so here is what i've been working on over the past week since class... getting all of the components into the timeline as a solid rough cut. the sound design is still a work in progress, and was not worthy of including in this post, but a solid rough cut of the sound design will be done by tomorrow. from here on out, it's just tweaking things (as you can see from the rough cut, theres a few points that need work...), finding interesting effects and whatnot to add (just found CC Scatterize - it's awesome!), and perhaps adding one or two other self-created components (thus far, the two that have BY FAR taken me the longest to create didn't make it in, because i couldn't them to look like i had envisioned, and wasn't pleased with their final look and feel, as they didn't exactly fit into the puzzle. a bummer, for sure, but thats how these things go sometime...). as far as sound design goes, it is just as much, if not more important than the visuals. this is the kind of project where the weight of both parts is evenly distributed, and neither could function fully without the other (see below: on duality). so when a rough cut of that is done (and when i get internet in my new house!) i'll upload that too...
thus far, it has been quite the interesting trip... that's what i love about projects like this... they create and mold themselves over time, and i just kind of help that process along... i'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. what i would consider it is a kind of meta-physical journey through the awakening of human consciousness (and thus unconsciousness). the most prevalent theme is most certainly duality, with that being the whole point, or, the "lesson," if you will. so in a way, this project has been a study in duality for me... i have learned an incredible amount of things about that, about myself, and about after effects so far, and it shows no signs of slowing...
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
progress report...
since i didn't get checked out in class, here is a report on what i've been doing with my time...
thus far, it's still mainly been a hands-on kind of project, which is great... there's been alot of guess-and-check work. filming something multiple times (which means logging and capturing, then editing, then exporting, etc... multiple times too) and then occasionally changing it later, by either doing another version, trashing it completely, or expanding and developing.
but this is typical for my projects... at least the ones i do out of passion, because i want to, and not just because it's homework, and i have to do it to do it... all of my projects tend to unfold in the most particular and perfect of ways... as long as i let them... thats one of my problems with storyboards and whatnot, because i'm not in film school to learn how to make perfectly wrapped narrative films... rather it's because i'm interested in making short, experimental films that mirror, reflect, and delve into my reality and my being... an ever-changing environment, much like my films...
i learn so much about it (this project), and myself, every day.... my mind mills over, thinking about what it could be, where it could go... but as the components start coming together, it begins to look just like a puzzle... each piece fits distinctly where it was meant to fit, so thats where i'll put it...
ok, that said, here's my actual "plot" update/progress report, and explanations of how i created each component...
1) start with blackness.
2) goes into space footage (will not be self-created) then flashes white.
3) white screen. chakras begin to illuminate one by one. clouds start to move in overhead, accompanied by sounds of thunder.
4) suddenly lightning strikes, and hits the chakras. they're all illuminated at once.
5) the third eye opens.
6) human form takes shape around the chakras.
7) elemental map and water/continents (inside human form).
8) static/matter (conscious and unconscious).
9) day & night/sun & moon/sunrise & sunset
10) extrusion to the millionth power (til grey).
11) stop-motion of human form crumpling into ball.
12) color drops and roll credits.
3) chakras - the chakras were fully created in after effects, using the shape tool, and then the 'spherize' preset and the 'glow' effect, so they will therefore radiate and "breathe," as it were... this has by far been one of the most time-consuming component. getting the timing right is tough, and since it has trouble rendering the entire thing (tons and tons of keyframes, although i'm finally now realizing that less is more...) i just have to guess and check, then try to export the entire thing to see what i did. right now, that sequence is about 22 seconds long, i believe.
clouds - a clip i found of some time lapse clouds. in fcp, i cropped, feathered, and precisely placed the video, and then smothered it with some color filters, because the once-white clouds are now dark and gray and scary.
4) lightning - a clip i found with some sick-ass lightning. i took the original clip into final cut and rotated and mirrored and flopped it around to where it needed to be... it's going to come in from the side and strike all of the chakras at once.
5) third eye - i ended up rotoscoping the eye. i filmed myself opening my eye slowly, and then blinking a time or two... and this is what i rotoscoped. it was 9 seconds long, shrunk down to 3, so i therefore rotoscoped 90 frames. but actually nearer 80 because i didn't need to do a few... should be an interesting addition...
6) human form - original intention was to use davinci's vitruvian man. so i spent a long time tracing him out in photoshop with a different layer for every body part (because at that point i thought the form might move). then i thought, why in the hell wouldn't i use a female? so... using myself as the model, i got a vitruvian female form, and did the same thing... then i tossed around ideas about using them both within the video, perhaps one morphing into the other... and then i wondered if any preset in after effects would "morph" them together for me... and then i realized that i only really wanted to use one figure, and that it wasn't going to move, so i re-drew it using both the original male and female drawings. that was actually really tough. some things didn't fit. some did. but i'm happy with how it turned out. it's called 'person,' because, like the project, it's embodying everythingness and oneness.
7) elemental map - created in photoshop. just a line that will trace down through the body, outlining the six most abundant elements in the human body. while this is going on, the form will be filling up with water...
water - i filmed this myself. the same water i used to create the continents (below) was used for this... i just set the camera up and zoomed in on the fish tank (for alot of this stuff, i've been using a five-sided irregular fish tank to film through, with paper either taped to the back or the bottom, or just held down by water, and with my subjects either falling into water, melting into water, or just being poured water, as in this case. unfortunately, my fish has been chillin' in a pitcher for about a week now...) so yea, for this, i just let the camera film up-close as the tank filled with water. this took relatively few tries (only 3) and i was very happy and surprised with the results. (mainly because it actually worked like i thought it might, much unlike some other things i've tried for this project...)
continents - original idea was stop-motion animation with a still camera, so to film green ice melting in blue water, then reverse it. ha. early on, i decided to maybe try filming it instead, and doing some sort of time lapse... (this all started about two weeks ago. this one small component has taken at least 5 hours of my time, if not more, and is certainly the most time-consuming and frustrating thing i have undertaken yet). so... i tried it with my little camera first, a little sony, mini-dv... it involves freezing water in small glass/shot glasses/homemade tinfoil cups/empty yogurt containers/etc... (after you mix in green dye, of course) for at least an hour or two. but really, no longer than a day, because, well, come to find out... if you freeze green water too long, it turns blue. seriously. it's the weirdest thing... add nothing, take nothing away. it will just turn blueish. teal, really. but not be green anymore. its the strangest thing, and it happened to me at least 4 different times. (i've just been freezing green water consistently, knowing that this was an ongoing battle). so anyhow... the first few times i tried to do it, it was in my kitchen, and included lamps and side-lighting (overhead doesn't work when the water is already freakin' reflective!) and, you know, i was trying to film straight down into the container. except kind of at an angle, because when it's straight down, you get the cameras reflection... so... it kind of worked, but my method was ghetto as hell (the very first time, i used a tupperware container lined with a white t-shirt. ha.). so that was good practice, but i knew i needed a better camera... so i checked out a canon xl-1. and that camera sucks, and it doesn't have an LCD screen, which is essential when you're doing things solo. so the next few times i tried, i got nothing. then i got my hands on one of the JVC HD cameras, and i figured i'd be set, b/c it would get such great footage... so i tried it, and this time, i tried to do it outside... the camera was on a tripod, aimed straight down at the ground, where the tank is... it kind of worked, but still wasn't really what i needed... i was shooting under natural sunlight, and theres tons of reflections that just make it not work... after much more hassle, tons more green dye, and checking out the panasonic dvx100, i decided to go with my first idea, which was actual stop motion. so thats what i did... hand held still camera (unfortunately just a little canon elph, not an SLR or anything)... i took 704 pictures (over about probably 6 minutes while the ice melted). then, in final cut pro, i used every fourth picture (for 176 pictures), and made them 8 frames each, for a total of 22 seconds. then i set the speed for 200%, so now it's 11 seconds. except then i actually filled in some blanks and added nine extra shots at 8 frames each, so 72 more frames total, equals 3 more seconds, equals 15 seconds totals for the earth to be formed. amazing, no?
8) static/matter - this was pretty simple. in photoshop i just created the background that i wanted, a half black/half white background to go inside the person to symbolize consciousness and unconsciousness. then i brought that into after effects times two, and added the effect 'fractal noise' to both of them. having tweaked the complexity, the evolution, and the opacity to them both, i now have some nice fuzzy universal matter that clears up into the conscious/unconscious realm.
9) day & night/sun & moon - created in photoshop using the gradient tool, and the ellipses tool and the eraser tool... pretty easy. will be used later in after effects to do some serious planetary rotations.
10) haven't quite gotten to this one yet. working on it. but this will be the person form returning to it's grey (everything is everything) state of being.
11) stop-motion of human form - sooo... i decided that at the end, i wanted the human to become one with the background (the entire key to this whole project). so... i used my person form, made it much much bigger (i'm learning A LOT about photoshop), and printed out some copies. then i colored one gray, cut it out with an exact-o knife blade, and then took a picture of it on top of a green screen. then i crumpled it up, and took a series of pictures of it being un-crumpled. then i yanked all the pics (only 27 for this series!) into fcp and put em into order (only used 25 i think) and made them 5 frames each.
12) color drops - filmed with the same method as the water filling up (from the side of the tank), it is clear water with a white background, and drops of food dye are dropped in one by one. interesting effect. some beautiful, natural patterns created here... this will signify a return to earth (death) and fluidity of natural energy.
my overall themes for this film are: duality, elemental design, and water.
full inspiration from this past semesters class "dreams and active imagination," based on c.g. jung.
thus far, it's still mainly been a hands-on kind of project, which is great... there's been alot of guess-and-check work. filming something multiple times (which means logging and capturing, then editing, then exporting, etc... multiple times too) and then occasionally changing it later, by either doing another version, trashing it completely, or expanding and developing.
but this is typical for my projects... at least the ones i do out of passion, because i want to, and not just because it's homework, and i have to do it to do it... all of my projects tend to unfold in the most particular and perfect of ways... as long as i let them... thats one of my problems with storyboards and whatnot, because i'm not in film school to learn how to make perfectly wrapped narrative films... rather it's because i'm interested in making short, experimental films that mirror, reflect, and delve into my reality and my being... an ever-changing environment, much like my films...
i learn so much about it (this project), and myself, every day.... my mind mills over, thinking about what it could be, where it could go... but as the components start coming together, it begins to look just like a puzzle... each piece fits distinctly where it was meant to fit, so thats where i'll put it...
ok, that said, here's my actual "plot" update/progress report, and explanations of how i created each component...
1) start with blackness.
2) goes into space footage (will not be self-created) then flashes white.
3) white screen. chakras begin to illuminate one by one. clouds start to move in overhead, accompanied by sounds of thunder.
4) suddenly lightning strikes, and hits the chakras. they're all illuminated at once.
5) the third eye opens.
6) human form takes shape around the chakras.
7) elemental map and water/continents (inside human form).
8) static/matter (conscious and unconscious).
9) day & night/sun & moon/sunrise & sunset
10) extrusion to the millionth power (til grey).
11) stop-motion of human form crumpling into ball.
12) color drops and roll credits.
3) chakras - the chakras were fully created in after effects, using the shape tool, and then the 'spherize' preset and the 'glow' effect, so they will therefore radiate and "breathe," as it were... this has by far been one of the most time-consuming component. getting the timing right is tough, and since it has trouble rendering the entire thing (tons and tons of keyframes, although i'm finally now realizing that less is more...) i just have to guess and check, then try to export the entire thing to see what i did. right now, that sequence is about 22 seconds long, i believe.
clouds - a clip i found of some time lapse clouds. in fcp, i cropped, feathered, and precisely placed the video, and then smothered it with some color filters, because the once-white clouds are now dark and gray and scary.
4) lightning - a clip i found with some sick-ass lightning. i took the original clip into final cut and rotated and mirrored and flopped it around to where it needed to be... it's going to come in from the side and strike all of the chakras at once.
5) third eye - i ended up rotoscoping the eye. i filmed myself opening my eye slowly, and then blinking a time or two... and this is what i rotoscoped. it was 9 seconds long, shrunk down to 3, so i therefore rotoscoped 90 frames. but actually nearer 80 because i didn't need to do a few... should be an interesting addition...
6) human form - original intention was to use davinci's vitruvian man. so i spent a long time tracing him out in photoshop with a different layer for every body part (because at that point i thought the form might move). then i thought, why in the hell wouldn't i use a female? so... using myself as the model, i got a vitruvian female form, and did the same thing... then i tossed around ideas about using them both within the video, perhaps one morphing into the other... and then i wondered if any preset in after effects would "morph" them together for me... and then i realized that i only really wanted to use one figure, and that it wasn't going to move, so i re-drew it using both the original male and female drawings. that was actually really tough. some things didn't fit. some did. but i'm happy with how it turned out. it's called 'person,' because, like the project, it's embodying everythingness and oneness.
7) elemental map - created in photoshop. just a line that will trace down through the body, outlining the six most abundant elements in the human body. while this is going on, the form will be filling up with water...
water - i filmed this myself. the same water i used to create the continents (below) was used for this... i just set the camera up and zoomed in on the fish tank (for alot of this stuff, i've been using a five-sided irregular fish tank to film through, with paper either taped to the back or the bottom, or just held down by water, and with my subjects either falling into water, melting into water, or just being poured water, as in this case. unfortunately, my fish has been chillin' in a pitcher for about a week now...) so yea, for this, i just let the camera film up-close as the tank filled with water. this took relatively few tries (only 3) and i was very happy and surprised with the results. (mainly because it actually worked like i thought it might, much unlike some other things i've tried for this project...)
continents - original idea was stop-motion animation with a still camera, so to film green ice melting in blue water, then reverse it. ha. early on, i decided to maybe try filming it instead, and doing some sort of time lapse... (this all started about two weeks ago. this one small component has taken at least 5 hours of my time, if not more, and is certainly the most time-consuming and frustrating thing i have undertaken yet). so... i tried it with my little camera first, a little sony, mini-dv... it involves freezing water in small glass/shot glasses/homemade tinfoil cups/empty yogurt containers/etc... (after you mix in green dye, of course) for at least an hour or two. but really, no longer than a day, because, well, come to find out... if you freeze green water too long, it turns blue. seriously. it's the weirdest thing... add nothing, take nothing away. it will just turn blueish. teal, really. but not be green anymore. its the strangest thing, and it happened to me at least 4 different times. (i've just been freezing green water consistently, knowing that this was an ongoing battle). so anyhow... the first few times i tried to do it, it was in my kitchen, and included lamps and side-lighting (overhead doesn't work when the water is already freakin' reflective!) and, you know, i was trying to film straight down into the container. except kind of at an angle, because when it's straight down, you get the cameras reflection... so... it kind of worked, but my method was ghetto as hell (the very first time, i used a tupperware container lined with a white t-shirt. ha.). so that was good practice, but i knew i needed a better camera... so i checked out a canon xl-1. and that camera sucks, and it doesn't have an LCD screen, which is essential when you're doing things solo. so the next few times i tried, i got nothing. then i got my hands on one of the JVC HD cameras, and i figured i'd be set, b/c it would get such great footage... so i tried it, and this time, i tried to do it outside... the camera was on a tripod, aimed straight down at the ground, where the tank is... it kind of worked, but still wasn't really what i needed... i was shooting under natural sunlight, and theres tons of reflections that just make it not work... after much more hassle, tons more green dye, and checking out the panasonic dvx100, i decided to go with my first idea, which was actual stop motion. so thats what i did... hand held still camera (unfortunately just a little canon elph, not an SLR or anything)... i took 704 pictures (over about probably 6 minutes while the ice melted). then, in final cut pro, i used every fourth picture (for 176 pictures), and made them 8 frames each, for a total of 22 seconds. then i set the speed for 200%, so now it's 11 seconds. except then i actually filled in some blanks and added nine extra shots at 8 frames each, so 72 more frames total, equals 3 more seconds, equals 15 seconds totals for the earth to be formed. amazing, no?
8) static/matter - this was pretty simple. in photoshop i just created the background that i wanted, a half black/half white background to go inside the person to symbolize consciousness and unconsciousness. then i brought that into after effects times two, and added the effect 'fractal noise' to both of them. having tweaked the complexity, the evolution, and the opacity to them both, i now have some nice fuzzy universal matter that clears up into the conscious/unconscious realm.
9) day & night/sun & moon - created in photoshop using the gradient tool, and the ellipses tool and the eraser tool... pretty easy. will be used later in after effects to do some serious planetary rotations.
10) haven't quite gotten to this one yet. working on it. but this will be the person form returning to it's grey (everything is everything) state of being.
11) stop-motion of human form - sooo... i decided that at the end, i wanted the human to become one with the background (the entire key to this whole project). so... i used my person form, made it much much bigger (i'm learning A LOT about photoshop), and printed out some copies. then i colored one gray, cut it out with an exact-o knife blade, and then took a picture of it on top of a green screen. then i crumpled it up, and took a series of pictures of it being un-crumpled. then i yanked all the pics (only 27 for this series!) into fcp and put em into order (only used 25 i think) and made them 5 frames each.
12) color drops - filmed with the same method as the water filling up (from the side of the tank), it is clear water with a white background, and drops of food dye are dropped in one by one. interesting effect. some beautiful, natural patterns created here... this will signify a return to earth (death) and fluidity of natural energy.
my overall themes for this film are: duality, elemental design, and water.
full inspiration from this past semesters class "dreams and active imagination," based on c.g. jung.
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