Thesis defense is today. And I had to come up with a brief synopsis of my film.
This seems as good a place as any to work out my thoughts.
"Chester" is the found-footage screen test of a man that wished to be something he was not...a cartoon star.
The film is combined live-action green screen footage, hand-drawn backgrounds, and toon-shaded CGI props and characters. The overall film is edited and styled to look like an old piece of film including slices, jump cuts, miss-handled film stock, etc. Camera moves will be amateur, with missed cues and inaccurate focus pulls.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Progress
Moving a little slower than I want this week, but not falling behind.
By tomorrow morning I'll have 4 scenes left out of 7 and 6 shots left out of 12. Some of this is because a few shots are being annexed and a couple are being dropped or possibly replacing others.
Shot X means its the only shot in the scene...
Scene 1
...shot A still needs characters
...shot B still needs characters
Scene 2
...shot X still needs characters, rotoscoping of background
Scene 3
...shot X still needs characters
Scene 4
...shot A will not be used (or it may replace both shots A&B in Scene 8)
...shot B will be done by tomorrow am
...shot C was annexed into Scene 6
Scene 5 does not exist (numbering mistake by moi)
Scene 6
...shot X will be done by tomorrow am
Scene 7
...shot X done
Scene 8
...shot A still needs characters (or will be replaced by 4A)
...shot B still needs characters (or will be replaced by 4A)
...shot C done
All scenes have the background and props composition in, strictly characters from here on out.
Done does NOT include effects animation and stylizing. This summer I will stylize the film, and add the effects animation to Scene's 4 and 8 then.
By tomorrow morning I'll have 4 scenes left out of 7 and 6 shots left out of 12. Some of this is because a few shots are being annexed and a couple are being dropped or possibly replacing others.
Shot X means its the only shot in the scene...
Scene 1
...shot A still needs characters
...shot B still needs characters
Scene 2
...shot X still needs characters, rotoscoping of background
Scene 3
...shot X still needs characters
Scene 4
...shot A will not be used (or it may replace both shots A&B in Scene 8)
...shot B will be done by tomorrow am
...shot C was annexed into Scene 6
Scene 5 does not exist (numbering mistake by moi)
Scene 6
...shot X will be done by tomorrow am
Scene 7
...shot X done
Scene 8
...shot A still needs characters (or will be replaced by 4A)
...shot B still needs characters (or will be replaced by 4A)
...shot C done
All scenes have the background and props composition in, strictly characters from here on out.
Done does NOT include effects animation and stylizing. This summer I will stylize the film, and add the effects animation to Scene's 4 and 8 then.
Wyatt's numbering system.
When working in Maya, Nuke, AfterEffects or just about any other program, I rename my file with each save. This way, if I fuck up, I can backtrack to the last good version.
Just how many backups do I save...well, I number my files...aaa, aab, aac, etc.
This gives me a few benefits, first and foremost, they aren't confused with frame numbers. Second, I can separate out variations with the prefix...baa, caa, daa, etc. And still have 676 (26 letters times 26 letters) combinations of the second two letters to number. I doubt I'll ever need 676 backups, but you never know. Third, it's geeky.
Just how many backups do I save...well, I number my files...aaa, aab, aac, etc.
This gives me a few benefits, first and foremost, they aren't confused with frame numbers. Second, I can separate out variations with the prefix...baa, caa, daa, etc. And still have 676 (26 letters times 26 letters) combinations of the second two letters to number. I doubt I'll ever need 676 backups, but you never know. Third, it's geeky.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Progress
Out of 12 shots in my film, 2 are complete fro my defense.
Out of 7 scenes, 1 is complete.
These are pre-stylized. I'll have style samples to show the committee, but the film itself will get some fixes and tweaks and be stylized over the summer.
Out of 7 scenes, 1 is complete.
These are pre-stylized. I'll have style samples to show the committee, but the film itself will get some fixes and tweaks and be stylized over the summer.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Magic Bullet Misfire
Part of the magic Bullet Looks 1.2 program, looks offers offer a 100 default looks to style footage...from bleached bypass to "car commercial." I'm hoping it offers me the chance of dialing in non-corrected corrected film stock...so I can give a shot or two the look of indoor footage shot outdoors, or vice-versa.
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-looks/
Misfire allows tedious control of the random elements need to make digital video look like an old, poorly handled reel of film...
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-looks/
Misfire allows tedious control of the random elements need to make digital video look like an old, poorly handled reel of film...
New edit, new plan
Well, chopping day was successful. The plan for a while has been to stylize the digital short to look like an old reel of film, with splotch, scratches, poor color etc. and spliced film breaks to allow jump cuts to aid in shortening the running time.
While working on editing, I push that idea further. While trying to approach how I may approach cutting between different camera positions, I came to the idea of making the whole short look like an old screen test. It works well with the contain, and allows wider tolerances of which shots can be edited against each other. One of my advisers, Eric Hanson, even suggested the idea of making the camera moves look shaky, amateur and often off-mark.
To add the random film elements, I'll be using a variety of ways to give as diverse a look to end "shot" of film in the movie...Tinderbox's Old Film in After Effects, Magic Bullet's Misfire in AfterEffects and even compositing in stock footage of film scratches in Nuke, which is the problem I am using to composte Chester, the backgrounds, the props and the animated characters together.
While working on editing, I push that idea further. While trying to approach how I may approach cutting between different camera positions, I came to the idea of making the whole short look like an old screen test. It works well with the contain, and allows wider tolerances of which shots can be edited against each other. One of my advisers, Eric Hanson, even suggested the idea of making the camera moves look shaky, amateur and often off-mark.
To add the random film elements, I'll be using a variety of ways to give as diverse a look to end "shot" of film in the movie...Tinderbox's Old Film in After Effects, Magic Bullet's Misfire in AfterEffects and even compositing in stock footage of film scratches in Nuke, which is the problem I am using to composte Chester, the backgrounds, the props and the animated characters together.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Compositing
How does all of this go together?
For now I compositing in a program called nuke. The Chester Green Screen footage, the props, the backgrounds and the characters all get pulled in separately and then are carefully connected. When one item has to pretend to overlap the others, a mask has to be rototscoped out to eliminate the item in front.
For now I compositing in a program called nuke. The Chester Green Screen footage, the props, the backgrounds and the characters all get pulled in separately and then are carefully connected. When one item has to pretend to overlap the others, a mask has to be rototscoped out to eliminate the item in front.
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