How Random! The Final Cut

Whilst here in Eastbourne, I got bored earlier as all my friends have full time jobs and I was home alone. Therefore I decided to tweak up the video and get it up on the internet. I didn’t want to make it public until I was completely satisified with it. Therefore I ventured back into the realms of Premiere, included a soundtrack and tweaked the audio in places due to the video seeming unfinished.

Yet here we are then! Presenting to you all the final version of my viral video titled ‘How Random’. Lets this beauty up to 1,000 views if we can!

Hallelujah!

My viral video is complete! I am exporting it as I’m typing this out, yet I won’t be chucking it up on the net for a while. I want to just make sure everything is in order before it goes public. I have a copy exporting though which will be more than fine to submit tommorow before I head back to Eastbourne.

So yeah thought I would just shout (type) the news out for you all, considering I have a little bit of time on my hands now that its all exporting.

Taking into account the fact I only had one week to complete this task, and that I did the entire thing alone, I’m pretty bloody chuffed with myself. At first it was all very stressful being told if I didnt complete this then I was literally kicked off the course, but I fought on and believe I truly produced a decent piece of work.

When I get back from Eastbourne next week, I will revise the video and tweak any bits that need doing. Once I am fully satisfied, i will make it public!

Viral Video Stage Three

Viral Video Stage Two

Practice Makes Perfect!

Ok so first shot is set up already! Yet after a few takes, I had decided to wait till it got a little darker outside for better lighting. So I occupied myself with another small task.

Before I start filming, I decided to just have a quick snap at some of the places I intend on capturing my piece. I will use these as practice footage for making my stick figure run up against the walls before I try it out of live footage. Below are a few of the places throughout the house.

There we have it then. I am almost ready to go into production which is exciting, yet quite daunting still as I am operating the entire project alone. This will give me complete and utter control over everything, so I am hoping what I produce will be exactly what I imagine down to the smallest frame!

Viral Video Stage One

Viral Updates!

I have now added a set of arms and a head to my body from earlier, and it’s looking pretty good. I will finish off the animations once I have some footage to play about with. I have decided to schedule the filming for over the weekend, starting tonight. There isn’t actually too much to film, but I have to take into account the little things such as composition. Also since I am working on this completely by myself (filming, acting and editing), this will make things alot more difficult. I would preferrably like to get this finished over the weekend, or at least hit a first draft. I could then take this to uni and work on it there, with the guidance and help of the teachers.

I have also decided on a title for the video, which is going to be ‘How Random!’. This is plainly because the film is more just a visual treat, and doesn’t have any purpose to it. The story of the video is also very random, I mean it isn’t everyday a 2D figure who has appeared out of nowhere starts pesturing you. Another addition to the title will be the fact the person mutters to himself ‘How Random’ as he takes in whats going on.

The final thing I wanted to share was some of my storyboards. I didn’t want to flood the screen in storyboards so I decided for now to just upload the first two pages. This will give you an idea of what is visually going on in the video.

So then once it gets dark enough, it will be time to close the curtains and start rolling the camera! I will update later on when I have imported the footage and had a play around, see ya!

Sneaky Ol’ Thing!

So I was playing around with Adobe Flash last night and created the first draft animation of my shadow character. I set the animation that 24fps so it looks more fluid when up against the live footage. The GIF export embedded below isnt great, but hey ho it will look better in the final result.

I created the model and the movement in Flash, and then exported it as an AVI file, which I imported into After Effects. Here I did a color key on the white background and played with the tolerance to rid of all the white. Kinda silly of me really to then put this video on a white background :S

I also played about with the opacity, and eventually I want to create a sort of radial glow around him which I can color black, creating a casted shadow effect.

A Stressful Day With The Weirdest Shopping Trip

After eating some funky overdue bacon the other day, I woke up with an incredible stomach pain. This unfortunately meant I was unable to attend class today, which really didn’t help as I only have one week exactly to finish this viral project.

I dosed myself up on paracetamol and after a while I felt slightly better, and forced myself out of bed to try do some of this work. I have pretty much finished the storyboards now, and so I wanted to start shooting some test footage. Yet due to sods law, I came to realise that I don’t posess a firewire cable, or a tripod. Without these two accessories I have no film, so therefore I hopped on my bike and raced down to Argos at Castle Point with only roughly 10 minutes until it closed. Luckily enough, both items were in stock and after spending a gob smacking 30 quid, I was fully equipped for the project.

I wondered back down to my bike to find two no good kids (i think they were brothers) trying to break into it. So after resolving that incident (i elbowed the bigger one round the face after he shoved me), I was on my way back to my house to start having a go with the new equipment. More news to come over the weekend so watch this space!

Bits ‘n’ Bobs for Viral Idea

So as promised, I have some materials for the viral video which I can afford to post for your viewing pleasure. The storyboards are still in development, but I have a done mini recce to give you a taste of where the video will take place.

Here is a photo of my bed in my student room. As you can see I have shone the bed light towards the wall and placed an energy drinks bottle as a light obstruction. Because my walls are light and bare, the casted shadow projects rather well. Of course the further away the object is from the light, the shaper the shadow becomes, which is the case when I am laid out across my bed.

So yeah, this is the wall where I want my main figure to make his debut and start annoying the character. They will be laid out across my bed, perhaps reading a book or listening to music or what have you.

So the setting is sorted, but what about the intolerant shadow figure?

Well seeing as its appearance is the impersonation of a casted shadow, its going to look like nothing more than a shadow. This can easily be created in Adobe Photoshop as you can see on the left. This little conveinience will also make it easier to animate, considering I only have a week to produce the entire project.

All I can hope for now is a good word from the tutor, otherwise it is pretty much the end of the road for me.