Final sequence

This is the final Product of the VFX project. Overall I am rather happy how it resulted out. The biggest positive for me from this is how I've engaged with it. because I have engaged with this project I have learnt more about the process that goes into this all. I have learnt all about how cameras work as well as any additional pre-production processes. I have also acquired some skills from this like the ability to use multiple software's and intertwine with them all as well as specific skills like animating and rotoscoping.

However In the future I think I need to pay more attention when rotoscoping. This is because when rotoscoping I only rotoscoped the building which has resulted in some frames where the robot overlays the people in the scene which for me is dreadfully annoying and worrisome. This is my main cause for concern but aside from that I think it has really turned out dandy.

VFX post production

The final phase of post production required the use of MAYA. This part was to incorporate the robot I had built into MAYA. It started when I imported my last shot onto the software with my robot. From there I used the camera to focus on the last shot showing an accurate perspective. Afterwards I added a 3D plane into it which would map out the floor so I could map out where the robot would be. From there I animated the robots movement across the shot key framing it so it follows its path. Next I went on to adding lighting into the shot by adding directional and ambient lights parallel to it. After that I made an image sequence showcasing the robots movement.










The next part required me to go onto Nuke. This was to to track and rotoscope the footage. Firstly I tracked a line across the buildings roof line to track the part of the shot were the camera pans the shot. Afterwards I went onto rotoscoping. The rotoscoping I had to engage in was the building. I needed to cover the whole building so the robot would look like it is coming from behind the building. This took longer than expected due to the panoramic shot. Because of the shot it resulted in the rotoscope not always covering the outline so I had to key the last frame and the midpoint in the shot to make sure the rotoscoping consistently stayed attached to the buildings outline. From there I exported it as a video and headed to premiere.

Premiere was the video editing software we had originally used to put together the production footage and where I used color correction to darken my sequence. So I then removed the original footage in order to place the new edited shots in. The final part was exporting it to make a video.

From this project I would like to work on the rotoscoping more. This is because there are parts where the robot covers the people running past because its out of the zone which was rotoscoped. As well as this if provided with more of a lenient time frame I would of like to have included more special effects as well as improve my robots look to give it a more realistic look.

VFX post production

Carrying on with the VFX project this phase of it required Nuke. Nuke is a video editing software which I needed to use in order to composite the two shots showing the phone screen. For this I would have to use tracking and rotoscoping.

When I loaded the shots into Nuke I needed to track the phone. Tracking follows a set point across every frame following the position. This is require as I would need to add the phone screen into it so tracking the phone would fit the animation into the screen. My tracking went extremely well despite the persons hand shaking slightly which can sometimes cause the tracker to drastically move away from the set point. A big factor to incorporate is light and as my shots were darkened tracking the screen made it all the more difficult but it succeeded. 

Afterwards I moved onto my second shot with the phone which would be more complicated. I did the standard of tracking the whole phone but now I had to rotoscope. For this I had to go frame by frame highlighting the thumb so in the final product the thumb would be placed over the phone screen. Another additional thing was keeping an organized node graph just to make editing footage all the more easier.

VFX post production

Continuing the post production my next task was to create a phone screen that would be shown in 2 of the shots. I then also needed to make the same screen with a notification which would have to be animated.

To start things off I went on my phone and took a screenshot of an app. From there I went into Photoshop and changed the settings to match the phone screen of  a SONY phone  so at a later stage it would be the same when edited in to the shots. Afterwards I went on to creating a realistic notifications. When doing this I encountered a large issue. This was to look out for where the person swipes their thumb so i had to carefully watch to estimate where the notification would occur on the phone.

Then i went onto after effects to animate the notification. Again timing was an important factor because I had to precisely animate it so that when the thumb swipes the screen the notification should be animated out of the shot.

On the whole this has been a turbulent part of post production as personal errors caused me to fall behind but luckily I have managed to catch up.

VFX post production

For this part of the post production I was on Adobe premiere. This was to edit the shots, specifically using color correction for my shots. As the whole group has the same footage I decided to make my shots more distinguishable so I darkened all of my shots as well as to give it a more gritty perspective. Additionally I used color grading with Lumetri color.

Afterwards I exported shots in the form of PNG sequences to send them to NUKE. This is to use them as VFX plates.

Overall this has been a time consuming process  as exporting the last shot took over an hour to render. This has been the main issue as it is just a case of waiting for the shots to render.

VFX Post production

For this I have to complete making my robot in MAYA for the VFX project. For this I need to model and texture the robot as well as rigging it so it can later be animated. For this project i based my robots design off of the training bot from 'Overwatch'.

For this a complex model wasn't required because the main part of this is implementing it into the VFX project. Therefore the robot's chest is very boxy. Additionally I made the design a very low poly model so MAYA will run more efficiently. I went on to texturing it which was rather quick and easy. For this i simply just colored it different adding a blinn to give it a metallic use. I went with the color scheme and I didn't need to texture it using Photoshop.

Additionally due to the robots design I don't need to rig it because it doesn't rotate its body parts.

VFX shot acquisition

For this we went over a presentation detailing all things camera related to give us an understanding of them before we engage in filming.

Firstly I learnt about camera exposure. For this I was taught the factors you need to account for when finding the correct exposure. The first is the lens aperture. This functions like the human light where the shutter works like a pupil so the more light intake the smaller it is needed to be. The next one is the sensitivity of the camera sensor to the light. The final factor is the cameras shutter speed.







The next thing I went onto learn about is the focal length. This means the distance between the center of a lens or curved mirror and its focus. The camera we are going to use is the 41mm. This means the view can be seen by the human eye because the eyes focal length is 50mm. Additionally  the use of the black magic cinema camera means that there is going to be a crop factor of 2.28 when filming.

The last part of the presentation taught me about matching lighting. The  360 degree cameras purpose is to record an High Dynamic Range Imaging. it is placed so it records an HDRI of the lighting of the shoot to replicate them on MAYA in the future.

VFX production

The picture above shows the 360° camera taken from the day of shooting. Despite this there was no intention of taking a shot with that camera as the cinematography was pretty simple.

 Here you can see the place where we filmed all of the shots. This is taken from 'Google maps' because on the day i had to secure my phone as it fell out of my pocket in the first shot. As well as this i took the picture of the distortion grid required for post production.

For the filming i played an extra who ran away from the robot. Again this wasn't a hard process as all I had to do was run for a couple of seconds.I thought it was a strong point for me as i did what i needed to playing the extra.

Overall when the time arrived the shoot was successful. The biggest issue was finding the right day to shoot the sequence. We spent much time waiting for the right day holding off on shooting but that day never came so we had to make with what was given to us by filming on the day that we did. This day the weather was rather unforgiving and the cold weather started to show in the final product. Although the weather did give everyone motivation to complete the shoot as we all wanted to return to class to escape the unbearable weather. From the shoot I think i could have worked more on my enthusiasm whilst shooting as the weather put me in bad morale which meant I gave an performance which was unrealistic to what the shoot was meant to be about throwing off the tone.

VFX pre production

This is a Gantt chart which is commonly used within the industry. The purpose of it is to stay organized while filming by sectioning out all tasks into various time frames. In addition to organization the Gantt chart is also used to to make sure no one falls behind and stays on track with the task at hand with the overall result being a more efficient project.

 The next part of the pre-production phase was to create a risk assessment. This is a table devised of possible scenarios which could jeopardize filming. That is why creating one of these is important so if one of these likely events happen students and staff know the appropriate response.






















Shot list
Afterwards a shot list was required. This is a table filled with all the shots needed and the specific factors which are needed to know about them. As well as this the details on what is required in post-production needed to be stated in order to know what was being done with each shot.



Overall the pre-production phase is probably the most diverse thing as it isn't too related to the project. It is the easiest though because this phase is mostly setting everything up in preparation for the actual production

Next gen year 1 week 27

Last week i continued to develop my knowledge of using curves within MAYA. The first small task was to use the information of last weeks lesson to create a pawn from chess. We were timed whilst participating which added the element of pressure. For this i used the pencil curve tool which is the easiest option as you just draw out the shape you want but i wanted to try it out. Afterwards we learned to use nerbs which are basic shapes used to create an outline for shapes. For this we modeled a carrot by adding many 3D circles of various sizes to make the cone shape of the carrot then using the curve tool i added the carrot top.

Continuing the VFX project I spent the first lesson transferring my data over to a room upstairs which was a rather frustrating process as the computers were just bad trying to transfer my stuff over which annoyed me as I could have been working in that time. The next lesson as we moved room i was asked to redo my work on NUKE to get a fresh start whilst i believe it wasn't needed i don't mind doing it again so it stays in my memory.

In coding preparation for our code exam continued. For this we completed the previous exam questions. Overall I still don't know how to feel about this upcoming exam but i'm eager to learn and pass.

Next gen year 1 week 26

Last week I continued to develop my knowledge of coding. This is an area I have struggled with throughout the year and continue to do so. That is why my tutor went through the code of my game line by line to explaining its purpose and how they work. This put me at ease and made me feel better about the coding ahead of the exam.

In continuation of our VFX project we used Photoshop to create a phone screen that will be shown on the phone when edited in at a later stage. We also needed to add a notification on the screen for the sake of the story. After we created the phone screen we went onto after effects. This was to animate the notification sliding down the screen and then animate it so it would go back off screen. This proved to be trickier than first thought as I had to go back and lighten the screen as well as move the notification to the middle of the screen as that is where Frank swipes the screen. Another important issue was timing and adjusting the animation to sync up with the footage so he would swipe the screen at a later stage.

On Friday of that week were doing coding, and specifically looking at the previous exam in preparation of the coding exam. This whole lesson where we answered questions left me feeling on and off about the whole exam with aspects both positive and negative. However I am glad I participated in doing the exam questions as i want to get practice and help while I can.

Lastly that week in our animation class we learnt how to animate using the modelling software MAYA. For this we learnt how to use the animation tools to in order to animate a ball bouncing. Whilst we've done this before on adobe animate but its good know how to use various software's especially one like MAYA which is used a lot in the industry animating shows like 'south park'.

Next gen year 1 week 22

In this week we continued in our VFX project. For this i needed to adjust the colours and saturation in each shot. I found this to be an easy process within the software and as a result it was enjoyable. Despite this though  it showed to be a time consuming process but for that day i did it. The day after i had to render out all of the shots into image sequences and i would've been done with editing on Adobe premier. However the last shot took too long and due to that i will have to come back to it at a later point. The next editing software in which i am currently using for this is Nuke. For this process i had to use the shot of someone holding a phone. For this i placed a tracker at the corner of the phone screen and it would try to follow the same position across all shots. The first tracker didn't go too well and i had to place each frame with the tracker individually. From there i placed 3 more trackers at each of the corners of the phone. These ones went dandy meaning i could leave them where they were and that is how i finished of the lessons of that week for the VFX project.