Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Motion Graphics And Sound

For my motion graphics and sound project i used a track called 'Intro' by a band called the The XX. I chose this track due to its bombastic kick drums and interesting breakdown over the bars of my clip from the track.These characteristics suited the ideas that i had for abstract motion graphics and sound project. After i imported my audio track i dragged it onto my time-line and converted my audio to key frames by using the key frame assist function. Once i had this done i went about trying to create the abstract graphics that i had in mind by experimenting with varies shapes and effects. By doing this i discovered an effect called 'fractal' i quite liked and applied it to a circle shape,i then began looking other effects and found an interesting effect called 'CC Hair'. This added quite a unique look to the circle. Because my composition didnt have anything going as regards being in sync with the audio i began work on making the circle fade away,return and then have an almost exploding effect via 'CC Light Burst' . I also added a bubble effect which slowly rises to the top of the screen which in my opinion adds contrast to the static circle. After a lot of experimentation i managed to use a expression which involved using an audio effect called 'Bass and Treble' which would enable a strobe lighting effect . My idea to use this effect was to due with the fact that i wanted to emphasize the big drum sounds within the track as i said earlier. I set the treble to -100 and the bass to +100 then wrote my expression and used the pick wick function to connect the audio to a solid white shape's opacity bar so that when the kicks from the track come in,the opacity becomes stronger as i already had the opacity at a low setting. To finish off my composition i added a 'shatter' effect which was made up of octagons and squares. I made the wall of octagons and squares shatter while adjusting the camara's points around the x and y axis before actually going through the gap in the wall itself. Even though this project has been frustrating and difficult at times,overall i found the experience rewarding as it has given me a deeper understanding of After Effects.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

2D Compositing

For my composition i used a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Aftereffects. I started out by forcing a classmate to take a picture of my against a green screen(for editing reasons in photoshop). I then uploaded the picture to my computer and imported it to Photoshop.After i had this done i started using the lasso tool to remove the backaround so i could be left with just the picture of myself.Prior to i began with photoshop i had a good idea of what i wanted to do with my composition and that was a magic show idea.My next step was to search the internet for props that i would need for my composition such as a stage,table,box and elephant.Once i had all of my props i edited them in photoshop in the exact same way i edited the picture of myself.

Next step was to merge all my layers containing my vital pictures and save it for aftereffects.After i managed to import everything into aftereffects i begain playing around with my props to get a good feel and direction of where to go.I made the arms and head move(which can be seen in the end result) by using the puppet pin tool.I also used the puppet pin tool to manouver the elephant that 'magicaly' appears from the box.When i finished that i added a wave of choice and rendered the file as a quicktime movie.