Wednesday 29 August 2012

Space Invaders Music Video






I wanted a chance to play around with live footage on AE, so I asked a friend of mine who was a singer and musician if i could make him a music video. I knew that my first attempt was going to look amateur so I decided to give the entire video a retro 80s video game theme. Filmed on a Sony DSLR which occasionally blurs out and basically gave me a square screen to work on. But I have learnt that it is when your equipment is limited that you are the most creative.

Peter was absolutely brilliant, he was able to come into the studio and get creative with the guitar and really make the music come alive, which helped me when I was com-positing the shots. Here is a link to his Page:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-marchant

Because of the 80s theme I was able to make harsh color filters with a pix elated image look cool. Recreating a Space Invaders game was really fun, and I hope I don't get sued by anyone! I decided to make the final 3D shot in Maya, because it was a simple model. I cant wait to get AE CS6 so that I can animate 3D objects in After Effects rather animating in Maya, which I'm rubbish at. That's why the bullet is slow when it reaches the final Invader (although I hope I got away with that). 

This was a really fun project to work on over the Summer and has got me thinking of using a Green screen and more live action to build shots for future projects.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Zoe's Magic Camera

A Digital design agency called SMILE contacted the uni in search of animators who could help with a project called Zoe's Magic Camera. The idea was to create an app which would recognise several buildings around Birmingham and play some fun animations which, put together make a story.
http://www.sixsummersaturdays.com/2012/saturday-7th-july/zoes-magic-camera/

I lead 3 of my fellow classmates to SMILE and we took on the character animations. The project was short but fun and gave us a nice taste of working in industry. I was then quoted on the BCU website on behalf of our group.
https://icity.bcu.ac.uk/News/Aliens-sited-in-Birmingham

Really excited because this was my first time making a professional product.