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