylize> Glow)
22. Create a new adjustment layer and do an overall color correction, red down abit and blue up abit (Effect> Color Correction> Curves)
23. For the Null object, 2nd keyframe, hit "f9" (For easy ease)
24. Go to camera and set keyframe for position and point of interest, drag the keyframes to the front
25. Move to the next few frames/ around 1 sec, use the "Track Z camera tool" and push in a little so that it will zoom in, select the keyframes and hit "f9" and now the camera will slowly zoom in
26. Select all the "Smoke Element" composition layers and change the mode to "screen" so that it will look nicer and with more depth