Hey Y'all.

I am publishing while you all work so diligently behind me.

A friend of mine, who is a fellow graduate student has asked if I could do an animation for her thesis film project.

I thought I'd share how I am doing it, although I do warn for all you animation savants, it's pretty archaic and takes elements of the theatre to accomplish certain elements ans movements. (i.e. making waves in an ocean)

1. Using a tablet I draw all my scenes in photoshop. Draw all objects that will be mobile in the animation on a separate page with a transparent background. 

2. Open up Adobe After Effects, click on file and open a new project.

3. Import all the photoshop files and drag them onto the project folder.

4. Next to the "source name" is a little triangle that looks like a backwards play button. Click on that for your drop down menu.

5. Click on the arrow next to where it says transform for your transforming options.

6. Depending on how you want to transform your image be it changing the position, scale,   etc., click on the little icon next to it that looks like an alarm clock. That will automatically set your first keyframe.

7. Move the playhead to where you want the next movement or transformation to begin and adjust the movement accordingly on your viewer, This will automatically set another keyframe.

8. The action that occurs in between is your first animation.

Magic Realism

"For every action there is a reaction", this is one of Newton's three laws of physics but imagine if every action has multiple reactions. If these reactions in turn proliferate and produce different outcomes, the possibilities would be endless and mind boggling, just like choosing numbers for your lotto ticket where millions of combinations may or may not lead to the jackpot. This video titled "Spin" or "God is a DJ" on YouTube, could be a simple explanation of that artistic/philosophical idea of Magic Realism where the line between what is real and what might have happened in different time or place is always blurred.

Simple 3D text in Photoshop

So I figured it's about time I add some sort of tutorial to this. For those of you who don't know who this is, it's Andrzej. I apologize for the nickname used, but I've had this account active for a while, and thought it's easier to keep it than make a new one just for this.

Anyway, I have a tutorial that'll give you a simple 3D text effect in Photoshop, and with techniques that'll save you time so that you don't have to do certain things manually. 'Cause if it's one thing everyone hates, it's doing things manually.

(Note: You can click on any of the pictures to get a bigger example.)

1. The first thing you do is to create a new image in Photoshop. It doesn't matter if the background is white or transparent or whatever. But for ease of looking, I've gone with white.



2. Write in your text. I decided to use the sample text of '3D text' but with an exclamation mark, because of my affinity for the various faux-3D sketches from SCTV. I've bolded it because thicker fonts work best, and I stuck with Times New Roman for its simplicity. You can experiment with other fonts, and see what works. But I'm warning you now, some fonts will look like absolute crap.

I've also moved the text off-centre: to the bottom-left, so I can add the 3D part to the bottom-left, but you can do it in any perspective.

3. Select the Move tool and the text layer



Now, in the words of Mona (Homer's mom) Simpson: here comes the tricky part. If you don't do the next steps right, you'll screw it up and have to start all over again. And you don't want that to happen, now, do you? If you don't feel like paying attention, you can skip what I'm about to say and just duplicate every layer by hand, but again, I assume you don't want to do this manually.

You have to go in the opposite direction in which you want your shadow to go. If I want it to go to the bottom-left, I have to make sure that the new layers go to the top-right.

4. Press alt+up and then hit right. Repeat this about 5 or 6 times, until you get the desired thickness of the text. The alt+up part creates a new layer from the layer you have selected, but nudged one pixel up, and hitting it right has nudged the new layer to the right, so you have the diagonal effect. Since the new layer is selected, pressing alt+up again duplicates the duplicate, so you don't have to duplicate the initial layer and double-move it.

Now, I've created five duplicate layers (not including the original duplicate). Unfortunately for me, this looks like a bit of a mess, so I have to tweak it.

Since the newest layer on top is selected, I'll go with that, since that is now the front of the 3D text. You can select a different colour, or a different pre-set style. I went with a preset style, since I'm lazy and don't want to do anything from scratch, yet still get a nicer look than just a simple colour.

I went with this one







It gives us a bit of a drop shadow, but that's fine for this. Just make sure it's not one that alters the size of the layer on top, so that the 3D part is somehow smaller than the rest.

And that's it! You have your own new 3D text image, that's ready to be dragged into a new Photoshop project that you're working on. Just remember to merge all the layers (minus the background), so that you don't end up bringing over just one flat layer.

And you can experiment by customizing the look of the text on top, and by even applying the style of text to the beginning, before you duplicate the layer

The Changeling

It is so good that you guys are blogging, there are so many fantastic effects so far, I cannot wait to try some of them up myself.

Just to break things up a bit I thought I would comment on a recent film I had watched: The Changeling.

As you can tell I did not chose to go with a still from the actual Clint Eastwood film, instead I went with the first image that came up when I did a google image search. Although this still has nothing to do with the movie, I thought it was much more striking than Ms. Jolie. (no not really--sarcasm just doesn't translate so well digitally).

Anyways, it was a pretty good film I must say. However, I say this as someone who normally would not pick this out myself to watch. (This was a product of family movie night).I say it as a feminist who often gets fired up when reminded of the past (It was a true story), and not as someone who's usual film tastes were appeased.

It was shot pretty safely and statically, it had good pacing and keeps you engaged, so I would recommend watching it for entertainment, 1920's fashion, and to acquire knowledge on this moment in history but not for inspiration as a student filmmaker.

Inspiration is in the short film Sam just posted.

The Black Hole

Hello classmates,

This video is one of the few inspiring shorts that every aspiring filmmaker might have to think about just because of its simple idea and elaborate execution.,two things that can be easily achieved even with a small budge and yet might lead to a higher level of recognition in this industry. I'll be posting more shorts like this one later.

Old Western/35mm Film Effect

To use this effect make sure you download this filter.
You remember the old westerns you would see on TV? Well this is how you get that look.

I recorded this tutorial on my mac using a program called Snapz Pro-X.  It's a great tool for Mac users.

The Bleach Bypass Look

The bleach bypass look is a high contrast, often under saturated looked used in more dramatic films such as Se7en and Saving Private Ryan. This technique was originally performed on the film stock itself, but can now be inexpensively replicated with digital editing software.

Step 1) The first thing to do is select the clip in your timeline which you want to alter and apply a 3-way colour correction filter to it. This is done through Effects -> Video Filters -> Color Correction -> Color Corrector 3-way.

Step 2) The next thing to do is duplicate the selected clip and so the same clip is appears in track 1 and track 2 (both with the color corrector filter)

Step 3) Next, double click on the clip in track 2 so it appears in the viewer, then click on the Colour Correction tab in the viewer.

Step 4) From here, you want to bring the saturation down completely which will make the clip appear black and white. To fix this, right click on the clip in track 2, select Composite Mode -> Overlay. This will bring the colour back into the image with much more contrast

Step 5) Now double click on the clip in track 1 to get it into the viewer, which should already be in the Color Correction tab, and slightly lower the saturation. The amount you want to lower it really depends on preference.

Step 6) While still in the Color Corrections tab, you want to raise both the Blacks and the Whites slightly, again based on preference, to achieve the final look

Note: You can change the clip in track 2 from Overlay to Soft Light it will lessen the contrast, which may be done for preference or because the contrast may be too extreme on Overlay.

And that’s all you need to do to achieve the Bleach Bypass look in Final Cut.

Multiple techniques in one

The fade in and fade out effect.

1. Open your project and select the sequence you want faded in or out, by clicking on it with your mouse.
2. Expand the sequence track by clicking the triangle to the left of the track’s name.
3. Open the Effects panel by clicking on the Effects bin. Expand the options in each bin by clicking the arrow next to each sub-folder.
4. To fade in the sequence, drag a transition from the Effects panel to the Timeline panel. Drop it directly at the In point of the sequence clip. You may also Double-click on the transition from within Effects Controls, and choose “Start at Cut.” 5. To fade out in the sequence, drag the transition directly to the Out point of the clip. You may Double-click the transition from within Effect Controls and pick “End at Cut.”

I'm also thinking about putting an emphasis on color when the fade is in effect to emphasize the emotions.

Simple Pleasantville Effect

You guys know that effect where they turn the video black&white except for one colour. Well it's known as the 'Pleasantville Effect', which was made famous in a movie that shares that name.
I used a program called Snapz Pro-X to record this tutorial I made. Check er out.

Binoculars Effect

If anyone intends to use binoculars in their current or future film/video production, this short tutorial may come in handy for those of you who don’t know how to achieve the effect of overlaying the binoculars famous circles over their footage. I worked on this effect after a trip from Niagara Falls and it worked great on my video. This effect is very easy to make and in just twelve steps you’ll be able to achieve it using Photoshop Cs3.

Here goes:

1- Open a new file: 720 x 480 for DV NTSC with Transparent Background

2- Use the Paint Bucket Tool to paint your canvas BLACK

3- Switch to White color by clicking on the double headed arrow over the black & white squares.

4- Go to “View” click “Show” click “Grid”

5- Use Eclipse tool to draw a circle (the size depends on you. Notice it’s white now)

6- Position it to the left and make sure it’s edges are within the screen safe margins.

7- Press “Alt” (In PC) and move the cursor to the right to duplicate the same circle (should be the same size and shape)

8- Position it to the right (The two circles should now converge – if not, try moving them so the left and right edges of the two circles meet)

9- Go to “Layer” click “Merge Visible” (All three layers should turn to one layer now)

10- Get the “Magic Wand” tool and select the white circles then press DELETE. (Transparent Background should appear now)

11- Go to “Filters” click “Blur” click “Gaussian Blur”, Set Radius to 2.0 Pixels.

12- Save file either in “PNG” format for high resolution (recommended) or in (GIF).

Now you should be able to import the file to your APr or FCP/FCE. Remember to keep it over a higher video track. The footage you use should be placed on a lower video track for this effect to work properly.

That’s it. Hope you could use this tutorial well and make a good impression on your audience.

Cheers.

Written by Sam Meddaka for Lab 310 and copied from iBlogs. To visit my blogspot click here

310 Class is cancelled Wednesday, February 11th at 11:30 due to illness.

Reminder your midterm is the first class back after reading break, February 25th at 11:30. It will cover what we covered in class thus far and your assigned readings (Not readings from Color manual).

Morphing in After Effects

Have you guys seen Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video? there is this really cool morphing tool, that morphs images together. Sort of like the image above, but done in real time.

Here's how you do it in After Effects:

1.Open After Effects and open the source footage that will be morphed. (open them as uncompressed quicktime files). In the project window drag one of the source footage items on the composition icons in the bottom window, creating a new composition that is the same size and frame rate. The composition should be 320X320 pixels at 24 fps.

2. Set the composition for a duration of 6 seconds and drag other footage file onto the composition.

3. Place the item you want to morph (morphee) at the bottom beginning at frame 0 and the top layer what the bottom layer will morph into (morpher), place it at the 3 second mark. (There should be a 1 second overlap, this is where the morph will happen).

4. Create a mask around the "morphee" while turning of the "morpher". GO to the 3 second mark where the morphee begins." Using the pen tool, draw the mask, making sure it is closed.

5. Because the morphee moves on the one second mark, the mask has to be animated to match this movement. Press M to reveal the mask properties and click on the stop watch to create a key frame.

6. We only need masks to define the shape we are going to morph. Where it says "add" in the morph menu click "none," turning off the mask. Press "o" to get to the outpoint of the morphee layer (3:24) using the selection tool move it to match the morphee's position in the frame. After effects will automatically add a keyframe here. (Scrub the timeline to see if the mask matches the morphee).

7. Repeat these steps with the morpher layer. However, unlike the morphee layer, the morpher layer does not match it's mask quite as nicely. To alleviate this tweak the mask to match the morpher's movement at the 3:10 and 3:20 mark.

8. Now the morphing can actually begin. Copy and paste each mask on to the other layer, so both masks have both layers. Rename these layers and and turn them off by selecting "none" from the mask menu. In the composition window, you should seethe shapes of the two masks overlapping the footage items.

9. turn off the visibility of the morpher layer, select the morphee layer and apply the "reshape effect" in the "distort menu." Here you need to change the default settings, here you define which parts you want to morph.

10. Change the "destination" mask to "morphee shape." This will allow everything inside the morphee shape to conform to the morpher shape. Change the boundary mask to "none." The percent slide is what we animate to control the morph.

11. TO get the morphee's features to match the morpher's features we have to use "correspondence points" to tell After Effects which parts of the mask around the morphee correspond to the mask around the morpher. For this to look really good we will need to add more correspondence points, and by default the reshape tool only gives one pair of points.

12. To add correspondence points, turn off the reshape effect by clicking the "f" in the effect window ( the effect doesn't need to be turned on to alter it's settings). Turn the layer's visibility off.

13. Under the "view" menu, in the view options, tun off the visibility of masks--as we adjust the reshape filter, after effects will show us the outlines anyway and turning off the masks will help visibility.

14. Select the reshape filter in the effects window, even though it is turned off, selecting it will allow us to adjust it. In the composition window the two outlines are in different colours. Red represents the source and yellow the destination. The squares represent the correspondence points. the line indicates the direction that the source shape will take when being warped into the destination shape.

15. To add new correspondence points hold down the option key while holding the pointer over one of the outlines. The mouse pointer will change into a "+" and when you click the mask outline a new pair of correspondence points is created.

16. Keep playing around to match the shapes well. Set keyframes for the percent slider from 0%  at 3:00 to 200% at 3:24 this will animate the morphee over time. Preview the animation.

17. Now, do the exact same thing for the morpher layer as you have done for the morphee layer. Apply the reshape filter to the morpher layer and change the source shape to the mrpher shape and the destination to the morphee shape, set the boundary mask to none.

18. When you are happy with your correspondence points add keyframes to the reshape effect so the morpher warps from 100% at 3:00 to 0% at 3:24.

19. Render each layer and save as a quicktime movie separately. Import the files back into the program. Place the morpher layer atop of the morphee layer. Select the morpher layer and apply the "gradient wipe" from the "transitions menu." Set the "transition softness" to about 50%. 

How to create basic motion in after effects using a still image?

Our Photoshop Image
Alex Costaris-102156184

http://www.adobe.com/ap/motion/tips/aftbdrop/page2.html



Step 1:
Create a layered Photoshop image.
Put each element you want to animate on its own layer. Design each layer so that its left and right edges meet seamlessly when the image is offset (repeated horizontally). Make the image the same size as the After Effects composition.
In After Effects, you'll be using the Offset effect to repeat and animate each image horizontally.

Step 2:
Import the Photoshop file into After Effects.
Choose File > Import > File, select the Photoshop file, choose Composition from the Import As menu, and click Import. After Effects imports the layered Photoshop file as a layered composition in the Project window, along with a folder of the individual footage items that make up the composition's layers.
Double-click the composition in the Project window to open the Timeline and Composition windows containing the Photoshop layers.








Step 3:
Adjust the duration of your composition.
Choose Composition > Composition Settings. Change the Duration to the desired amount, and then click OK. This example project is 30 seconds.
This is a good time to check the composition's frame rate. This project has a frame rate of 30 frames per second.





Step 4:



Increase the duration of the still images to match the new duration of the composition.
You can increase the duration of multiple still images in the Timeline window.
In the Timeline window, drag the blue current-time marker to the end of the composition, or press the End key. Next, click the first layer and Shift-click the last layer to select all the layers. Press Alt+] (Windows) or Option+] (Mac OS) to trim the layer durations to the current-time marker.
Note: You can lengthen a still image to any length, but you can lengthen video footage only to its original duration, unless you time-stretch it.





Step 5:



Use the Offset effect to both tile and animate the cloud layers in one step.
Set the current time to 00:00; then, in the Timeline window, Ctrl-Click (Windows) or Command-Click (Mac OS) to select the layers that you want to animate. This key modifier allows for noncontiguous selection of layers. Activate the Composition window and choose Effect > Distort > Offset. The Effect Controls window appears with an Offset effect tab for each layer you selected.
Offset effect: This effect repeats a layer, lining up the layer copies edge to edge. When you animate this effect, the repeating layer slides across the Composition window as if the image copies were wrapped around behind it in a continuous strip.





Step 6:



Set beginning keyframes.
In the Effect Controls window, click the tab and select the Shift Center To stopwatch for each layer you are animating. Leave the default values, which are the current position coordinates for the layers.
In the Timeline window, select each layer you want to animate and press the U key to display the animated properties in the Timeline window for all selected layers.