Research
Analysing Effects - SFX & VFX
The difference between visual effects and special effects (aka practical effects) is that one effect is implemented into the footage during the post production of the video/film using computer editing and CGI, these techniques are visual effects. Compared to special effects, which are effects implemented in the pre production of a film and also during the production of a film, effects such as blood, weather (rain), and make up.
Examples of SFX compared to VFX
Special Effects:
Character Models/Puppets & Animatronics
Real life character models were made by artists to be used mainly in much older films to present the certain character that couldn't impersonated by other actors or by the use of modern CGI recreation. They were controlled manually by either puppetry or industrial animatronics.
Some modern films still use this effect of real life character models in live action films, but now, mainly, more elaborate characters are made with CGI and visual effects.
All the information I gathered came mainly from my previous research task were I looked into the same subject of effects, I tried searching on the web but the things I found weren't quite what I was looking for, Site Link, so I settled for what I already knew and no more research was needed.
Movie Sets
Set construction is the process at which the construction manager builds full scale scenery and interior housing for the specific scenes of a film.
These artificial sets were used more frequently in the older films as they didn't have the use of special effects to recreate more of the scenery by computer like we can now. The same thing can be said for the practical effects of Matte to recreate the background of a scene using the illusion of the picture.
Make Up & Prosthetic Make Up
Prosthetic make up is a particular type of effect that involves a process of reconstructing a prosthetic face of the actors with the details and features required for the film. The use of normal make up is used directly on the actor for things like theatrical blood, dirt, bruises, etc.
Like the previous research tasks, the information for this came from my previous task from which I mainly used this Wikipedia site to gather information from, Wikipedia Site - Prosthetic Makeup.
Weather Elements
The video below shows the multiple different techniques used to create the different weather effects in film/tv shows. Like how a fire hydrant can be used to supply water for an outside rain effect, how fake snow is used for snow scenes, and the use of large fans for wind effects and how they can be improved to increase the effect.
I found this clip in a website from doing a regular search on the internet and settled for since it seamed to cover all the factors of this subject. How fake weather is made for TV and movies.
Miniatures
Miniatures are, hence the name, miniature versions of props and sets that are in the film which are used to create an illusion of its scale to the audience by repositioning the camera. This technique is used for the lack of CGI effects we now use in modern films, much like the set creation from above. All this information was gathered from the tutorial clip below.
Visual Effects:
Computer Generated Characters
CGI is used for many different techniques and in films and tv, one of these techniques are CGI characters, which are characters that are only introduced in the scene during the post production of making the film, unlike the models and puppets made by film artists in older films as shown in the previous research.
Live action, un detailed, models are made for the film as reference for the actors, but the detail on the characters (main body, skin texture, and moving appendages) where done after the filming, using computer editing.
I struggled quite a bit to try and find the right information and resources on this particular CGI effect, I searched into multiple different sites, some of which had the information I was looking of but not all of it, A Brief Look at What It Takes to Create a CGI Character, Wiki Site, What is CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) & how does it work?, and some others didn't provide what I was looking for, Wiki Site, YouTube Clip, The Process of 3D Animation.
Green Screen
Green screens are used frequently in most visual based content, it's used to help composite images in the original footage such as changing the background of a scene or to alter/crop it.
Facial Motion Capture
This is a particular type of visual effect that is used to recreate the motion and expressions of characters facials and basic actions in a CGI film. This technique is achieved by using cameras and laser scanners to capture and convert the movements of actors into a digital database. The actor wear particular clothing and have markers (white spots) on their faces for the cameras to better track their movements.
For information in this one subject, I tried looking for reference to the particular effect by searching on films that I know used them, like these ones, The Adventures of Tintin, How 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Turned Actors Into Apes, but was unsuccessful, so I kept searching until I found a simple Wikipedia site which I though gave enough information on the subject, Wikipedia Site - Facial motion capture.
Bullet Time
Bullet time is a particular visual effect which is achieved by detaching the time and space from those of its visible subject. Multiple cameras are placed around the subject and all simultaneously take pictures of the scene at a slowed pace. It's used for scenes in films that would usually imperceptible and un film-able, and example being flying bullets.
Again, like the last task, for the information in this research I settled for this Wikipedia page which basically cleared up all the info I needed, Wikipedia Site - Bullet time.
Graphical Lighting
Computer graphics lighting is a particular visual technique used in films which simulate the light in graphical scenes in the film. Apart from original studio lighting, this technique can greater enhance the quality of the scene with its lighting and many other qualities of the scene.
There wasn't much information to find on this particular subject as I guess it isn't something that many people consider in the subject of visual effects, but it was still an effect and I settled for this one Wiki site which I think gave some good info, Wikipedia Site - Computer graphic lighting.
The effects I liked the most from my selection above probably have to be the CGI characters (Computer Generated Characters) and the green screen effect (Green Screen).
Both of which are visual effects as I don't particularly fancy the special effects compared to the VFX, but also because I do quite like the creative side of making/sculpting an entire CGI character and implementing it into the film footage via animation (which is also an effect I'm invested in) and the whole procedure of adding lighting to it, textures, etc. to make it look realistic.
I also like the green screen and the effects that can be achieved with it, as shown in the examples above, the editing that can be used in it can truly make creative and astonishing footage, which I would like to get invested in.
In honesty, this task for todays session was particularly tiresome and time consuming, it took me a long time to research into all the individual effects, and to try and find the right information to implement onto this blog, and I struggled to concentrate on the information that was presented to me and couldn't make out the important parts in it.
Next time, I will try to be more productive on the tasks and have better concentration to conserve my time on the task. Because of this, I'll have to finish the other half of this task tomorrow.
Also, I find that some of my produced work in some areas wasn't great quality work or research, it wasn't genuine and the information was half guessed sometimes and had no solid proof. Something I will have to work on in the next task.
Specific Effects Analysis
Analysing the two effects that I found most interesting in more detail. The process of how they are made and how they effect the audience.
CGI Characters:
This effect is a technique that allows people to implement and animate separate life like character and models into the film footage that would be impossible to create and control in real time during the production, as a posed to puppets and animatronics that were used in older films to achieve these inhuman cast.
The use of this modern effect greatly increases the quality of these characters in the films, making them more believable to the audience.
This effect is achieved by visual effects artists first going into 3D animation programs and they digitally construct the entire characters from scratch, using a variety of different sculpting tools and and methods. They usually start with creating a base mech using different shapes, just to create the base design of the model, then they start adding detail to the model by sculpting it using as said sculpting tools from before. Then they add textures to the model to give them certain colours and patterns. After the whole model is complete, they then go through a technical process of rigging the models with a movable skeleton, which allows the 3D artists to move the certain parts of the character limbs with ease when implemented into the film. After the whole model was complete, they animated to the character into the footage, actors and props were recorded on the footage wearing special suits with trackers that allowed the animators to better sync the 3D models that were created to the actions and movements of the characters on set. They also used facial tracking of the actors to copy their facial movements which they can then add to the CGI models faces themselves to get the right effect.
Most of the research conducted for this came from the research in the previous tasks, so not much more research was really needed. I did look at some other pages, and the YouTube video clip presented above did actually give me some more insight to the process of making a CGI 3D character model. I looked over a bunch of other websites and clips, but neither of them provided me with new info or didn't have the info on the specific subject I was looking for, What is CGI? How CGI Works in Movies and Animation, How is CGI done?, YouTube Vid, CGI Animation Process, YouTube Vid 2, What is Motion Capture Acting?, Motion LIVE.
I don't think it would be possible to recreate this effects for my mini Final Major Project as it would take too much time and just basic experience for my to fully construct a 3D model and implement it into my film footage.
Green Screen Background:
This studio set up allows VFX artists to completely change the background of the scene in a film, replacing it with a completely different landscape and or area in general that would be impossible for the film studio to film in real life and in real time.
Green screens can also be used for many other visual effects features as well as changing the background. It can be placed behind character shots to remove any performance cables attached to then when performing a stunt. Or it can be used to completely erase objects and characters. Green screen can also be covered to smaller objects (on actors) to alter that specific part on it or them, e.g. the arm on a character.
The process of creating this effect can be very simple for VFX artists. After the footage of the film is recording, the special effects artists then take the footage into an editing software, where they then use the chroma key to render all the green parts of the film transparent. After that, they can then overlay the other images or footage of the new background into the original footage, this process is called composition. This poses useful as the effects artists can have full control of the set and scene, and can implement any other effects or objects. Or they can remove actor extras that had an affect on the certain scene.
When using green screens, the studio have to be mindful of multiple errors that can occur such as green clothing. When the chroma key is enabled it cancels out all the green colour in the footage including the actors clothing. Reflective objects (glass and jewellery) can also reflect the green, which will also be canceled out.
See tutorial below for more detailed procedure.
All the research conducted on this came from this one site I used for my previous research task on this subject as it had all the information that I thought was necessary, so no more research was needed. FILMING WITH GREEN SCREEN: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.
For this particular effect, I think I could be able to recreate this effect as it seems like it is fairly simple effects to make with simple equipment and tools. I can get the program easily if I don't have it already, and, by coincident, by brother has a green screen set that is big enough to cover me so I don't need to buy one for my self.
This task for todays session went a lot quicker than the previous task, of course, as there was less to research on the subjects, but still to me, it felt like I spent too much time on unnecessary research and could have finished it a lot quicker. Other than that, I think the outcome of my work and research wasn't bad.
Visual Effects Ideas
In this task, I had to brain storm possible VFX ideas that I liked and could recreate for my final film production. I made an Ideas page/Mood Board that has all the different ideas, and how I envision them, for the film editing.
Making the Mood Board was a bit tricky in the sense that I struggled to try and find some original VFX ideas that would be possible for me to recreate for the film production. That part of the task took the longest, but everything else went alright, the product of my Mood Board was not too bad, also, afterwords I realised that I need to make a Mind Map of all the possible VFX ideas I wanted to make, but I already made this mood board in the same kind of way, so decided to improve on it a bit more so it acted like a page full of ideas like a mind map but also as a mood board at the same time.
After that task, I had to make an infographic based on a practical effects, and giving information on what it is based on the visuals that are in it, and also how they are made.
Whilst I was making infographic for visual effects, I didn't realise that I was only supposed to make it for a practical effect, so I had produced both an infographic for VFX and for the PFX. Finding information for the VFX infographic was easier than for the PFX, I mainly used the research I had done for my previous tasks. Finding the right video tutorial for the practical effect was a bit more difficult, for how to make a prosthetic mask, and I skipped past quite a few video clips to get the ones shown in the graphs above. YouTube Tutorial, How to make a prosthetic mask.
Proposal
In this task, I had to write a proposal description what my plan for my final mini project video will be about, how I will make it, and what I think the outcome will be like. This will then be resented to one of my class mates (or teacher) which I can then get feed back from and write in this blog.
Proposal Feedback
Diary Update
In this task, I had to update my Plan/Research Diary that I made at the beginning of this project, and repositioned all the tasks on it to sync with my current timetable and time slots that are available.
I also made a review of my entire production plan and made Production/Plan Diary to schedule all the practical tasks for the future practical production section of this project that I will do after the research section.
Technical Proposal
In this task I had to create a technical proposal for the final practical shoot. I had to go into more detail about the effects that I will use and where and how I will use them in the different scenes of the video.
I found this task, and the template slide, really helpful in terms of making the final practical task more understandable for myself, putting down the whole process of the final task in a spread out, detailed presentation allowed me to get a better grasp of all the things I need and where.
Visual Effects Testing
In this task, I had to start testing with one of the visual effects that I had chosen for the final video scene. I chose to do the teleportation effect as it seemed like a more interesting effect to try out than the others, which I feel like were a bit too simplistic, the green screen effect is easy to do, all thats required is activating one property on the program to complete it, the teleport effect seemed more complex.
Before opening after effects and testing the effect, I looked at numerous tutorials on YouTube to get a grasp on the effect and how other people do it so I can test out my own way of doing it (by of coarse following other peoples methods on the tutorials).
I looked at all of these tutorials as they were the first to show up on my search and I didn't really mind about their quality or how useful they were compared to the others on YouTube:
I found them all useful as they all built my knowledge of the effect and how to make it. Although I did find the first tutorial more useful out of the four as it was longer and it described the process in detail and more slowly, some of the other tutorials were a bit too fast for me and I couldn't quite get what the presenter was saying some of the times.
Throughout the process of making the effect, I consistently referred back to the tutorials as sometimes there was a step in the process I forgot about.
Process
I stated off by taking my phone and setting up a quick studio set up to shoot the footage that would be edited with the teleportation effect. In the scene, I planned for the actor to be sitting on a couch in the living room and then wanted to get the remote which was too far away for him to grab, so he would teleport instead to get it, and then return to the couch.
After that, I opened up After Effects on my computer and created a new composition. After that I imported the footage onto the program in the grey box on the left side of the screen above the time line by right clicking on it and then just clicking import, I then dragged the footage into the time line to make it appear on the box in the middle of the screen.
Next, I began the complicated process of cutting the footage line and composing it in a sequence that made it so the actor in the scene disappeared and reappeared in on the set as if he were teleporting.
After the footage was composed correctly, I began to try and search the internet for any downloadable video effects that where similar to the ones shown in the tutorials above, this was unsuccessful how ever, I tried looking all over for a free visual effect but I found non that I thought would satisfy for the test scene. So I resorted to a technique I saw being used in the tutorials but I would use in a different way to make a glowing effect around the actor which would act as the glowing effect for the scene.
I made copy of the timeline in the program that had the actors movements in it and then took the pen tool from the rest of the tools at the top of the program and started drawing a mask around the actor in the scene (just before he cuts from the scene) in the layer above the copy, was shown below. This cuts away the actor from the rest of the background around him, the reason for this will be explained later in the process.
I then continue the process of making the mask of the actor on all the frames in the timeline just before he teleports, I do this by going to the layer in the time line, click on the small arrow next to it to open the list of commands under it, and then click on the stop watch icon next to Mask Path as shown below, now, when I move to another frame in the sequence, I can move the mask outline from the previous frame to the new actor action in the scene, this will then be recorded as a key frame as shown below. I continue doing this for the rest of the frames around the part before the actor gets cut out of the footage.
At this point in the process, I had to rethink my original idea for this test effect, as this method of highlighting the the entire outside of the actor on each individual frame was an incredibly pain stacking process and quite frankly tedious, and it took so much time that I had to resort to cutting the whole video to just one scene of the actor teleporting, I just couldn't do the whole thing, it would take too long for me to finish, and I didn't want to stop doing this technique because I still wanted to see how it turned out.
So, as a certainty, I won't use this technique of adding a teleportation effect for my final project, as its impractical and would take too long. Instead, I figured I'll try and look for another teleportation effect of the internet to replace the one I'm trying to create in after effects.
After I made all the mask layers around the characters in the frames I wanted, that section of the footage is then cut out from the rest of the screen, as shown below. With this, I can then begin making the special effect, using this cut out, to make the character seem like he's teleporting, by making him glow. (I also cut that part of the footage down to that one part with the mask key frames on it, as the rest of the footage on that scene is not needed, because of the layer below it provides the footage of the background)
After thats done, I then go to Effects at the right hand side of the screen in the grey box with all the other tabs, and then search for the Glow effect in the search bar. I'm familiar with this effect as I used it for a previous after effects tutorial.
Then, whilst having selected the layer with the mask keys on it, drag and drop the Glow effect into the grey box on the other side of the screen. This will then make a list of properties show up in that box, which I then play around with the to get the character to glow like I want him to, as shown below. I altered things like the threshold to increase the intensity of the glow and the radius to make the glow spread out more around the character, I also changed the colour of the glow to my preferred colour for the teleportation. I added a key frame at the end of the scene before the character cuts from the image, and then I brought the time indicator on the timeline to the beginning of the scene and then returned the Glow Radius to zero, making the glow around the character disappear, this then also adds another key frame to the timeline, this makes it so that when the footage plays out, the glow around the character appears slowly, before he disappears, this is the effect that will make the audience think that actor disappeared.
After the glow effect, I added another effect from the slide called Bulge, this is a particular technique I took from one of the tutorials on YouTube from above (YouTube Tutorial), this effect adds a circular object on top of the footage above and it makes the content in the circle bulged and distorted, as shown below, I'll use this effect to further increase the feel of the teleportation effect that will happen in this scene.
I then altered the Taper Radius on the list of properties to change the way the bulge effect alters the image, made it shrink down the image instead of inflate it. I then did the same technique as the glow effect, by going to the time line, adding a key frame at the end of the footage, before the actor cuts, and then adds another key frame at the beginning of the footage and turn the effect back to normal, so when the footage plays out, the bulge effect plays out gradually like the glow effect.
For this particular effect, instead of making the effect cut off when the character gets cut, I add another key frame after the last one, this one makes the effect go back to normal again in a gradual pace, so this effect makes the audience think the actor has been sucked in a sort of black hole thats shifting matter, as shown below.
After this, the process is practical completed, but I wanted to add another effect that was also shown in the tutorials above and I thought would be cool to add in my test video and increase the feel of the teleportation for the audience and to me, to make the screen move around in an organic way, as if the whole scene was being recorded by a camera man.
I followed the procedure in this tutorial precisely to get this effect, YouTube Tutorial. I started by highlighting all the layers on the timeline, right clicked and clicked Pre - compose, this groups the all the layers in some way.
I then highlighted that layer and pressed A on my keyboard, this makes a new property appear under the layer called Anchor Point. I then held Alt and clicked on the stop watch icon next to the layer, this makes a sort of text section appear next to the layer which I click on and then, by following the process in the tutorial completely, typed in the following "wiggle(1,12)", as shown below. This instruction makes the footage on the screen move slightly.
After that, I highlighted the layer again and pressed R on the key board, this made another layer appear called Rotation, I then followed the same procedure for the previous layer, this time implementing the following into the text box "wiggle(1,.5)", this makes the footage rotate slightly as well as move it, as shown below.
After all that, I decided to add more to it by first increasing the image size so it isolates the image around the where the teleportation effect takes place (as the rest of the footage doesn't matter any more). The I clicked on the small arrow on the layer to show it's properties and then clicked on the stop watch next to the Position layer to make a key frame in the time line before the actor move out of the couch and teleports, and then moved the time indicator to the end of when the character teleports and then moved the entire footage on the screen to where the actor teleported, this makes another key frame in the timeline to make it seem like the camera is following the actor. I find this greater increases the feel that a footage is being controlled by a camera man, making it seem more organic and real, as done in the tutorials above.
I turned the key frames into an Easy Ease In and and Easy Ease Out, to smooth the movement of the camera following the actor, as shown below.
Final Composition
As said before, the main construction of the visual effect in this test was the only difficult thing to make in this whole effects test, it took a long time to intricately draw the mask line around the actor on each individual frame of the footage before the cut. The whole point was to make a glowing effect of some sorts that I envisioned would make the actor look like he/she was teleporting, and this was the only way, as the glowing effect needed to be behind the actor, and it wouldn't work in front of him/her. I won't be using this technique for the final scene video, I'll instead try to find an already made effect that doesn't require me to create one myself. Although, putting aside everything else, I think the glow effect didn't turn out that bad.
I think as a whole, the quality of the visual effect in this test video was not too bad, but it could have been better. The bulge effect in it, which made the area around the actor stretch as if being warped, wasn't that convincing and could have been better.
One of the things that could have improved the quality of the teleportation in this scene was maybe adding something after the initial teleportation in the scene. Like making a little flash with a particle dispersion effect to signify that some sort of energy was used and that was some residue. Also making another teleportation effect happen in the scene, one after another as I originally intended, would also increase the feel of the actor teleporting.
As my conclusion, the whole task of testing with the effects was very useful to me as I now know what's the best thing to do and what not to do when making the teleport effect. The other effects in the scene should be a lot easier to create than this one, so I'm not so worried. As said above, i think the effect turned out ok, it almost looked how I had envisioned it, and I think I know what must be changed next time to get it perfect.
Vlog Video Update
I this task I made a short video clip presenting all the previous work I have on my blog and describe the new skills and techniques I've learnt from this work over the coarse of it.
For actually making the video itself, I went to my blog page and first made a small script on what was going to be said based on the content from scrolling through the blog. I then took some screen recordings of my blog with me going through them slowly, I also took some screen recordings from some parts of the YouTube tutorials I watched in previous tasks. I then put them all in the premier program from which I also added the text from my script in the certain parts in the video.
Script making
Video
Overall Research Evaluation & Production Plan
Taking into account all the research I did for this blog page, all the practical work and writing, I'd say that it didn't go that bad, I managed to complete all the tasks before the deadline and the quality of the research/work, in my opinion, was pretty good compared to previous research tasks I've done in the past. I managed to get everything in order and put together a clear plan for the final stage of the project of creating the short film scene with the researched visual effects and set up.
Most of the research sections of this mini project seemed tedious at first, but it wasn't the most difficult part of this whole project, like tasks 1 and 2 of the project as shown in my timeline above.
It was the other, the more practical tasks in this project, I found more difficult to complete because personally I find it difficult to come up with original ideas to exploit, like in tasks 3, where I had to make a mind map and in task 7 where I to make a test after effect and document the process, as shown in the timelines week 2 and 3.
But overall, I find all the research was difficult for my level of comprehension and skill and it took a lot of effort and time for me to complete the tasks, but it helped me improve on my research skills as I worked.
Production Plan
After all the research tasks are done and I complete the last task (task 9) as shown in the timeline below, I then begin the production part of this entire project, by following my pre made production timeline below, where I take all my resources and begin to make the final short film scene to be published on this blog.
I'll start by taking my iPhone and tripod and start to film all the footage for the scene, including the final shot with the green screen canvas which will be used for the final visual effect in the video. After all the footage was taken, it will then be imported on my laptop and put into After effects to then apply all the visual effects I researched into including the on screen text bubbles, the teleportation which I did of test of back in my research tasks, and the final green screen effect where I'll replace the background behind the subject.
Tasks Continued on Production Page on Blog>
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