Before beginning production on my final piece, it’s a good idea to practice some of the techniques I intend to use to ensure that they work effectively and that I can apply them well in order to create a professional product. In the videos below you will see a variety of effects and techniques that I have practised using sample videos, that have helped me gain a better understanding of what works well and if it is possible with my current skill set.
Grain
I began to test my intended visual effects by using videos I had shot myself and added these effects on to them. I began simple with some dynamic grain which will hopefully give the effect of my video being shot on an older film camera. In the below video, I have added this effect to a video I took in Paris and I have included the original to show the difference. Although hard to see in this specific video, I can see the effect works like intended and with some added colour correction, my final videos will have the intended impact I desire.
Masking
Next using the same example video, I created a simple clip based of a scene from the storyboard. By combining my footage and some stock footage from Brad Day on Artlist.io (Day, 2022), I created the illusion of a video inside a car rear view mirror. Once again, since the stock footage and my example video are not filmed the same way, it doesn’t create the intended effect, however it allows me to see how it could potentially look in the final product.
In my final video, I will be able to accurately colour correct both videos to match and sync it with other videos when creating transitions. The purpose of this specific exercise was to demonstrate the masking of one video over a certain object.
Fire
For one of the final scenes in my music video, I wanted to have a door thats on fire with the camera zooming out from it. This was something I needed to do post production as I would not have the facilities, time and safety regulations in place to perform this physically. For this exercise, I used a stock door image and used effects and presets inside of After Effects to achieve this effect. I was able to duplicate each fire effect and move it to make it look more realistic and less empty on the screen. This also allowed me to have fire in front and behind the door. Below you can see the video as well as every effect that was added to create this VFX style.
This effect uses the particle systems preset which carries a similar approach to the particle VFX systems show within the lab sessions. This specific effect with the fire is more appropriate for my project however in comparison to the flash particles from the gun scene shown in week 8 which is why I have chosen a slightly different direction. On the other hand, it may be worthwhile applying the smoke aspect of the particle system used within that scene to add further depth to my fire and make it look more realistic.
AI Face & Glitch/Distortion
One theme that I want within my music video is the use of a digital face. Using an app called ‘blendartrack’ which is used to capture facial movements to be imported into Blender, I was able to get a recording of my face as a raw digital version. This was simply made up of the digital points that are arranged to construct a simple version of my face and the movements which I could then use in my video.
In addition to this, I used the ‘VR Digital Glitch’ preset inside After Effects to experiment with the various distortion techniques I could use within my project. I used key framing within this preset to animate the glitch as time progresses.
Finally I used some stock footage that I intend to use in my final piece as I believe it fits the narrative perfectly, and combined some of the above effects to create a final scene. Within this, I have added a subtle film grain, combined with some glitch distortion as well as occasional interference (like a VHS glitch).
References
Day, B. (2022) Car, Driving, Dashboard, Mirror. artlist.io. Available online: https://artlist.io/stock-footage/clip/car-driving-dashboard-mirror/525837 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].
pngimg.com (2023) Door PNG image with transparent background. pngimg.com. Available online: https://pngimg.com/image/17597 [Accessed 8 Jan. 2023].
Livne, T. (2021) Protest, Sign, Message, Pessimistic. artlist.io. Available online: https://artlist.io/stock-footage/clip/protest-sign-message-pessimistic/192409 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].
