The 3 P's
Page 2
Production - Train
(Conducted 07/04/24)
This is the first part of my final product, the 3D train going across the screen. I did this first as I knew it would be the hardest part of the production, as it deals with something I haven't really used much before the project. I may make some minor changes to add detail and improve things later.
The smoke effect I learned during experimentation is in use here, as well as in many other shots throughout the sequence.
The texture on the train was made by using a matte. The purpose of this was to add extra detail to my composition, hopefully making it look more impressive.
I had a quick look at a video of a train piston, to figure out how these things move. I temporaily placed in a blue circle, to track the movements to when I was keyframing. This was so that the pistons moved correctly in a perfect circle.
I made sure to keep everying all neat and tidy, using compositions, and making sure to name everything appropriatley. This is a great way to decrease all the things on your timeline, and keep track of what everything is. This will be done throught the whole of the title sequence's production.
A showcase of what the 3D looked like, during production. I used the Custom View 3 angle a bit while editing to see what it all looked like 3D. It took me a while to place the elements in a 3D space, being quite hard to navigate. On the bottom you can see my keyframes of the camera movement.
This was a failed attempt at trying to use screenshots of the game's environment for the background, but I found the results to be quite poor. In the end I opted for the simplistic basic colour background.
Production - Train Update
(Conducted 08/04/24)
A quick update to my train animation, upping the level of detail in the sene. I created this by quickly swapping out the background with a photograph of a real subway tunnel, giving it a sense of location; Now it doesn't look like a train just gliding through the void.
I also added a very light gravel texture to the floor, giving that little bit extra depth.
Production - Building
(Conducted 08/04/24
This is my second shot for the title sequence, the camera rising up a building; however, not actually a camera, just some after effects trickery was used.
Another example of a matte being used in my project, this time to add a little detail behind my window. I also used the "CC Glass" effet on my window as I believed it could make it look that little bit extra like glass.
Camera Lens Blur was used on the background to make it seem further away, and I used position keyframes to move it slightly down, giving it the illusion we were moving swiftly upwards into the skies.
Motion Tile was used on the building, keyframing the Tile Center variable to make it contrantly loop downwards. This gave the illusion the camera was moving upwards.
Production - Skyline Shot + Clouds
(Conducted 09/04/24)
This shot connects into the building shot I made previously, succesfully pulling off the transition through the clouds idea I planned previously. It also showcases my first use of cutscene taken from the game, and a "paper cut-out" effect I already have the knowledge of doing from a previous project.
If you look at the panel to the left, you can see my use of folders for neatness. This was pretty much a requirement for keeping a clean project file, as I will have to make many copies of the 3 compositions making up the motion graphics "menu" in order to change the text for each credit.
The begginings of the paper effect were to use the ever-useful roughen edges effect, tweaking some of the sliders to get the exact look I'm wanting for. Then the texture is applied using the even more ever-useful matte feature, setting the mode to "Screen".
Finally, for the paper effect, a white solid, also with roughen edges applied, is placed behind the image to give it that final touch of looking cut out.
Tape is a simple image made slightly transparent. Easy enough.
For the cloud transition, I made sure to place my building and skyline compositions into a new composition, to make this easy to work with.
The transition was created by simply keyframing the first composition to move out, as the second moves in. The cloud moves in from the top, with a little more animation to it to make it seem more natural and smooth.
Production - Sephiroth + HoneyBee Shots
(Conducted 12/04/24)
These are very similar shots I put together, showcasing this 50/50 video and background shot I planned to use for a few of the shots throughout the title sequence.
As you could probably tell, the background was created by simply copying my text-box template; Modifying it larger, and removing the text to handle it all in the shot's composition.
I placed the background slightly over 50% of the screen, as I wanted it to impose over the video a little, as to draw the viewers attention slightly closer to the credit.
For the music credit it played around with the text's size and position ever so slightly, and made the paper cut-out image smaller than sephiroth's, as to fit the 3 whole names better.
Production - Gameplay + Environment Shots
(Conducted 13/04/24)
These were the next shots I created, which don't really showcase much of note as most techniques used have already been mentioned prior.
I did decide to add a vignette onto the gameplay video and add a stronger green tint, in order to better seperate it from the motion graphic elements.
Production - Train Track Transition + Cloud Headshot
(Conducted 14/04/14)
These shots showcase a use of an interesting transition, to fill in for the smaller timeframe in the music that I couldn't fit my regular 3:15 second shot into. This is also my first use of rotoscoping, and my first "Character Introduction" shot that the next 3 shots will consist of.
The video used during the transition also showcases a dutch angle, something I had considered adding while researching angles.
I put together the train track asset in a seperate composition, Placing effects used previously onto it for added detail.
Motion tile, as used on my building shot to make that loop, was used on this train track also,
This composition was made slightly longer than the planned shot length, to allow it to go atop the previous and subsequent compositons and animate in and out on top of them. I also used this phase to fix the very slight discrepancy between video and music I had noticed over the last couple shots.
The rotobrush tool was used for the rotoscoping, with the fine edge tool used on hair. After Effects' rotobrush 3.0 tool does quite a lot of the work for you, but small adjustments do still need to be made for a good rotoscope job.
I used the text flickering effect as learned during my experimentation, and think it looks quite good behind the figure.