P01's JANINE ONG,
Basically for MGE tutorial/labs.


• Tuesday, 20 August 2013 •
MGE Project 2 // posted at 07:54

Our MGE project 2 - DARE.

 Storyboard





Synopsis

Rahidah lost a bet to her friends and was dared to enter an abandon house on her own. Before she entered the house, she received a text message from a person called Mary but Mary is not one of her friend’s names. Thinking that her friends have changed one of their contact numbers to the name “Mary”, she replied to tell them that it is not funny. She then entered the house and to her horror, many unexpected things happened.

Before she could even explore the whole house, something very weird happened which caused her wanting to leave the house. She realized that she did not know where the exit of the house is and started panicking.


Finally she found her way out but she felt that she was cursed for life.


The scenes that i need to edit: 

Scenes
Description of scene
A

Scenario: Rahidah lost a bet to her friends and was dared to enter an abandoned house as she was known as the “daredevil” within the clique. Hence, she agreed without hesitating and she went to the abandoned house thereafter.

1. Rahidah walked a long distance and finally reached the front of the house, she stared upon the house and felt weird.

2. She then received a message from Mary saying “On the laptop when you enter”, but Rahidah doesn’t know anyone name Mary so she thought it was a prank.

3. She then entered the house and looked around but did not find a laptop. She came upon a flight of stairs and went up to look for the laptop.

4. She found the laptop and she was shocked because the laptop suddenly turned on itself with a heart monitoring sound. This made her felt weird about the laptop.

5. Suddenly the heart monitor stopped as if nothing happened.

In project 2, there a few effects that i've used for the introduction and the heart monitor.

Introduction:


To make this "cloudy" and smoke feel, i followed the tutorial from videocopilot. And in this tutorial, i've learnt a few new effects that i've never used before. 

1) color rama: The color rama effect is implemented to change the color of the smoke so that it can suit my project background. The smoke was originally in black.

The original smoke:



2) Turbulent displace: To make the smoke distort in order for it to look realistic in my video.


In this section, there a few effects that i've used:

1) Position wiggle: it is applied to the word "Dare". i just multiply the wiggle position to the time by click on alt. + position's stopwatch. This position wiggle, i learnt it from the "Earthquake" tutorial from video copilot which i find useful for my project 2. The position wiggle allow my text to look "spooky" which suits my project theme well.

2) Text typewriter: act as a transition to the text. The text is being "typed out" when they enters the frame. 

3) CC Pixel Polly: Acts an transition to the text for it to disappear from the screen. It will split into many tiny pixels while transiting out of the frames. 

Before


After


In this section, I've used certain effects such as:

1) CC scatterize: applied to the "ghost" image and it also acts as a transition to the image. It works the same for CC poly pixel but the difference is that poly pixel turns the image into tiny pixels instead of sand-like pattern.

2) Flickering Text: to allow the text flicker with different colours when applied. I put this into the words so as to make it match with my theme.

Heart monitor: 


Vegas: it was added in order to form the line running in the ekg. The line will be thicker when the "stroke" value increases. 

Glow: To make it look natural while it goes around the masking area. 

Grid: To make the background like how the real ekg looks like. 

Challenges faced while doing this project: 
While doing this project, i have a hard time finding on how to disperse the text which will be acting as a transition. I've tried trapcode form, but it doesn't work like how i want to. It disperse the whole solid instead of specific items. Hence, i got really annoyed with it and decided to look on the net again but to no avail. However, my friend, Emily told me more about CC Poly pixel and i decided use it for my text and i went ahead to try CC Scatterize on the image. Overall, mge is quite a pleasant and enjoyable subject whereby i've learnt many new things which i believe i am able to implement it in the near future. 

MY FINAL VIDEO FOR PROJ 2:


With this, i will end my posts for MGE project 2. 



• Sunday, 11 August 2013 •
// posted at 10:04

Smoke


While doing this tutorial, I've learnt many new effects such as:
  • Color rama - Using the Colorama effect, you can subtly tint an image or radically change its color palette. Colorama works by first converting a specified color attribute to grayscale and then remapping the grayscale values to one or more cycles of the specified output color palette. One cycle of the output color palette appears on the Output Cycle wheel. Black pixels are mapped to the color at the top of the wheel; increasingly lighter grays are mapped to successive colors going clockwise around the wheel. For example, with the default Hue Cycle palette, pixels corresponding to black become red, while pixels corresponding to 50% gray become cyan. Hence, in this case, i've used the colorrama effect to change the smoke color to match my background or my post-production video.
  • Turbulent displace - The Turbulent Displace effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image. For example, use it to create flowing water, funhouse mirrors, and waving flags. In my case, i've use this effect to distort my smoke layer in order to make it look more natural. 

Heart Monitor - EKG



While doing the EKG, the effects i've used:
  • Grid - The background is made up of the grid effect. Upon clicking the grid effect which is applied to the background, a grid will be shown like my video. There are controls to control the size of the grid and the color of it.
  • Vegas - The Vegas effect generates running lights and other path-based pulse animations around an object. You can outline just about anything, surround it with lights or longer pulses, and then animate it to create the appearance of lights chasing around the object. Hence, by making the ekg runs, we just need to add value to the "stroke" in the vegas effect. Then, we will be able to see the ekg run clearly. 
After doing both tutorial, i find them very useful as they will be part of my post-production and i do not need to do them again. I can just import them into my post production. 



• Sunday, 21 July 2013 •
Week 12 Studio B // posted at 11:33

In this tutorial, we are expected to adjust the color of the images with the help of an effect called "Color finesse".

Besides, i've learnt 2 very important principles while doing color correction:
1) "Look away regularly from your shot to other places in the room because your eyes lie"
2) "Will get used to the color, affect the changes of the color u made"

What is color finesse?
It is a plugin that helps to adjust the color of the images by lifting up or down the curves or using the different colored pointers. Pointers such as, black pointers, grey pointers and white pointers. These different pointers allow the users to select the colors the image should be and they will automatically adjust the colors for the users.

While using the pointers, user might not know when to use the black pointers or the grey pointers as both of them are quite similar, hence, we need to change into the "Luma range" in order to identify the black and grey points for us to adjust the color.

Vignette
And while doing the vignette, it is very simple as we just need to apply what we've learnt. We just used the eclipse tool and mask over the image and check on the "inverted" box. Next, we just need adjust the mask's feather and the opacity and the vignette can be seen.

For example:

ORIGINAL



WITH VIGNETTE [ADJUSTED CURVES]



ADJUSTED SATURATION FOR BUCKET


How do i change the color of the bucket? 
At the interface of color finesse, we need to click on the "secondary" tab at the left side. And there will be 4 sample colors for us to choose, we need to select different ranges of red. Example, dark red, bright red, normal red. After selecting these different "red", and pull down their saturation to adjust the red to not so bright.

After watching these tutorial, i am tasked to do the same for another videos while using the same effect, "Color finesse".

ORIGINAL

AFTER COLOR FINESSING

Bleach by pass 

Original video 

After



Effects used: 
1) CC Composite: CC Composite is used to apply an effect to a later and combine them together into one. In this case, i combine the duplicate the layers and tried one with and one without effects, when you change the toggle switch to "Color" it will have the effects on the second video that was applied to the first one. Hence, CC Composite works the same and it is more convenient from the first method. 

2) Brightness and contrast: This effect allow us to change its brightness and contrast by adjusting their values.

Hence, in this tutorial, i've learnt new effects such as the ones mentioned above which i believe that it will help me in project 2. 



• Friday, 12 July 2013 •
Week 12 studio A // posted at 11:42

Color Correction

 In this week e-learning, we are tasked to look up on videos regarding color correction effects which are the
  • auto color
  • auto contrast
  • auto level
  • hue & saturation
  • curves
  • color balance.
1) AUTO COLOR
The Auto Color effect adjusts the contrast and color of an image after analyzing the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image.

ORIGINAL 





AFTER AUTO COLOR




There's two settings for auto color: 
  • Blend with original:
    The transparency of the effect. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the layer. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the layer; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

  • Temporal smoothing:
    The range of adjacent frames, in seconds, analyzed to determine the amount of correction needed for each frame, relative to its surrounding frames. If Temporal Smoothing is 0, each frame is analyzed independently, without regard for surrounding frames. Temporal Smoothing can result in smoother looking corrections over time.


2) AUTO CONTRAST
The Auto Contrast effect adjusts the overall contrast and mixture of colors. Each effect maps the lightest and darkest pixels in the image to white and black, and then redistributes the intermediate pixels.

The result is that highlights appear lighter and shadows appear darker. Because Auto Contrast and Auto Color don’t adjust channels individually, they don’t introduce or remove color casts. The Auto Levels effect uses many of the same controls as the Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects.





3) AUTO LEVELS
The Auto Levels effect maps the lightest and darkest values in each color channel in the image to white and black, and then redistributes the intermediate values. As a result, highlights appear lighter and shadows appear darker. Because Auto Levels adjusts each color channel individually, it may remove or introduce color casts.




4) EQUALIZE
The Equalize effect alters the pixel values of an image to produce a more consistent brightness or color component distribution. The effect works similarly to the Equalize command in Adobe Photoshop. Pixels with 0 alpha (completely transparent) values aren’t considered, so masked layers are equalized based on the mask area.



EQUALIZE - 50%


EQUALIZE - 100%


EQUALIZE BRIGHTNESS - 50%


EQUALIZE BRIGHTNESS - 100%

5) HUE & SATURATION
The Hue/Saturation effect adjusts the hue, saturation, and lightness of individual color components in an image. This effect is based on the color wheel. Adjusting the hue, or color, represents a move around the color wheel. Adjusting the saturation, or purity of the color, represents a move across its radius. Use the Colorize control to add color to a grayscale image converted to RGB, or to add color to an RGB image.




  • Master Hue:Specifies the overall hue of the channel chosen from the Channel Control menu. Use the dial, which represents the color wheel, to change the overall hue. The underlined value displayed above the dial reflects the number of degrees of rotation around the wheel from the original color of a pixel. A positive value indicates clockwise rotation; a negative value indicates counterclockwise rotation. Values range from –180 to +180.
  • Master Saturation:Specify the overall saturation and lightness of the channel chosen from the Channel Control menu. Values range from –100 to +100.
  • Colorize:Adds color to a grayscale image converted to RGB, or adds color to an RGB image—for example, to make it look like a duotone image by reducing its color values to one hue.
  • Colorize Hue, Colorize Saturation, Colorize Lightness:Specify the hue, saturation, and lightness of the color range chosen from the Channel Control menu. After Effects displays only the sliders for the Channel Control menu choice.

HUES

HUE +50


HUE+100


HUE-50

SATURATION


SATURATION +50


SATURATION +100

6) CURVES
The Curves effect adjusts the tonal range and tone response curve of an image. The Levels effect also adjusts tone response, but the Curves effect gives you more control. With the Levels effect you make the adjustments using only three controls (highlights, shadows, and midtones). With the Curves effect, you can arbitrarily map input values to output values using a curve defined by 256 points.





7) COLOR BALANCE
The Color Balance effect changes the amount of red, green, and blue in the shadows, midtones, and highlights of an image. Preserve Luminosity preserves the average brightness of the image while changing the color. This control maintains the tonal balance in the image.


In order to make the sea view more beautiful, i can change the blue into a deeper blue (with preserve luminosity) and warm blue (without preserve luminosity). 


WITHOUT LUMINOSITY, SHADOW BLUE BALANCE +100%


WITH LUMINOSITY, SHADOW BLUE BALANCE +100%


WITHOUT LUMINOSITY, SHADOW RED BALANCE +100%


WITH LUMINOSITY, SHADOW RED BALANCE +100%

Overall, in this tutorial, i've learnt on how to change the colours for the images by adding the effects under color correction. This is very simple and convenient as some of the images might not be suitable with the theme of our footage and we need these images to be inside. Therefore, by changing their color we are able to use these images instead of re-taking. Besides, these effects are very useful for my project 2. 






• Monday, 8 July 2013 •
Week 11 Lab A and Lab 2 // posted at 06:45


During this lab, i'm able to practice more on using the motion tracking tool. I'm amazed on what the motion tracking tool can do. Besides, we use two separate entities of images and videos and combine them together into one footage. 

With motion tracking, we are able to: 
- track the movement of an object and apply the tracking data for that movement to another object - such as another layer or an effect control point.

For example the video i did above, the footage originally only have the person walking towards an empty land with no buildings. 

ORIGINAL VIDEO:


After effects tracks motion by matching image data from a selected area in a frame to image data in each succeeding frame. You can apply the same tracking data to different layers or effects. You can also track multiple objects in the same layer. 

After applying the tracking motion to the footage, we just need to link the different entity which is the image and parent it to the footage. The image will then follow the tracking motion. Hence, with this motion tracking tool, i am able to make my edited footage more realistic as if the buildings were already there when the person walk towards it. Besides, we can track the original video's motion by it's position and the rotation to make it even clearer. 

Photoshop files -> After effect files 
We can export the after effect files into layers of psd files and edit them together. Hence, in this video, i've exported it out and added the background image to the footage.

The original picture:


In this picture, i've used the background eraser tool in photoshop to clear off the unnecessary background of the picture and added it to the footage. Then, i saved and import it back to After effects. Hence, i find this connection useful as sometime we might forget to add or deduct images or any asset to the photos and footage. This will make it easier for us to edit anything in easily. 

Lab B



In week 11's Lab B, i was told to choose any tutorial from the web: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
Hence, i chose this tutorial which is called the "Sub surface skin".

In this tutorial i've learnt a few new tools that its not being taught in the lab:
  • The Grid effect
  • Fractal Noise
  • Invert 
  • Mocha AE
The Grid effect
Use the Grid effect to create a customizable grid. Render this grid in a solid color or as a mask in the alpha channel of the source layer. This effect is good for generating design elements and mattes within which other effects can be applied.

Fractal Noise
The Fractal Noise effect uses Perlin noise to create grayscale noise that you can use for organic-looking backgrounds, displacement maps, and textures, or to simulate things like clouds, fire, lava, steam, flowing water, or vapor.

 Hence, in this case, i've used the fractal noise effect to make the vein scar more realistic. It add on to the little details inside the veins, which made the veins not too "clean" and enhanced it to make it realistic. Besides, adding the fast blur effect will make it more realistic as it will make the scar seems like it have a few layers instead. 

 Invert
The invert effect inverts the color information of an image.

For example in this case, there's an image background is in black while i need to make it white in order to add luma to certain layers but i need to use that image, hence, with the help of the invert effect, i am able to.

BEFORE


AFTER

 After applying the invert effect, the image will change the background colour to the vein colour and vice versa.

Mocha AE
Mocha AE is able to these:

  • Planar Motion Tracking
  • Advanced Roto Tools
  • 3D Camera Solver for After Effects & Hitfilm

Mocha AE is a great tool in tracking motion. It allow us to track motion for a patch instead of two points which we always use in AE. In this case, i used the Mocha AE to track the person's face patch in the solid layer with the factual noise effect, this make it easier since the person's face does not have two different particular spots for us to trace while using the normal track motion tool. In addition, we can export the track motion out and paste it to the after effect's layer or composition which works like the normal track tool. As a result, i believe that this tool is great for us to track more advanced stuff while compared to the normal track motion tool.





• Sunday, 30 June 2013 •
Project 1 // posted at 00:59

a) My project 1 image sources:

 IMAGES
1) Final Laksa Image (http://tinyurl.com/ntt8hnf)
2) Chicken silhouette (http://tinyurl.com/omv57ad)
3) Salt and Pepper (http://tinyurl.com/omcc64x)
4) Pot silhouette (http://tinyurl.com/q8vtchl)
5) Countdown Laksa image (http://tinyurl.com/okq23pc)
6) Maggi Logo (http://tinyurl.com/okxshnx)
7) Maggi Noodles Image (http://tinyurl.com/os6htx8)

 SOUND
Zoom Sound effect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drsyDCEpM08)
Bubbles & Cheerful melody (Zedge.net)

 This is my outcome of my project 1:



b) The effects I've used in this project:

 Radial wipe 
The Radial Wipe effect reveals an underlying layer using a wipe that circles around a specified point. At best quality, the edges of the wipe are anti-aliased. I used this effect during the start at the countdown as well as the end, when i show the final results of the asam laksa. 

 Here is some ss to show how i make us of the radial wipe effects:

 BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER


Drop shadow effect
The Drop Shadow effect adds a shadow that appears behind the layer. The alpha channel of the layer determines the shape of the shadow.
When you add a drop shadow to a layer, a soft-edged outline of the alpha channel of the layer appears behind it, as if a shadow is cast on the background or underlying objects.
After putting the drop shadow effect, it make the word more realistic as well as making it clearer. I've used it on the "optional" text and the "Serve hot" text, as well as pictures throughout the video. 



CC Bubbles effect
This effect generates bubbles that flow. Use the controls for the effect to adjust attributes for the bubbles such as stickiness, viscosity, life span, and bubble strength. You can control exactly how the foam particles interact with each other and with their environment, and specify a separate layer to act as a map, controlling precisely where the foam flows. 

This effect is very useful for my project as i do not need to create bubbles one by one individually, hence, by using this effect, it gives me the effect i wanted and it is convenient and easy. 



 Besides the above effects, i've also make use of the tools that i've learnt during the lesson. 

 Masking - I've used masking for the text transitions in order to make it nicer and not boring. The masking will appear during the end where it says "Enjoy the asam laksa". 

 Z-position (scale) - This tool is used for the "Maggi" logo and text. By editing the scale value in the z-position, it makes the image "stick" onto the stage which i believe that it actually make the video nicer. Although this is a simple tool, but i like it as we do not need complicated effects or tools to add value to your video. 

 Parenting - I've used the parenting tool in the add seasoning composition, the salt is parented to the container. Hence, when the salt container move forward and backward, the salt will follow. With this, it makes it more realistic and it seems like when the salt container move forward, the salt will come out. 




« Older