VIZ643 editing

In this assignment, we will need to take minimum 2 existing trailers and edit it to a new story or genre.
I came up with 3 ideas:
1. A trouble graduate student ( The amazing spider-man + social network)
2. A newly wedded couple got separated and their own journey (eat pray love + 127 hours)
3. 2 top teams got into a war (Expandable + R.E.D)

Initially, I had stronger feeling for Expandable + R.E.D, because of the two movies are very close genre and having all the characters to fight each other will definitely adrenaline thrilled. At the same time, I really want to give myself a challenge to edit eat-pray-love + 127 hours because I seldom deal with romance/ drama story and the fact that I can change the originally small cast of James Franco in eat-pray-love into more prominent figure using editing skill, is very tempting.
So, I actually started working on these two choice simultaneously. However,  I started to get more ideas and more attached to eat-pray-love + 127 hours. I like how I can tweak and link the two characters into a single story, yet somewhat related to the original one. I also faced some limitation in the range of footage that I can choose because I am concern and picky about the footage screen size and quality. So, I had to use an interview with James Franco as supplement to my editing footage. Funny thing is, the interview was actually conducted in a very pleasant atmosphere, however there were several time that James Franco had few expressions that looked annoyed which were perfect for me to use. I also did some color correction and resizing so the trailer composition is contributing to the story. Again, having the raw footage in highest possible quality helped a lot in providing those options. Adjustment of audio, including sound effects and music definitely help in enforcing the theme again.

So, here is the final editing version:

Original eat pray love trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay5vgIwt4

Original 127 hours trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ

Original James Franco interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Nmf-Chm1w


I also include here, the work in progress of the expandable + R.E.D.

VIZ613 Character Rigging

Completed rigging for all characters.

Crane (C FlyFly) with strectchy IK for wings and legs

Clam (C Sharp) with FK and corrective blendshapes for tongue

Fisherman

Bonus (VizAlien, created for weekly Lab Assignment)

VIZ613 TurnTable

Turn table for characters in my short animation.

CRANE (C FlyFly)

CLAM (C Sharp)

FISHERMAN

Pixels!

As I'm looking up reference for my previous 643 project, I came across this cool visualization concept and tool in Structure Synth (http://structuresynth.sourceforge.net/).
It is built by C++, OpenGL and qt4. It is suppose to be able to generate 3D objects in cubical or 'pixelated' form.
I felt excited about this, however I have no idea how I may actually utilize it in any of my projects yet.
Some of the examples I found:


//PIXELS 8 bit invading NY

http://www.vimeo.com/10829255

//User of Structure Synth
http://www.bilderzucht.de/blog/

VIZ643 Compositing

We decided to do a compositing scene in Harry Porter.
It was a scene where Harry and friends were in the secret chamber.
In the original scene, there weren't any one around them (at least not visually).
So we decided to composite a mystique figure within the scene.|
Here is the outcome:

The challenge for 1st composite scene was to determine the scale and angle of the figure in green screen.
Beside that, we need to consider the lighting direction to match with the original scene. I also suggested a little hand gesture while holding the wand, since the hand had the highest point of lighting value in the scene.
Second scene was more challenging and interesting because it involved camera movement. To tackle this, we set the camera on the studio's rack. To play on the safe side, we shot this scene with slower timing and longer distance, so we have more allowance to choose the best frames.

Beside the visual compositing, the audio is part of the requirement too. I had a lot of fun in playing and mixing the sounds. We got most of the sounds from the Hollywood Sound Effects CD in vizlab and also from freesound.org. I tried the left-right panning for the swishing cloth sound, turned out not bad. The most fun I had was with the footsteps. I actually reversed the waveform because the original footsteps is a regular walk, where the heel is the first point of contact to the floor. I wanted the sound more cautious and heavy, where the toes touched the floor, slowly followed by the entire foot. I quite pleased with what was achieved here. I used both audacity and soundbooth for the audio editing.

VIZ643 Motion Tracking idea pitching

Idea 1.

This idea is continue from previous Mater compositing project. It is about a 3D character running away from noises caused by a nearby construction site. The character is representing students and I like to portray the character is living inside the wall/ building as to symbolize the tight relationship between student and academic building here.

Character open up a door and running from the wall towards camera.
Construction noises from off screen.

Character leap from the edge and camera follow him, tilting up.

Cut away shot, showing the character jumping high in slow motion with effect trails.

Shot continue, character landed on the other side of wall and running forward.

Character jump into the wall and found out he is actually in the mid air of the inner wall and fell into the trash bin.

Mock-up concept board

Idea 2.

The idea is to show a pair of shoe is walking in everyday like. I found the design of Vibram FiveFingers very interesting and came up with this idea. We will need to wrap the actor's leg in green material and it will be a challenge for us to over come. Effects to be included for visual enhancement.

Idea 3.

This is based on one of scene in Black Swan. I want to incorporate an additional character in the foreground to amplified the dissatisfaction of the director of Natalie Portman's dance performance. The director's figure is small and mostly idle in the original movie scene.

The main challenge will be on the second shot. There is reflection of the additional character in the mirror and the mirror has edges that will display distortion of the reflection. There will be rotoscoping involve because we will need to mask the character when he walking pass the dancing couple.

VIZ643 Compositing

We are playing with green-screen shooting for this project. My idea is to put something out of real world into the real world.

I got the idea from recent Cars 2 movie. Mater is a spy so I wish to incorporate him into a real world, perhaps he is undergoing a spy mission in A&M. Of course he will be very different from the other cars around him and the matter of fact he parking in wrong lot make him even hard to go unnoticed. Well, that is the Mater we all know. I kinda like this idea very much and even more happier when the original picture of this was kind of candid shot. The student in blue T shirt walked in when the picture is taken. I chose this picture rather than another one where it is all clean because I think this everyday-like feeling helped to enhance my story in this.
On technical side, I faced a lot of problem to shoot Mater, a 3 inches toy. I need to construct a small setting with green papers. Things get worse when I shoot, in macro, parts of Mater's body will go blur. Luckily I went and asked Glen for advice. He told me to increase the F-stop to F-18 or F-22, and to slow down the shutter to 2 seconds. With this setting I was able to shoot this tiny object very sharp and make it easier to key later in After Effect.
Thanks Glen! :)

 

Original

Shooting setting

VIZ643 Lighting

The project is to construct one high-key lighting and one low-key lighting by using the same 3D background and exact camera angle.

 

The main idea is to about a young boy watching a movie in the cinema. By using the high-key and low-key lighting, it is to illustrate the different emotion the young boy experience, perhaps with different movie genre. The camera angle is set below the eye of the boy so that the expression for the face will not interfere with the lighting setting for each picture. The mouth is open wide but did not indicate any mood which is ideal for the purpose of this project. Depth of field is adopted so that the focal point can maintain at the boy and red cup. The red cup is one important hint that the boy is in the cinema rather than other places. I am really happy with the outcome and also the fact that I discovered a lot of aspect and details while constructing these pictures.

VIZ643 Composition

The objective of this project is to explore and have fun with composition in a story telling.
My idea of this short story was about a man waiting for a girl. The camera angle only focused on both the character's legs intentionally so that the chemical between the duo can be expressed in not-so-direct approach. Camera is rather flat and the background is all horizontal arrangement so it may help to direct the attention to only the legs.
By the way, it is my legs and my wife's legs :)

I had another idea about the composition with legs. It is to show a character walking into a dark room.
This is what I shot in my own apartment.

I used the Sony EX3, however I couldn't got the extreme low angle I wanted in order to portray the dominance figure. So, I changed my approach to 2D animation method.

VIZ613 Animatics

Animatics can be viewed here too:

VIMEO

VIZ613 Storyboard

Script
EXT. Day Seaside
A clam is resting on the beach and enjoying sunbath.

EXT. Day Seaside
A crane flying by and spotted the clam because of the shininess of the pearl in the clam.

EXT. Day Seaside
The crane flew down and tried to snatch the pearl and both of them got into a fight.

EXT. Day Seaside
The crane bite the clam's tongue but the clam immediately close its mouth. Both of them stuck together because neither party is willing to let go.

EXT. Day Seaside
A fisherman came by and saw the struggling couple.

EXT. Sunset Seaside
The fisherman caught both the crane and clam into a bag and went home happily.

Initial sketches:

Storyboard:

Color script

Mood study:

Project Objective:
To have the opportunities to explore various scopes in 3D animation production, from pre-production-post.

 

Technical challenges:
Stretchy IK
Animate wings
Animate bivalves character (no hand & no leg)

VIZ613 Character Design

//Character Profile:
C Fly Fly (crane)

Fast, aggressive and elegant.

Character Design:

Book:
Seasons of the cranes/ Peter and Connice Roop.
Peeping in the shell: a whooping crane is hatched/ Faith McNutty; illustration by Irene Brady

References:

//Character Profile:

C Sharp (clam)
Introvert, stubborn, get angry when being disturbed.

Character Design:

 

Book:
National Audubon Society field guide to North American seasheels/ Harald A. Rehder; with photography by James H. Carmichael, Jr.; visual key by Carol Nehring and Mary Beth Brewer.

References:

 

//Character Profile:

Fisherman
Happy-go-lucky

Character Design:

 

References for Props:

 

Props:
C Fly Fly's goggle, C Sharp's pearl, Fisherman's rice hat, Fisherman's sandals and bag.

VIZ613 Idea & Concept

My idea is based on a Chinese myth about a clam and crane. The scene is set at the seaside.
The clam is resting on the beach and enjoying the sunbath while a flying crane spotted it because of the shininess of the pearl in the clam.
The crane flew down and tried to snatch the pearl and both of them got into a fight.
The crane finally bite the clam's 'tongue' but the clam immediately closed its mouth so both of them got stuck together because neither party is willing to let go.
A fisherman came by and saw the struggling 'couple'. Without any hardship the fisherman caught them into a bag and went home happily.
The moral behind the story is that we should not merely look at the benefit of the short terms which probably going to led us into a bigger trouble later on.

Here are some quick sketches of the story:

I hope to present the crane as a fast-paced character, some movements to resemble a jet. The clam, on contrary, is a solid and rigid character.

Fisherman is going to be as simple as possible. Background needed to be simple too.

After presented this story to Austin, I am glad that he gave me a green light since this is the story that I wanted to do and with possibilities for me to explore some of the technical and aesthetic aspects.

Here are another 2 back-up plans.

Ant & Dove with a little twist ending.

Pandora's box. Focus will be on the Pandora's character performances.