25.10.2022 - 11.12.2022 (Week 9 - Week 15)
Chung Yi Ki / 0345014 /
BDCM
Film Studies & Cinematography
Final Project : 20
seconds short animation teaser
Lecture
Week 10 / Cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the art of capturing a story visually. Combining different
use of angles can create impact, for example, contrasting side view and
frontal view.
Camera movement
- Pan: Camera moves horizontally
- Tilt: Camera moves vertically
- Zoom: Changing focal length of the lens to make the character closer or further away in a frame
- Dolly: Camera moves along a railroad track
Instructions
This project is a continuation from the animatic that we created in Project 2
and it is a joint final project with our Animation Fundamentals module. We are
tasked to animate the scenes according to our animatic in Project 2 with
colours and any necessary effects. The teaser should be minimum 20 seconds,
but we can go over it if it's needed.
Revised animatic
Fig 1.1 Alternate version for scene 3
After receiving feedbacks from Mr Kamal in Animation Fundamentals, I decided
to try out his suggestion of changing scene 3 to something more simple where
the vendor's shadow looms over the girl, the vendor picks her up and cuts to
somewhere in the scene where it shows blood splashing.
Fig 1.2 Revised animatic
But after discussing with Mr. Martin, I wanted to keep the full black and
sketchy stroke scenes where it shows the girl's inner thoughts, so I decided
to only add the shadowing looming over part before cutting to the part where
the vendor picks the girl up. I also made the start of scene 4 longer to show
that the girl is struggling to keep awake before passing out. Then, I edited
the changes into the original animatic and used it as a rough planning for my
animation.
The animation process can be read in the Animation Fundamentals blog post.
Backgrounds
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| Fig 1.1 Value key for scene 1 |
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| Fig 1.2 Value key for scene 2 |
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| Fig 1.3 Value key for scene 3 |
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| Fig 1.4 Value key for scene 4 |
I first started out with some greyscale value keys sketches using frames from my animatic to plan out the colour value.
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| Fig 1.1 Scene 1 background coloured (extended) |
Fig 1.2 Scene 2 background coloured and animated
Fig 1.3 First part of scene 3 background coloured
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| Fig 1.4 Second part of scene 3 background coloured (extended) |
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| Fig 1.5 Scene 4 background coloured |
Character colour
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| Fig 2.1 Character colour scheme |
I then planned out the colour scheme for my main character in Krita too using the character sketches I did in Project 1 before bringing the colour into my animation. I wanted the colour to reflect a more "earthly" tones, something that looks like it's possible to encounter in a trash can outside. Dark, old, and unflattering.
Compositing the scenes
Fig 3.1 Draft composition of halfway progress of the animations
|
| Fig 3.2 Creating the shadow using mask |
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| Fig 3.3 Creating the lighting using mask |
I first try out the compositing the light and shadow for the first part of
scene 3 in After Effects by following
this YouTube tutorial
in using masking to create lighting. Apart from masking, I also used a
spotlight to give a base colour to the character to match the lighting of the
background, and also colour corrected the character using brightness and
contrast to match the background. For the first part of scene 3, I increased
the contrast of the character when the shadow lands on her to make it more
contrasting with the background.
|
| Fig 3.4 Glass shatter transition settings |
I also followed this tutorial and this tutorial on creating a glass shattering transition in After Effects as I thought it'd be fitting for transitioning scene 3 to scene 4.
Fig 3.5 Masks, spotlight, and effect settings
I then continued using the same lighting and shadow technique in all of the
scenes. I animated each of the mask frame by frame for a more precise
timing. I also tried out adding a rain effect in After Effects based on
this tutorial video
for my scene 1 and scene 2 to match what I had in my animatic. The
spotlights were only used for interior scenes. I also added a dark blue
solid in low opacity and multiply mode in all scene to give the background
and character the same dark blue tint.
Editing the teaser
|
| Fig 4.1 Full Premiere Pro workspace |
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| Fig 4.2 Opacity change for thunder in scene 1 |
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| Fig 4.3 Camera shake effect for scene 4 |
After compositing the scenes, I exported them as .mp4 videos and brought them
into Adobe Premiere Pro for sound and further editing. I reused most of the
sound effects in the animatic and added/changed to some new ones. Some sound
effects are further edited by shifting its pitch, and adjusting its bass where
needed to make it more matching with the animation. For scene 1, I changed the
opacity to make the scene darker in one part when the thunder sounds, and in
scene 4, I added a subtle camera shake effect using a plugin by Red Giant. I
also went to search suitable background music to add to the teaser.
The full source list of the sound effects can be found at the end of this blog
post.
Final short animation teaser
Fig 5.1 Final teaser animation
Feedbacks
Week 10
In the alternate scene 3, shadow should be slower, maybe start closer to the
girl and slowly covers the girl, takes about 1-3 secs. Make sure to think
through the lighting for the shadow scene to make the shadow covering the
girl work, like the girl is lit and the guy shadow slowly making that area
dark. If you want to use the alternate scene 3, then the frontal view of the
guy should be at a lower angle, but the black cut scene won't work well in
the alternate scene. Distort the size of the gun barrel more in the final
scene to make it more impactful and extreme. Scene 3 at the back angle shot
of guy picking her up, avoid overlapping the guy and the girl. Since the guy
is picking her up with his right hand, the girl should be more towards the
right, a bit away from the guy. Make the girl struggle a bit before passing
out to make the reverse dolly make sense. The idea of the girl tripping and
then running again is a good idea for the first part
Week 11
The first scene running part, might need to last more than 3 secs, so keep
that in mind when revising it for the final.
Week 13
Guy and girl in scene 1 when bumping seems too far away from each other,
maybe after colouring it would be better to see which position to change.
For the shadow scene, when the shadow is casted on the girl, probably need
to increase the contrast of the girl when coloured to avoid making her look
too
desaturated from the background.
Week 14
First part of scene 3 is looking good now, continue working on it.
Reflection
Needless to say, this project took a very, very long time to complete. With
the limited time we have the workload is a lot, even when it's a joint project
with Animation Fundamentals module. But I really did get to learn a lot from
this project in the end, how to composite scenes and how to make use of colour
and lighting. It's my first time using After Effects to manually create a 2D
animation style lighting as well, which I think there could've been a better
way in doing it other than adjusting each mask frame by frame after watching
the tutorial video again. But I was impatient and went with a way that I'm
familiar with, which resulted in me taking way longer than expected in
completing the compositing stage. I'm glad that I took the time to put sound
effects in my animatic though because it saved me a lot of time in not needing
to find sound effects from scratch in the editing stage. Overall, I'm happy
that I got to complete this project in time, although there are somethings I
wish I could've added to make it better. Still, seeing the final product
certainly gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Sound effects sources
(in order of appearance in the final video)
- NightCity hum 01 130212.wav by klankbeeld
https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/182872/ - Devious - Theme by M-Murray
https://freesound.org/people/M-Murray/sounds/634646/ - thunder_01.wav by laribum
https://freesound.org/people/laribum/sounds/353025/ - Suspense_Strings.wav by Warped_Tension
https://freesound.org/people/Warped_Tension/sounds/583732/ - run road.wav by taure
https://freesound.org/people/taure/sounds/575316/ - Cloth sound (running) by Disagree
https://freesound.org/people/Disagree/sounds/433726/ - BODY FALL - V HVY - DIRT by leonelmail
https://freesound.org/people/leonelmail/sounds/504626/ - Running on ground by Disagree
https://freesound.org/people/Disagree/sounds/433725/ - Female Heavy Breathing - In Pain.wav by Vanalosswen
https://freesound.org/people/Vanalosswen/sounds/572452/ - piano_thriller.wav by deleted_user_8713024
https://freesound.org/people/deleted_user_8713024/sounds/431506/ - Smash.ogg by egomassive
https://freesound.org/people/egomassive/sounds/536777/ - Footsteps Concrete Slow Male Heavy by AMBIOSIS
https://freesound.org/people/AMBIOSIS/sounds/316691/ - Stomp.wav by 000600
https://freesound.org/people/000600/sounds/180015/ - Dark Piano Tension by Werra
https://freesound.org/people/Werra/sounds/231562/ - Reversed Suspenseful Harp.wav by DeVern
https://freesound.org/people/DeVern/sounds/386054/ - Punch #1.mp3 by lewisisminted
https://freesound.org/people/lewisisminted/sounds/162370/ - hard static loop by dotY21
https://freesound.org/people/dotY21/sounds/395804/ - Digital Glitch, Static Noise by Diicorp95
https://freesound.org/people/Diicorp95/sounds/534735/ - Breaking the Atmophere (The Wait).wav by TimPalumbo
https://freesound.org/people/TimPalumbo/sounds/126245/ - Impact_Melon_with_target.wav by DaleT92
https://freesound.org/people/DaleT92/sounds/207806/ - STABBING STAB KNIFE.mp3 by Podcapocalipsis
https://freesound.org/people/Podcapocalipsis/sounds/521030/ - PUNCH-BOXING-01.wav by newagesoup
https://freesound.org/people/newagesoup/sounds/348244/ - Crack_glass.wav by 13FPanska_Cerny_Jan
https://freesound.org/people/13FPanska_Cerny_Jan/sounds/379008/ - Glass breaking by Samgd14
https://freesound.org/people/Samgd14/sounds/355340/ - Glass Hit (28).wav by JohanDeecke
https://freesound.org/people/JohanDeecke/sounds/368338/ - Reversed Piano.wav by DeVern
https://freesound.org/people/DeVern/sounds/414771/ - Heartbeat loop by .name
https://freesound.org/people/.name/sounds/418866/ - Pistol Cocking (BB Gun) by shorzie
https://freesound.org/people/shorzie/sounds/407715/ - Gun shot.wav by hannagreen
https://freesound.org/people/hannagreen/sounds/254772/
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