Rotoscoping

 Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films. Originally, recorded live action film images were projected onto a glass panel and drawn again by an animator, the equipment used is called Rotoscope. Later on this was then replaced by computers.

History of Rotoscoping:

• The Rotoscoping technique was developed by Max Fleischer, who used it in his series called Out of the Inkwell which was around 1915, with his brother Dave Fleischer dressed in a clown outfit as the live film reference for Koko the Clown. Max then went on an patented the method in 1917.
• Fleischer used rotoscoping in a number of his later cartoons, including his most known cartoons. The Cab Calloway dance routines in three Betty Boop cartoons from the early 1930s, and the animation of Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels 1939.
• Leon Schlesinger Productions, who produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros., produced cartoons that were more towards exaggerated comedy, and used rotoscoping only occasionally.
• Rotoscoping was used extensively in China's first animated feature film, Princess Iron Fan 1941.
• More recently, in 2013, the anime The Flowers of Evil was criticised by viewers for using rotoscoping to achieve a look that different greatly from its manga source material. The main problem existed in cutting corners in animating facial features, reusing several backgrounds, and taking liberties in realism.

A use of rotoscoping being used is in Boromir's death in Lord Of The Rings (1978). The use of rotoscoping is effective because it makes the animation more convincing, as the background is still so you can't notice the effect taking place - meaning it's done its job well.

Costume Design

Post Production #2 - VFX

To practice my visual effect skills in after effects, I used the scene where Reece (myself) Teleports to the bathroom.

What Went Wrong?

Once I was filmed jumping into the air by the containers we went back to class to try out some after effect special effects but we forgot to take a still image of the scene where I was jumping. This meant that it would look any where near as realistic as it would if we had the still image. We also had to video me landing and our script said we were to land in the bathroom but as there was people in it we had to shoot in a different location.

What did I struggle with in After Effects?

Whilst following a teleportation effect tutorial It came to a certain point where he clicked on a "Toggle/Switched mode" button which brought up a menu. But for me there was no button, I spent a good 10 - 15 minutes looking all over for this button and by this point I was getting fairly annoyed. I decided to take a look in the comments area of the video and there I found my solution and all I had to do instead was press the "F4" key.

What do I need to learn?

Our script consists of a lot of visual effects so we need to know how to make these visual effects look as realistic as possible in after effects.

What assets will we need?

We will only need one asset for our film which is make-up for the zombies as we can do everything else ourselves in after effects.

Character Bios

Reece has a really big goal. His goal is to complete his journey home alive to hope to find his parents safe and sound. But on his journey home he will face vicious creatures. Zombies. He and his dog Chester will fight their way through them to make sure they complete their goal. Reece's parents Alice and George are still together and live in the city that they were born and raised in. Detroit. Reece is into rap music and his parents totally the opposit as they are into jazz music. During his childhood, Reece only stuck around with 3 friends. Peter, Josh and Kenny.

The Postman's goal is to keep delivering post whilst during the period of the zombie apocalypse. The postman's parents are divorced and his mother Susan lives in texas and his dad Robert lives over 2000 miles away in the UK. The Postman enjoys listening to heavy metal rock music and his favourite band is motor head. The postman didn't really have any friends he just liked to sit at home and draw pictures and watch television and didn't really socialize at school. Chester's goal is to help and protect Reece on their quest back home.

Chester shares the same parents as Reece. When living back in detroit, Chester had some dog friends. Poppy and Milo. They would run around the field chasing the ball and play fight with each other. Chester enjoys having fusses and likes to keep close to Reece at all times.

VFX Assest sheets

VFX 1 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-5-2 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-5 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 copy 8 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 copy 4 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 copy 2 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 copy from KatieTurner40

Vfx asset sheet-1 copy 7 from KatieTurner40

Mattes and Matte Paintings

Matte Painting.

A matte painting is a painting of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create an illusion of a location painted on a background that is doesn't exist in real life or would either be too expensive or impossible to build or visit.

History of Matte Painting.

Around a hundred years ago film makers weren’t willing to spend millions of dollars to shoot in far away exotic locations. On top of that, it would be impossible to find an on scene location to shoot a movie like Star Wars. In 1905 a man named Norman Dawn developed a technique that joined together a Photograph and a Painting to enhance the location that is being shot by the camera. Norman Dawn took his photos and paintings and placed them on a large sheet of glass. Black tape was then placed over the parts of the camera where the painting would go. After the camera was positioned properly the live action scene would take place. What resulted was a union between a simple painting and actual live scenery.





An Example of Matte Painting

This clip shows them arriving towards the Emerald City. The reason why they have had to use matte painting is because there isn't an area is real life which resembles anything like this and green screens weren't as easy to use back then. This clip is very convincing because of the poor quality of the people stood and the fact it just doesn't look very realistic.

props table

Location Reece Part 1

Breakdown Sheets Students vs Zombies

Labelled Still Images of Shots - Part 1.

Location Recce - Part one

Location Recce - Part two

Research and Understanding Green Screen

Green Screen.

Green Screening is one of the main methods used in films. Green screening allows you to do a huge variety of different things. If you film someone acting with a green background behind them it is then extremely easy to remove the background and keep the action of the person. It is easy to remove due to it being a bright and solid colour. for example if you wanted to film someone on the moon you could get them all dressed up to look like a spaceman then get them to do the actions you want then remove the background and place them on the surface of the moon.

History of green screening and the key parts.

- A long time ago in the late 1800's, travelling matte as we know it as green screening was used in filmmaking. Matte is when a sheet of glass would of had been painted black and then used as a background.

- The film "The Great Train Robbery" was first made in 1903. In the film the travelling matte method was a big hit and gave it some of its biggest realistic effects.

- The Green / Blue screen method then came along in the 1930s and was created at RKO Radio Pictures.

- The first proper use green screen was used in the film "The thief of bagdad" in 1940 where a genie appeared from a bottle.

- Larry Butler who was the developer of green screen won an award for the use of the special effects in the film "the thief of bagdad".

- A disadvantage to the traditional travelling matte is that the cameras shooting the images to be composted can't be easily synchronized.

- later on computer timed motion control cameras help to get rid of this problem as both the foreground and background could be filmed with the same camera move.

this clip shows a good example of green screening being used as it shows a part from 'Ugly Betty' where she is trying to avoid a news reporter and walks straight into a bus shelter which was filmed using green screen. The reasons for it being filmed with green screen is because of various reasons such as it saves alot of problems to do with the public. if they were to use a proper public place then they would have to block off the area to film it which would have to go by lots of people to do so and would need support from the police as well they wouldn't have any control of sounds from outside. this means  there would be lots of background noise which they could do without. This is why it's easier to use a green screen where you can edit in what you want and what sounds you want. 

File Structure

Anamatic

Production Meeting

Our production meeting began at 12:04pm. The people present were myself, Georgina, Maia and Katie.
In this meeting we discuss information about each of our scripts and where we think the different shots were.

 Once discussed we decided to uses Maia's script as she had 49 shots and used a wide variety of shot angles and different camera movements.

Visual Effects Research .

Visual Effect Research.

In our script we have a variety of visual effects that occur at different times.

The first one occurs on Scene 2 Shot 8 where our character Reece will teleport to the bathroom.

The second visual effect occurs on Scene 4 shot 4 where Reece is told some exciting news and flame balls fire from his hands.

The third visual effect occurs when Kieran introduces himself and turns invisible in Scene 5 shot 5.

The next visual effect occurs when Lauren introduces herself to Reece then shows of here unique talent by lifting objects using her mind and hovers them above Reece's head. This is also in Scene 5 Shot 9

Another visual effect occurs in Scene 5 Shot 11 where finally Rizzo introduces herself to Reece and shows of her super power by stretching and being extremely flexible.

The next visual effect is shown by Reece in Scene 5 shot 13 where Reece shows of his power by teleporting behind the 3 other pupils.

Another visual effect occurs in Scene 6 shot 2 where the ground begins to crack.

The next visual effect is where the zombies smash through the windows this occurs in Scene 6 shot 6.

The final group of visual effects occur from Shot 2 in Scene 7 all the way to shot 5 where we see all the characters we have met, use their powers to try and defeat the zombies.

Similar Visual Effects.

Teleport Visual Effect from Star Trek - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNC5iLNguRQ 

Fire Balls from Sky High - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snf1STjOLoQ

Stretching and Flexibility 

Tutorials

Teleportation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFC3gSgOzFA
Fire from hand - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCM0h-J4x30
Floating effect - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOdlLYqKFrw
Floor cracking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF898Nd75xM

Shot Blocking Diagram and 180 degree rule.

180 Degree Rule

If you are filming two people talking to each other from one side, you can't then film them from the opposite side. You can film them at different angles on the side you have started filming on as long as it doesn't go past the axis (imaginary line) of 180 degrees.

2 Minute Story Play

X-Men Sound Analysis

X-Men Sound Analysis

In the clip we were given from X-Men there were 4 main parts of sound. The Music, The Voice Over, The Dialogue and other Sound Effects.

We then watched the clip and analysed the 4 different sound parts and made a timeline to show what time in the clip they occurred.

  
When watching the clip we had to think about how the 4 different sound elements all worked and came together. The Music was the only sound element that was played the hole way through. The music was good because it was quite chilled, calm and had a mysterious feeling about which was good because it matched the clip.

Another sound element was the Dialogue. There are two types of Dialogue, on screen and off screen. On screen dialogue is where you can see the person who is talking and off screen is where you know the person is in the same location but not in front of the camera but it talking.

Another sound element is Voice over. Voice over is where someone who is talking over the clip who is in a location that we do not know. Voice over is used to give viewers a better understanding of what is going on.

The final sound element is sound effects. Sound effects are used to make actions in a film stand out and more realistic. For example in the X-Men clip when the clay pigeon's are being fired the laser gun is smashing them with a zapping noise, this is a sound effect that has been created and added because the laser mask and the laser beams are both fictional.

The way that all of these sound effects merge with each other and the way it all flows is mainly because of the constant music in the background. The other three sound elements only occur at certain times but the music in the background keeps it flowing and this means it will look and sound natural.

Face Morphing

My Story

Survival

Story

It all started a few months after Reece turned 18, where he decided to move out from his parents house in Detroit and move to the far west of the USA, Seattle. Reece's parents were really worried about letting him leave and live so far away but were proud of what a young man he had turned into. Reece's parents decided they didn't want him to live all by himself and that they wanted him to have someone to keep him company. Reece's parents decided to let him take the family dog Chester with him so he wouldn't feel all alone. 

A Few weeks later and Reece was all settled in. He had already made friends with the other people living around him and felt quite at home. Reece was at the local wall mart getting groceries and saw that an Electric Metal company a few miles from where Reece lived were offering apprenticeships. He was really glad that he had seen this advert as he really likes messing about with electrics and creating things. 

Later on that evening he phoned up the company and they offered him an interview. The next day Reece went for the interview and they seemed extremely impressed with his knowledge of electrics and the offered him the job there and then. He was really pleased that he got the job and couldn't wait to start.

2 Years went by and Reece was 20 years old by now and for the past few weeks there had been talk of people biting people and people being killed. Reece didn't think anything of it and just carried life on as normal. 

The following day at work Reece was on his lunch break and was taking a walk over to the refreshments van across the road when out of nowhere there was an almighty Bang! Fire started to rise down the end of the road and all of a sudden people started screaming . Cars started to crash and People started to run. Someone was running up the road where Reece works and Reece realized it was one of his neighbours. He stopped him and asked what is happening? His neighbour just said "Its Real!, Zombies, They are real"! Reece had no clue what to do and didn't know what to do. He turned to look down the road again and saw someone on top of someone biting them and ripping parts of their skin off! Reece couldn't believe what was happening. He started to run home jumping over cars and pushing people out the way. He got into his flat and locked the door behind him.

He looked around the room to find Chester scared to death, curled up in the corner of the room. He went over to him and sat down next to him to try and make him feel more secure. He switched on the TV to find Main Headlines stating that a "Zombie Apocalypse has begun"

Reece thought no more and grabbed his phone to call his family back in Detroit but there was no answer. He called and called family and friends back in Detroit but there was no answer. 

Reece waited in till the night and put everything in his flat in front of the door to block it. A few hours later, still no answer on the phone. Reece knew he had to do something. He thought and thought of ideas and then thought to him self that he will use the metal at his work to make armour and weapons. Early hours the next morning he looked out the window all was silent and nothing to be seen apart from smashed cars and windows. Reece saw this as his only opportunity to go back to his work place and start to do something. 

He slowly and quietly began to move the furniture away from his door. He put Chester on the lead and left his flat. He walked to his work watching every footstep he made, to make sure he couldn't attract anyone or anything's attention. He made it to his work place and let himself inside quietly and carefully. He looked around first to make sure it was safe and shut the 6 Inch steel doors behind him and locked them using an heavy iron Padlock. 

After spending the rest of the night and the next day in there, Reece had created some steel armour for himself and thinner lighter armour for his dog. He had also made an electric sword and a tazer gun.

Reece saw an old backpack on the floor covered by bits of junk metal. He took it and filled it with the drink and food from the fridge in the kitchen. He took the big kitchen knifes from the draw and put them around his waist. He put everything that he though would be resourceful in the bag. Reece waited there till it got light the following morning. He opened the door and made sure it was safe to go. Reece and Chester had started their journey back home.   

Pitch

My story is about a young man called Reece and his dog Chester, who leave their home in Detroit to start a fresh in the city of Seattle. Reece settles in fine, he has made new friends got a job and is all going well. But one day it doesn't all go so well. This is the day where the world realizes that Zombies are real and that today would be the start of a Zombie Apocalypse. Reece cannot get in touch with his family but holds his head high and hopes and still believes they are still alive. Reece uses his job as an advantage and makes himself and his dog armour and weapons to fight off the zombies on their long trip back home to see if he can find his family in Detroit

Point Break Write Up.

Point Break Write Up.

For this task we had to add sound effects in Adobe premier to a short clip taken from the film Point Break. We were given the clip with no audio and a folder full of sound effects and we had to put the sound effects over the clip where we thought they should be. We also had to edit the clips in Premier, for example, when someone was running and they were getting closer to the camera, we had to change the volume of the running sound effect so it started of quiet and got louder as the person was getting closer to the camera. 

Once we thought we had everything in the right place, we then had to export it. We had to choose the write export settings so the final clip was the write format to upload to YouTube  To export from premier to get the correct settings, we had to click File - Export, then change the format to H.264 and change the pre-set to YouTube HD 1080p 23.976.

I feel that my clip was quite successful, I felt that I put the sound effects in the write place and got the volume settings correct. Although I was fairly happy with my outcome I did struggle some times through the process. Especially trying to make the volume quite and then gradually get louder but still fairly quite. I also found it quite tricky when the man smashed through the glass, fell over the table and then the woman shouted. I found this part a bit tricky because there was so many sound effects that needed to be used at the same time and I just got in a bit of a pickle with the volumes and trying to keep it sound realistic. Apart from that I found it quite easy and quite enjoyable.


(SCREENSHOT OF SEQUENCE)

Dialogue - Misfits Opening

Dialogue - Misfits Opening Scene.

The purpose of the opening scene of the first misfits episode is to mainly get to know the characters. It also gives us an idea on their different personalities and and Idea of their background. 

Nathan

Nathan's tone of voice is very sarcastic and we can see this straight away as when his probation worker says "when you see my lips moving, that means I am still talking" and Nathan comes back with "Yeah, but you could of been yawning or chewing". When Nathan is saying this sarcastic comment it is almost as if he is saying it in a Natural way, not putting it on to try and be funny and impress the others be but as if it is his normal way of speaking and talking to other people. Nathan can also get quite annoying when replying to people, we can see this when the probation worker says that people out there think you are "scum" and again in an annoying chat back way he responds with "Yeah, but what if they are right". Although Nathan is a very sarcastic person, he is also quite laid back and doesn't really care what he says and what the consequences may be. Again we can show this about when he says "No offence but some of us are born criminals" and whilst saying this he points to Gary. Gary then says "are you looking to get stabbed" but Nathan is not bothered by this what so ever and just replies with "see my point". Although the only impression we have so far of Nathan is that he is a very sarcastic person there may well be another side to him as even though what he says to simon isn't the nicest thing to say but he is the only one who notices simon and says something to him. 

Alisha

From the first few minutes of the first episode of Misfits we can tell by the tone Alisha uses, that she isn't really bothered about her community service, doesn't really care about anything or any one and is all in all quite careless and rude. We can see this when the Probation worker is talking and giving information to everyone and Alisha quite rudely answers her phone and starts having a conversation over the phone to someone else and not paying any attention to what is being said. We also get an impression that she is quite flirty as the way she acts when putting her community service clothing on.

Kelly

The first impression we get from Kelly is that she like Alisha is quite a careless person and doesn't really care about what she has done and what she has to do now. We can see this by the way she is slouching on the fence chewing gum and not the slightest bit interested in what is going on. Kelly's tone of voice shows that she speaks like a chav and this we know by the way she responds to Curtis's comment "Err what makes you think your better than us" and also the way she responds to Nathan's comment "You try'in to say something now then yah"

Curtis

From the first clip of misfits we don't really receive much information from Curtis. He seems to be quite independent in the way he wears overalls. He isn't wearing them like the others he has them tied round his waist and no one else does. He also seems like quite a chilled guy in the way he doesn't seem to say much to the fellow people. All he says is "I shouldn't be er man" and "Can I move groups" which is then commented by Kelly and he doesn't seem too bothered about her comment and doesn't seem to backfire. Again like Alisha his tone of voice gives us an impression that he is also quite a careless person, isn't really interested and just wants it over with.

Gary

Gary comes across as quite an aggressive person in the way he talks and acts with quite a lot of attitude. We can see this by the way he responds to Nathan's comments "Are you looking to get stabbed"? and "Ill rip out your throat and S*** down your throat"! There is also some times where Gary is quite aggressive towards Nathan because what Nathan has said. This could show that Gary comes from a violent and aggressive background.

Simon

We don't really receive any information about simon in the opening scene. He doesn't say anything or make any comments to anyone and doesn't reply to Nathan's welcoming but rude comment. This shows that he is really shy and could actually feel quite nervous about mixing with and talking to new people. This could also be because something that may of happened to him or it may just be because the type of background he is from.

MISFITS VISUAL EFFECTS

- Stormy Clouds - 4:36

- Ice Falling and hitting the car - 4:49

- Ice Falling - 4:52 - 6:11

- Thrown back onto black background - 6:12

- Lightning - 6:16

- Simon's head blur when changing - 17:40

- Eyes changing on Probation worker - 22:18

- Time turning back in Curtis's eyes - 30:28

Drive - Sound Effects Analysis

Drive Write Up.

A getaway driver played by Ryan Gosling waits for two criminals to commit a burglary. The Driver makes clear before the crime that he haves a rule that he will give anyone who hires him 5 minutes to commit the crime and if they are not back within the time he will drive off and leave them.

The purpose of the opening of drive is to build up tension and to draw people into watching the rest of the film. They do this by using a lot of different techniques. One of the ways is to use sound. Sound is a good way to build tension. It makes viewers wonder what's going to come next and they like that there's is a lot of unanswered questions that they want to be answered when they watch more of the film. 

How certain things in the clip have qualities and how they build tension.

- The Ticking Watch - As soon as the two criminals leave the car to commit the crime, Ryan Gosling sets his watch on a timer of 5 Minutes. As the crime is being committed all we are shown is Ryan in the car and all to be heard is his timer on his clock ticking down time. This builds tension because the ticking gets louder and is a low tone and we know that the police are on their way and by this we know that there isn't much time left and when the sirens get louder this creates even more tension as views will be really attached and don't know if they are going to get away in time or get caught by the police.

- The Police Radio scanner. At start the Scanner is muffled when Ryan Gosling is trying to tune it so he can hear the police communicating with each other. Once tuned it starts to create tension as we can hear what the police are saying to one another. The tone of the policemen voices is quite low but are still clear so we can hear what they are saying. The volume of the radio is quite quite and becomes harder to hear once the radio is switched on.

- The Car Radio. When Ryan Gosling turns the volume of the radio up it is automatically harder to hear what the police are saying to one another and what information they are sharing. This means that we may not understand 100% of what is going on with the police's situation so we may not know what is going to come next and whether the police know the location of the two criminals and whether or not they are going to get busted or get away.

Environmental Sounds (Alarm, Gun Shot, Police Siren) - The Environmental sounds have a big effect as they give us an idea of what is going on. for example, we get an idea already that what is going on is a bad thing but this is even clearer after the first two environmental sounds occur. The gun shot to open the door to the building and the alarm a few seconds after the two criminals enter the building. A short time after, we begin to hear the police sirens getting louder and louder which shows that they have got a really good idea on what's going on and where its happening.

Personal Top Trump.

Post Production House

POST PRODUCTION HOUSES.

www.ilm.com

Industrial Light and Magic was founded in 1975 by George Lucas to create special effects for his epic space film star wars. He created this because at the time, there was no other company like this at the time. From the beginning till present, ILM has created visual effects for nearly 300 films and has played the key role in 10 of the top 15 worldwide box office hits.

ILM has created visual effects for well known films such as Star wars, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean dead mans chest, Judgement Day, Iron Man, Avatar, Star Trek, Twister and many more.

To create visual effects, ILM have had to use great technology beginning with blue screen photography, matte painting and model construction. From the 1980's ILM have progressed and used techniques such as digital compositing, morfing, simulations and enveloping as well as using other technologies such as film input scanning, digital compositing, wire removal and motion control.

Napoleon Dynamite Write Up

Napoleon Dynamite Write Up.

Our task was to re create a clip of the film Napoleon Dynamite. We started of by watching the clip through a few times.

 We were then put into groups and we were mixed with people that we haven't really made contact with to give us an opportunity to work with someone different and get to know them.

Once in our groups we got given a camera and a tripod and were sent of to film our own version of the clip. 

Once we arrived at our first location we decided the roles. The main role Napoleon was taken on by Charlie, the role of Pedro was taken on by myself, Jade took on the role of the teacher and the filming was left in the hands of Shelby.

Our group started of by filming the first scene in the reception where the reception lady kindly let us use the telephone as it is used in the actual film. We asked to use the props because we wanted ours to be the same as the film. 

Once we had finished filming the first scene in the reception we then went on to film the scene of the teacher having a discussion with the new student. This scene, we filmed in the corridor in front of the lockers. 

We carried on filming in the same location for the next couple of shots where Napoleon helps the new student to his locker and where they discuss transport on how they get to college. Pedro explained to Napoleon that he rides his bike to school and straight away Napoleon took interest.

The next scene was the new student telling and showing Napoleon what bike he has and what cool features it has. Napoleon was very impressed with his bike.

The Final scene was a scene where Pedro tried a "Sweet Jump" where I used Olivia's bike as a prop to make the scene look the same as the scene in the film.

Mobas are a branding agency and they are based in Cambridge. They are ranked as the UK's top agencies.

Yesterday at college, we had something called D-Day (Digital Day) where in groups we had to think of a brand and launch it on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ect. 

Our group thought of the Brand name RAGS. we came up with the idea of having a clothes shop where people could bring in their old clothes and they would be renewed or recycled to make new clothes. The shop we had created would be run by students as they know about fashion, what trend is in and what people like to wear. 

We decided also to make our shop a charity shop where we would donate 15% of our sales to a specific  charity.

We thought of a few good selling points for our shop, the main ones being that the clothes would be cheap but still good material and that we recycle the clothes instead of binning them. Another selling point was that the store was that there would only be 1 of everything which makes it quite unique.

A$AP MOB Badge.

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