Fire effect

Fire Effect from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

 This is the end result of a fire effect.

First the layer was duplicated. Then a mask was used to cut out the rock and put it on another layer. This way the rock will be covering up the fire and make it appear as if it's behind the rock. A fire with a pitch black background is joined into the layers. The background needs to be pitch black otherwise it would not work.


Smoke

To put some smoke in, first adding a solid layer is needed. Particle playground found in the effects tab is then used to make the fire. Adding this effect will initially show red dots displayed on the stage. Tweaking needs to be done in the effect settings. The gravitation pull needs to be set to zero. This should make the particles start floating. Colour should be changed to grey or amongst that area to make a smoke color and then adding a blur, since smoke isn't solid.Typing in Wiggle (1, 5) in the timeline will make the smoke wiggle, making it appear like the wind is carrying it away.

In the end I'm glad with this smoke effect, although it is rather basic but it is important to know since major realistic smoke can be made using this method.

Character Analasis

Lucky Lucy:


As she stands there, leaning against a gambling machine, tossing her winning chips from one hand to another, she glances maliciously at an old couple approaching a poker table "Now for my next score" she thought  "I see those poor unfortunate suckers who are about to lose their retirement funds and have no idea about it. Time for them to revaluate their lives. Sucks for them but hey, a girl has her needs too."


William The Magician:


Children were cheering, parents were smiling, shop owners were listening. All for this one man. A man of entertainment. A man they trust. A man they admire. How little they know. The show will begin soon. "No need to be nervous" William says kindly to his puppet friend "The show will start soon and it will be just like any other. Our luck has not run out so far. I doubt it will run out now. Those pathetic rats and their parents won't know what hit 'em."

Week 2 - Group project update

Innovative Animation - Week 2 from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

Week 2 - Group project

For this group project, this will be based on the work of Rokni Haerizadeh. We decided to take a video from an animal testing process and add the head of an animal to the protesters to reflect on Rokni's work.

Task One - Adding to stock footage

For task one, I have downloaded a 1080p HD video from Pixabay of people walking around in the street. I will add a CGI object dropping to the stone pavement in the foreground. A shadow will also be included to make the object seem more believable.


I took the silver ball from the internet image using a .PNG file as .JPEGS aren't usually transparent and are more likely to leave white flakes around the edges taking away the quality. The silver ball was then animation manually using the position and size sub-layer keyframes under the transform primary layer. The shadow, like the ball, was also animated manually at first. However I found out that this method was unnecessary since a shadow can be put in using the 3D method in After Effects.




Here is the result.



Visual Effects - Task 1 from Jack Vanes on Vimeo.

Here is the original video.
https://pixabay.com/en/videos/street-walking-crowd-people-urban-1694/

Visual Effects

Visual Effects are a process of methods using computer graphic imagery (CGI) to integrate onto footage of either animation or live action to give it an enhancement. For this module, I will be exploring the different digital experiments which are appropriate for using.

This module will consist of four tasks. 

Task 1: Basic creative problem solving with stock footage, 5 - 10 seconds (Weeks 1 - 2)

Task 2: Chroma keying and compositing 5 - 10 seconds (Weeks 3 - 5)

Task 3: Dynamics 5 - 10 seconds (Weeks 6 - 8)

Tasks 4: Personal project, 10 -20 seconds (Weeks 9 - 12)

Here's an example of early visual effects used. King Kong is stop motioned and was done in front of a black screen to super impose a different image.



Here is another example of early use of visual effects used in the 1900s.

Character idea experimentations

Character Experiment 1
This video aroused my interest. It shows a man who is obviously broken from his experience from combat. Explaining how he relives that moment over and over again and how his body wants to experience it again. He also feels as though nobody would be able to understand this kind of feeling.
I will use some part of this video to make the character.



I will use these dice and the deck of cards as objects to add to the character's story.

 

 

This is the character I concluded. Her name is Lucy but everyone calls her Lucky Lucy. She is 25 years old and she lives in Las Vegas. She works as a waitress in a casino. And she also often plays the role as the dealer when the other dealers are away. She is a con-artist in the casino. She cheats at poker games, which people often dismiss as luck, hence the nickname Lucky Lucy.




Character Experiment 2
I will use the magician hat and stick and this written text to create the character:
"We want to create puppets that pull their own strings. - Ann Marion"

I have constructed these characters, who is a magician who is known as William and a puppet named Robert. He tricks everyone into thinking he is using his magic to bring his puppet to life as false magic trick, unbeknown to them the puppet is actually alive. He goes to the local shopping centres, where he and the puppet entertain children until closing time. When William is outside of the shopping centre, he uses Robert to squeeze through the vents to disable the alarms. William and Robert then loot as many stores as they can before opening time.

Since magicians are known to naturally wear gloves and since Robert is just fabric, no evidence is ever left at the places they rob. And nobody suspects that it is the entertainer magician.