Today I decided to create some basic effects that we would use in our synoptic project. The ones I decided to focus on were a simple fade to black with some text, and an eye colour effect.
Text Effect
For one scene in our project, a film sequence fades into a black screen with some text. It had to be subtle, and simple. This wasn’t too difficult to create, just animating the opacity would do the job. Here is the finished product:
Glitch & Eye Colour Effect
In one of our scenes, a suspicious man lifts his head revealing yellow eyes, to show his dark side. To recreate this, I used two main effects. One using distortion layers, which I also used in this project (that explains it further), and masks.
This post is just a quick update concerning the synoptic project. Detailing what is new with the work, and what we plan on doing in the near future.
What’s new?
Weekly Timetable
There are 2 next gen year 2 groups, and our synoptic project group contains people from each class. This called for a timetable to be made so we could work on our project as efficiently as possible. This may mean staying back after college hours, but if it gets the job done, it is worth it. It also means we have alot of extra time to focus on our group project, which means it could be even better.
As you can see above, we use the word “scrum”. This refers to a daily scrum, (also known as a “stand up meeting”). This is a weekly meeting in which attendees participate in a group meeting while standing. This is intended to keep the meetings short and sweet as standing up for long periods can lead to discomfort, which nobody wants.
Short Film Inspirations
A member of our group, Josh, created a small document containing some links to short films we could use as inspirations. In terms of, effect usage, tone, colour grading and cinematography. As we are all new to creating short films, this would be a great tool to have. Some of these inspirations included:
On My Way
Approximately the length of our VFX sequence
The text message effect could come in handy for an intro scene
Friend Request
Creepy tone/vibe
Simple effects, realistic
Colour grading is very good
I See You II
Student work
Good length
Grading is good
Great use of effects
Music and Sound Inspirations
One of my jobs for pre-production was to gather examples for music and sound effects we could give the music students as an example to what we would like them to create. I found many tracks, but shortened the list down to 4. Including:
Today we found out our groups for the synoptic projects. This counts for 40% of our final year grade, a crucial part of our future portfolio, and would be created during a 6 month time frame. Last week we each had to individually pitch an idea for what we could do for our project based on our chosen areas, mine being VFX. You can read about that, here. Where I discuss my pitch in detail.
The Groups
To my surprise, I was placed into 2 separate groups. These being a game and a visual effects sequence. My job role is listed as “Freelance VFX Artist / 3D Artist” as seen below. This is because I am on more than one group, and can help out possibly more if needed, but will focus on those two.
Group 1 – Jekyll and Hyde (VFX)
This was an idea I initially voted for, so I am happy to be part of this group. I can help out with some of the compositing, and general visual effects that will be in this group. Including, keyframing, using masks, and possible rotoscoping if needed in the project.
Group 2 – Space Station Defence System (Game)
In this project, I will mainly be focusing on particle effects and making the game look pretty, by this I mean maintaining the same colour scheme and adding some effects at the end if needed (polish the game).
What are we doing?
For now, we are just polishing the ideas, and finalising storyboards. This is so when we start production, it is alot easier to go through with it.
This week we had to present our ideas for our “Synoptic Projects”. This counts for 40% of our final year grade, a crucial part of our future portfolio, and would be created during a 6 month time frame. We had to present an idea based on our chosen areas, mine was VFX. This blog post will essentially act as a written version of the pitch, along with some minor feedback towards the end.
The Pitch
Slide 1 – The Idea
The main concept of my idea was pretty simple. It was a small visual effects sequence of around 1-2mins in length. The visual effects element would be walking statues / trees with faces, some static and some that speak. As well as this, it would be in the point of view of an old wizard, or druid. You can tell this by the staff that would be in view.
Slide 2 – Fitting the Themes
My idea fits the themes pretty well, the three themes were:
A place or building of significant interest
A fictional character
Local connection to history or literature
I hit 2 out of 3 here. The fictional character being the druid/wizard in the sequence, and the building of significant interest being the Winter Gardens.
Slide 3 – Inspirations & Why
To create something challenging yet rewarding was the main goal for me. If executed correctly, this could look industry standard, at college level. This would be an incredible addition to a portfolio for university or job applications. Above is also an example of a tree with a face, something that could be used as a reference image during the creation process.
Slide 4 – Job Roles
The main job roles within the team would consist of an ideal 2 VFX Artists, 1 Sound Engineer to work in collaboration with sound students to create a small soundtrack and some sound effects. 1-3 3D Artists would be great depending on the method of creating the trees. A voice over could also be necessary if an intro sequence is implemented during the creation process.
Slide 5 – MVP (Minimal Viable Product)
A minimal viable product is the minimum amount of something you think is acceptable. For example, the MVP of my project is at least one tree / object with a fully fictional face. This means fully rigged, animated and put together in After Effects. As well as this, the flash (which I will explain later) is a piece of visual effects that is relatively simple to create, but hard to execute, I would like this in the MVP.
Slide 6 – Scope (Scalability)
This part of the pitch explains what could be added if we complete the initial idea. For example, more objects could be added in, walking statues and maybe a backstory or an intro sequence to add more of a story aspect to the scene. More ideas could be added in the future, depending on how much time we have left to complete it.
Slide 7 – The Pre-Vis
This was a quick Pre-Vis I made to show of the MVP of my idea. Obviously, the finished product would be alot longer than this, It is just to show the premise of the idea and how it would work.
Feedback
I received some minor feedback from my peers and tutors after completing the pitch. Including:
Maybe too short?
Need to crack down on how you would create the trees (3d?)
Jacob Scaife Development Blog 