Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Video and Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Visual Effects / Stop Motion Video
LECTURES:
What is VFX?
Term used to describe imagery created, manipulated, or enhanced for any
film, or other moving media that doesn't take place during live-action
shooting
VFX pipeline
Refers to the various stages of post production where VFX and CGI are
required in a film
VFX Shot Breakdown
1) Composition
- Identify the frame size, lighting, colour and depth of field
2) Layers
- Identify the number of layers in total
3) Costume & Props
- Prepare props for the shot
- Avoid green outfit if shooting green screen
4) Editing
- Understand the editing thoroughly before the shoot
INSTRUCTIONS:
TASKS
Week 1
Shortlist 3 stop motion or visual effects video
As I was searching about visual effect videos, I across a famous
YouTuber and TikTok user by the name of Duncan Evans (@curlykidlife) who
is famous for creating bizzare and unpredictable visual effect
videos.
Fig. 1.1 Working inside an ATM machine
In this first video, a man could be seen sitting in a small, compact space which exterior looks like an ATM machine. As we all know, ATM machines are unmanned and it works according to its computer program and algorithm that has been pre-determined. It is so unimaginable yet so realistic to see how the man works inside the ATM machine. When the lady approaches to insert her card and use the machine, everything is timed so perfectly that it feels as if the man is really the one taking her card into machine and sending it back out once he was done processing. It is also really fascinating to find such a small space and setting up such a realistic work area just for it to fit into an ATM machine.
Fig. 1.2 Driving a toy car
In this second video, the camera angle and placement was very well planned as it made the toy car look so real and life-sized. When I first watched this, I was so baffled as the outcome was really unexpected. The way the man got into the car was really smooth and the slight moving motion of the toy car made it even more believable. Only after the camera zoomed out and moved was when I found out the that the car was just a toy and the man was just squatting down low enough to avoid being in the frame.
Fig. 1.3 Extreme pizza cutter
Week 11: Project Proposal
Week 12 - 14: VFX filming and editing process
Filming for this project was quite difficult because I had to film some parts of it with a tripod by myself. It definitely took a lot of time because it is hard to tell if I am at the center of the frame or if any of my movements move out of the frame.
Nevertheless, I was glad that the filming process went smoothly. When I thought that the filming would take more time than editing, it turns out that the editing takes more time. In my first VFX effect, I had to change the colour of my clothes. At first, I wore a light pink shirt that was too similar to my skin tone so I could not edit it on Premiere Pro. It simple could not pick up the colour of just my shirt so I had to think of a way to make it work
Hence, I thought of refilming that scene with a more coloured shirt that is contrasting with my skin tone and background colour. I followed the tutorial that I found on YouTube and managed to change the colour of my shirt by tweaking the HSL Secondary under Lumetri Colours. I had to change the colour about 4-5 times, so I tried to pick darker colours so that it is more prominent on my shirt.
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| Fig. 2.1 Changing colour of shirt |
For the next VFX effect, it is the squeezing juice out from an apple. This one requires masking. I also followed a YouTube tutorial for this, but even so it still took me quite some time to understand how to do it because I could not get the mask to work at first. It also requires a lot of frame by frame precision, if not it will be very obvious that there is a difference in the background and lighting and shadow. For this shot, it also required pre-planning on how I should record it. I had stand still most of the time and keep my movements minimal so that it will be easy to edit and mask later on.
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| Fig. 2.2 Squeezing juice out from apple |
For this last VFX effect, it is to grab something out from the screen. This was one of the easiest to edit, but also the most number of retakes needed. To edit this, it just required cutting, but since it should flow seamlessly, I had to stay still. Because I had to film this alone, I also had to pick up the items myself, so after that, I have to make sure my hand is still at the same position as before.
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After I was done editing all the VFX effects, I then colour corrected my video and also added some sound effects and background track to enhance my video. Finally, this is the outcome of my video.
| Fig. 2.4 Final Project 3 Video |
FEEDBACKS
Week 12
- The angle of the shots for the storyboard can be improved
- Improve flow of story by having the character edit something at her laptop, and pulling that thing out
- Instead of using milk, use an apple or orange to squeeze out juice from hands
Week 13
- Try cut shorter
- Screen should be empty after the items are pulled out from screen
Week 14
- Good to submit
REFLECTION
To be honest, I think I struggled the most in this project because it was quite challenging to film alone. There was also a slight mistake in the planning stage because of the colour of the shirt that could not be edited. There were 2 scenes where I had to refilm, but fortunately it did not take that long since it was only a few seconds to retake. However, I am glad that I was able to learn from my mistakes and also came up with a probable solution that still worked out in the end. Nevertheless, I managed to learn new things and brush up my Adobe Premiere Pro skills through the VFX editing. It was a great experience for me because I have always wondered how editors can do effects like that, almost as if it is magic. Overall, the project was challenging but still fruitful and memorable as I was able to look like a 'magician' for the first time, all thanks to the power of editing.
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