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At the beginning of this digital media production course i was really into maya, found my transition from college to AUCB quit easy as my college course (interactive media) is very similar, one of the main reasons why i choose to join the Digital media production course was mainly to expand on my own skills, and for the work placements
the maya lessons at the beginning was easy as i had two year experience the the interface how ever, we started using mental ray and making realistic maya models after the first term, I could not keep up with mental ray of rendering. the thing about maya is its such a huge program that its rare to find someone who know everything about it, thats because in the industry you would only really be doing one job e.g one person to do the rigging and one person to do the rendering. this is why animation are generally done by companies such as pixair as animation isn’t very cost affective.
Principles for Computer Graphics was my first project and we had to do a motion graphics piece using after affects, allot of people were doing pieces based round drinking i really wanted to do something outside the box, i started by looking thought my face book photos from the beginning of uni and i found a few photos from when me and some new friends went to a field and had a camp fire. i really wanted to recreate the feeling of socialism around a fire. there is something really tribal about fire and the union of people huddled in the cold around a camp fire. I wanted to do this using after affect and green screen, I would make an environment in maya and composite the environment around the people would give a se-real experience, At the beginning i was interested in doing the (northern lights) but i thought i would look like a cheesy video of a bunch of stoners. so i decided to focus on narrative and speech, this would lead me to the pub. At the pub i sat down with friends and began to write down what people were saying, i then used my notes to make the worse conversation i could. the idea was to make it sound as if the conversation was all natural, the script was about people talking rubbish.when it came to green screening i had a rough idea of how it worked, but didn’t realize how mini dv cams compress information, so when i started editing my footage in after affect i had trouble keying the green from the green screen. i should have used a HD camera and i should have used a directional mic or boom mic. i think my goal was a bit ambitious for a first project but i feel as if i learnt allot and if i had to do it again it would be of much better quality.
Principals of Sound and Video
We had to work as a group for this project in which we had to make a viral video. we were given leachers about the types of cameras and how they work. we also had to define what viral video actually means. A viral video is a video clip that gains popularity through the process of internet sharing and social network sites, we came up with the idea of a stop motion music piece. my group pulled together very well however At first the filming was slightly unorganized as we didn’t know what to film first so when we were first supposed to be filming we decided to sit down together and plan it so that it would make it easier and everybody knew exactly what they were doing.We decided to film each instrument separately so we started off with the keyboard. This was filmed at one of the group members house as there was a lot of space and she had access to some of the instruments we required. We first filmed each group member playing the set notes on the keyboard. At first we did not know what was really happening so we quickly wrote out a storyboard in order for us to visulise they angles and positions to film in. As our idea was for each member to play each instrument but one of the members would be a main participant for one instrument we first filmed Myself. I was going to be the main body for the keyboard sequence. I play the different notes but to get a cool stop motion effect we I had to play each note in different body positions. The keyboard being an instrument that is compact, we had to make shore who ever was playing it had to move about a bit more than you would normally. After I had been filmed the others in the group all took our turn in playing this instrument and moving in different positions. im really happy how our video trued out, but i didn’t get a chance to do any editing
halfway thought (Principles for Computer Graphics) and (Principals of Sound and Video) we were introduce to anther project called (computer graphics for animation and film) For this everyone had to make a 3D animation to go with some sound. i found it had to come up with an idea at the time, now when i look back its obvious i should have done a mind map to work out my idea. i chose to do a a small family of robots dancing in a bedroom. The software we had to use was, Maya. I wasn’t nervous about using Maya at all, maya has a steep learning curve which puts people off using it. that and the fact you have to teach yourself it using videos online as there is hundreds of way to approach a task. I’ve done maya modeling before, texturing, lighting, and animating however rigging is new to me, i had no problems with this project except the textures disappeared when i moved some file but it was a quick fix, Im quit happy the way it worked out.
short form video The aim for this project was to write, film and produce a short film with a duration of 10 minutes approx. The plot was already written for us and split into the perspectives of six groups of characters. Our class has been split into six groups and each group has been assigned one perspective to write from. These groups consisted of Documentary, Lecturer, Police, TV News, Students and Terrorists. my group was given the role of the Terrorists. We decide rather than do your every day muslim or irish terrorist that we would be cyber terrorists like the people who attacked Estonia (estonian cyberwar) Refers to a series of cyber attacks that began in april 2007 and bombarded the small countries Websites e.g Banks, Ministries, newspapers and broadcasters bringing the country to its knees. Estonia had to cut themselves off, i came up with the idea from something that i had seen on bbc iplayer the week before.the story line follow terrorist called The Leet Haxors, which are the cyber-terrorist group have had one of the members deported to the states after being caught computer hacking to access top confidential government information. The whole terrorist group were involved in getting access to the information but unfortunately one of them was traced. They themselves, abduct a lecture and hold him hostage in order for the release of their member. We based this concept on a similar story that is happening in real life of a computer hacker facing US trail after being accused of braking into US military computers. i got really stressed with project as we had to rewrite script and change our finale location which mad it harder to film our other senses.
Post production The aim is to create a piece that utilizes the skills we have learned in post production. For this project I was going to produce an animation or object that can be layered over live footage. To do this I would have had to use Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. my idea was to go try and Create a flying car, I hoped to place the car into footage of a road or in a car park. i probably had to of learnt learn about time-code to achieve this affect. halfway thought my project i changed my mind to an old idea, i wanted to try and convey a human emotion using post production, The idea is that i will place a subject in front of a green screen and ask them to look sad and alone. composites behind them will be a busy high street, but the the footage of the high street will be done on SLR camera (1 frame every 5 seconds) This give the effect that time is moving on fast (time lapse) while the subject in the fore ground is left behind, however before half term i realized that i wouldn’t have time so i went for an adapted idea, i got my friend to sit on one side of a picnic table and sit quietly the filmed him again on the other side talk a load of rubbish. the idea was that he was having a convocation with his twin brother and that there personalities were opacities i found this quit easy to do however i did this outside and the sun kept disappearing and reappearing which make spilt screening hard to do.
I learnt quit a bit about equipment this year and hope to become more and more familiar with editing software as well as doing some more project on film
C V
Name: Daniel Vincent Sullivan
Address: 47 west house, Wallisdown, Poole, Dorset BH12 5HH
Home: 02087370109
Email: 0602560@googlemail.com
Last Employer: 2007-Sep 09
Mothercare World Kew Unit 1a Bessant Drive, Mortlake Rd, Kew, Richmond - Surry, TW9
Position sale adviser (Customer service)
Duties
I am till trained on customer service tills, doing refunds/sales, web orders, spares/repairs and baby plan orders. I have been trained to fit car seats and demonstrate push chairs, as well as giving product advice. I deal promptly with the delivery, making sure that the stock room is in good order. Replenishment, updating POSs, promoting and opening Mothercare store cards, and data captures. Handling phone enquires while delivering a high standard of customer care.
Previous Employment (Voluntary) 2006-July 09
St. Johns Ambulance
Position First Aider
Duties
Volunteered for St Johns Ambulance Teddington Devision. I worked with the public at events and was trained in dealing with conflicts as well as how to assess and diffuse difficult situations, I am also trained in First Aid at Work and AED’s (Automatic Electronic Defoliators)
Education and Qualifications 2001-06 Orleans Park School
(GCSE)
Science Biology C - Science Chemistry C – English C - SAT’s C – Geography C – Art C – Design Tech D - ICT C - Maths D
2006-09 Richmond upon Thames College
(B-tech)
Interactive Media – Double Merit
Sept 2009 Art University College of Bournemouth
(BA hons)
Digital Media Production – (Currently Studying)
Profile
I am enthusiastic, reliable, friendly, trustworthy and eager to learn new things. I have excellent customer service skills, and have worked for two years in a customer focused environment, I have excellent communication skills. I am able to use my own initiative and also work well as part of a team. I am able to take direction from others and adapt to what’s needed of me. My Hobbies are Socializing, Art, computer animations, Heritage, Culture also Cycling and Reading.
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I must fine out the name of the artiste that did this!!
The product below is taken from the gadget show
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The Aim
The aim is to create a piece that utilizes the skills we have learned in post production. For this project I am going to produce an animation or object that can be layered over live footage. To do this I shall use Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere.
Mind Map
- Person smoking and there forts come out in smoke as words
- Time lapse of bournemouth from day to night
- Flying car in car park
- acid trip
- minority report style computer
- augmented reality
- Composite a maya character into film
My Idear
I am going to try and Create a flying car, I hope to place the car into footage of a road or in a car park. I think i will need to learn about time-code to achieve this.
Artist research
second draft
I decide to go for a very contemporary out of space sort of car, as Making a detailed car was way too tricky, and outside my skill level.
Images
I had to use the mirror tool
Draft Tincturing
My model looks a bit like a air fix model. So I have started to create textures for my car, primarily metal textures Im not sure i like it!! I think i have to export the surface and texture my model using uv mapping.
i
Lighting: Above is a blue area light, i did this because it looks kind of cool but is useless to me as i need it to mach the light of the car park.
Change of plan
I’m going back to my original plan, I’m going to try and convey a human emotion using post production, The idea is that i will place a subject in front of a green screen and ask them to look sad and alone. composites behind them will be a busy high street, but the the footage of the high street will be done on SLR camera (1 frame every 5 seconds) This give the effect that time is moving on fast (time lapse) while the subject in the fore ground is left behind
Examples Below
Above: great example of time lapse writer here in Bournemouth, however for my work I’m going to something more similar to the piece below, it will be easy to recreate the same shoot angle on Bournemouth high street and composite my friend in the foreground.
Note: have to make shore nobody walk directly in front of my camera as this will ruin a days work!!
As its coming up to half term Im not going to have enough time to get a SLR out for the holidays, so Im going to do a piece on opposites in personality. The idea is Im going to have twins sitting at a table with opposite personalities, but the trick will be that they will both be the same person.
I like the way this video turned out, however the sound quality is rubbish & because I’ve done this take outside were the sun kept going behind the clouds which throw continuity out of the window. Im going to do this again but inside instead, this should solve the continuity problem as i will have artificial lighting.
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The Aim
The aim for this project is to write, film and produce a short film with a duration of 10 minutes approx. The plot has already been written for us and split into the perspectives of six groups of characters. Our class has been split into six groups and each group has been assigned one perspective to write from. These groups consist of Documentary, Lecturer, Police, TV News, Students and Terrorists. Our group has been given the role of the Terrorists.
We decide rather than do your every day muslim or irish terrorist that we would be cyber terrorists like the people who attacked Estonia (estonian cyberwar) Refers to a series of cyber attacks that began in april 2007 and bombarded the small countries Websites e.g Banks, Ministries, newspapers and broadcasters bringing the country to its knees. Estonia had to cut themselves off
Another example of Cyber attacks
The Conficker virus 1st april 2009 At its peak it had compromised about 12 million PCs, although that may have fallen to about two million thanks to new security measures. first it was just a simple worm but its creators issued updates turning it into a more sophisticated and resilient virus that has found new ways to spread. It has also gained the ability to shut down a computer’s defenses. Worms are pieces of code that use computer networks and security holes to replicate themselves and wreak havoc on systems. Worms are computer programs that are able to copy themselves from machine to machine, through computer networks. In July 2001, the Code Red Worm copied itself over 250,000 times in a nine hour span. It specifically attacked servers of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 running Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Trojan Horses are actually normal computer programs. A Trojan Horse pretends to be a regular downloadable program, such as a game, but actually does something different—most likely does damage to a computer, like erasing a disk. This is different from a regular virus, because it doesn’t attempt to reproduce itself. Trojan Horses do not affect a great number of people because they are discovered quickly
Our Project draft Idea
The Leet Haxors, which are the cyber-terrorist group have had one of the members deported to the states after being caught computer hacking to access top confidential government information. The whole terrorist group were involved in getting access to the information but unfortunately one of them was traced. They themselves, abduct a lecture and hold him hostage in order for the release of their member.
We have based this concept on a similar story that is happening in real life of a computer hacker facing US trail after being accused of braking into US military computers.
Scene 1
Leader and Camera man are the only terrorists present
Camera man sets up the camera whilst leader walks around the set, preparing the lighting/green screen
Leader talks to cameraman about the backgrounds of the other two members
Camera man and leader know each other well but have never met the other two in person, only on the internet
Leader receives a text and goes to let the doubter into the building
Doubter enters the scene, leader asks him how his trip was/whether he had any problems
Scene 2
Maniac is running late so leader explains the plot to the cameraman and the doubter.
Doubter is nervous, expressing his fear for what they are going to do
Leader expresses his view on the situation and how they won’t need to harm anyone, explains the urgency of their cause, to keep Gary McKinnon out of jail
Leader gets another text and goes to let the maniac in
Maniac enters the scene, very eager for action
Maniac talks like a pseudo terrorist, spouting anti-establishment babble
Maniac asks the leader who they are going to kidnap, then produces a gun saying ‘the establishment is going to shit when they see this’
Doubter expresses his point that a gun will get them all jailed or shot, and that their computers are the real weapons of today.
Leader overrules the doubter’s argument and claims that a gun is going to give them considerable leverage.
Leader demands that the doubter configure the web stream whilst the leader and the maniac go to kidnap Brian.
Scene 3
Terrorist video scene
Production values dramatically greater than previous scenes
Leader and maniac are shown standing, wearing balaclavas and sunglasses, holding a gun to Brian’s head, who is kneeling on the floor between the two terrorists
Leader makes a speech about Americas police state, using ancient methods of crime prevention to insight fear into its people AND the peoples of other countries.
Scene 4
Terrorists congratulate each other on a successful shoot and try to relax
The pressure of waiting for a response puts the terrorists on edge
The doubter starts to have a serious attack of conscience; his nervous stance makes the maniac step up to confront him, calling him a ‘pussy’
Brain sits on the floor wearing his blindfold still, looking frightened
Argument escalates until the leader breaks the two up and orders the cameraman to fetch a bag of cannabis in an attempt to calm the group and relieve the tension
Scene 5
Terrorists light up a spliff and begin to relax
The leader passes around some reassuring words and reminds the terrorists why it’s so important that they did what they did
The leader decides to untie Brian and allow him to join them, treating him as a person instead of a hostage, showing that the leader has compassion; the maniac suggests otherwise but is overruled
The terrorists soon dissolve into laughter, joking around like a bunch of friends, as does Brian
The leader talks to Brian and asks him what his opinion on the situation was
Brian claims that he agree with their motive, stating how he is sickened by how the American government has become so totalitarian.
Brian says that he doesn’t agree with their method and he doesn’t agree with terrorism but admits that he has been well treated since his kidnap.
Leader expresses his view that terrorists exist all across the world in different forms, for example the American government are terrorists for trying to imprison Gary McKinnon, using fear tactics to scare hackers.
Leader comments on Brian saying how he is a free thinker and how he’d make a good terrorist. The leader tells Brian to put a balaclava on and to do a joke shoot with him just to waste some time.
The police raid the building and shoot the terrorists and Bria
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Ideas
A few ideas we came up with so far are things like “Ways to mistreat you mattress” and “human dominos” along with things like “How many hot dogs can u eat in 60 sec’s”, another piece wear interested in is the new Pen-tax camera Pen ad’s with the stop frame animation done entirely of photos We are thinking of doing summing similar but with a guy skateboarding.
Were Gonna go with something new, were looking at a guy called Lasse Gjerten who did the human beat box! and we decide to try and do stop frame music piece bassed on similar work he did.
Our Idea
Now that we all came to an agreement for a stop motion music piece we first needed to decide which instruments will be needed to create a demo for the piece we need to play. Without the demo piece we would have no structure when filming and editing so doing this had saved us a lot of time as we were able to have an understanding of the particular notes to play on each instrument.
Once that was done we recorded each instrument separately and then all together. This way we could hear the different instruments on their own and see if we needed to change anything, this also helped us to spot if there were sounds that did not compliment each other or were out of tune. Below are the sound tests of these instruments separately and together.
Filming
At first the filming was slightly unorganised as we didn’t know what to film first so when we were first supposed to be filming we decided to sit down together and plan it so that it would make it easier and everybody knew exactly what they were doing.
We decided to film each instrument separately so we started off with the keyboard. This was filmed at one of the group members house as there was a lot of space and she had access to some of the instruments we required. We first filmed each group member playing the set notes on the keyboard. At first we did not know what was really happening so we quickly wrote out a storyboard in order for us to visulise they angles and positions to film in. As our idea was for each member to play each instrument but one of the members would be a main participant for one instrument we first filmed Myself. I was going to be the main body for the keyboard sequence. I play the different notes but to get a cool stop motion effect we I had to play each note in different body positions. The keyboard being an instrument that is compact, we had to make shore who ever was playing it had to move about a bit more than you would normally. After I had been filmed the others in the group all took our turn in playing this instrument and moving in different positions.
What we came up with
We came up with three lots of footage.
Drums
Keyboard
Sax
Vid test
NOTE: Our group manage to get a room free in the music studios across the road at BU and this is what we manage to get done in less than one evening.
First Attempt at editing
Now that all the instruments were editied individually in premier pro, it was time to compress them together to finish our final piece. The first test we tried to add an effect that would move each individual movie around when another enters. This was done via key framing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOLVpUcOncE&feature=player_embedded
Second attempt at editing
Finale Piece
The aim for this project was to produce a viral video to be posted and viewed on the internet. I believe that we achieved this well as the video has received nearly 200 views already as well as several positive comments, suggesting that the video has been popular within it’s audience.
Our idea was inspired by the popular viral videos created by Lasse Gjertsen. His methods of creating music using video recorded sounds and stop motion style editing are fresh and innovative, making him a recognized talent on the internet. We intended to make our own video taking influence from Lasse Gjertsen’s style, but expanding it to the use of 6 separate characters as opposed to just one. The relation between the two can be seen at the start of the video with the real-time introduction, showing the character’s musical inability when not playing in stop motion.
The music for our video was written by Gina, one of our group members. We shot the main body of the video by filming each member of the group playing each instrument and on each of these instruments playing the separate notes that appear the song. For each of these notes we also filmed each member holding a pose or changing their facial expression to create a variation within the video.
The video shows that anyone can create music even if they aren’t talented with their musical instrument. This idea is reenforced by the style the video is shot it. We used a mini dv camera over a HD to give the feel of an amateur production as well as shooting half of the scenes in a house, suggesting that the musician is filming from their home and further enforcing the amateur theme. However it was not possible for us to film the drums and bass in a house due to lack of time and room. We were able to shoot these shots in a music room which gave the feel of an amateur band practice.
If we were to shoot this project again I would use a boom microphone or a direct input into the computer for recording the sound, as the quality of the recordings were poor in places. The bass and drum kit we used were not to the greatest standard as the action on the bass caused the higher notes to become distorted and the loose snare drum caused it to rattle. We were able to solve this problem by dubbing over the bass sound with a computer generated bass line and the snare drum by shortening the sound to make it more ’snappy’.
Also the initial idea for our video was to have the four instruments being played at the same time and for the musicians to switch between the instruments in a clockwise direction around the screen. However this effect was not conveyed in the ideal manner as the various rhythms on each instrument made the synchronizing of the rotation very difficult. Despite this I still believe the movement of the musicians between the screens creates interest for the viewer.
In conclusion I believe this project was successful as it suited the brief and has received nothing but positive feedback.
Daniel Vincent Sullivan
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The Aim
The aim for this project was to create a 3D animation to suit a sound of our choice, using Maya 8.0.
Ideas
I really want to create something that reflected me as a person so i decide to brain storm things that i like. also thing that are a big part of my life, i really like retro stuff like old fashion radios and crazy chairs i thought i could combine this with my love of Si-Fi and create some funky dancing robots like in the image below.
below: hear a first attempt of making a robot, i didn’t like it so i gave up!!
Images
I’ve started to add more into the sense starting with a skateboard and chest of draws.
Draft attempt
Robot animation
Rigging and Animating
My first attempt at Rigging went really wrong
Quicktime movie (draft)
I need to edit this footage so it is longer! and composite the sound in
Editing what i Did
Finale Piece
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Night Out Photograph
I like the way fire is very tribal, it seems to always to bring people together and is a very social sort of setting of people sharing stories around a fire.
This photo is taken with people i didn’t really no very well at the time, we had been out drinking and when we returned we decide to go for a random drunken walk thought the woods until we all came to an open field and decide to have a camp fire and star at the star. sound very cheesy but it was a fun night and i’d like to recreate the experience.
My Idea
Im going to try and composite a 3d animation/ object into after affects , i want to create a a camp fire with people around the fire (recreation of a night out). i will need to export/import in the alpha channels.
Why Use animation ?
When we had the camp fire we wear all a bit drunk cold and tired, plus you could see the stars and i think we wear all a bit detached from reality. By using a fire and background that would be animated i hope to create a slightly magic feeling.
I have to be carful not to make this animation look cheesy – like a bunch of stoners in a field some wear, because this would deviate from the experience i want audience to have.
Script
I want to make the script sound natural, as if your actually listening to people having a convocation. The way im gonna to achieve this is to sit at a bar or cafe and listen to my friends and other people talk to each other whilst jotting there convocations down.
draft Script
Character one: I love fire
Character Two: What’s up with that creepy David ?
Character Three: Yeahhhh!! I know he is socially retarded or summing .
Character One: I dunno! I like him , but he could be dispasick or sumink
Character Three: I herd he use to take heroin!!
Character one: That would explain it!!
Character four: Do you think James likes me?
Character two: I just don’t ttrust his sanity
Character one: Who ?
Character two: Creepy David
Character one: Oh yeahh I wouldn’t leave him on his own with the girls!! He’s completely harmless, the worst thing he could do is rape someone!!
Character four: I just love the way he says my name!
Character three: (look confused)
Character one: If you’re a vegetarian dose that mean you wouldn’t suck cock ?
Character four: No!
Character Two: No as in u wouldn’t or no as in ??
Concept Photo
Concept Video
This is a quick example i have made to show the sort of affect I want to achieve.
First step “Creating Maya Animation”
(Step 1) the 3d animation I’m am go to create is a camp fire.
*create a poly primitive- cylinder, duplicate ten times & translate.
The cylinder are too symmetrical, so I’m going to smooth the objects out.
Select the objects go to Polygons> mesh> Smooth, apply this to the rest of the objects.
(Step Two) Creating fire and smoke using dynamics,Hold down shift and select half of the cylinders and go to dynamics> effects> Create fire.
To create smoke select objects and go to dynamics> effects> smoke. The fire will be represented as lots of green circles unitl i fully render the animation.
Below Render Version (50 frames)
Creating the Environment
Green Screen
Green screen is a device used in film and video production. The screen itself can actually be either green or blue. using a green green is better as u get less striking and your subject can wear blue. the a new type of screen being use called a grey screen – this type of screen has million of tiny glass particles that reflect more light than the blue or green screen, however cost allot more.
The editing program will recognize the specific color of the green screen and replace anything in the image that is that color with whatever image you choose. So if the subject is a person, you can put that person in any and every location from the comfort of your studio.
Setting Up
It is important when setting up your green screen make sure there are no folds in the material. Wrinkles and folds can cause problems later on in the post production. Also make sure no part of the subject is green including clothing and props. If there’s a similar color it might display the background image instead of the subject.
when you place the subject in front of the green screen, make sure there is enough separation so you can light the subject and the green screen separately.
Lighting
It is critical to light the green screen and the subject separately. Light the green screen first. Any shadows on the green screen will not key correctly and will cause a glow around the subjects in the image. No part of the green screen should look brighter than any other part. You can use a handheld light monitor, anyone whose done photography will understand how this is done.
The simplest lighting technique is to place one light on each side of the screen.
Next light your subject
You should take care that the light hitting your subject doesn’t mess up the light of the green screen,You can use the light meter again for this. You mite wanna use a light to hit your subjects back, this is good for making definition on the hair and will stop the subject merging into the screen
Note-that you had troubles , getting it available , shadows, sound, the color compression on the DV CAM – need to get a doom mic because the sound quietly is rubbish.
After effects
Above: Im glad that i was able to lean how to remove the green from the background in after affect. unfortunately the background that i model in maya was somewhat of a failure! because the background is static you know that the people in front of a green-screen and it looks cheap, however i never meant to make the background look realistic, i wanted to go for a “pans labyrinth” style
I think if i was to animate the trees e.g wind or even some leaves falling it would have given more death to the piece
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Im interested in maybe using some typography in my current animation, anyways here some great example of videos I’ve enjoyed.
/p>
This guy is amazing!!
The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.
