Immersive Visual Effects / Task 3 / Post-production

22.11.2024 - 7.1.2025 (Week 9 - Week 16)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Immersive Visual Effects
Task 3 / Post-production

LECTURES

Lectures were covered in Task 1 and Task 2.

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

Task 3: Post-production

For this task, it was time to turn our project immersive. That means taking my animation and turning it into an AR project that people can scan something to view on their devices.

In order to create a 3D effect in the AR experience, I decided to export the animations in 3 layers. The background as one, Clifford and the girl sitting on him as one, and the boy, girl and small dog in the front as one. However, since they would be layered on top of each other, I had to find a way to export the animations as transparent GIFs. This proved to be a challenge. 

Originally, I tried exporting them directly with Adobe After Effects and/or the Adobe Media Encoder, but since the original image of the book cover is over 2000 x 2000 pixels large and I did not scale it down in the previous two tasks, it proved to be a big file that Adobe Aero took a long time to import. Since I would have to scale them down anyway, I decided to try a different method. Following a tutorial on YouTube, I exported the animations as transparent .mov files with Adobe After Effects' render queue. Then I used Photoshop to export the videos as GIFs, scaling them down as I did so. 

There were also previous attempts of me trying to use background removing websites and 'greenscreen' methods, as I was unaware that Adobe Media Encoder had the option to export transparent GIFs at the time. 

Fig. 2.1. All the files of exporting attempts in my File Explorer (13/12/2024)

After I managed to figure it all out and export everything, I could then move on to creating the AR experience.

In my proposal created in Task 1, I said I would be using Artivive to create my AR experience, but because it wouldn't allow me to insert more than one layer for it, I was unable to use it to achieve what I wanted. So I searched for alternatives and found BlippAR. It allowed me to insert multiple layers, but for some reason there were issues with importing my clips, so I decided to abandon that as well.

Fig. 2.2. Trying out the two mentioned websites (29/11/2024)

Finally, I settled on using Adobe Aero. It was completely free, though you'd need to use the mobile app to view the AR experience, it was still worth a shot. Only after testing it later do I find out that it doesn't play the GIFs, instead leaving them as still images, but it at least provides a perspective on what the 3D effect would look like when viewing the AR experience from a phone, so it was alright. 

Fig. 2.3. Using Adobe Aero to create the AR experience (18/12/2024)

But since not every phone is compatible with the Adobe Aero mobile app, I also decided to create a demo video that showcased the AR in action. This would also be a clearer and more direct showcase, of the AR and of the project.

For this I used the software Hitfilm, as I am familiar with using it to edit and it also has a 3D camera function. 

Fig. 2.4. Editing the demo video (7/1/2024)

I took some videos and photos of me viewing the AR experience with the Adobe Aero mobile app. I also used the editing software to layer the GIFs as they are in Adobe Aero. The distancing may not be completely the same, but the concept is there. 

In the future, I could consider making the grass below the characters' feet be on the same layer as them, or at least have some grass there rather than have it all be stuck in the background. This may help make it more realistic or even interesting.

FINAL Post-production Submission

Fig. 3.1. AR Demo Video (7/1/2024)

Fig. 3.2. AR QR Code (13/12/2024)

FEEDBACK

Week 13
Specific Feedback:
- Film a video of you testing the AR, can add some music to it
- Can add on to your original slides from Project 1 to show progress 
- Can create a video to document how you created the project 
- Add screenshots of your progress on creating the project to the blog 
- Basically can submit stuff in a bunch of different formats to ensure the management can see it 

REFLECTIONS

Experience
This wasn't a very work heavy task, so I was able to balance it with my other modules' work. Overall, this was a fun experience. AR is an interesting concept, so I'm glad I was able to try making one for myself. Despite the challenges along the way, I am pretty satisfied with what I've made. This book cover idea may prove useful to someone in the future if the idea is developed further, and I will have had experience with making one, even if it's basic and simple. Overall, this large project has been relatively easy-going yet beneficial, and has helped me learn new things.

Observations
Finding the right website, software or program to do what you want may take time and trial & error. Because of that, I should be more careful and try them out early on. Thankfully I listened to my lecturer's advice to test out the programs first, or else I would've been left with a bigger mess to fix later on and probably would have panicked more due to there being less time to solve the problem. This is a lesson that may be useful in the future. 

Findings
Creating an AR experience like this isn't actually all that difficult. The post-production part is less time-consuming and requires less effort than the production stage, though this does make sense if I think about it. I think this can also be due to me figuring out Adobe Aero while I was still working on the animation, so the time taken was overlapped. In the end though, I was able to get everything done and on time, so I think this method can be used again if I ever use Adobe Aero again in the future.