Development: New Spell Test and Texture Research

Busy day again today, I have a new test which I have uploaded which you can see below.

The spell part of it is looking quite good now, the lighting in the footage sells it better and with a lens flare and possibly some extra atmospherics this will look good. The key is rough and I am working on a 3D corridor to composite into the shot to give it a bit more texture.

My 3D work is simple, but I am really trying to nail the texturing so have been researching bump maps to give it that extra realism.

I found this on http://www.marcogenovesi.com/gallery/ and I thought the finished result looked great!

Pitch Feedback

I pitched my idea this afternoon to my class mates and 4 members of staff. Once I work out how to upload a powerpoint I shall post it here but in the mean time I shall just ruminate on the results. My feedback was surprisingly positive. I got a few suggestions on things to look at and also some tips on After Effects plugins I can use to get my wizard spell effects.

One of my classmates also pointed me towards the following video which is incredibly helpful for creating a spell effect without plugins and will possibly work with my bank of stock footage. I shall test this this week, along with finalising a storyboard and putting together a rough edit, complete with sound effects of my short film.

The general consensus was to nail the matte painting and the compositing, and really work to create the intense feelings that comes with the story. Extra film shoots will be required but I have plenty of footage to be getting on with for the moment and will be refilming as soon as the studio is free again.

Update

The pitch for my Minor Project A is tomorrow, and I have been working on that pretty solidly. Aside from two slides it is now complete and ready to hand in tomorrow. Tonight we have the green screen studio booked out and we are heading in armed with props and costumes ready for the real run for the filming. Frightening but fun. Watch this space.

Schedule

Week 1 - 26/9/11

Idea generation

Research

Obtain footage for tests

Work on tests

Week 2 - 5/10/11

Develop tests

Develop ideas

Further Research

Storyboards

Select an idea

Week 3 - 12/10/11

Break down shot by shot tasks 

Write shot schedule

Pitch Deadline

Tomorrow I will be breaking down each shot into tasks so I can write a structure schedule for the next few weeks of production. We have the studio booked out for Monday to film in, and I am taking a trip to Caerphilly Castle this weekend to take photos of the external and internal structure for research purposes.

The pitch is to be handed in on Tuesday, I'm incredibly nervous now!

Idea 3: Student Support

Idea 3: Student Support


Idea 3: My other main idea, is an advertisement for a student counselling service. As a high school student, I was involved in the Student Support Team, which was a counselling service for students run by students. My idea involes following an individual who is slightly out of sync with his environment. This would involve a lot of rotoscoping and matte painting.

Samaritans advert by CentralSouth

I liked the idea of combining the illustrative and real life to visually create the effect of being out of step with reality. I wanted to take a character and make him and take away the colour and the detail, he could be anyone. This would require a lot of rotoscoping and matte painting.

These are just ideas and not so much a storyboard, but the main two shots are I think, the standing outside the window and the skyscraper shot. I did however think that these maybe a little cliched and may not be saved by the effects I wanted to use within the shots.

Idea 2 - Comic-book Hero

Today I am going into post overload. I have been out the last few days taking photos and working on storyboards and so have fallen behind on my blogging. First things first, I need to post all my ideas as the wizard sequence is not the only idea I have for this project.

Idea 2: Having spent my entire summer researching comic-books for my dissertation, I decided I wanted to incorporate this into my creative work. This would involve inventing my own comic books character, story and art.

I started off in the usual place, brain storming, but I wanted something a little different. Having developed a better understanding of comic-books, I realised that most were invented during a time of patriotism and heroism. Modern popular media characters, such as Dexter, House, Sylar from Heros, and the Jedi, are less reliant on strength and more famous for their intelligence, attention to detail and putting together pieces of the puzzle. My idea for a modern super hero, is one who can use super intelligence to solve crime. In the guise of a street performer, he can create illusions to blow peoples minds, but never uses his powers for evil.

Above are the brainstorms for characters and potential scenes to be carried out. Below are the initial character sketches for the magician character. 

However for this idea to really be pulled off, the costume needs to be perfect and this will require a budget outside of my financial situation however, this could be a contender for the Final Major Project. 

Research and Tests: Castles

If I do manage to get the spell effects looking good, then I will obviously need to place the character in some kind of environment and storyline. This will require a certain amount of matte painting and/or 3D structure. I have a few ideas for matte paintings, all requiring a castle and so I have undertaken some research on castle structure, both in real life and tv/film.

The castle closest to my location is obviously Cardiff Castle which would be ideal for base images for the matte painting. There are also a number of churches in Cardiff which are also useful. Particularly one just off the high street which has gorgeous arch windows which could be taken advantage of for looking through onto scenes or creating the sense on a hall way.

I have also been watching Harry Potter and Merlin avidly to get a sense of what a castle in a magical/wizard setting would look like. Camelot in the early series of Merlin for example is all spires and bright white stone surrounded my trees and greenery. Yet in later series, it is much darker, and in a state of disrepair.

Similarly, Hogwarts started out much like Camelot in the series of Merlin, and as the films have gone on this has become darker and moodier. This is emphasised by the dark clouds and stormy weather.  I believe this is to suggest the increased level of danger and also the maturing of the characters within. It certainly creates a higher level of intensity which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

My own ideas for the Wizard sequence would involve an external shot, perhaps a wizard in flight around the spire of a castle, and also an internal shot perhaps creeping down dark hallways and casting spells that light up the ceilings and cast shadows against the walls. I particularly like the dark and frightening sense of danger that is present in the later episodes of Merlin and Harry Potter and would like to try and recreate this in my own design, perhaps with destruction and disrepair evident on the castle itself.

My VFX shots still require work, however I also need to start developing a few other ideas I have, including an advert for a Student Counselling Service, and one or two other stand alone VFX shots.