Tweakin’

So it appears I have some spare time on my hands, now that the Reunion work has had closure. This gives me an oppurtunity to go ahead with Holleys recommendations of tweaking and modify ‘Where’s My Head At?!’. I have changed the entire intro from last times efforts, adding higher quality characters (plus a few more in general), and have also had a play with some of the lights one can add to the composition. These lights really give the video more realism, and are more accurate to my original vision which is great.

Feedback from Holley

The hysteria continues into the day with people keeping to themselves, drastically working on their After Effects pieces. Just before Holley left the building, I managed to grab him and get his approval on ‘Wheres My Head At?!’. I was expecting him to tear it apart, but he was actually quite sound about it. He asked me if I was satisfied with the result, which I believe I am. He then advised me to modify certain parts such as some of the lower quality images, and splash to a few more visual effects over it. Overall, in his own words, he said “really go to town on it, because to me it only seems halfway there.” I appreciate Holleys honesty and if I have time before Thursday, I will put his advice into fruition. Reunion catch up comes first!

Wheres My Head At?

Earlier this evening I tweaked and exported the final result of my After Effects project, which I have decided to name ‘Wheres My Head At?!’

I have just now uploaded the video to Youtube for your viewing pleasure, and can be watched below!

Moozeek!

Today I have been organising the sound for the piece. The visuals are finished (with some exceptional tweaking), and I have decide to use the track ‘Wheres Your Head At’ by the dance group Basement Jaxx. I couldn’t have picked a better song to use for this video, as the title is self explanatory to the piece, yet it is also a dance tune which will be perfect for the atmosphere and situation of the piece.

So in After Effects I have never used the audio functions, and my god I went to try earlier and got extremely confuzzled! Therefore I exported my video at the highest quality and chucked it into Premiere, which I am familiar with when it comes to audio/video work. Below is just a screenshot of the workstation.

Location Built

Okie dokey, I have been editing for a few days now, and it’s going pretty well so far. I have gone ahead and composed a 3D environment for my 2D characters and goings on to take place.

The image clearly presents a working progress of my project. I have also introduced multiple cameras within the composition for complete visual exploration of the piece. This is the first time I have used the camera functions, but I am picking up quite steadily.

Wehay, A Head!

My mission today then was to bring my two dimensional self into existence with a live action head!

I got round this by recording myself pulling facial expressions, and then stabilised the footage to keep the head as still as possible. I then drew an additional mask around the head, which made it ready to pop onto the body with a bit of scaling. Below is a screenshot of the procedure midway.

Body Creation

So for the last hour or so, I have been sluggishly putting together my own body for this After Effects project. It’s what you could call a Frankenstein creation, as the neck, t-short, limbs, jeans and shoes are all from seperate images, brought together to result in the image below.

I then created the additional characters using the same procedure as I did with the above body. The woman is the secondary character who takes an interest in my character, until I remove my head that is! The bartender on the left (with one of my best friends head super imposed to the color replaced body) will just be a background extra.

Now that I have some characters ready for later use, I still need to give myself a head, which will be the next step to completion!

After Effects Modification

Holly is chatting about an alternate export process using After Effects which I didn’t even realise existed. He is demanding we use this way from now on, which is gravy with me!

Anyways after having a play with some of the tweening options, I found myself starting to create sorts of animations I would have done in Flash (like ‘How Random!’).

Seeing as I am finding the masking of the head a little tricky, I have decided to animate my body with a fluid tween, and keeping the masked live action head. This will be the perfect way to conquer my issue, and also opens up new doors for the scenario the effect takes place within. With an animated environment, yet maintaining the realism of the scenario, I can place myself wherever which is brilliant.

Heads Up!, Well Not Just Yet Anyway

Here is a very rough draft of my head being taken off, and as you can see it is early stages. You’ll have to excuse the unwanted face for looking somewhat suicidal haha. So far I have just masked the head onto a new layer, and roughly tweened it to follow the hands. Eventually I will cut through the unwanted head to reveal the background and give motion tracking a go with the head. Once I am familiar with the process I can finally go ahead and shoot the final piece.

Pinch Punch Mother f**kers!

I got you all in one move mwahaha!

Today I’m in a really good mood. The sun is shining and I am awaiting my first ever online shopping delivery, so sooner or later i will be equipped with food too!!

I am up early (for once) and so I have decided to have another go at recording some footage for this After Effects project. The last few attempts havent quite gone to plan, but this time I think I know how to film the footage to be able to take it apart in editing.

After my shopping arrives and I have filled my groaning hole, I will get to work!