12 Months of Films

So 12 months ago (sometime in December) I had a shiny new Cineworld card. I was intending to do monthly reviews but a) I saw far too many films to keep up with that work load, and b) My university work load was incredibly high to the point where some months I didn't leave my room.I have kept all my tickets with the intention of counting them up, but Cineworld saved me the effort by informing me that I have in fact saved £394 this year with my Cineworld Card. How many movies did I see for free? A lot.

So to finish off the subscription on a high, I want to highlight some of the best films I have seen this year, and suggest that you purchase dvds in the January Sales. Just a quick warning, this goes from Decemeber to December, so there may be some 2010 movies in here. Also I have not seen every movie this year, so if I have missed something it is possible I have not seen it!

So to commence.

Best VFX
As a Visual Effects Student, this category is of particular interest to me. There were a lot of movies that stood out this year as the quality gets better and better.

Nominated were:

• X-Men: First Class - human mutations and flying submarine amongst others. 
• Battle: Los Angeles - Shot after shot of battle action.
• Captain America - Incredible matte paintings and compositing.

Winner is Tron: Legacy - for an almost entire CG environment, and the experimental facial replacements.  

Best Actor
Not an easy category as a lot of the films we have seen this year rely on action and VFX rather than acting ability. However a few stood out.

• Ryan Gosling - For two contrasting characters in Drive and Crazy Stupid Love proving a range of skills. 
• Liam Neeson - For his role in Unknown, an experienced actor who can turn his hand to any role.

Winner is Asa Butterfield - Child actors are often the weak links in films, but Butterfield pulled off an incredibly moving role in Hugo that, in my opinion, made him top of my list.


Best Actress
Again, not an easy category. Some reoccurring faces this year were:

• Natalie Portman - In many films this year, varying from the intensity of the Black Swan to the hilarity of Your Highness.
• Michelle Rodriguez - For her role in Battle: Los Angeles.

Winner is Emma Watson - Hermione in Harry Potter. This actress has grown and matured on the big screen in front of our eyes and has become an incredible actress.


Outstanding Animal Contribution
They say never work with children or animals. But what about CG animals?

• Rio - For his great comedy timing and devotion to Jewel. Unfortunately the nasal quality to his voice and those Orange Adverts make him too annoying to win.  
• Hedwig - For his believable and emotional death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. 
• Po Panda - For his dedication to his training for the martial art sequences in Kung Fu Panda 2. 

Winner is Caesar - For his range of expression and learning to complete simple phrases in his role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.


Funniest Comedy

In my opinion, if it makes me laugh, then it is probably a good comedy. The nominated movies had me laughing out loud in the cinema, and so have made the short list.

• Inbetweeners - I had never seen the series, and was slightly worried that I would not "get it" but it was simple enough to catch up with and inspired me to watch the TV show... a lot. Very funny, not just for the hard core Inbetweeners fans, and such a shame this is the end of the franchise.
• Megamind - for hilarious use of music and genius comedy timing. It is not often we come down on the side of the bad guy but I definitely love this little blue fellow.

Winner is Bridemaids. Snort your drink and choke funny. I saw this several times once even at the Odeon and paid full price for a ticket! Shocking. If you haven't seen this movie you must. Not just a chick flick and covers all manner of comedy styles.


Scariest Horror

•  127 hours - A psychological thriller more than a horror, certainly terrifying to think this could happen to anyone, and certainly makes you think. I'll never leave my house without leaving a paper trail in my wake again. Great movie.
•  Saw: The Final Chapter - Gore more than horror. Better than some of its predecessors but still not a match to the original. 

Winner is Sanctum. I found this movie incredibly claustrophobic which made me feel uneasy from the start. The idea of being confined in a small space whilst struggling with cold and high waters is terrifying for me, which was accentuated but the use of 3D. Brilliantly tense movie, my buttocks were sore for the week following!

Most Disappointing

I generally dislike rubbishing movies in my reviews, as I argue that all films have something redeeming about them. However there were disappointing movies this year, which had the potential to be something great but seemed to fall somewhere along the line. The ones that spring to mind were.

•  Apollo 18 - The trailer for this looked positively creepy and unnerving. I was expecting something in the same league as Blaire Witch. Unfortunately it seemed quite long winded and dull, and by half time I was fidgeting and bored. Shame really as the concept is good.
•  Green Hornet - There was nothing wrong with this movie as such, the title sequences were brilliant and it was a humorous and easily watchable film, however it lacked the punch that the other comic-book movies seem to pack. I kind of hope they remake this film again someday in the future. 

Winner (or loser?) is Suckerpunch. Ok, this movie I could rant forever about. Such potential, such a great concept and cast, and what an awful outcome. At the end of the day it was more like a showcase for VFX (which were incredible by the way, utterly stunning, particularly the fight sequence on the train with the robots) but had little direction or plot. Such a shame.

Most Surprising
These movies I walked into with low expectations and was absolutely blown away.

• Super 8 - I hadn't really seen a trailer for this movie so wasn't really sure what it was about. I won't give too much away, but my word what a great film. 
• True Grit - I'm not a big fan of Westerns, and though I can spend many happy hour on Red Dead Redemption, I wasn't sure I liked the idea of a Western for a modern audience, but I really enjoyed this film. It followed the traditional storyline of a child looking for justice for their fathers death, but unusually it followed a young girl, who was braver than any lad in the west. A great cast with utterly moving acting. I can't recommend this film enough.

Winner is Drive. Awesome. Up there with Scarface. Not at all what I was expecting, but thrilled that it turned out the way it did!


Highly Commended
Not quite my film of the year, but on my must buy list (in fact, already bought list!)

• Ironclad - For a locally made, relatively low budget movie, this film has great production values. I'm not really sure on the story, but there were lots of fight sequences, castles blowing up and general mayhem. Great film, Assassin's Creed meets something awesome with lots of explosions...
• Attack the Block - What do you expect from Nick Frost, a brilliant look at the ASBO culture with some aliens thrown in for fun. 

Winner is Submarine. As far as I'm aware this film didn't originally make general release, and honestly the only reason I went to see it was because my best mate slept on my floor whilst working on this film. However, I was surprised at how brilliant this film was. A look at teenage angst infused with a dark humour that only us Brits can pull off. Wonderfully touching, go buy it. Now.


Best Film of the Year

There are many contenders for this title. I have seen many many movies, most of which are enjoyable and watchable. I'm not one to over analyze a film, and so the winner of this title is a movie I would see over and over and enjoy repeatedly.

• X-Men: First Class - Awesome VFX, action, and humour, the strongest of the X-Men series in my opinion.
• Captain America - The Marvel movies have been gradually increasing in intensity over the last few installments. What a penultimate episode. Bring on the Avengers.
• Black Swan - Beauty and substance over action. Stunning cinematography, and weirdly twisted storyline. Definitely a strong contender.
  

The Winner is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. What a movie. Enough said. 



I hope you have enjoyed my little award ceremony, I have had a great year at the cinema, and guess what. I got another Cineworld Unlimited Card for Christmas this year! See you in 12 months for another award ceremony!

Matte Painting: Rough Version 1

So I've been working on a matte painting for my opening shot. It is a panoramic view of the city below, with our hero crouched on some sort of high up platform or rooftop like in the computer game. This is pretty much how I want the layout, though the comping is still quite rough. Noise and grain are issues due to the quality of some of the images I am working with.

I have also put together a sketch for a market place type setting which I hope to use for the fight sequence on the ground. However more on that later.

Currently I am researching 3D projection and camera moves in After Effects. I feel I have a pretty good grounding on this already due to a very comprehensive lecture series we had last year. However it never hurts to go back over these things, and after watching a few tutorials I feel I've picked up a few handy tips which will help me on my way with this. My one dilemma is tracking the camera move. I am keen to do a camera move in the studio, and track this to a digital camera in After Effects, however I have yet to work out how to pull this off. 

Update and Research

It's been a while and a hectic week with organisation and planning happening for both this project and the Final Major Project next year. I've been looking at camera angles and scenery in both the Assassin Creed games and also in similar hero style films and TV shows. I've broken this project down into two main matte painting, an eagle view from above of the entire city, and a street view. Perhaps a few smaller paintings will be required, but I'm hoping the bulk of the green screen shots can be composited into these scenes. One thing for certain, is that the images will need to be big high resolution paintings, allowing me the scope to zoom in. I am also considering the need for lots of extras, as the town sequences are always busy, and the idea of a crowd parting for this battle to commence is appealing.

The fight sequence should happen in the same sort of environment that is within the games to connect the two concepts together. I have been looking at images from both high level and street level to get an idea of the sort of scenery I will require.

I really like the idea of the sandstone buildings with wooden stalls and hanging flags, though it may be difficult to source some of these images it is the sort of look I am going with. I also plan to play quite a bit with light, the contact lighting in my previous project worked really well, and I am keen to attempt to use it again. Setting this sequence at sunset will allow me to pull in the oranges and yellows which will contract the greens and whites of the salad cream bottle very nicely.

The leap at the beginning of the story board is a major factor, and getting that looking right is very important. I've already carried out tests using the slow motion and I am confident that I can get the effect, but I've been giving it a lot of thought as to how this needs to be framed and edited together. Obviously my actor will not be jumping off anything incredibly high (most likely a table) and so I really need to get a sense of height.

This Batman/OnStar commercial uses a similar idea to what I intend, fast cuts from different angles making it seem that he is falling a great distance. I particularly want a shot from under my actor as he jumps, however, I am not entirely sure how safe this will be in the studio. All I can do is bare all this in mind and get as much footage as I can on the day.

It is safe to say however that one of my matte paintings is well underway and the second in planning stages and looking hopeful. I'll keep you posted.

Interestingly, on my travels through cyber space, I discovered live action filming for Assassin's Creed.

It's definitely interesting to see!

Exciting Times

The pitch for the Design Competitions Project went rather well I thought, though I have yet to receive feedback for this yet.

Scarily, the animators were pitching their Final Major Projects yesterday, and Fin and I decided to go by and pitch an idea for our Final Major Project. I haven't posted much on here about it yet, as it is still several months away and we only have a loose concept to go on. However we know that we want some animated animals and where better to find them than at the animation pitches. 

It went well, I likened our project to "Pokemon meets Sin City" which got a murmur of interest. Fin and I worked all night the night before, putting together a short test to show them as we have in mind a shot, inspired by an sequence in iRobot that will really push us as VFX artists.

This sequence is very very rough, Fin put together the 3D elements and I did the matte painting, compositing and rotoscoping. Again I stress very rough, just one nights work, put together especially for this pitch.

Similar to the Golden Compass, and Pokemon, every character will have a fantasy animal companion. We need CG artists and animators to put together these characters to go with the live action human characters. So far we have had some interesting, this is very exciting times. I can't wait to see what we can do. 

Camera Move Test

Working on a camera move which uses the bursts of speed and slow motion.

Pitch

Tomorrow is the day of the pitch, so I have been working hard on my presentation. Hopefully it will go ok. I'll post feedback when I get it. I'm looking forward to being able to get going on this project.

More Slow Motion tests

Today I've been working on my pitch and slow motion tests. After the results of the previous test being too blurry due to the motion blur, I refilmed with a faster shutter speed to lower the motion blur. This proved to be a good idea, and significantly reduced the blurring at the point of the frozen moment.

I have also been researching fight scenes using this sort of editing. As much of my idea revolves around a fight sequence, I think it important to look at how this method fits into such scenes, and also how they are edited together and framed in camera. I have choreographed fight sequences before, but not for camera. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6y2r_uZNXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmmXO8-P9N0

After some research I put together a quick test to see if I could pull off similar effects. Looking ok for a first fight sequence test.

My next course of action is to storyboard the sequence, particularly the fight sequence, paying attention to composition and editing. I also need to put together a schedule. The green screen studio is so full even after Christmas, so it will be difficult to get the time in. Once the studio is booked everything will have to be organised around it.

Slow Motion Tests

With the pitch days away, I have been working on some tests. Though I have yet to complete storyboards for this project, I know that I want some slow motion action, and so I thought it necessary to work out how to do this before I moved forward. If this proves too time costuming and problematic, it might be worth rethinking the idea completely.

So after some stress I managed to book out the green screen studio for two evenings to work on some footage for the tests. A small team of us went in to do some jumping shots, which I could then take into After Effects and work on doing a frozen moment at the peak of the jump.

Using the following method on Twixtor, I produced a reasonable slow motion shot.

Obviously, this is not the costume for the real shoot, it will be creams and browns, however I wanted to see how Twixtor dealt with the flowing cape. There are a few issues with this however, most notably the motion blur which means the point of stand still is slightly blurred. My only option it seemed, was to go back into the studio and film with a faster shutter speed to see if I got a sharper image. I shall keep update you on my findings later today.

We also took the opportunity to audition some actors. For this project I require a peasant woman/girl to be saved by our hero. So we met Nicola, one of the actors to answer our advertisements and do some work with her on the green screen.

She was very easy to work with, a great actress and I think would work well as a "damsel in distress"type character. We had some male actors also coming in to audition the following day for the male positions, however due to the strike transport was difficult for most of them and we called it off.

Watch this space for more project updates.

Slow Motion Fight Scenes

I've been browsing Vimeo, looking for some nice methods of doing slow motion fight scenes. It seems there are three different methods.

1. Film at a frame rate and then do magic on Twixor. Having looked at some of the speeds out there is seems I would need to film at about 2000fps to achieve the look I want. My camera shoots at 50fps. This does allow to slow the speed by half, and maybe with the use of Final Cut Pro, half it again without it looking to jittery but I will have to experiment with this.

2. Take photos to hold for several frames. Really not sure if this is the look I am aiming for, but again experimentation is key.

3. Take still images and map it to a 3D and add a digital camera move.  Almost certainly not.

Tests will ideally follow, to experiment with the first two methods. Though having read about the method for the third film, which was really clever, but over complicated for the look I want to achieve. I'd like to be able to get into the green screen studio before the pitch date to see how some of this will work. Unfortunately, it seems it is pretty much fully booked for the next two weeks, so that may be optimistic. 

Another Day Another Project

This week we received a new assignment brief. Effectively it boils down to us producing a competition entry for one of the design awards on D&AD or YCN. Most of these are motion graphic/advertising briefs which isn't really the direction I wanted to go towards as my showreel needs to be catered for the VFX industry. Because of this I decided I needed a cool way to get VFX into an advertisement. The first example of this that springs to mind, is the Star Wars/Currys adverts.

I love these adverts, and using blockbuster film style VFX, combined with humour to make a brand seem cool really appealed to me. The brief that would allow me to produce something like this was the one for Heinz Salad Cream. This requires a quirky advertisement to make Heinz Salad Cream appeal to the 18-29 year olds. What I wanted out of this brief, was to be able to produce something with a fight sequence, green screen/compositing and matte painting.

When considering the things that appealed to 18-29 year olds, my mind instantly went to computer games, night clubs and fashion. The latter two seemed to lack the possibility for VFX so computer games became the obvious choice.

After looking at some trailers for popular computer games, I decided I really like the slow motion fight scenes in the Assassins Creed trailers.

This gave me the idea of an Assassins Creed style advertisement, starting with a lone hooded figure standing atop of a tall build looking over the city (matte painting). It's a typical Assassin Creed style landscape, hot and exotic city surrounded by mountains. He hears a scream and leaps down to the streets below to find a woman being mugged by several men. A close up fight sequence ensues combining slow motion and bursts of speed. Instead of a knife, he's using a squirty bottle of salad cream to take out the attackers.There's no blood, only salad cream across faces and on the screen. When the attackers are all flat out on the ground he turns to the woman holding her sandwich protectively to her. He offers her the salad cream and she smiles.

Heinz Salad Cream - Your Secret Weapon.

And At Last...

I have finally finished my list of adjustments, and completed my final edit. My project is now complete! I have also put together some shot breakdowns, unfortunately I have run out of space on vimeo and will not be able to upload them until next week (I will hand them in with my project however so no worries there). There is however space for one very low resolution copy of my final edit. Enjoy!

This project is by far the best piece of work I have ever produced, and allowed me to push my skill set to the maximum. Shots have been put together in Photoshop, After Effects and Maya, allowing me to work in both 2D and 3D. 

I'd like to thank everyone who helped out in this project. Particularly Christopher Hansford, my actor, and  Finlay Duncan who was very helpful in the green screen studio and has a great critical eye. The tutors at my university and the guys on CG Coach provided excellent feedback which helped me take my work to a new level.

I'm very pleased that I managed to complete everything on my list a day ahead of schedule, even if I did venture away from initial work schedule due to reshoots, and the detailed feedback from CG Coach. The only two shots which I wish I could work on more are the close up of the face and the magic blast shots. I'm happy with the VFX work, I just wish I would have been able to get a reshoot as the footage was not quite as I wanted it. The expression on the face of my actor in the flying shot is too relaxed, and in the magic blast shot there are a few issues with blurring and grain. Also I felt that because all the other shots around it are moving, a static shot was a jolt to the flow. A reshoot would allow me to perhaps frame it closer and add a camera move. However, this is most likely the best work I have produced to date and so I am very happy with what I have managed to do. Fingers crossed for a good grade. Bring on the next project! :) 

Development: Before and After

With one day left to go, and only a few finishing touches let to make, I thought it would be interesting to look back over my project and really see how far it has come. This is the most elaborate piece of work I have ever attempted and I am really pleased with my development on a technical and artistic level.

A Homage To Harry Potter

As the film is a major inspiration and influence to my project, my text choice is a homage to the movies.

Flying Shot Breakdown

This is how the magic is performed!

Feedback + Updates

So it's the final week and I have a list as long as your arm of alterations I want to make before the hand in date. It may be a little optimistic but I hope to get them all done.

Shot 1, 2+3 - Colour grade match: the skies are different colours they all need to match up.
Shot 01 - Fix ripple sizes: too large,
            - castle perspective and sharpness stands out.
Shot 02 - Sharpen facial feature, add lightning, soften rain on lens.
            - Reshoots not possible due to the busy schedule of the green screen studio.
Shot 03 - Direct rain more towards the lens, add flapping noise, animate character more/more movement.
Shot 04 - Matte painting lacks focus and needs refining.
Shot 05 - Not finished.
Shot 06 - Possible lighting issues.
Shot 07 - Add shadow behind the door, something is alive back there.
             - Darken corridor add wand contact light on wall.
Shot 10 - Not finished.

I'm going to have to prioritise and focus my time on the hero shots, and work through the list.

Rough Edit v01

This is a rough edit of my project as the shots stand at this moment. I have a list of tweaks and changes to make for each shot, some longer than others. I am still looking for feedback so I can perfect each shot as well as the editing. My style of editing has been inspired by the teaser trailer style of editing seen at the end of TV shows such as Doctor Who, Merlin and Misfits. Hopefully this will have an impact as well as portraying the creepy intensity that I am trying to get across.

The feet shot, is being of particularly difficulty to me due to the shadows and grain, and requires rotoscoping. This is quite consuming and as this is not one of the hero shots of the piece may well be dropped if time constraints make it difficult for me to complete on time. My main focus needs to be on the magic blast shot, which at this point stands out amongst the other shots. Though I am quite happy with the VFX, the colour grade, brightness and sharpness are significantly different from the rest of the shoot.

Big Video Update

After a week without any Vimeo space I am finally back and uploading my work. I apologise for the resolution of some of the videos, I am trying to save as much space as possible so I can post tweaks and updates throughout the rest of the week.

This week has been very busy. I have been doing a Final Cut Pro intensive course to get my Apple Accreditation whilst juggling my project with a deadline next week. I've managed to put together a castle matte painting and a 3D corridor in Maya.

This shot is an updated version of the flying shot, with colour grading fixed and a few other minor issues. It is looking much better now.

This shot is to be cut into the wizard creeping down the corridor scene. This is what he is creeping towards, a big ominous door with some sort of beastie behind it. The door was made in Maya and integrated into the corridor matte painting using After Effects. The lighting and colour grade in this needs  some work but this is not bad for an early run through.

The final project a supposed to be a promo, which is why I have added some text to the end of this shot. The font in this is NOT the font I will use in the final project, but I am looking for something a little distorted which I can texture.

This shot is a castle matte painting to go with my establishing shot matte painting. This is the destination of the hero character whilst flying on his broom. This is a first run through for this matte painting so there is still work to be done, but this is the overall look I am going for. Comments and feedback is much appreciated.

Next week will be dedicated to tweaking my existing shots to make them look the best they can, and editing them into a promo trailer and adding music and sound effects. Fingers crossed this turns out awesome!

Second Corridor Sequence

As part of my storyboard, I had my hero character creeping down a dark corridor toward an ominous door. The door bursts open revealing whatever that is behind this door, and the character falls back and the sequence ends. This posed a bit of a problem, as obviously I can great still shots of castle doors, and did in fact when I went on my trip to Caerphilly, but footage of one bursting forward is more difficult to get hold of. Because of this (and the reasons I described yesterday) I turned to 3D. At the moment I can not upload any videos to Vimeo, but I thought I'd share some still images from my sequence to show you what I have managed to do.

Obviously this is not the finished article, I am hoping to insert some atmospherics and smoke, possibly some flickering and a light halo from the heroes wand in the foreground. I'm also considering altering the door animation, so that one door flies off, as if something huge and scary has attacked it from behind. This however will be very reliant on time, as rendering this shot was lengthy and there is only one week to go. Panic stations!

3D Elements

I'm hard at work at the moment, wrestling with footage that is far too grainy, working on a matte painting which my muse just won't let me finish and waiting patiently for Maya to finish rendering. Personally I prefer working in 2D, I feel much more in control with Photoshop and After Effects, so much so that thinking about Maya makes me break out in cold sweats. In my mind however, to call myself a visual effects artist, I feel I should at least be able to jump into Maya and know my way around and produce something that is at least semi decent. Because of the overwhelming need to prove to myself that I can do this, I have opted to do one of the elements of my project in Maya. So far i have produced an ocean (one which I am rather happy with) and this week, I have modelled, textured, bump mapped and rendered an animated swinging door. To someone who works in 3D, this may not sound massively impressive, but for me this is quite an achievement. More so when I incorporate this into my corridor matte painting and thus finishing my project!

Texturing in Maya has always kind of stumped me, I love the idea of producing cool and elaborate textures in Photoshop, but the getting them into Maya and onto the 3D shape is somewhat difficult, files always seem to be too small, or warp when wrapped and generally look rubbish. This week however I have been looking into UV mapping, which works brilliantly. This involves exporting the net of the 3D shape into Photoshop (weeee! :) ), putting the texture straight onto the net and putting it back in Maya. Somehow Maya knows exactly what it is, and wraps it perfectly. It worked really well, though still looked suspiciously like a 3D rectangle with an image on it. To give it that realistic look one has to use a bump map, which adds the sensation of a groove into dark areas and bumps into lighter areas, making an object, such as my door, seem weathered and real.

Watch this space for the final rendered image!

Flying Shot v03 and Spell Test 06

Currently I am having issues with Vimeo, it won't let me upload any more videos, it seems I have reached my upload limit! However, this doesn't mean I am taking the day off. I have received some feedback on my flying shot, the main issues seem to regard colour grading and warping the shadows. I have been working on this shot this evening, focusing on these issues.

Though I haven't got a video to show you, this still gives you an idea of the alterations to the colour grading. I have also added a slight motion blur to the water near to the camera, made the rain more three dimensional and matched the movement of the clouds to the movement of the water. Hopefully I can upload a video soon!

I have also been working on magic test. This is something I have been working on from the very beginning, (Previous Tests) I have gone through various methods from particles in Maya to fractal noise in After Effects. I am now experimenting with particles and fire footage in After Effects. The overall result it much improved but not there yet.

Just to point out this is still a test and the colour grading and keying on this is still very rough. I added the wall texture to see how all the aspects worked together as a composition. 

Trailer Editing Research

I started out with a rough idea of how I wanted the narrative for the trailer to go, but I thought it was important to research trailer editing to make sure I get the most of my shots.

I started in the obvious place, the Harry Potter trailers.

I particularly like the pace to this trailer, with slow ambient establishing shots, and then into action. Similarly, the Merlin trailer follows the same sort of formula, and despite being a commercial for a TV show, it has the same sort of epic feel to it.

It seems that trailers need to give an idea of the story, without giving the story away, showcase great shots and promise the viewer more. Definitely an editing challenge with the fantasy genre.

Flying Shot

This was perhaps the most difficult shot to pull off. It is very different from my original plan for this sequence, however I think it came out looking ok considering. It still needs a bit of work, perhaps some motion blur on the water and more keying on the brush, but certainly a good start for this scene.

Matte Painting V01

For the establishing shot I need a matte painting introducing the location of the castle where the beastie is lurking. Now originally, I was going to do this in one long sweeping shot, following the wizard on his broom stick as he flies toward his destination. However, I have opted to split this up in shorter shots. The first off being a wide shot of the location, next introducing the characters and then a shot flying towards the castle.

This is my first attempt at the matte painting for the establishing wide shot. Vimeo have compressed the blacks a little too much losing detail in the water. There are still some teething issues with this matte painting, feedback would be incredible.

Wizard Light Spell Shot

I've been working hard on the light spell shot, and managed to get two versions out in 24 hours.

Both have extra atmospherics, lens flares and altered colour grades, though I feel version 4 is the best out of the lot and probably how I will leave this shot for my project. 

For a quick look at how this shot has changed I have screen grabbed the final frame of each version and put them together for easy contrast. It is easy to see without looking at all the videos how this shot has changed over the last week.

Wizard Flight Shot Closeup

I have been lucky enough to get feedback on this so quickly that I have two versions to upload at once! A big thank you to everyone involved in that.

I can't help but think that if the character was flying into a storm he might be squinting against the weather more, and so I plan to reshoot towards the end of this project if there is time and other reshoots required. 

Light Spell Reshoot V02

After receiving some feedback on my reshoot, I have made some alterations. I've added atmospherics and falling dust, reduced the light spill on the walls, added a light flicker to make it feel more organic and added a slight camera rotation as he moves up the corridor. It's looking much better now but still room for improvements.

I've already received more feedback and a V03 will be uploaded soon. Watch this space!

Canon 550D: Grain vs Depth of Field

So, as I had invested in a Canon 550D last year, I thought I would take advantage of it for my film project. I've been experimenting with the film settings on it since I purchased it, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to test it in the green screen studio. All my footage this term so far has been filmed on my 550D, and each time I have run into issues.

First off, for green screen work, particularly when tracking, it is important to have a crisp image with high depth of field. One MUST have the subject and the track markers in focus or tracking becomes a nightmare. After some reading, I discovered increasing the F-Stop (reducing the aperture) lengthens the depth of field.

Perfect, you would think, but no.

Though this did do as promised, it also meant that the image was far too dark. There are two ways to deal with this:
1. To dramatically increase the lighting.
2. Increase the ISO number.

Now as we were in a studio we were able to increase the lighting to an extent, however, it was also necessary to increase the ISO. This brought its own problems. Grain.

Grain is a nightmare, it makes keying difficult and the footage looks awful. Noise reduction plugins are available, but often make the image look out of focus.

The answer?

There isn't one, you have to compromise.

Lower the F-stop, so the green screen is less in focus, but using bright orange track markers makes tracking easier.

Reduce the ISO reduces grain, with the lower F-stop the image isn't as dark.

Increase the lighting to allow for the highest F-stop and lowest ISO possible.

In the end the footage looked ok. I used a neutral flat setting so the footage on it's own looks rubbish, but once taken into post the keying is easier and the noise easily removed. In hindsight it would probably have been much easier to use the Z7 for studio work, as it has a much higher depth field so these issues are irrelevant.

Light Spell Reshoot

This weekend I reshot all of the test footage that I had accumulated over the last few weeks to ensure my project is perfect. This is a rough attempt at the spell shot, just to see how the matte painting and footage work together with the VFX. The key is a little rough and I need to rotoscope out the track markers. I'm still not sure about the shadow. There needs to be one, but I think the angle is a little off, feedback on that would be appreciated. Thoughts on the VFX element would also be good.

Reshoots and Stock Images

This weekend has been a busy one, with two full days in the green screen studio and a trip to Caerphilly to increase my file of castle stock images for my matte painting. Since then I have been hard at work putting together images in Photoshop and keying and rotoscoping in After Effects. I hope to be back on schedule by the end of the week.

Schedule and Feedback

I've neglected to post my latest schedule which I used in my pitch, this is as follow:

However we are already off schedule due to reshoots taking place this weekend. However I have a nailed down starboard as posted yesterday and the matte painting 1 is on schedule so it should not be too much of an issue.

I have had some great feedback from Jakub Krompolc, who worked on the Harry Potter movies, and Kayn Garcia, a storyboard artist on Walking with Dinosaurs, which have really pushed me forwards in terms of composition. A big thanks to them.

Hopefully great things to follow on the project. Watch this space.

Final Storyboards

I have nailed down the final shots and put them together in a storyboard made up of stock images and stills from my test footage. This should mean our film shoot on Sunday and Monday will go off without a hitch. I am off to Caerphilly Castle on Saturday to get some images for my matte paintings.

This story follows a young wizard sent on a quest to battle a beast lurking in the bottom of a ruined castle. This is just an into promo and not the entire film, and is supposed to create an atmosphere of suspense and fear.

When putting together this storyboard I really had to work on my composition, my aim was to make every cell beautiful so that my final product will look great from start to finish.

Research : Matte Painting

One thing that came up in my meeting today, is that my Castle seems to safe. The comments made were that it needed to seem dangerous and away from the norm. I was looking at ways to make it feel more organic, as if the castle was grown rather than built by a person. Lord of the Rings have several beautiful examples of this, with castles and cities built in the side of rock faces and into tree.

Shots of three very different cities, and yet they all seem to be built out of their surroundings. Of particular interest to me in the tower in Mordor, which is dark and dangerous with something evil lurking within, which is definitely the sort of effect I am trying to simulate. Also, Minas Tirith is also of interest, as it is surrounded by incredibly high walls, a fortress that can never be breached. In my recent tests for my matte painting I have been concentrating on these sorts of high walls, and would like to continue with this sort of effect.