Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Motion Capture - The introduction to the year

The aim of today's session was to get a better understanding of the module known as motion capture. To begin the pre production side of the process off you can see the brainstorm of ideas for the final visual effects shot.

These ideas are well thought out for big ideas that could influence future students to think outside the box. Although it would be amazing to create all of the ideas , it was a matter of choosing an idea that met a criteria. The idea would have to be specific to the grading criteria , it would have to be measurable aiming at the right target audience , assurable to succeed, the idea would have to be realistic looking at the time scale which is 13 weeks. Unless these conditions are met the ideas will remain to be ideas. Although imagination is the key is the factor which determines a decent visual effects shot from a poor visual effects shot. The chosen idea was the discovery of a hidden city beneath Bradford Town.

The MoCap production idea was influenced by a number of sources such as adventure  mystery/adventure movies, mystery books, and finally Sci-Fi programs.The MoCap product was inspired by a number of secondary sources.These sources were movies such as The Librarian, Atlantis, adventure video games such as Crash Bandicoot.It was these type of media products that had indirect influence in the thought process.But most of the influences for the environment came from the video game locations. A couple of example of the locations are the underwater cities , portals, other dimensions.


This is a three dimensional screen shot of the underwater city in the video game Crash Bandicoot.





The book mentioned a number of events in the story that made the student's imagination run wild. One part of the book talks about a hidden power in the city of Washington D.C. Further on in the story an anti chamber was discovered in a gruesome way. The chamber was full of skulls as a warning to outsiders. It was these elements that played an important part in the development of this visual effects shot. In terms of Sci Fi movies the librarian series caught the student's undivided attention as they were able to reflect on their future projects.The idea of hidden city within Bradford was an idea that was being developed for quite some time .The reason why the chosen location was Centenary square in Bradford is simple due to the fact that the atmosphere seem to fit the brief perfectly well.

Below is a sketch of the location which has been chosen for this particular scene.

This is the concept sketch which has been edited using the design software known as Adobe Photoshop.


The most important element is the storyboard which has been created to allow the cinematographer to understand what the story is all about. The crux of the storyboard is the discovery of a hidden city beneath Bradford Centenary square.


Here is the storyboard which has been edited in the design software known as Adobe Photoshop CC again to make it appealing to the public's eye. Another reason was to give each frame a number showing the order of the story.


I look forward to hearing from you if you have any feedback for me .

Monday, 1 February 2016

Introduction to Computer Generates Visual Effects

To start of the first session for the computer generated visual effects module. It would be important to go through the basics to slowly introduce future perspective students to the new world of visual effects. Towards the end of the session the class were informed that they had some time to think of an idea for a computer generated visual effects shot for their final project. One of the many ways is to brainstorm a couple of ideas in the form of a spider diagram.


Here is the spider diagram that shows the thinking process of the ideas generated from the student's imagination. The difficult part of the pre production stage was trying to come up with an idea that proved to be creative and realistic.The chosen idea for the CGVFX project is a university that turns students into ghosts who become apart of the university.



There are two concept sketches for the CGVFX project which is a university that turns students into apart of the university.There is also a storyboard for the CGVFX project which is all about students entering the university to sign up for the courses & the spiritual agreement.





The idea was inspired by a number of secondary sources such as movies, books, television series.The  main contribution  for the project is the idea of a place that has a scary atmosphere .The idea is a university where all of the students become apart of the it once they sign up for their courses.





Please tell me what you thin about my idea for my final project for the computer generated visual effects module.I would really appreciate the feedback as it would be helpful even helpful towards the end of my project.