I'd been holding off for a while, but I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new computer: an HP dv8t. It's a pretty souped up beast and a hefty sized "laptop" at that, but I hope this will last a while. It's super fast and got a ton of memory, as well as having a full 1920x1080 screen—which is superb for video editing.
With all the progress I'd made on the City KREW project, I was really noticing the limitations of my previous laptop (HP dv5237cl). It had served me well for three years, but with the compositing and editing in full HD, it really wasn't up to the task. For example, in After Effects it would take up to 60 seconds to display an updated frame of the comp in full resolution at 25% zoom. The comp consisted of the background AVCHD video with a Cartoon effect applied and the stop motion comp on top with a mask, Keylight effect and Brightness/Contrast effect.
The new machine renders it in 3 seconds at 50% zoom. Sweet! I know that the biggest advantage will be when I come down to rendering out the finished comps for editing. It'll probably save me days!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Piecing it all Together
After a couple of months of sickness, I'm finally making significant progress towards completing the first episode of City KREW. About 75% of the animations are complete and 25% of the final compositions are complete, visually at least.
Compositing the scenes can be quite tricky, so here's a run down of how I'm tackling it. The Lego stop motion animations will be superimposed over real life backgrounds. The first step was to record the backgrounds, then I need to set up the stop motion shot to match the scale and perspective as closely as possible. Depending on the shot, this can be very difficult. The screenshots below show a relatively simple shot.
The real life background looks fine on its own, but when I think about having characters in the foreground, the depth of field is too great.
Luckily this is a simple fix. I simply copied the background and created a feathered mask that shows the trees that would appear behind the characters. Adding a Fast Blur gives the desired effect.
Next comes the stop motion. Using the real life background, I set up a grid on the computer that matches the camera's viewfinder grid. This allows me to match the position and scale I need for the stop motion to fit into the live background. Shooting against a green screen allows me to quickly extract the characters using a key and insert them into the background.
Unfortunately, it's not a completely smooth process. Since the characters are walking on the baseplate, the studs create enough reflection and variation in colour that the key cannot effectively remove them. This means manually masking them out of every frame which is very tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, because the Lego figures have all straight edges, the masks do not need to be complex. I would not want to be doing this with real actors!
Once the key is applied, the final shot looks like this. There are a few other adjustments I make depending on the background. For this, the contrast is reduced and the brightness increased for the Lego characters to try and match the lighting of the woods.
After doing about twelve of these scenes, I've really perfected my technique. Once the other animations are complete, I think I will be able to blow through the comps. When they are complete, all that remains is adding the voiceovers and other audio.
Compositing the scenes can be quite tricky, so here's a run down of how I'm tackling it. The Lego stop motion animations will be superimposed over real life backgrounds. The first step was to record the backgrounds, then I need to set up the stop motion shot to match the scale and perspective as closely as possible. Depending on the shot, this can be very difficult. The screenshots below show a relatively simple shot.
The real life background looks fine on its own, but when I think about having characters in the foreground, the depth of field is too great.
After doing about twelve of these scenes, I've really perfected my technique. Once the other animations are complete, I think I will be able to blow through the comps. When they are complete, all that remains is adding the voiceovers and other audio.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Back on Track
After a couple of weeks of illness in the family and a couple of weeks missing the motivation to get creative, I finally found the impetus to make some significant progress.
It took a little bit of trial and error, but I've finally got my system down. First, load the background up onto the computer with a 3 x 3 grid overlay on top. This mimics the grid on the camera screen and has been essential to get the scale and perspective correct on the animations. Then, set up the beginning and end of the shot to ensure the flow is correct. Lastly, get animating!
I'd originally planned to shoot at 18 or 24 frames per second, but after watching a behind-the-scenes of Wallace and Gromit, I saw they were only shooting 12 fps. If it's good enough for those Oscar winners, it's good enough for me. I'm capturing at full HD resolution (1920x1080) and after completing each scene, I run a batch process on them to reduce them to 1/4 size. This allows me to quickly generate "rushes" where I can scrutinize the animation and that I can check against the backgrounds.
After about 6 hours of work, I completed about 700 frames of animation. That's about 1/7th of the entire episode, but there;s much more work involved than just the animation. I've still got to do the keying, mouth movements, final compositing, and audio syncing. Now that I'm in the flow of it, I'm hopeful to move things forward at a good rate.
It took a little bit of trial and error, but I've finally got my system down. First, load the background up onto the computer with a 3 x 3 grid overlay on top. This mimics the grid on the camera screen and has been essential to get the scale and perspective correct on the animations. Then, set up the beginning and end of the shot to ensure the flow is correct. Lastly, get animating!
I'd originally planned to shoot at 18 or 24 frames per second, but after watching a behind-the-scenes of Wallace and Gromit, I saw they were only shooting 12 fps. If it's good enough for those Oscar winners, it's good enough for me. I'm capturing at full HD resolution (1920x1080) and after completing each scene, I run a batch process on them to reduce them to 1/4 size. This allows me to quickly generate "rushes" where I can scrutinize the animation and that I can check against the backgrounds.
After about 6 hours of work, I completed about 700 frames of animation. That's about 1/7th of the entire episode, but there;s much more work involved than just the animation. I've still got to do the keying, mouth movements, final compositing, and audio syncing. Now that I'm in the flow of it, I'm hopeful to move things forward at a good rate.
The primitive animation studio: Green screen attached to a mic stand, two table lamps, a Lego base plate, and the camera.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Never Underestimate Your Kids' Creativity
Many of the character names in City KREW were invented by my son, Kieran, in a moment of creativity. As I've been thinking about storylines, I've used bedtime as a forum for developing those ideas. He's always got questions and ideas about what happens. And while he was playing today he offered another gem for the prime location of a future episode. I won't reveal more, as it will spoil the surprise.
City KREW Episode 001, Progress Report
Halfway through September, I expected to have shot all the backgrounds shot and be wrapping up the voice overs. I'd hoped to finish Episode 001 by the end of the month. Unfortunately, things are far behind schedule.
With the family sick all week, I've made no progress at all. The loss of the original equipment I'd planned to use, forced a rethink on that front. That actually worked out in my favour as I used that and my birthday as an excuse to invest in a new HD camera. Ordering that and waiting for shipping also set back the schedule, but now I'm very pleased to have a brand new Canon HG20. And for the deal B&H Photo was offering, I got myself a slick new mic and wide angle lens as well, all for less price than Best Buy's price for the camera.
I've had the camera for most of the week, but with the family sick and a hectic week at work (whose idea was that?), I barely had chance to use it.
Luckily, not everything has drawn to a halt. The first voice over was completed by Shanti and now Winny's lines are ready for editing. The results were excellent and motivate me to get going on mine (once I get the frog out of my throat). If the weather cooperates this weekend, I'll be shooting the backgrounds.
Here's hoping next week is a productive one...
With the family sick all week, I've made no progress at all. The loss of the original equipment I'd planned to use, forced a rethink on that front. That actually worked out in my favour as I used that and my birthday as an excuse to invest in a new HD camera. Ordering that and waiting for shipping also set back the schedule, but now I'm very pleased to have a brand new Canon HG20. And for the deal B&H Photo was offering, I got myself a slick new mic and wide angle lens as well, all for less price than Best Buy's price for the camera.
I've had the camera for most of the week, but with the family sick and a hectic week at work (whose idea was that?), I barely had chance to use it.
Luckily, not everything has drawn to a halt. The first voice over was completed by Shanti and now Winny's lines are ready for editing. The results were excellent and motivate me to get going on mine (once I get the frog out of my throat). If the weather cooperates this weekend, I'll be shooting the backgrounds.
Here's hoping next week is a productive one...
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Customizing Lego Mini-figures
I've been doing a lot of reading about customizing Lego mini-figures to learn how best to create the KREW. Their uniforms and logo are designed, but I want to ensure it doesn't look too amateur.
My first attempts were to dismantle the mini-figs tools (that's what model builders call the arms, legs and body) and spray paint them. It seemed like a good idea and looked good, until I tried to reassemble them. Some paint got on the joints and made it difficult to pop in the arms or legs. I had to scrape away the excess, and then they were still a tight fit. I could imagine this causing a lot of trouble during the animation process.
The next challenge is how to get the uniform customizations on the Lego pieces. There are many options such as hand painting, stickers, or transfers. There are lots of helpful tutorials out there and it seemed like stickers were the way to go. After printing a few tests, I was not confident it was going to work. The clear labels I had did not pick up the colours vividly enough and would not show up over the dark background.
This called for a rethink... or more like a uniform redesign. So last night I completely changed the design to use stock Lego colours. There would be no need for spray painting and instead of stickers, I'll try water-slide transfers. With the help of the Lego Digital Designer and some creative Photoshopping, I mocked up the designs below. Now I just have to buy the parts.
My first attempts were to dismantle the mini-figs tools (that's what model builders call the arms, legs and body) and spray paint them. It seemed like a good idea and looked good, until I tried to reassemble them. Some paint got on the joints and made it difficult to pop in the arms or legs. I had to scrape away the excess, and then they were still a tight fit. I could imagine this causing a lot of trouble during the animation process.
The next challenge is how to get the uniform customizations on the Lego pieces. There are many options such as hand painting, stickers, or transfers. There are lots of helpful tutorials out there and it seemed like stickers were the way to go. After printing a few tests, I was not confident it was going to work. The clear labels I had did not pick up the colours vividly enough and would not show up over the dark background.
This called for a rethink... or more like a uniform redesign. So last night I completely changed the design to use stock Lego colours. There would be no need for spray painting and instead of stickers, I'll try water-slide transfers. With the help of the Lego Digital Designer and some creative Photoshopping, I mocked up the designs below. Now I just have to buy the parts.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Adobe Story
Adobe Story has been released on Adobe Labs and I'm giving it a try. It's an online collaborative script writing tool that injects metadata into your script that can be used later on in the production workflow. I've been using Buzzword for my scripts until, which is an online word processor. Story is based on Buzzword, so the learning curve is not steep.
So far, it's a quick and efficient tool for writing and organizing scripts, character bios, and synopses. I have noticed some limitations though, especially in the Character Dots feature that assigns coloured dots to each character in the script. This allows you and others who view the script to quickly see in what scenes particular characters appear. Unfortunately, there's a 6 dot limit so it's likely not all of you characters will get a dot. This probably won't be addressed in the initial release.
I'm most interested in seeing how the metadata flows down the production pipeline and is used by the other Production Premium apps. I'm usually pretty disorganized with my footage and hope this with provide an opportunity to save time and frustration.
For now, I've completed the script for episode 1, and the synopses for episodes 2, 3, and 4. I'll be working on those scripts in the coming weeks.
So far, it's a quick and efficient tool for writing and organizing scripts, character bios, and synopses. I have noticed some limitations though, especially in the Character Dots feature that assigns coloured dots to each character in the script. This allows you and others who view the script to quickly see in what scenes particular characters appear. Unfortunately, there's a 6 dot limit so it's likely not all of you characters will get a dot. This probably won't be addressed in the initial release.
I'm most interested in seeing how the metadata flows down the production pipeline and is used by the other Production Premium apps. I'm usually pretty disorganized with my footage and hope this with provide an opportunity to save time and frustration.
For now, I've completed the script for episode 1, and the synopses for episodes 2, 3, and 4. I'll be working on those scripts in the coming weeks.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Birth of The Project
Unfortunately, I missed out on this year's 48 hour film contest, but hearing how things went gave me the bug to get creative again. The idea had been fermenting for a year or so, and it seemed like the time was right. This was reinforced by Kieran inventing some fantastic names that will now be characters in the story.
While out for a walk at Hamlin Park, I had trouble keeping up with Kieran as he darted in and out of the trees and up and down the hills. I had a sudden moment of clarity and the City KREW was born! Four everyday heroes working together to help the community.
By the time we left the park, I had the first episode running through my head. The KREW would meet while trying to rescue someone who had fallen in a remote park. Now, the script is written and cast, and production is imminent.
While out for a walk at Hamlin Park, I had trouble keeping up with Kieran as he darted in and out of the trees and up and down the hills. I had a sudden moment of clarity and the City KREW was born! Four everyday heroes working together to help the community.
By the time we left the park, I had the first episode running through my head. The KREW would meet while trying to rescue someone who had fallen in a remote park. Now, the script is written and cast, and production is imminent.
Monday, September 7, 2009
In the beginning...
Since I'm in the midst of a creative project, I thought it would be interesting to catalog the process. I'm sure some other things will come up as well, but I plan on limiting them to multimedia-related topics.
Let's get started then...
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