Showreel

So here is my first ever Showreel! I've already had some great feedback on it, loads to change, but not before my interview tomorrow. Once Project Duplicity is done I shall make a new one with the the feedback I have had. Anyway enjoy!


Showreel 2011-2012 from Amy Carpenter on Vimeo.

Rough Showreel

So I have a rough version of my showreel up and ready for feedback. We have interviews on Thursday so it is imperative that I get it looking good before then. So far feedback is positive, but I kind of feel its not snappy enough. It's almost as if by making it more montagey, I'd loose the information I'm trying to convey. I think I may add some chilled out music to it, and make it feel like it should be slower. It's a shame we haven't got a shot in the bag for Project Duplicity yet, as that would go great in the showreel. I can not wait to start putting those shots together!

Feedback, is as ever, wonderful and incredibly useful. 

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.