Friday 15 November 2013

WEAR A HELMET - STOP MOTION/AFTER EFFECTS PERFORMANCE


Well, Hi there neighbour! 
Last time I was nattering on about some animation I was doing about a bike and a forest or something..?
Well here it be!
Give it a watch, and a like and tell all your friends IF YOU WANT TO!

This was a project for university where we had to incorporate After Effects into a 10-15 second stop motion performance.

So in true Sean fashion, I DID 35 SECONDS! WAHOO

To make this lil animation, I first animated it in the studio, Here's a little image of my set up: 


The first thing to do was erase all the rigs that can be seen holding my character up throughout the animation. 
This is a frame from the original animation, rigs n' all.


So here's how I went about it… IN PICTURES!



 Once all the colour correction and masks were done, it was on to keying out the green/blue screen and then sticking the animation in a forest.
So in order to have a forest, one must make a forest.
HERES WHAT I DIGITALLY PAINTED IN PHOTOSHOP, 
This consists of 9 layers going in order of:
 Blurry Bush
Blurry Tree
Ground and Red Bush
TREES
Dark red bush
Mist
Blurry Green Bush
TREES
TREES
Sky
The layers were then imported into After Effects and made into a very long digitally made 3D set.
Once that was done, I went on to animating movement in the original bike footage, so it wasn't just in one static place.
I then went on to adding the effects for the animation such as the flames, smoke, dust and dirt. 
Starting with the the jet's flame, using the 'CC Particle World' simulation preset that after effects provides.
HERE'S WHAT I DONE.
I found that the jet looked cooler with a blue flame squirting out the back, so I fiddled with the options and came out with this lil guy below, HE LOOKS LIKE A CUTE LITTLE WISP.
The lil wisp was then animated following the bike... 
Then I animated the camera. After that, the dust dirt and explosions, kindly donated by Mr. James Carlisle and his friend in the VFX Course of USW. (Who's name I do not know, but THANKS A BUNCH!)

Then I had the final animation ready and done! It took 6 hrs to export! WAHOO! 
Glad I got a RAM update over the summer!

In other news, a film I made back in school has been nominated for an award on Monday at Cardiff Millennium Centre. Which is strange, as I made it in 2010 and it's pretty basic! hah
Oh well! Can't complain! 

Tuesday 5 November 2013

STARTING A (FUNKY) FRESH

I'm in my third year in uni now… 

WHAT…

I think I've gone a bit mad. 
OH WELL

TO START OFF THIS LOVELY SHINY NEW UNI YEAR, We were assigned a lovely shiny new uni brief. 
The idea is to come up with an equally lovely shiny new idea for  a 10 - 15 second performance, that incorporates AFTER EFFECTS and LIP SYNC 

Lovely, Shiny New.

SO, I wanted to do a bike piece, due to this lovely, (and sort of) animatable bike I got for my birthday off my Grandparents. ITS FROM JOHN LEWIS
LOOK HOW BIG THE HANDLEBARS AND SEAT ARE!

I slightly modified this lovely bike so that it was more animatable and would stand up on its own, sturdily!
Here's a little picture of how I modified the Bike. 


I sculpted a new seat from Super Sculpey Firm, fitted it with a magnet to stick the character down, I then sculpted some new handle bars, and created holey miliput pedals so that I could use tie downs, enabling me to simply stick the feet to the pedals!

I also sculpted some glovey hands thingys, clayed them up and made them in silicone.

OH YEAH!
 I ALSO used a LOVELY SHINY NEW BALL AND SOCKET ARMATURE from



Here's a frame from my animation :) First time using a ball and socket, and THEY SAVE SO MUCH TIME AND FUSS. EVERYONE JUST GO BUY ONE! 


So… The idea for my animation is that my character has a jet on the back of his bike… and he presses a button, and it kind of goes out of control… 
I did originally think, yeah, I'll do a really nice, Paranorman-esque bike piece, riding through the country side… Get some really nice weight and subtleties 
But nah. 
Jets are cooler.

Anyway. Now I'm in the process of after effectsing rigs out, green screening, animating flames, effects and lighting and adding a multi plane forest to my animation, so I've got a lot still to do!

I'll keep you POSTED. 
SOON.