Compositing And Special Effects
Wong Xiao Jun Sharon 0328070
BA (Hons) Interactive Multimedia Design (Semester 3)
Week 1 - Lecture
Mr Kanaan start the class by running through the module outline and explained what to expect. After that he briefly teaches us how to use the basic of After Effects.
Notes from the lecture:
-Naming our files is essential.
-Anchor point is very important when it comes to animating.
-Lighting is extremely essential with compositing.
-Pan behind works well with camera and anchor.
-Masking is where we can animate parts.
Shortcut Keys
Cmd + N = New Composition
Cmd + I = Import
S = Scale
Cmd + Shift + C = compile layer together move all to one .
Spacebar = Pan
Shift D
“ n “ button = end
“ b ” button = beginning
work area right click trim composition
zoom alt roller to expand
use main composition
Alt + Close bracket to move
Exercise
The key elements found in this intro are:
Shapes
Color scheme
Balance
Color contrast
Rule of Third
Tempo
Silhouette
The common key elements that we found from our opening title sequence were:
Color
Shape and symbol
Typography
Music
Silhouette
Focal point
Space
Tutorial:
We were then told that we can recreate from the existing movies or clip for our project 1. We need to pay attention to the elements. Mr Kanaan also recommended us a few websites for us to try and learn from it.
- Videocopilot
- School of Motion
- Mister Horse Animation
Transparency use PNG, solid use JPEG.
Week 2 - LECTURE ( more on the visual )
Today lecture Mr Martin told us how VFX, CGI, and green screen shooting has been evolving in the film industry. Green and blue screen started in 1940 filmmaking but not visual effects.Blue screen are used because it's generally easier to chroma key. Green screens are then highly used because the color green being the highest luminance of all the color channels (RGB). Our skin tone is warm whereas they will avoid using red screen.
Week 3 - LECTURE
Mr Kannaan told us that we should make our thumbnails simple and descriptive to be understood by others by using arrows to show direction, boxes and descriptions to show zooming in and out. He told us that opening title sequence should not be a Spoiler example: "Spiderman". We were told to do animatics so that you can estimate the timing. He also reminds us that we are not software engineers, the software we learn today may evolve tomorrow.
Tutorial
Our render setting should be HDTV 1080, Frame rate 25 and do not touch the 3D Renderer and never use PlayTrace.
Notes:
command + I = import all the images
Pen tool is to cut or trace the object.
Toggle switch = switch between Track Matte or Motion Blur.
