This week we were given a small video to work from, about how to include some post processing editing onto a piece of film.
Since we only had a set number of computers to work from, me and Tori shared a Pc at the back of the class, and took turns on doing the exercise.
We were given a file and some extra components to add to the scene as a way of post processing, adding extra elements to the scene by using masks and effects. I hadn’t used after effects before so I was a bit nervous to start, but I followed along with Henry’s video and was able to navigate adding these effects with only a few hiccups. Below is the original video file, and our goal was to make it a bit more Matrix-Y and add on some more grunge and broken down elements to the clip.
The first thing I was able to do, was change the colour of the scene using a curve effect on the main video file, and then by playing around I got this nice blue-green tint to colour the frame. Then I was also able to add and animate these lens flares. First I added a solid white colour, then using the pen tool I went and masked the area to the window spacings (making sure to take a bit of time to go around the bumps and cracks on the frames), leaving me with some white colour on where the windows let in light. Then to turn these into lens flares, I applied the light burst effect, and adjusted the length on these, as well as the centre. To animate the transition across I went ahead and keyed in the movement across the screen on the center value.
The next thing was to add on some additional elements, in this case bullet holes and ceiling cracks, we were supplied with the JPEGs of these so it was all about making them fit the frame. This had a couple steps to work, we had to put the image in, make it fit the colour and tone on screen and also make sure it followed along with the camera shake. Importing the images was very easy, just dragging them into the scene or going to file> import> files and select the file. Colour correcting these used the same technique as before, first change the blending mode to overlay, adding a curve effect to the screen and colour matching as close as u can with where it was placed.
To make these follow the camera shake had a few more steps, first u needed to set up a think for the camera to track to. I set up an adjustments layer that would eventually hold my tracking data (you can see I messed up the first attempt of this, I missed a couple frames and decided to just redo all these steps). Then I went into the video and looked at the Tracker menu, clicking track motion: this brought up two little squares to place over a tracking spot (where it would read how the camera moved and be able to apply this to other elements), I decided on the belt buckle since it was a clear shape on a dark background. To get the tracking data, you let the track play through the video and check to see it stayed on the element smoothly, if it did that’s good and you can continue on, if not you would have to go and look at another element to try and track. Then to be able to apply this to other elements, I went and selected my tracking data layer as a target and applied this data, then to apply it to other elements I just had to make my data the parent of these.
I also learnt that you could make 2D images into 3D objects and then be able to place them in perspective, and I was able to use this technique to place a hole on the ground as well as some cracks in the ceiling.
The last thing I did was to add on some dust falling, just placing these on the frame and then using the pen tool to key put where I wanted areas to avoid, changing these types of mask to subtract to remove, I then went and feathered the outside of the mask and it was all done!
Unfortunately, when I went to render out my video with my nice lens flare lighting, the computers at school just couldn’t handle it, and it was stuck on 0% as well as crashing a couple times. Despite this I still have learnt a couple tricks in after Effects and that is what is important.
This was a very cool and surprisingly easy way to change the tone of a scene. I can see the wide capabilities of this area, as it is something that I knew about but had never taken a huge amount of interest in. I think this could be a very fun area to do some more research in, even if it is just learning how to spruce up my animations with some colour adjustments.