Editing

The editing of this footage wasn't really that planned. I went through everything I had and chose the best version of each shot to start with.

I then put the shots into the timeline in a rough order that made sense and was interesting. I played around with the order of the footage and then I matched it to my music. I wanted the cuts in the visuals to match with the changes and signficant moments in the piece of music so that the whole thing married together.

In the end it was a fairly simple edit but I think it works well and will look good with all the effects in it. The next thing on my list is keying the footage, ready for the compositing.

The Shoot

This shoot was probably one of the quickest shoots I have ever done.

We arrived and set up, which only took an hour or so because we had planned the lighting set up a few weeks prior and then my model arrived. She was really nice and helpful and was really good at pretending to catwalk.

We were using two cameras, one for the front view and one for a profile shot, so it was just a case of shooting the different distances. I had decided to do a full length head to toe, a head to knee, a head to hip and a head and shoulders shot so I had options and a variety of shots. I did two takes of every shot so that I had choices, I realise two takes isn't a lot but because it was just a walking on the spot shot, it wasn't really necessary to have loads of takes.

The piece of music I have for this is 1 minute 41 seconds, but because I will be cutting between shots I didn't need each walk to be that long, so we did 30 second walks. In the end it only took about 20 minutes for the whole shoot and I had 16 pieces of footage to play with.

I was so happy with the footage and with the model I had managed to get, I think that having someone feature in it who actually looks like a model will add that extra production value to the whole video.

Tomorrow's shoot

Tomorrow is the day that I will be shooting the footage for this project. I am really looking forward to the shoot, but am a bit nervous because I want it to go well and want the footage I get to be what I have imagined in my head.

It shouldn't take too long to film as the model only has to walk on the spot for 30 seconds at a time in time to the music. I will definitely make sure that I film lots of takes from even angle/distance so that I have lots to choose from (something I have learnt over the years).

Nisha will be assisting me on the shoot as I am using 2 cameras so that we can shoot two angles at the same time. She will also be helping me transport the equipment to the studio and set up when we arrive at 10am. The model Lizzy will be arriving at 11am and then we will shoot until I feel I have everything I need.

Fingers crossed!

Parashoot Risk Assessment form

Test video with number of effects

Now that I have tested all of my effects, I wanted to do one final test video which featured all of the effects, or as many of them as I could with the footage I have. This video uses the moving background, the green screen footage, the black and white grading and the rotating 3D text. I couldn't do the underwear removal effect because, obviously, my model in this test video is wearing full clothing. I also didn't do the rotoscoping effect with the colour grading because it is time consuming and I didn't feel it was necessary to repeat again for the sake of a test. Below is one frame with the rotoscope effect on.

3D Text test

This test shows how I will use 3D text in my video. I used 3DS Max to create the text and then did the animation in After Effects using the cylinder tool. I like the effect, although in my final video I think I will try and make the text look more 3D, because I don't think it is that easy to see on this test video.

Thoughts on my project so far

So far I am really enjoying this project. I am glad that I chose to do visual effects that I haven't done before, because working on the test videos has been challenging but rewarding (when something goes right!) I think the best decision I made was to give myself time to plan and test all of the effects, because it has made me feel more comfortable and confident about the final effects for the final video. At this point the last effect I need to test is the rotating 3D text effect. I am confident that using the skills I have learnt while doing these test videos, I will be able to produce a project of a high standard for the end of the year :)

Background test in Maya

The video above is my test video for this project. I created a long square tunnel in Maya and textured it using the images in the previous post. I then added a light and camera and animated the camera to move out of the box. I rendered this image sequence and put it into After Effects, then into Premiere Pro so I could cut and paste the sequence so it would continue for the full 1 minutes 41 seconds of my video. I had to tweak the sequnce a little bit in order for it to run smoothly but I am happy with the results. The movement of the camera and the texturing aren't perfect and will be done much better in the final video, but atleast I know the techniques I need to use to create the background when I come to do the real thing next semester.

I am really glad that I have used this semester to test all of my effects because I will be able to do everything so much more easily and quickly when I come to produce the real video.

Print screens of textured model from Maya

Background tests

These images are texture plates for a 3D cube that I will be modelling for the background of my video. I looked at a few tutorials in an attempt to recreate the video below and determine the best way to create the effect I want it to use Maya to model a 3D cube, texture the back plate with the first image, and texture the walls, floor and ceiling of the 'room' with the second image (rotated for the floor and ceiling plates).
I will then animate a camera to start at the back of the box room and move out, therefore creating the effect of movement.

Green Screen Keying test (with background)

I used the footage I shot today to do a quick keying and background test. The key worked fairly well, although I will get a better result with the proper footage because my subject won't be wearing black, which created a slight problem in this case as there's a bit of a glow around the t shirt area.

I really like how the background works with the movement of the model (the model in the real shoot will be more professional!) I definitely think I will try and recreate this background to use in my final video, although I will experiment with colour in my version.

Music

As mentioned in my first posts, my intention with the music was to use the track I produced last year in Sound Design. However when I came to listen to it again I didn't like it, and so I asked my brother, who is talented in music production, to help my produce a new track. I still wanted to keep a similar sound a feel to the track, but just a bit better. We worked together for a few hours, collaborating our ideas and came up with this track, which I love and can't wait to use in my video.


Catwalk Music Track

Production test

Today I worked in the green screen studio on test set ups and shots for my project. I wanted chance to work out the lighting in particular before the real shoot because this can take up a great deal of time, and we only have 3 hours in the studio. Two friends assisted me and together we worked out a set up that gave my the desired lighting on the model and would make keying out the green screen as simple as possible. In the final set up we used a large kino and two dedo lights to achieve the correct lighting.

I shot a little bit of footage so I can use if in other test videos, for example the background and 3D test.

Underwear Test 1

Today I started working on the underwear removal aspect of my project. Firstly I downloaded some footage of women in underwear from Getty Images.com to work with. I then did a little bit of research and worked out that probably the best way to do the effect in After Effects was using the clone stamp tool. This tool allows you to take pixels from one areas of a shot and paste them somewhere else in the same shot. I spent a long time trying to use this tool to cover an entire bra, but because I was working with small areas and pixels, the coverage was not at all smooth and I couldn't get it to blend. After a while I thought I would try just removing the bra straps instead of the entire bra, and this worked much better.

Although I will continue to try and test the clone stamp tool and look for other techniques to use, I think I will taylor the costume of the model in my shoot so that I can just remove the straps.

Below is the test video.

I also did a blur test, as I will be blurring out the areas where the underwear should be, just to make the overall look abit smoother, and also to hide whatever I cant remove with the clone stamp tool.


Below is the test video.

Colour Grading test

In my video I want the model to be graded black and white, with colourful lips and eyes. Below are 2 test videos of this technique. The test was done in After Effects using duplicate layers and rotoscoping. This effect is really easy, just time consuming! 

Colour grading test 1

Colour grading test 2

Timetable

Background Plate Ideas

One idea is to shoot footage of a straight road to give the impression that the model is walking down the middle of the road. This would be a challenging idea because the perspective would have to be spot on to make it look as though she is actually on the road.

Another idea would be a moving pattern, as though the model is in a colourful vortex. This would be a tricky thing to produce in After Effects, but might be easier in terms on positioning the model in the composition.

Inspirations and Ideas for Project

This project idea was originally meant for the Advanced Creative Media Practice Project module, but after speaking with my tutor I decided I needed to focus that project on filming and editing, as that is what I want to pursue in the industry. However I didn't want to just trough this project idea away as I had spent the summer thinking about this idea. I therefore decided to do this project for the Digital Compositing module, as I think this will be more fitting to this brief.

I decided to stick with the fashion theme from level 6 and produce a catwalk promo video that was heavy in visual effects. The video below is an example of a promo video for Vero Moda.

This was the image that first sparked my idea. I liked the idea of using words to cover a body instead of clothes as I thought this would be an interesting contrast with the fashion element. With this in mind , I began exploring how I could join this idea with my initial idea that I developed last semester.


Because my theme is fashion and I wanted to produce a catwalk promotion video, I know that I want to use a real model, but it obviously wouldn't be realistic for them to be nude. I will therefore be exploring the technique of digitally removing underwear in post production (as seen below).

The video below offers one technique to achieve this, although it is dealing with stills, not moving image.

I also decided last semester that I wanted multiple copies of the girl, to add to the overall effect. The inspiration for this came from Olly Murs' music video 'Army of Two'.

I will of course be using a green screen to film my video as this is the most efficient way of getting multiple copies of a person. With this in mind I started to think about the background plates. I have not yet decided exactly what will be on the background plates, but I know that I will need to develop a tunnel effect so that it looks as though the model is walking forwards even though in reality she will be walking on the spot. I will probably do this by creating the plates in After Effects and then bending them in a 3D space to create the tunnel. The video below is a good example of the movement I want to create.

With these elements decided I needed to think about exactly what I was going to do with my 'naked' model. I took the initial idea seen in the Rihanna picture above and altered it to an idea where words such as 'Fashion' and 'Style' will circle the model's 'modesty' in a 3D effect. Again this adds another element of visual effects that I am not familiar with and will require me to develop new skills, something which I am determined to do this year.

The last image was something I have decided to incorporate in my video after seeing the picture on Twitter and thinking it looked really effective, and would add yet another compositing element.

I love the idea of having my model black and white and then picking out her features in a pop of colour.