Spider Legs

We had a little problem with this scene when we tried to track in 3D and again being pressed for time I suggested perhaps we could try compositing in 2D. So I went ahead and had a go with it to see how it turned out.

I tried to track the scene in After Effects but it was quite difficult because there were no tracking markers in the scene so I had to make do with finding points in the scene that I could track.

I have never tracked in After Effects before so I have learnt a new skill from doing this short piece so even if this sequence isn't used I learnt a lot from doing it and I enjoyed doing it. Its made me want to learn more about After Effects and what it can do.

So all I did in this scene was track it and then from Photoshop import some spider legs I quickly drew into the composition. I parented them to the tracking layer and animated them with puppet points to make them move slightly.

I'm kinda happy with the scene I did. Probably more so that I learnt some new skills more than the outcome of the scene. I did try my best with what little time we had. It wasn't liked by the group much, I tried the best I could with what little time we had and the limited skills I have.

Credits

I decided to make a short title/credit sequence for our video. Its nothing too over the top I just thought it would be good to have one after our last project that didn't have one.

I just made a simple sequence on After Effects for our group, with all our names on it. Whether or not we use them yet is to be determined. But they are there if they are needed.

I was happy with the outcome of the credits, they were simple and easy to make. I made all the images on Photoshop and Illustrator and imported them into After Effects. I went through about 4 different music tracks until I picked one that seemed to suit out theme best. Whether or not it will be chosen by the group yet I don't know. But its there if its needed.

Spider Animation

Here is a quick play blast of the spider animation I did for our project. I'm not entirely happy with it. It was a lot harder than I was expecting I didn't think it would be so hard. But for my first ever attempt at making a spider walk I'm just glad I got all the legs moving.




I'm not completely happy with it. But we were quite pressed for time and I spent a lot long on the animation than I thought I would. The model and the rig were made by Dominique so I had to wait for those before I stared animating. All of us learnt something new on this project so it was good practice. I understand how a spider walks a bit more than previously. But I still hate the little buggers.

I couldn't apply the animation to the tracking as I had trouble opening it with the tracking so, again being pressed for time, I had to animate something because I had never animated a spider. So after animating the spider I gave it to Oly to add to the tracking. We then came across a problem, the spider was ten times bigger than the tracking scene, so after panicking a little Oly managed to solve the problem and managed to finish off the scene.

Incy Wincy Spider

I've been tasked with animating the spider for our project....I hate spiders. I hate the way they walk and I have to watch videos on them walking so I can produce a convincing animation.

I am not enjoying this. Its freaking me out >.<



I looked at some simple animation tests to get an idea as to how a spider actually moved. It looks a lot more complicated that it actually is. After watching loads of videos I noticed that the spider moves its legs in pairs.



I liked this one because it slowed down half way so I could see what was happening. This helped in seeing how a spider walked.



This is of an actual spider. I noticed how it walks a bit then stops. Then walks some more an stops. its quite erratic. Spiders don't walk then keep on walking like a human they walk a bit then stop for a while.



This tutorial was really helpful for me and I learnt a lot from it, it helped to to see which legs moved when. I've never animated more than 2 legs before so this was a bit of a challenge for me.

More Filming

These are some photos of when were were testing out shots for our "real world" scenes. We did this on 2 seperate days because we needed the extra time to plan out shots and get used to a new camera. We were useless with it.

 Deon testing some close ups of the shoot. We had a lot of trouble getting the camera exposure right.

 The background noise. we were also there to make it look like there was a class going on even though everyone had gone home for the day.

 Deon taking time out of his busy schedule to check his phone.

Another one of our amazing make shift contraptions for wheeling the camera around. this was so we could get a high shot of the class. This was from our second day of filming so more of the class were in and it helped us to create a more convincing atmosphere.

Our New Ideas

We wanted to adapt the poem to make it more of a story and to give it more of a narrative. We also wanted to modernise it slightly for our project.

-We removed the Curds and Whey
-The spider is now a person
-To run away from the spider "Miss Muffet" escapes into her own mind but is drawn back and then tries to physically run away
-Miss Muffet now attends University

For her fantasy world we wanted to take influence from Tim Burton's style, namely from his version of Alice in Wonderland. We liked his take on the story and the style he used for Wonderland.

We liked the unusual colours and the creepy style scenery. This is the kind of effect we would like to get for our fantasy worlds.

We also thought to emphasise the nursery rhyme theme, we thought to perhaps put in hints from other nursery rhymes, like how we got Oly to wear red in our real world shoots as a hint towards "Little Red Riding Hood". We were also thinking about using a certain music score which is a different version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" which was used in the game "Dead Space".

Green Screen

These are some photos I took whilst we were shooting our fantasy world scenes for our film.

Oly pulling a face whilst we were sorting out the camera for filming :P

Oly sometimes forgot that we were filming....in fact she forgot a lot.

Sarah then waving at the others, whist Gareth fiddles with the camera......we were actually useless with it.

Our make shift camera dolly. Sarah on a wheelie chair that me and Ashley stole from the university. Ashley was the camera zoom. It was fun doing these scenes because the kept crashing into Oly and making her laugh during an important scene.

Actress and the crew :P We had a lot of fun filming and enjoyed ourselves, it was a shame we only got one day in the studio :(

Another angle of our amazing new invention made from a camera, tripod, two people and a wheelie chair.

One of the low shots we took, we tried with Sarah lying on the floor but in the end we put it on the tripod. I also had to give Oly my shoes as hers were the same colour as the floor and would have messed up our CG. I got very cold feet for about half an hour. The things I do for work.

We were on a very tight schedule when it came to our filming, we got our days mixed up and had only one day to film in the TV studio, so we were all quite stressed because we wanted to get all our filming done and not have to worry about it, plus we wanted to be better scheduled than when we worked on our last project where time management wasn't our strong point.

Wardrobe!!!

 This was the dressed we used for our fantasy scenes, out of all the choices we had my dress was chosen as it was the most appropriate for what we were going for in our scenes. Unfortunately my dress didn't fit Oly and wouldn't zip up completely at the back, so we covered that up with a white jacket that Sarah provided.

I also got the awesome job of holding the hideously expensive camera tape. My other job was to help Oly change jackets for our transition shot, I was useless at it and I was surprised I didn't get fired and I missed my mark about three times.

Final Idea

Once the team had gone through some ideas we settled on Oly's idea of using the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet"

I was a little upset we weren't going to use my idea but I liked Olys idea, it was different and interesting. The poem had structure and a story to it so we just had to build upon the idea

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey,

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away

Origins and history of the Nursery Rhyme (from Google):

Little Miss Muffet was a small girl whose first name was Patience. Her father, Dr. Muffet, was an entomologist (someone who studies insects). Whilst eating her breakfast one day she was frightened by one of his spiders and ran away! This particular Nursery Rhyme reputedly dates back to the late 16th century! Unlikely story!

Here is another version of the origin of the poem (from Wikipedia):

The rhyme first appeared in print in 1805, in a book titled Songs for the Nursery. Like many such rhymes, its origins are unclear. Some claim it was written by Dr. Thomas Muffet (d.1604), a sixteenth-century English entomologist, for his stepdaughters; others claim it refers to Mary, Queen of Scots (1543–87), who was said to have been frightened by religious reformer John Knox (1510–72). The former explanation is speculative and the latter is doubted by most literary scholars, who note that stories linking folk tales or songs to political events are often urban legends

Initial Ideas

When we were still deciding on our initial ideas I originally decided on perhaps a Scott Pilgrim theme. I had recently watched the film " Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" and I loved how it was filmed and the special effects.

I loved how the film had scenes from the comic book and had comic book aspects.



I didn't necessarily want to do a fight scene but this clip I found kinda has all the aspects of the film that I liked. I love how over the top it is and the "KAPOW" and stuff that makes it comic book style.

Some of the team liked my idea but it wasn't liked by all members, it had potential but it would have taken us a while to finalise an idea as the "Scott Pilgrim" theme wasn't a stable enough starting point from my teams eyes.

We also thought about perhaps using a cel shaded theme for our work. We liked the idea and took influence from A Scanner Darkly and Sin City.

A Scanner Darkly


We liked the use of cell shading in this. To create this effect they Rotoscoped live action footage. We could have done this but its very very time consuming, and with such a short time frame with which to produce our work we probably wouldn't have enough time to produce a fully Rotoscoped piece of work.

Sin City


We liked the film noir style of Sin City, we also liked how it was comic book themed liked Scott Pilgrim albeit a lot darker.

New Project - Brief

The structure of this brief will be in three main sections.

· Film production and editing techniques
· 3D compositing techniques
· Formatting requirements of Broadcast output

Through a series of lectures and workshops you will be introduced to the theoretical and practical interrelation of film production, editing, post production and visual effects;

In the first few weeks you will be encouraged to form groups and assemble from live action footage a short piece designed to be integrated with 3D elements. You will be introduced to essential digital effects techniques and group working.

You are also required to produce an individual piece of work incorporating live action and 3d animation (to be agreed individually with your tutor).

In the middle section of the unit you will be introduced to the skills and techniques necessary to successfully integrate 3D content.

The last few weeks of the project will concentrate on developing your editing techniques as well as utilizing the effects available to you on yourcompositing software. You will also be introduced to industry workflow practices such as filing conventions and formatting requirements for broadcast content.

Go Teeeeam!

Go Team Alpha Super Awesome Cool Dynamite Wolf Squadron!

Deon Litchmore
Dominique Koomoshan
Gerome Oldfield
Olivia Walters
Sarah Strickland
Ashley Umanee
and Me :P

New project, same group plus one :P