You know when you have respect for something and you wait for the right moment to dedicate all the time in the world to it? Well, that's what happened to me with Digital Composition. I knew that the day I took it on I would spend many, many... and many more hours in front of the PC ;)
The Video subject with Adobe's Premiere software already took its time, and I knew that playing at post-production with effects with After Effects would be laborious, as well as entertaining and immersive. Well! one of those subjects that when you get into it, you lose track of time!
The subject consists of three PACs and a final project. The time to dedicate to the PACs depends on each person, but I admit it is directly proportional to the spectacular nature of the results. Also, keep in mind that the more you complicate it, the more mastery of the program you acquire. Personally, I had the idea that learning to work with After Effects would serve me both to compose videos with ease and to play with animations. For all this, I left the clock locked in a drawer ;)
PAC1
For the first PAC, you are asked to apply the content of one of the topics from the theoretical part of the notes: western, German expressionism, Georges Méliès… I chose: “Sound cinema”.
I didn't want to dictate the notes, it was very "dull" so I wrote a slightly more pleasant script. With this and timing the time, I made a very simple storyboard of animations squaring the times with the narration.
I opened the program and started playing with simple examples of Motion Graphics helping myself with Illustrator and downloading some images from freepick to make some animations that would give rhythm to everything.
Here is the result, and... by the way, referring to the era, I decided to do everything in black and white :)
Download the PAC to go into more detail.
VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/210408154
PAC2
This was one of the ones that took me the most time. Another one of those personal challenges. Truth is that you only understand the work and hours invested if you are aware of the difficulty involved in removing an element from a video recording.
We were asked to remove some moving scene elements and add new ones.
As always, I complicated my life... A scene with strong wind, with quite abrupt recording movement and with moving elements everywhere. A real nightmare, many and many hours... but in the end one of the practices with which I learned the most.
Masks galore, with trackings everywhere, working frame by frame... endless! Watch until the end of the video to see the project and the application of layers and more.
Download the PAC to go into more detail.
VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/214079561
PAC3
Although it seems like a lot of work, cloning oneself is not that difficult. It's about recording the scene without moving the camera and then masking content ;) playing with angles, walls... Easy? if you don't complicate it ;) What do you think I did? Reflections in glass, continuous interactions with the characters, reflections on the floor... madness to make it believable!
Anyway, if you want to try it, a tip! Watch out for reflections, lights, shadows, and everything that can give away the deception!
Ah! Another thing, if you want to interact with yourself you have to be very clear about how the scene will go, have a timed script and know in what second the characters will be doing what to then be able to filter and simulate contacts or other interactions.
Easy but complicated if you want to do something dynamic and surprising ;)
In this PAC I discovered, among others, rotoscopy at a quite advanced level working with a Wacom tablet that I had to buy and that will surely serve for other little things in the Multimedia world.
Download the PAC to go into more detail.
VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/216609072
FINAL PROJECT
The end of it all arrives, and it's time to put into practice everything I've learned and things that even if I haven't tried I want to put into practice... like the chroma topic, the typical fluorescent green background fabric ;)
My idea is to mix 3 worlds, the real one, the fiction of the real simulated with chroma and 3D with some easy animation that reminds me a bit of the hours of the Animation master at Animum.
I will try to make the localized workshop in 3D and modeled with 3DMax present from the same camera perspective as the video recording.
With this I will be able to mix the real world and 3D.
In addition, in the recording of the real world I will use chroma that will allow me to put a static background simulating the actual workshop, which will be nothing more than a photograph fixed at the correct angle. Then we will dress it all up with some masks and some trackings...
Quite complicated to understand, right? Don't worry! Look at the result and then you will understand what I'm talking about.
Ah I forgot! Once everything was recorded with chroma I realized it was all in Catalan... I had to dub in Spanish and do some LIPSINC (extra work!). That's why everything looks a bit strange but it gives it an air of a National Geographic documentary :)
Better watch the video, and if you want to know a bit about how I did it, download the document.
VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/218971139
I hope you liked the results because I had a blast ("he pasado teta"). The subject? like no other. A real blast! ;) I would do it again with my eyes closed!