VFX (Report 2)

VFX SHOWREEL REPORT

Introduction/ Inspiration

In the world of VFX I am very impressed and inspired by a person named Kelly Port, Kelly Port is an award-winning visual effects supervisor, and has contributed in more than 30 films in the digital realm. He was one of the nominees for Best Visual Effects at the BAFTAs and the 2019 Oscars, dedicating more than 50 minutes to the all-digital villain, Thanos, for his leading role in "Avengers: Infinity War." Kelly also won the VES for Thanos, Award for Outstanding Visual Effects. A job that he resumed for the next blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame". He's not the first full-fledged digital protagonist tasked with reviving Kelly. He also oversaw the creation of three Flower Pixie characters and the main protagonist of "Maleficent," but few. Most recent for Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios long-awaited “Spider-Man, No Way Home” Kelly port work as the production side visual effect supervisor, a key role were he guided the delivery pf over 2,400 shots from 12 vendors. And specially I am very impressed with the Kelly Port’s work in Avengers: Infinity War.

Overview

This is the showreel that I’ve created for my VFX assignment, in this showreel I’ve practiced different techniques and effects of VFX motion graphics for example Masking, Rotoscoping, 3D camera tracking, Mocha pro, Scribble animation, Motion tracking and simple Keyframes animation etc. But before we talked about techniques and effects used in this showreel here are few useful tips for creating a perfect showreel. What is generally considered a "good" showreel varies from studio to studio, department to department, and even project to project. So the first thing is length of your showreel and my suggestion is always keep it short. With showreels, quality over quantity is always the way to go, focusing on a few good pieces rather than including every little thing you've worked on before. So one minute is usually a good length for this purpose. And another thing is it's important to make sure your Showreel is focused on your chosen discipline (animation, compositing, lighting, etc.) like includes only your best work. Because most people skip a lot things while working on their showreels and due to this they’ll be out in seconds, because if audience don’t see something that immediately catches their eye, your showreel is useless.

In this showreel these are some of the final products that I’ve created.

Masking

Scribble Animation

Rotoscoping

3D Camera tracking

Mocha Pro

Keyframe Animation

Mate Painting

News room

Final Ad

Making Process

Masking

Masking is the process of hiding or exposing parts of an image or video. A mask, for short, allows you to control the visibility of specific parts of a layer. Masks are an incredibly powerful tool in Adobe After Effects CC. Using the mask, you can cut and combine elements, create simple and professional transitions, separate objects in video or photos, create shapes, etc. Masks are an essential tool in After Effects and I recommend that you spend as little time as possible learning them.

So for the masking I’ve captured two different videos from same angle, and with the help of pen tool I’ve created a simple masking on it.

As you can see our mask is successfully created, after creating mask on first footage just simply drag and drop the 2^nd footage into your timeline.

And here you can see the final outcome, how simply with the help of masking I’ve combined two footages.

Scrabble Animation

Many people think that frame-by-frame switching is difficult and time-consuming, but it's not. Scrabble Animation in After Effect cc is a perfect example of an easy way to create dynamic hand-drawn graphics. You've seen this effect in many popular music videos over the years, including Justin Bieber's videos. Let's take a closer look at how, in just a few steps, you can add stunning graphics to your videos.

To start my scribble animation, I’ll bring my playhead to the first frame of my clip in the timeline. Using the Brush tool directly on the Layer panel, I’ll draw my flames on the first frame. Now it’s as simple as drawing the same flames for each frame.

This particular clip is 10 seconds in length, shot at 30fps, so if I want flames throughout the entire clip, I will need to draw these same flames many times. If you want to create an animation that changes over time, it’s imperative to know the length of your clip so you can make subtle changes.

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is a method by which we can separate any object in a movie or any image and adjust the separated object with different backgrounds using different tools in After Effect software. I find rotoscoping to be a very useful way to edit any footage or anything in a particular frame.

In rotoscoping first I duplicated my layer and then with the help of roto brush tool I simply created the mask. After I created the mask my roto layer act as the foreground and original layer as the background.

And then I wrote down the text on original layer and turn on the roto layer and I also animated my roto layer.

Here you can see the final outcome.

3D Camera Tracking

3D camera tracking in After Effect cc is the process of tracking and recording the movement of an object or part of an object in a sequence. Once you've collected your footage data, you can use it to stabilize your footage or add a 2D or 3D effect or graphic and make it look like it belongs in your footage.

In this process first I just drag and drop the footage in my timeline and then I simply click the tracking option and once the tracking done it shows different 3D tracking points on the footage.

I simply selet different 3D tracking points and added three different PNG images to them.

And here you can see these images looks like the part of the actual footage.

Mocha Pro

Mocha Pro in VFX is a world famous tool for tracking, rotoscoping, object removal, stabilization and mesh tracking. Essential for visual effects and post-production, Mocha has received prestigious rating and change the entire track of the film and television industry.

First I simply import the footage from the internet and then I selected the specific area and start tracking it.

After the tracking is done, I created the another null object and I added the picture on that null object and then I linked that null object to the actual footage.

And here you can see the final outcome.

Mate Painting

A matte painting is a image or painted representation of a distant landscape, set, or location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not present on location. Filmmakers have used a variety of techniques to combine a matte painting image with live action compositing footage. Ideally, depending on the skill level of the artists and technicians, the effect is "soft" and creates an atmosphere that would make filming impossible or expensive. Some of the colors in the scenes are static and the movements are related to this.

In this process first I added different pictures such as birds, trees, mountain etc to create the perfect landscape.

After adding pictures with the help of different after effects tools I created a perfect landscape, And with the help of 3D camera movement and different camera angles I have stirred it up.

Final Matte Painting.

News Room

The program is also used by film studios and companies in the post-production process. After Effects helps graphic designers and motion artists animate logos, cartoons, and objects using a key framing process. That is why the role of after effect is very important in news room creation. And I’ve also tried to create a news room with the help of different after effects tools.

In this first I created a logo for my news channel which is TMUC and then after logo I created a news ticker. And this area of the news room is called lower third

Then I simply imported the footage of news anchor from the internet and placed right behind the logo and news ticker.

This dynamic graphic element consist of a logo, a text crawl, and a lower third. And the techniques which I used to create this are shape layer, text elements and a few simple expressions.

Final Ad

I made my final ad on a brand of a cigarette. I did all the shooting for the ad at my own place and all the setting for the ad I did by myself. And when I was shooting my ad I had placed a black background and some black and shiny stones underneath my product. And I shot the whole add with the Nikon’s camera and I only had one lighting source. And the software’s which I used for the editing are Adobe After Effect and Adobe Premiere Pro.

This is the first footage of my ad in this footage I only added a stabilizer for the smoothness.

Then with the help of 3D camera tracking I created and added a logo and with the help of keyframes I created a stir in the logo.

And in this footage I also tried camera tracking to created a beautiful title with the moment of cigarettes.

So to make this footage look real and interesting, I added the artificial smoke and with the help of keyframes and transitions created a beautiful animated title.