Immersive Visual Effects / Task 1 / Pre-production

23.9.2024 - 14.10.2024 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Immersive Visual Effects
Task 1 / Pre-production

LECTURES 

Week 1 / Introduction to Visual Effects

• The first visual effects had to be created during filming using jump-cuts or stop-motion during filming due to the lack of video editing software. 
• They also used coloured lights and lighting effects to create illusions of a person's face disappearing (in different lighting) for example. 
• CGI started with morphing/shape-shifting/transforming effects being popular
• The 2000s is the era of green screen 

Week 3 / Zenith & Nadir

Zenith: The point on the Celestial Sphere directly above the observer

Nadir: The point on the Celestial Sphere directly below the observer

Horizon = the point between the sky and the earth

Altitude = the angle of elevation of an object between the horizon and the zenith

Week 4 / HDRI Files 

• HDRI is a digital image format 
• HDRI = High Dynamic Range Image
• Created in a photo editing software to enhance digital photographs 
• These can then be converted to smaller files to be shared and uploaded
• Some areas of the photo appear darker than in real life 
• Photo editors get a chance to brighten the corners themselves and make it look more natural 

Pros:
- Can customise and enhance images 

- Can open and view in a rang of different programs

- Can easily create them with Photoshop

Cons: 
- 32-bit HDRI files are too large to use editing and sharing features in Photoshop
- Need to backup the original and create a 16 to 8-bit version

Fig. 1. How to create a HDRI file (18/10/2024)

Week 5 / Animation Techniques

Rotobrush 

• Can select the subject and it will automatically remove the background 
• May need to tweak it manually for better accuracy and look 

Track matte 

• Used to add a texture or colour onto text and keep it within the text
• Can be useful for projection mapping 

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

Week 2 Exercise: 3D Camera

For this exercise, we just had to learn how to use and experiment with using the 3D camera feature. We were given an After Effects file and we had to use it as a template and animate it. 

Final W2 Exercise Submission

Fig. 2. W2 Exercise Submission (26/12/2024)

Task 1: Pre-production

For Task 1, we were first required to brainstorm ideas on what project we wanted to create. It just had to be immersive, meaning the audience had to be able to interact with it in some way. 

Below are my proposal slides, where I detail initial ideas and the idea I chose in the end: 

Final Pre-production Submission

Fig. 3. Final Pre-production Proposal Submission (1/11/2024)

FEEDBACK

Week 4
General Feedback:
- Production storyboard to explain the duration, course and flow etc.
- Create a 2D animatic 
- Execution can look simple, but it's the ideation and concept that matters most
- Explore things like limitations and constraints, pros and cons etc.
- For now, finish the proposal, art deck and technical exploration, production storyboard, timeline and task breakdown (details on Google Classroom). Next week will explore the 2D animatic 
Specific Feedback:
- Go with idea no.2 (AR Animated book covers)
- Can think about the opportunities such technology would bring
- If target audience is kids, can use their digital addiction to bring more interest to books, for example
- Can take advantage of the uprising of digital media and devices
- Can also think about the commercial value of the app, animation or even the book (like if this book specifically came with an AR book cover, could that be a selling point of the book?)

Week 5
General Feedback:
- Show good work so in the future, with companies, they can see your 'in progress' work and pay accordingly
- Also he can introduce/ recommend us to some friends at an AR company if we do good work
Specific Feedback:
- Production storyboard can be simple, showing how I plan to make the subjects move with arrows and basic frames
- Storyboard can showcase the split layers (dog, kid 1, background etc.) 
- 2D animatic is basically just the storyboard animated, doesn't have to have all subjects in one frame. Can just have a few seconds of the dog, then a few seconds of the kids etc. 
- 2D animatic can be black and white

REFLECTIONS

Experiences
Due to other commitments, I was quite busy these weeks. Because of that, I was a bit slower in completing my proposal and it was tricky for me to think of ideas. Thankfully in the end, I was able to come up with a few ideas that I felt had potential. A part of me wanted to take on a projection mapping project as I want to learn how to create such a thing, but my AR book cover idea had the most potential in terms of usefulness, so I went with that instead. Overall, this allowed me to come up with different ideas for immersive projects and let me explore the limits and potential of mediums like AR and projection mapping.

Observations
Though the assignment instructions were quite vague, it was still interesting to see that my classmates and I had such different ideas. It reminds me again of how differently people think and how much innovation potential a team of simple students have. Similarly, with the exercise given to us on week 2, it shows me that each of us can have different ideas and execution to change the provided animation even though we were given the same file. 

Findings
A 2D animatic can simply be just the sketches in video form. I already sort of learnt this in a different module, but I got to experience it again here in creating this proposal. Since my project is already an animation that I planned to use the puppet tool for, creating an animation by hand for my 2D animatic seemed like a waste of time and didn't make much sense. Using my sketches as the animation saved me time, energy, and still allowed me to convey my ideas and visions without creating a new animation frame by frame.