Green Screen

Green Screen from filename.exe on Vimeo.

For the green screening, I got a clip of Fatima and Candace and placed them into a green tinted garage. I placed them in there since the green outline wouldn't really disappear even with 6 different keys.

I did however TOTALLY forget to add a green tint to Fatima and Candace, but figured since they take that step forward, and away from the green background they would perhaps be under a white light therefore lowering the green as it does under every light in the garage.

Motion Tracking

Motion Tracking from filename.exe on Vimeo.

So far the motion tracking I decided to continue a sticky war between a co-worker and I and tried to track the computer screen to a kind of digital composition for what would be on the screen. It worked decently, but doing a diagonal tracking could have been better, but I couldn't figure out why when the screen was diagonally tracked, the screen would do some really weird skewing.

Audio Editing in AE.....

.... is really not possible.

In After Effects, audio editing is slim to none. And editing becomes even more difficult when the audio and video are interleaved.

For my project, I had:
3 songs that pushes dancing lightning effects,
the actual video,
and the narrator's vocal waveforms.

All three could not a placed together for various reasons. My solution, or more a workaround, was to use three different programs simultaneously.

I used:
an audio program (Sound Forge),
a video editor (Vegas),
and After Effects.

I used Sound Forge to scrub the audio and find the important pieces of dialog that would force effects in After Effects. I then used the compositions in After Effects to break apart and nest the sequence. I broke the three main pieces mentioned above on different compositions.

I rendered in three quicktimes files with the Animation setting on (since this setting allows for an alpha channel).

These three renders were then placed into Vegas. Once in Vegas I could preview the video and make sure the video and audio link track lined up correctly. Then, based on subject changes I was able to transition the 3 songs throughout to keep the entire sequence from stalling.

I rendered again out of Vegas as a normal Quicktime file since it was now suitable to render in a final lossy format which would allow for smaller file sizes.

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It really is time consuming and involves a lot of waiting for each step to render. But this is by far the easiest way to get around the audio-video link. I tried just letting AE do preview rendering, but that involved a lot more time waiting in smaller increments.

By syncing most of the pieces as much as possible before tossing them into Vegas, allowed for a grander, clear picture of what was to come. But, do keep in mind that I had to re-render some sequences a few times since I would find small errors, and this again, would take time, but a mere re-linking to the new file was all that was needed in order to keep the sequence in order.

I hope this helps someone out!

Final Project Influences

For my final project (which I have yet to do a final edit on) I wanted to make an advanced PowerPoint presentation. In order for it to be able to handle the amount of video I wanted to stream out, the 3D space that is called for at one point, and the 4000+ pictures that are cylced through, I needed another program.

After Effects was that program. I wanted for the presentation to be as close to "sensory overload" as possible. I played with audio and video to create a complex looking presentation in which the viewer ultimately re-mixed what they saw on the fly. Every viewing would show different pieces of the whole.

The reason for my upload still not being up is due to the complex nature of the project, many aspects were tied into others, but different layers needed to be exported at different times to create a tie between the audio and visual aspects that were linked on two levels.

The final workflow top-down looked like this:

*Left-to-right and right-to-left digital audio waveforms which were automatically generated with the narration audio
*Floating video
*Dancing lighting tied to one of three songs
*Background video which emphasized the floating videos

*Left-to-right and right-to-left digital audio waveforms which were automatically generated with the narration audio
*Dancing lighting tied to one of three songs
*Occasional image that either synced with audio or held a static image for 15 frames every second. All other images only held 2 frames.

My influences were both from VideoCoPilot:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/elegant_slideshows/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/audio_to_animation/

Together they worked well to give me a basis for the "sensory overload" i spoke of during the presentation and wanted the audience to feel.

One person's feedback was simple: "It was great, but a few points I had to blink."

Musical Waves

This is a test composition for my final project. I wanted to get particles that dance to the music based on a VideoCopilot tutorial. It took a while to render, but now I know that I want more wind turbulence, possibly more layers for sound layers extracted in a third-party program, and more velocity with thicker waves.

My plan is to get this composition between the background and the the floating images from before.


Untitled from filename.exe on Vimeo.

Text

Titles from filename.exe on Vimeo.

From my final project. I've been looking at VideoCoPilot.com and am going to redo the titles once I have all the information locked.

3D Trailers and Data Structures

3D Trailers and Data Structures from filename.exe on Vimeo.

This is a scene from my final project describing my future career interests which are to make trailers for a brief period of time, then to create data structures in a computer science related field.

Third Eye

Untitled from filename.exe on Vimeo.

Here is my video. It was late, and I figured it was a good idea as well as creepy.

Information Superhighway Logo

http://vimeo.com/3273454


filename.exe Information Superhighway Logo from filename.exe on Vimeo.

Here is my video done in the style of the coming Information Superhighway. I originally tried adding more color to the logo to give it a better feel, but upon doing so, realized that it began to feel incredibly cheasy!

I had an eased in fade, multiple compositions layered onto each other, including the quick pause at around 5 seconds as the logo comes together and twitches.

Hope you enjoy this cheasy logo sequence... the next one will be totally different!... hopefully.

After Effects Logo

filename.exe Logo Take 1 from filename.exe on Vimeo.

Here's my video.

I had a bit of questions on how effects can turn on and off, but I now found out that opacity would be the way to go. I rendered the fog and noise lighter than planned due to certain screens tend to loose the contrast, but on my personal laptop the noise is WAY to bright.

I'll be tweaking the settings for the next animation.

P.S. Waited to have Vimeo to convert the video before linking it. How do we embed without it being converted yet?

Assigment #2

First, I created what would be my logo in Photoshop, but I really didn't like the turn out and figured it was too plain.

Then, I created a collage with all the flyers in my collection.

I hope either are acceptable for RTF 344M. I think my logo should better wait until After Effects, or rendered in 3D with Blender.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my site.

This is the hosting site for filename.exe Productions run exclusively by Joaquin Casares. Within the next semester, I will be uploading my body of work from both my film and computer science backgrounds. Stay tuned!