updating on the project currently, for the most part, all the shots are rendered and composited with post production, we are mainly in the safe zone when it comes to rendering. we have a couple of shots to fix but the majority of work is done, so thankfully we could calm down and not stress about finishing work in time.
so what is left for the film to be complete? well apart from the score (which i will be working on with my sister) and the intro/outro, we have to make the poster of the film, which i took the task of. what i first had in mind was a hand painted poster, something subtle and beautiful that doesn't give away much of the film, but my instructor preferred we took it to 3Ds and rendered a poster from there. i started out with a sketch of the poster and executed the task using 3Ds max and After effects
here is the poster and the sketch that started it, i wanted to keep the poster subtle as to not give away much of the movie, so i decided to use the baby bud (yes, that is the baby in his cradle) and turn him around, i designed him in a way that resembles a flower bud, so this worked perfectly, i then made a render and extracted all the passes, just as i would do with shot post productions, and tweaked the image. that resulted in a more natural looking flower bud, which I'm very pleased with. I'm sure i will go back to the poster and tweak it further, as i found some great videos online on post production.
a major plug-in that a lot of artists use in After effects is a filter add-on called "looks" which gives users a lot of options and effects to improve their post production, now I, as well as many other people, don't have the privilege of owning such a plug-in, so i must result to doint effects manually without it's aid (Danielsson,2018) which means using different effects and layer options provided by the software.
the great thing about After effects is that it offers a massive library of presets and effects that can basically replace the Looks add-on, but that does come with a lot of manual work, and understanding the layers you are working with.
(Danielsson, 2018)
a video i found useful was how to create chromatic aberration without the help of the Looks plug-in, the artist uses layer options that he then blends with the other layers, the layers are then offset, creating the chromatic aberration effect.
it is a fairly simple process, but for some who don't know how the RGB layers work together and what blending modes to use, it could be quite challenging, which is why a video like this is helpful.
i found this video after i watched another one by a channel called Motion Designers Community, which was about post production and the different effects used to enhance and image
(Hacquard, 2019)
in the video, the artist displays the use of the Looks plug-in and some other techniques he applied to create this magical shot. Maxime (the artist) also explains how chromatic aberration occurs, which had me searching for ways to create it without the use of the plug-in, hence the video i wrote about earlier. in the end, both videos have helped me in finding new ways to enhance my poster and future projects as well, i will surely come back to them.
to conclude this blog post, i am happy with our progress, things are going smoothly and we now have more time to work on some extra shots for our film, we have one in mind, but i won't spoil it here!
REFERENCES
Daniel Danielsson. (2016, June 18). ( / ) AE TUTORIAL | Chromatic Aberration (No Plugins) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzlIFQ7AmRs
Motion Designers Community. (2019, October 24). 3D Render Post Production Workflow | After Effects Tutorial [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjEB3NJKrDE