Process and Working with Clients

The process of this project was a bit off too me it did feel a bit over the place, however I understood what it was like to work in a team, and have someone play that client role. It can be weird as things can change at any point which gave me the ability of adjusting to a clients needs. I feel this project was more based on looking at how clients can act rather than creating a short animation, although this good for me in terms of building a vfx company on how to deal with clients however in terms of producing a quality piece of work I think if I had more time I would have organised this a lot better on the other hand if I had the opportunity to do it again I would have made it work parallel to the other projects I had going on.

https://vimeo.com/67593800

Eye glimmer

So another Eye effect I had added was the glimmer in the creatures eyes that was in the bedroom scene towards the start. 

I only wanted to show a glimmer as it was it was difficult to track the eyes due to the brightness and contrast of the shots. I used the same method when I did celia's eyes, the only difference was the duration. 

The reason I only did a glimmer was I wanted to show that celias eye had come from somewhere, and it was a feature that the creatures had as well. I felt that I did get the effect right and it sent message I was aiming for accross perfectly, I was worried at first how it would turn out but I think It was successful, although I could have extended the duration/

particle effects

when I was analysing the forest scene I was figuring what I should do for it, as I was watching various films such as snow white and the huntsman, where there is a lot of snow around however due to time constraints I wouldn't have been able to have the snow ready in time. 

I decided to try and get some particles floating through the scene, I had never used particle effects in after effects before so it would have been a good opportunity. I heard about a plug in called particular by Trapcode however because I couldn't get a hold of it I decided to use CC particle world, It was as bad as I had imagined it to be, I feel I got a decent result out of it, I didn't get the effect I was looking for but I feel for using the first time it was a good start. the particles were meant to give a mystic, magical feel, I don't feel I achieved it as they were moving too fast!

creating the eyes.

So I was asked to change the color of the Celia's eyes at the end to indicate that something had changed within her. I decided to do this first because it seemed the easiest, so it would be less time consuming.

This the kind of effect I got, I did this by tracking a segment of pupil usually Its either the inner black circle of the pupil or the outer circle of the pupil that id tracked in After Effects. this was more of a trial and error process, so I did end upo doing it 2-3 times till I thought the track was accurate. I added a null object to the track, which would help me out later.

I then Created an adjustment layer and then created a mask around the inner pupil and the whole pupil, I did this process for both eyes, and then by adding a curves effect, I was able to easily adjust the color of the eyes, I then parented the adjustment layers to the Null objects so it would move along with the footage. After showing rosie who was in charge of the project she felt they needed to be a bit more subtle, so I changed the blending mode and the color to red!

This was an interesting experience for me because I was slowly getting use to what it would feel like working with clients and their expectations and how things can shift very easily.

Research

So after the meeting, I decided to get an idea of what I was looking for by doing some research the kind of look she was after.

These are some of the images I intended to use for reference. I was going for a very eerie and dark look, something you would see in a dark fantasy film. I also took a look at snow white and the huntsman as that film also had a similar look to what I was trying to achieve. I learnt a lot when referencing work this time round, it made me start thinking of all the other possibilities and techniques I could implement in this work.

Change in Project

So as the deadline was approaching, I didn't feel content with my original Idea, I thought I had to change it, this isn't something I had done before so It was a daunting process, as I am normally use to ploughing through an problems. this could be a good chance for me too see what it feels like to have switch in ideas and how to deal with it in various ways and what to expect in the future so its more experience in the long run for me.

Emails on what the plans for the vfx were.

I was contacted by Rosie Owen who needed some visual effects for her short who needed some VFX done for her project. We met up a few days after talking via email about what the plan was, she wanted me too take a look at the rough edit. We met up she gave me a good idea of what Kind of look she was looking for. This was a really insightful process as it helped me get used to dealing with clients, I fell I could have been a bit more vocal, however I did feel I asked the right questions, so I completely under stood what the concept was and what my task was, this was definitely a valuable experience for me when I do start working with clients with my VFX company! 

Drunk Character Animation

So Jane is our tutor for this second assignment, and we had a 1 - 1 on what I had in mind for this assignment and I told her I found this competition in CGtalks that have setup which requires us to animate a character acting drunk.

I came up with character that are famous for being drunk like homer simpson or Barney from the simpsons and decided to study their movements whilst they were drunk. I noticed that it was more relaxed in the sense of their behaviour which I aim to show through my animation however at the same time it was also all over the place. the video shows this clearly.