VFX Opening Screen

VFX Edit - Stage 4

This is when I totally refined my edit. I am happy with the way the lines turned out with the pen tool, and my use of text. Now I wanted to add some more visual effects to really bring the whole thing together.

When looking at the lines I thought they looked rather bland, like something was missing. So after trying out a load of different effects from the effects panel, I found one which was rather interesting. 
I found an effect called 'fog lights', which created a different texture to the lines. I added it to all the lines I had drawn and just edited the colours in which it would appear, to match the gold but with some white highlights. This really brought all the lines to life, and made them more interesting when they draw onto the screen.

I also made sure all my key frames were set accurately so everything would appear at different times and all compliment each other. Also, in order to add the desired fog lights effect to all the lines, I had to put them into a pre-composition so they were all grouped together, and I could easily apply the effect to them as one.

The video below shows the title opening now with the fog light effect added onto the drawing lines.

VFX Edit - Stage 3

Stage Three for my edit of The Great Gatsby was to add text to the edit. I downloaded a few fonts that I thought looked similar to the font already used, as I didn't want to give up too easily and use the exact font.

I tried out each of these fonts on my composition but after a lot of fiddling around I decided that I wasn't happy with any of them, as they just didn't create the desired effect I was looking for. 

I then decided to create a mask layer over the image I had used to help me draw the lines, so I could use the actual font but just add some of my own edits to it.

Then I knew I wanted the text to fade in, so I used the effects panel to find a text effect that would blur the text to give it a bit more mystery as it faded in.

I key framed this effect and the opacity to create the desired look I wanted.

VFX Edit - Stage 1 & 2

After a few VFX tutorial lessons where we learnt the basics of After Effects, I decided what I wanted to create for my piece.
We have to create an opening sequence or title sequence for a film or tv show of our choice. I decided I wanted to create an opening to The Great Gatsby, as I know the general aesthetic of The Great Gatsby is somewhat complex. 

This is what I wanted to animate and recreate in After Effects

I began this process by creating a new After Effects project and importing the image so that I could use the pen tool to draw around the lines, to create the general image. This was pretty intricate work so it took a few days to finish drawing around the entire thing, since a lot of the lines are small and intricate. I had to zoom in quite a lot to be able to draw the rather complex ones.

The screenshot below shows what I had created once I hid the photo layer. I used my skills with the pen tool to accurately draw all the shapes myself.

Once I had drawn it entirely I changed the colour of the lines to a yellow / gold to match the Gatsby aesthetic.

After this I added Trim Paths to all the lines I had drawn and key framed them all at different times, to give the look that they are drawing themselves. I wanted a variation in timings which is why I varied the keyframes so it would gradually appear at different times.

Dance Film - Learning Agreement

Setting - Dance Film

Alice came up with a really interesting idea of building a mini set of paper mountains for our dancers to immerse themselves in. We feel that having this set will really enhance the piece and push our creative skills into crafting this for the dance film.
If we were to make this out of paper it wouldn't be harmful for the environment and we could recycle it after use.
I also suggested using larger bits of cardboard to make sure that it stands freely by itself, but also use depth of the set to have enough room for the dancers to move around it, but if it faces the camera head on then it will still look fine.

I thought as well if we made the backs of the pieces flat, and then the front three dimensional we could create stands on the back, making sure they would stand by themselves in the space. As our piece is about relationships and their struggles both good and bad, the paper mountains would be interesting in the set as the physicality of a mountain and their rough and jagged sides could denote the rough parts of a relationship, it being unstable and uncertain, but it could also denote that when you reach the top of the mountain peak, a euphoric and accomplished feeling as you got through the hard times together.

This will be a challenge, however I feel excited to challenge myself and create something different to anything I've tried before. As I shall be working with Alice, I feel that between us we will be able to achieve this. She is also really skilled with lighting so I know we will be able to make our set look fabulous on screen.

Inspiration - Dance Film

When thinking about color in the dance film, I instantly thought of Wes Andersen, one of my favourite directors. His work has always been inspiring to me as I love his use of color and the overall compositions of his scenes. He always uses really bold colors and his work is very symmetrical throughout his films. This is something I would like to challenge myself to achieve. I also want to use really bold colors and maybe experiment with gel lighting, which is something I haven't really done before.

I have added some images to give an example of his style.

With regards to music videos and color, I looked at the video for Hotline Bling, by Drake. The lighting in this video is very soft and he uses very soft pastel colors to take over the video, as they are the main aspect of the scene.
The video itself is very simplistic, only featuring a handful of dancers, however it's still really effective and a really interesting video to watch.

These examples are each very influential in how I want to make the dance piece, with a good use of color and a simplistic style, yet effective.