Monday 27 April 2015

Unit 64: Old Parallax

Old Parallax:

Tips: Masking - brackets increase/decrease size of brush.
                        - B Brush Tool
                        - X Changes between colour palette
                        - W Quick Selection.
                        - E Eraser
                        - Z Zoom
With brush (black) hardness 100% we select the subjects. Q gets Mask

Select - Save Selection
Select - Save Selection again and this time we select channel 'Ladies'

Click Selection tool and Refine Edge.
Refine Edges -1/-2

Save Selection again. Select inverse -Delete
For background - Load Selection - 'Ladies' and press backspace/delete - Undo
Edit - Fill
Use Content-Aware - OK.
Spot Healing Brush

Move to After Effects
Custom Camera 1 and move the background forward. Scale the background.
Create a Custom Camera 35mm. 

Puppet Tool and Puppet Stretch Tool. Using Keyframes animate the characters.


Friday 10 April 2015

Test Pieces

Compositing using Green Screen

For this test piece I planned a car scene but I thought that would be a little hard to light without proper equipment. Then I came with the idea of making a ‘Mug shot’ scene. That whole scene would be filmed as a sequence shot. For that, I will have to book the studio. So that it won’t be a boring short scene, I want it to have a bit of comedy in it. The idea for it is: A person has just got arrested and while the warden is trying to take a mug shot, the person doesn’t move complaining the right side is his best side and he can just flip it for the left one. When the warden shouts at him to just move, the prisoner gets mad and starts yelling at the warden. The warden will call the other prisoner to come in and skips the other one because he was wasting his time. 

Filming Date:
Filming will be held on the 14th of April in the MCAST TV Studio from 13:30 onwards.

Equipment we will be in need of:
·        Canon 600D DSLR
·        Tripod
·         Lighting Rig consisting of Cyc lights, Key Lights and Fill lights
·         Romy Lights to Light the Subject
·        VIDEO MIC for Sound 

Other Help (Green Screen Setting and Lights) – Jayden Borg, Brandon Borg

Motion Tracking

For this test piece I will record the Sky and try to replace it via Motion Tracking. I will try to make it interesting with colors and using different clouds to have a much nicer background.

Motion Graphics

For Motion Graphics, I will do an opening for my YouTube channel DaxterMaster, Pirate Weasel and the Cameraman. Using Photoshop I will create a background based on the video game series of Jak and Daxter (since that is what the channel is based on).  Then, a bright flash will be used and my logo that I created by drawing and Photoshop will be shown. The logo will come out of the screen like a 3D object and that will end the opening.  


Unit 64: Chroma Keying

Green Screen Keying: 

- Create Gray Solid below the footage.

- Create Magenta Solid.

- Create White Solid.

- Pen Tool

Mask around the subject. Rotobezier may come in handy. Press 'M' to see Mask Path. Press M twice to see Mask Feather etc.

To remove grainy footage go to Screen Matte - Replace Method - Black colour - Source




These were some inspiring and helpful tutorials to help me in keying the short Test Piece.