Ramon's Films Thus Far...
Project: For my first project I created a short film based off of the simple effects by Mieles.
Difficulties: Timing was a bit of an issue with this project. It was shot about 3-4 times because of acting errors and the camera I used not being able to convert the files properly. In the end I used the camera on my labtop to film this piece. If you look carefully you can see one of the leaves from the plant still in motion from when my assistant removed the bottle from the shot.
Project: This was my first video attempt at making a twin of myself using After Effects.
Diffculties: There were several errors in terms of masking with this one. At one point you can see a car drive in through one window and disappear because of the masking, however this was my first attempt at it so my next attempt was vastly superior.
Project: This project was shot entirely by myself and was my second attempt at making a double of myself in the same shot.
Difficulties: This project was simpler than the prototype because of experience. Masking was fixed prior to the first attempt. Also masks were animated and feathered to make the shot look believeable.
Project: This project consisted of me making the effect of myself holding a lightsaber while standing behind a green screen. This enabled me to be in a completely different location.
Difficulties: This was my first time doing Green Screen which wasn't so bad, however, the day this project was due it crashed and saved on itself so that the footaged was completely ruined. Fortunately, I had the footage backed up and was able to fix it in time for class. In terms of making the light saber, I found it to be a bit tedious because there was much rotoscoping done, to which I was not very happy.
Project: This project consisted of me using a green screen to edit myself into the scene of a movie. The movie I selected was Star Wars Episode III.
Difficulties: Using green screen, masking, and timing I was able to place myself into the scene, however, matching the camera angles from the film proved to be tedious and at times I was off in my positioning. For some unknown reason to me, I found that all incarnations of myself in the film were very grainy and at times flashed a bit.
Project: This project consisted of us filming an actor in a green screen suit, while wearing a jacket, infont of a greenscreen.
Difficulties: When our actor opened his jacket the jacket seemed to be split in half due to the green screen suit. Next time the jacket must remain closed.
Project: This project consisted of us making an actor get hit by a car using After Effects.
Difficulties: We did not use a green screen for this so it was about properly timing two pieces of film together to get a result. Also, this was the first time using the puppet tool, which was a bit troublesome. Massive amounts of rotoscoping was done on this project and I was not too happy with the results. Multiple attempts at trying the feather and hide the mask around the actor all proved to be futile and if you look close enough you can see the error.
Project: This project consisted of me placing a frame in front of me and then removing it with my image still remaining inside the frame.
Difficulties: Of all the projects worked on up to this point I found this one to be harder than the previous ones. I attempted it about three times before I was able to do it on my own. I found it to be tedious and confusing at times. If the tracking points were off slightly it would be easy to notice the error. In the footage it looks as though the image blows up a bit larger than the original.
Project: This Project consisted of trying to have an actor get thrown, Insert a Stunt double, and put the two pieces of film together making it seem as though the actor did everything on his own.
Difficulties: The camera angles, the clothing used, and even the height and body types of the actors were all off making this not such a pleasant stunt, but a shody attempt. Next time these factors must be taken into consideration.
Project: This project was an experiment with having our actor run on a green screened treadmill and having a false background inserted.
Difficulties: Angle placing is very important for shots like this. Also it may be tricky trying to make the actor look as though he's running through the background if not properly composited. I'd say this project is a prime example of such.
Project: In this project I was morphed into actor Jim Carey. This involved a plug in from after effects and lots of masking.
Difficulties: One must really dig deep into the outlines when making the masks to be as accurate as possible. I had a bit of a problem with this because Jim Carey's hair is split at certain places and I missed those spots.
And so ends the tales of my After Effects adventures....for now....
