matte painting research

special effects and matte painting research write-up

matte painting is a video effects process that has been used in the video industry for years in films and tv as far back as 1907 by “norman dawn” when cameras were first starting to show up. matte painting is the simple idea of combining a still image and a video in a shot,, creating a composite, this was done at first by painting on glass and placing it in front of the camera, giving the illusion there was something there that wasn’t, a matte painting could be used to cover a sign for example or to change the entire landscape.

matte painting has been used in great effect in the star wars films for example, here is a matte painter painting a scene in star wars,

the painting is then used as a background for the film, adding other things that may have been shot with green screen for example to put in the finished film, like so

other great example of matte paintings include the statue of liberty as it was destroyed in planet of the apes and and government warehouse in indiana jones, raiders of the lost ark were entire scenes are pained and added in to great effect.

Re-done Shots

This shot is much better than the first time we took them because we took the rune of three into account and placed them both on a third, we also used the bush to create a leading line through the shoot and create depth.

this shot is better than the first time we shot it, again we used the rule of three to create the look that we desired. the camera focus was much better than the first shoot and created a good look of depth in the background.

This shot is one of the best ones we took, the depth we got in the shot is really good and we got some good leading lines using the bush and road to create a good sense of depth, the camera focus was good to create a good focus on our character and we used the rule of three to put her in a correct position for a conversation.

this shot fits with the one above to create a conversation between the two, we used the rule of three and placed him on the right third to make it look like the two of them were facing eachother as if they were talking.

good shots in animatic

bad shots in animatic -unf-

I didn't like this shot because it's way too central, the focus of the shot is right in the middle and there's not enough depth of field to the shot, everything in the shot is also very straight so it needs more diagonals and leading lines, at the moment it's very still and unbalanced, also looking at the rule of 3 in the shot the point of interest is in the wrong place entirely.


I don't like this shot because the balance is all off and there are no leading lines, the only good part of the shot is that the frame was filled well, the shot is also not very well framed, also only some of the background is de-focused when it should be consistently focused or not
                               

                                                 

Shattered Looking Glass

Scene Breakdown

scs

Photoshoot for animatic

Properties / Set Dressing table

green screening

"green screening" or "chroma keying" is a video editing post production method that nearly all types of media use. You can use a green screen to change backgrounds or slight changes in a video, most video editing software can do something called "chroma key" and this selects a color and removes it, creating something you can change easily, for example with a green-screen you could film a tv drama set in LA in your back yard. you can also use blue-screen for the same effect, let's say an actor was wearing green then a chroma key would pick up his green top if you were to chroma key it, so a blue screen would be more appropriate. in fact, a chroma key can be used for any color to suit the environment that you're in.

When the technique was first introduced into mainstream filmmaking it began as a painting on glass in front of the camera in black paint and shooting with a black background to create a mask around the subject, then taking that and treating it with the negatives to reveal just the subject you wanted from the mask and then using it to place on top of other footage to create the look of one shot.

jason's bio

alexis' bio

'tis jason

animatic and review

Drawn Animatic



Photo animatic

location recce

P1 File structure

here, look at this sexy file structure, everything in order and easy to find :)

StoryBoard

lens flare and Co meeting no. 3

28th november 2013

who was present:

rory forester, Tom Adams, Adam Duffield

agenda:

Discussing the teams’ skills in after effects

what went wrong in the shooting?

- pre equipment checking

- account for effect during the shoot, we found that adding fire to someones hand was a lot easier if their fingers were out the way so we wouldn't have to mess around with masks and so on.

What went wrong in after effects?

- Basic knowledge of after effects, at the moment i'm not confortable with after effects as a whole, i still need to familiarise myself with the software so that i can get things done.

- lack of knowledge in the specifics of after effects

- getting used to using after effects

what do we need to learn?

- get more comfortable with after effects

- more about the specifics of each effect

- tools and after effects basics

what assets do we need?

props:

- stones

costume:

- General clothing for them, hints of red for jason and hints of blue for alexis.

CGI

- none

location scouting

video effects

Video FX revision

shot 18: a spark into flame on jason's hand

for this shot we have a close up of a hand as a flame appears at a click of his fingers, this is the closest looking tutorial i could find (that didn't want me to pay them >_>) that was actually useful:




shot 20: here we have a shot of a flame being put out with a slap of a hand, here we will see a puff of smoke arise from the previously ablaze hand as it is put out




shot 23: in this shot we see the ground starting to chill, so we decided we wanted to add a light blue tint to the ground beneath alexis to make the ground look colder, this can be done by using a mask and the color correction features available to add the blue

shot 25: in this shot we have more predominant ice starting to form small spikes on the ground around alexis
here is a video i found that we could use to make our effect, they also have loads of other videos that could be useful

shot 29: here we see jason starting to melt the ice and steam starting to form around the two of them, here we could use the same effect as the smoke but make the smoke more transparent.

shot 31: here we see the ice melting back to alexis' feet so we can use the same effect as we did for the ice but backwards.

The Shattered looking glass

The 180 degree rule

The 180 Degree Rule

This photo shows the basics of the 180 degree rule, the pictures of the people correspond with what the camera near it will see.
The 180 degree rule is a rule that states that if you are filming something you cannot cut to a shot past the 180 degree rule, because this puts people on different sides and makes the shot disorienting  and confusing to watch, for example we see the man in green on the left of the image, whether he's facing the camera or not, he's always on the left, if you pass the 180 degree line he moves over to the right of the frame and that's confusing for the viewer.
You can pass the 180 degree line as long as you show the transition, for example showing the camera moving over the line with a pan or track, we then see and understand that we're on the other side of the line and know what's going on.

Character bios

Alexis is a 17 year old girl, she is often found nose deep in a book studying for a test or just to get a litte but more ahead than she already is, alexis is the top of the class in all of her classes but she's still modest about it, she comes from a large family of 2 brothers, 14 and 19, and a sister, 23. Her parents are the owners of a small general store in alexis' home village, westerhill.

Alexis has always found that she can get mad too easy and this often has negative impacts on people that get close to her.

Alexis has always wanted to leave the academy and make people with powers out in the real world more accepted and treated better.

Josh is a 17 year old boy, is is still immature for his age, believing that he was something special, like something was owed to him in some way or another. His mother was tragically lost during childbirth and then his father left him when he was 10 years old, josh was later taken in by an orphanage, the orphanage burned down when he was 13 after a massive fight had broken out and he discovered that he had powers, he was swiftly taken by the academy and put into a young people's program, he was the youngest to ever join and is one of the best students there.

Josh often has problems dealing with emotions and they can overpower him sometimes, he also has a tendency to be over confident in what he does and ends up messing up.

Josh has always wanted to find his father again, to ask him why he left and finally ask him the things he never could when he was young. 

2nd script draft

EXT. a long path surrounded by suburbia - DAY

[FADE IN]

JASON and ALEXIS are walking down the empty path on the usual trip to school

ALEXIS

Oh man jason, i think we're gonna be late, MR FARONE is gonna be so mad at us!

Jason

Yeah i think we are, ah well, it's not like we miss much, i learn more outside of school anyways we need to learn to be more practical

AlEXiS

You know we're not allowed to practice outside in front of people! You'll get kicked out, just like HE did!

JASON stops in his tracks and looks down to the ground, ALEXIS walks back and puts her hand on his shoulder, jason shrugs it away and turns his back to her.

JasoN

You know that won't happen, i'm careful. Unlike he was.

ALEXIS

I'm sorry, i...i worry about you, you know?

ALEXIS kicks the stones on the road and looks back up to JASON

ALEXiS

You know that teacher checks up on us all the time,and...and you know my dad gets mad easy, he's already on my case about this place, and we've only been at this academy about 3 months...

Jason

But still...

Jason clicks his fingers as a very small flame appears in his hand

ALEXiS

JASON, what are you doing?!

Alexis swats at jason's hand, putting out the flame

JaSON

I told you...i'm practicing, i'm getting pretty good, no?

ALEXiS

Well yeah it's true you're getting better but it's no point getting kicked out because of it, you know we're sealed off from the world in the academy for a reason, we're not allowed to show anyone ever!

Alexis is getting increasingly mad at jason and the floor she is standing on begins to turn a frosty blue

JASON

Uhm, lex?...alexis!

Small spikes of ice are starting to form around alexis, jason glances around to look for danger and quickly pulls alexis off into a driveway

JASON

C'mon lex you need to get it together! You need to stop this!

AlEXiS

It hurts my head jason...make it stop...

JaSON

Come on! Snap out of it!

Jason holds alexis in his arms and clicks his fingers

JaSON

Here, i'll try and warm you up, maybe that would help?

The ice forming on the ground recedes back to alexis' feet and as the two glance up there are a few people looking at them with their mouths wide open

JASON

This...that...uhm

The two look at each other and jason helps alexis onto her feet again

ALEXiS

Wow, that was the first time that trick actually worked!

Jason looks at her, confused and then catches on to the plan

JaSON

Yeah i know! I thought that we were gonna get ripped off at that place for sure!

The people looking at them begin to talk amongst themselves and start to disperse

JasON

Oh my god that was too close, come on, we need to get to class, NOW!

ALEXiS

Agreed!

Alexis and jason run down the path away from the camera

[fade out]

FaceWarp

i always knew i had a big mouth...and now with the magic of after effects i have an even bigger one! oh, the green skin? yeah that was always around too.
shh.

Short Story Pitch

This is the story of josh, josh is your typical kind of a 16 year old angsty teen, never talking to people always staying away from trouble and never being centre of attention. at home he is often taken advantage of by his two older brothers robert and mike, and since their parents died in an unexpected and unexplained circumstances while they were returning home from the biochemistry lab where they work.

one day, josh is walking to college with his only friend, alice, a few of the older boys behind them start to chuckle and throw stones at alice, she’s always made fun of for hanging out with josh, one of these stones hits alice right on the head and he cries in pain “HEY!” josh turns and calls back to the boys “what’cha do that for?” he asks them, he starts to slowly approach them “heh, fun.” the tallest of the three replies, “what’s so FUN about it?!” as josh shouts louder and louder leaves start to come off the trees around him and as he gets closer to the boys and continues to shout the joyous laughter slowly starts to fade in their face. josh’s eyes had turned from their usual pale blue to an amber yellow he grabs the tallest boy in the group shouting into his face “WHY WOULD YOU THINK IT WAS FUNNY?” he screams. the boy stays silent in josh’s arms “WHY?!” josh starts to shake the boy, his eyes well up as he lets go of him and his body drops to the ground in front of him. josh falls to him knees, alice puts her hand on his shoulder as a tear appears in his eyes. the other two boys are long gone by now. the plant life behind josh is all dead, the trees are bare and the flower that was in alice’s hair has wilted. josh stands holds the flower in his hand “here” he wipes a tear from his eye “let me fix that” the flower in his hands turns back into it’s previously beautiful form. the sirens start to ring in the background, josh sits on a nearby wall. i’m a monster, aren’t i?

a car pulls up alongside josh “not a monster, you’re talented. special. come with me."

SuperHero Script first draft

X-MEN sound analysis

Music:

the music is playing all the way through the clip, from start to end.

the music plays all the way through to give a link between all of the video, it’s a constant through the video so we know it’s all one thing.

Dialogue: Speech happens at:

the dialogue is there is the scene to give us an idea of the characters, for example the way they speak and what kind of things they say can give us very detailed information on what kind of a person they are, for example rogue is very shy, we can tell this because of the way she speaks in the video.

0:04 - 0:05 wolverine saying “what is this place?”

0:12 - 0:13 kid saying “hey, no powers!”

1:06 - 1:07 storm saying “john!” and him replying with “sorry”

1:12 - 1:16 “hi i’m bobby, what’s your name?”

1:16 - 1:17 rogue: “rogue”

1:28 - 1:30 “welcome to mutant high”

Voice-over

The voice over is a mixture of diegetic and nondiegetic sound in this case, for example we know that logan can hear the professor speaking but the other’s can’t, but us as the viewer can, the voice over is giving us information just as it is logan too, we’re put into logan’s position and we get to learn everything we need to.

0:07 - 0:12

0:16 - 0:54

1:17 - 1:28

Sound Effects

the sound effects in the clip are used to give extra depth to the scene, the sound of the lighter at 0:48, the sound of the lighter is increased to add realism, It would be weird to us to not hear the sound of things that are added with CGI

0:06 - 0:09 basketball bouncing and running

0:15 basketball hitting the frame and going into hoop

0:22 - 0:24 woosh of plates being thrown

0:25 - 0:26 laser sounds from cyclops’ eye lasers

0:48 - 0:49  sound of a zippo lighter flicking and lighting

0:50 small fire woosh as it lights

0:58 - 1:00 ice crackling in the air as it freezes

1:02 the flames freezing and turning into a solid ice block

1:03 the ice shattering on the floor