Music Track Choice

I chose Kraftwerk’s ‘Das Model’ for this assignment because it sounded more unique than the other tracks. It was quirky in a way and I liked that. The music created a world in my mind – a digital world, an imaginary place where Moebius, the legendary sci-fi artist, would live in. Hence, the other reason why I chose it was because ideas started pouring out of my head from the get-go.

Visual Identity, Style and Symbols

To find an appropriate visual identity for the video, I researched Kraftwerk’s existing visual landscape. I found that Kraftwerk’s electronica informs the design of all aspects of its brand identity: it is minimalistic, repetitive, futuristic and slightly bizzare. I also discovered that Kraftwerk is known as a forerunner of contemporary electronic music. Its fans grew up in the seventies and eighties.

Taking all the above into consideration, I decided that my video’s visual look will borrow from the iconography of 8-bit video games. The classic video game look would be familiar to Kraftwerk’s early fans; it would let me design a world that was digital, futuristic and, at the same time, offbeat.

Plenty of 8-bit visual devices and symbols are available today thanks to decades of 8-bit gaming. I found a few samples and plonked them onto my moodboard. My main character follows the grid-designed, angular and two-dimensional avatar look symbolic of games of that era. The bright, saturated, complementary hues of the character and different settings and props, as well as their design, reflects the classic video game look – albeit more contemporary. The typefaces used supports the digital, eighties, 8-bit tone and manner.

Composition and Motion

I composed the elements or forms in my scenes with asymmetrical balance in mind. Composition of key frames was done in Photoshop and then transferred to After Effects. I tried to make as little use of three-dimensional perspective as possible in keeping with the two-dimensional 8-bit world. In line with the linear movement of 8-bit video game icons, animated elements including my central character weren’t eased in or out. I made certain scenes to look like actual retro video gameplay: especially the one where he ‘flies’ through the city avoiding the concrete towers.

What I Would Do Differently

I had to tweak the ending of my video because I did not time my sequences well enough; I got to the end of the track too soon. In my original ending as per storyboard, the protagonist will happy with just the way he looks upon leaving the booth, wake up the next day and feel dissatisfied again. I would also use fewer props/elements in the scene where he finds the booth. I find it too cluttered.

REFERENCE LIST FOR ASSIGNMENT 3

All images used to create the graphics and backgrounds in this video clip had Creative Commons Share-Alike licenses and were sourced from Flickr.com

• flickr.com/photos/mnadi/34012604
• flickr.com/photos/scrapstothefuture/134266194
• flickr.com/photos/mightymightymatze/268758544
• flickr.com/photos/seier/2263988203
• flickr.com/photos/vernhart/1283676797
• flickr.com/photos/yewenyi/2144911926
• flickr.com/photos/flyingturtle/1641610496
• flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/2448899898
• flickr.com/photos/kaleidosopicpsyche/2174781610
• flickr.com/photos/monkeygirl76/2414924504
• flickr.com/photos/polandeze/493818086
• flickr.com/photos/rileyroxx/224651031
• flickr.com-photos-darwinbell-2459821251
• flickr.com/photos/dacotahsgirl/512831513
• flickr.com/photos/ekosystem/2427517016
• flickr.com/photos/lnx/6783900
• flickr.com/photos/satosugar/56278966
• flickr.com/photos/splorp/42799621
• flickr.com/photos/striatic/6925134
• flickr.com/photos/zhent/574472488

AFTER EFFECTS TECHNIQUES

• Additional layers of graphics and text were added to the Photoshop-composed layers.
• Colours of layers and elements therein were corrected using Colour Correction.
• Glow was added to the protagonist’s 8-bit body as well as other 8-bit objects.
• Layers were positioned close to each other to give the video a “flat” or 2D look.
• Camera was employed in scenes where the protagonist moved in 3D space.
• Masking technique proved useful when I wanted to animate objects through layers (like the sun rising outside the window in the opening scene).
• To synchronise the ‘Das Modeller’ text’s radial blur effect with the music beat, I converted the track’s waveform into keyframes and then linked the effect’s expression to the keyframes.
• The exclamation mark that flew in and circled over the character’s head was an instance of kinetic type created by manipulating its x,y, and z properties.
• A video transition effect tiled the final scene into place where I credited the track to Kraftwerk.

As you can see below, my mood board comprises stuff from the 1950′s. American 50′s, particularly. It was a very optimistic time, World War II was over and done with, the baby boomers were making babies. Elvis was rocking, Marilyn and Marlon Brando were stars. The first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, was launched successfully. The women of the decade wore stiletto heels, gloves that reached their elbows, and fancy hats like berets. The men wore denim jeans — which became fashionable at that time, had their hair done a la Elvis, and drove huge cars.

Stylised Video Clip

After my mood board was done, I watched the Duck and Cover movie clip. Then I realised my mood board’s style was similar to the clip’s — which was shot in the 50′s. I didn’t want to augment the clip with visual components from my mood board because it was pointless fusing it with graphics from the same decade. It wouldn’t stand out.

So I decided to make my Week 10 pastiche clip a dark parody of U.S. military confidence. I found the Duck and Cover section of video I wanted, clipped it, and deleted the sound. Then, I scoured the Web for special effects and audio clips. I found a nice short recording of Eleanor Roosevelt (you hear her at the beginning of the video) and some Rambo and Alien movie voice samples. In addition, I found sound effects of ‘aoogah horns’, explosions, jet planes flying past, and air-to-ground missiles blasting targets. Perfect.

After mixing the elements into my Duck and Cover redux, I altered the hue and saturation of the video clip to make it greenish, added an old TV effect, as well as sped up the overall clip by some 25%. I also sped up Eleanor and Rambo’s audio to get them sounding Chipmunk-like. For good measure, I added light flashes a split second before the bombs went off in the video.

To watch ‘An Unconquerable People’, click here: http://vimeo.com/1864818

Being a reasonably avid photographer, I browsed through my photos and found three I could use for this piece. They were a Ferris Wheel, a sculpture of a Hindu god (Lord Muruga?), and a Chinese lantern. All man-made objects.

To ‘graffitise’ them, I first used Hue and Saturation in Photoshop to take away colour. Then I used Curves to create a high contrast black and white image. Once I was done with the three visuals, it was time to work on the background on which the graffiti would appear. I took two photos, a concrete floor and a wall, and altered their hue, saturation and contrast levels. After I had all the elements I wanted, I dumped them into After Effects to be put together into a composition.

I made a mask with the Pen and Stroke tools in After Effects. I keyframed the Stroke effect so it would look like someone was spraying black paint onto a stencil. After that, I decided to take my project further.

I clicked the 3D button and set a Camera in place. I made my Camera zoom in towards the red rectangle, through the Ferris Wheel graffiti. In beat to the music, I later made the Camera lunge forward, filling the screen with red, and let it focus on the black lantern graffiti appearing between the two gods.

All of a sudden I figured I should turn the composition into an intro ident for a production house. I added a layer of graffiti beneath the black lantern and made text to appear as the composition ended.

Looking at it now, I think cutting out the first half of the composition, i.e. the Ferris Wheel, and starting somewhere in the middle would result in a better piece.

Click here for Temporal Graffiti/Ident: http://vimeo.com/1837025

I’ve created a temporal identity clip that answers the question: What am I doing here (at QUT)? Or put in another way, the composition relates a transition in my life from copywriter to student. The tagline I wrote sums up the reason for the transition: The Copywriter Who Wanted More. Digital media was rapidly changing the advertising industry. I needed to be a student of new media.

My target viewers are anyone curious about where I am and what I’m doing now. My primary audience are those I’ve worked with before moving to Queensland as well as family members back home. My secondary audience are potential employers who might want to know why I chose to take a break from work to study. I hope the composition will answer their questions and convince them that I’ve acquired a new, useful skill

After Effects gives “life” to my actors (i.e. elements on screen). It affords many motion possibilities as well as the animation of 2D forms in 3D space. I elaborate on this in the following paragraphs.

To tell my story, I used stage and puppetry elements as a reference. In line with that, the feel and tone of the work was slightly humorous. Metaphorical objects like a paper plane was used to represent my journey to Australia. A pencil symbolised my occupation as a writer. In addition, literal assets like a PC, QUT logo and mortar board were also employed in the production.

In terms of space, red curtains in the background gave the impression of a stage, the set in which my actors and elements played. The curtains added spatial depth to the space as well. A spotlight further enhanced the theatre-esque feel.

As a more realistic approach or form was taken instead of an abstract one, the movement of my characters and elements had to be as true-to-life as possible. Objects that dropped into view had to obey physical laws like gravity. Other actions to mimic live action included inertia and arc-like motion of objects tied to strings.

In terms of timing, the rhythm of the video was paced to the soundtrack. Actors coming into screen did not dangle too long on stage – which would’ve been boring, nor enter and exit too quickly – which would’ve caused the signages, for instance, to be unreadable.

After Effects Techniques

Elements were arranged on the stage in 3D space with the Camera and Lights switched on. The camera was ‘locked’ in to a Null Object to ensure that it remained fixed for most of the production. All objects could cast and receive shadows, even the strings attached to the objects. Easy Ease and Motion Blur functions made movement more realistic. Keyframing all the elements took massive amounts of time; hours were spent setting, correcting and replaying actions. The initial drafts of the video clip did not feature a red curtain. After some feedback, curtains were added and I liked it immediately. The actors seemed to have more depth when a background element was present. The words on the title boards were not up to mark, I felt. They seemed slightly blur. I tried tweaking the camera’s focus but to no effect.

Link to The Copywriter Who video clip: http://vimeo.com/1836484

Reference list for Assignment 1

Flickr photos used under a Creative Commons Non-commercial, Share Alike Licence : Mortar Board, Eyeball, Brain, False Teeth, Roo, PC, Red Curtains, and Pencil. (www.flickr.com via www.search.creativecommons.org)

Photos and Additional Graphics by Joel Lim: Paper Plane,QUT logo, and all Title Boards.

Soundtrack: Music ‘A Smile and a Ribbon’ by artist: Patience and Prudence. Album: The Best of Patience and Prudence.

After Effects Camera function is really something awesome. With that, I can activate 3D tools like making the logo spin around. An effect I found fun to play with was Explosions. It’s great for blowing up the prices in the retail ident clip. I also took what I learnt at the lecture about animation to make my actors (objects, text) behave more realistically (inertia, movement, speed) in virtual 3D space. With SFX, I bet the overall clip will be ten times more impactful and more MAD.

To watch Mad Mack’s, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KEdqPGH_9k

I didn’t want to go down the beaten path of making sentences and words move on screen; although parts of my clip does have that. To differentiate my work, yet keeping within the bounds of only using type in the exercise, I decided to make a face with type. My name, Joel, was transformed into a face using different typefaces.

The choice of font for the face was not random. I wanted an ‘e’ that would stand out as it would be the eye and selected a serif font. The ‘o’ for the mouth had to be simple so I chose Helvetica. The ‘j’ was to be the top part of the head and I wanted it to be smooth, a slick hairstyle, so I chose a freehand font. The capital ‘L’ was the nose and I selected a serif typeface that made it prominent but not imposing.

Once the face and mouth movements were settled, I needed to make the clip interest the viewer and tried to inject some humour in it. I did this by having the face misunderstand certain words of the rapid-fire speech of the audio track. This I did with the early ‘pen’ sequence. I also pulled out particular words and made them interact with the face in unexpected ways. The interactions were relevant to the what was being said. For instance ‘repression’ seemed to force the face to duck beneath the screen.

All in all, I enjoyed the exercise. (Note to self: I want to learn how to track images and text on the screen.)

Click to play Kinetic Type clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpTuBg85ynk

The above is a jpeg of my composition entitled: EAT. Click to see full size image.

Design Considerations

The design incorporates street art, graffiti style; a combination of communist propaganda poster and anarchistic copy. The man and woman depicted here are set in the midst of a headless man in a suit, slices of steaks and some kind of steel structure. Upon closer inspection , bite marks are seen along the edges of the three objects surrounding the couple.

On top of the several layers, I’ve overlaid a semi-transparent reddish layer. This is to make the montage look more uniform in colour. The red tint also evokes a sense of anger, which is in-line with the headline which communicates capitalism’s (and pseudo-communist economies’) insatiable hunger for resources such as labour, food and steel.