Final Cut - "Translunar" with Evaluation

Above, the final cut of our Transmedia collaboration can be seen, 'TRANSLUNAR'. On the whole, I am particularly happy with the outcome, especially given how new 3 dimensional motion graphics is to us. I feel that the project has achieved the aims that we set out when we began the planning and production process. Firstly, the film has a fairly realistic and believable aesthetic. When beginning to embark on the motion graphics journey, I felt that achieving this would be one of the most difficult tasks, however, I feel that we came fairly close, especially with the opening shot that can be seen above. I feel that this is mostly due to the use of accurate texturing and attention to detail in terms of creating realistic looking materials that resemble real versions of each object.. Next, I feel as though the different elements of the mise-en-scene capture the atmosphere well. In my opinion, the use of often harsh lighting and high contrast environments are one of the piece's strong points and contribute to this extensively. Since beginning to experiment with motion graphics, I learnt the importance of capturing the tone using lights, and how much it can affect the overall aesthetic of the shot. After much practice improving our ability to use lighting effectively, I feel that this translates into our final piece. It must be noted on the other hand that there are some slight inconsistencies in terms of the continuity of the lighting, for example, on occasions, the astronaut is lit at two different levels in consecutive shots. We would take more care over improving continuity with regards to this if we were to re-do the project.

In addition, I feel that the sound and visuals work symbiotically, complimenting one another to create mood and tone, which is another strong point of our work. In my opinion, the way in which synchronous diegetic sounds are used to compliment on screen actions provide an element of realism and immersion, which contribute to a story that the audience can become more invested in. Furthermore, the use of drone sounds, audio dynamics and varying chord changes contribute to an emotional soundscape, which brings out the atmosphere in the film's visuals.

The main negative of the piece in my opinion is the way in which it is paced. Being a two minute film, the narrative is absolutely action-packed, with a a strong narrative proceeding through the film's entirety. However, the fact that it is so short in duration, means that each event does not have enough time to build in terms of narrative and action. At times, I feel that this hinders the audiences ability to empathise with the character. If the narrative started slower, and began to progressively build, I feel that the piece would be more effective. Our piece however, seems to start slow and build in action rapidly, not leaving the audience enough time to grasp where they are in terms of the story. If we were to undertake this project again, I would increase the duration of the film in order to allow more time for the narrative to slowly build. However, this would require a great deal more content, which more production time would likely be needed for. Next,

Shaking Camera Effect Process

When it came to editing the last sequence of our film, we brainstormed ways in which we could use visual techniques as a means of creating impact for the climax. In the end, we decided that an interesting way to do this would be to create a shaking camera effect. We felt that by doing this, the magnitude of the rock and the scale of the situation would be exacerbated significantly, creating a great deal more suspense and tension for the audience. To achieve this effect, we experimented with a variety of techniques, unsuccessfully in the beginning. Our first port of call was to use the camera movement feature in Cinema 4D in order to keyframe a camera shake, however, we found this a complex process that we could achieve little degree of accuracy with. This is not only because we had to carry out a render every time we made a change, but also because on the whole, the camera movement tool tends to facilitate smooth camera movement better than shaky camera movement. We decided to scrap this method due to the time consumption is required.

We then decided to carry out tests in Adobe After Effects which turned out to be much more successful. After exporting each shot in Cinema 4D and editing it into the sequence in Premiere Pro, we decided to export to After Effects, as this software provides much more flexibility in terms of visual effects. The compatibility of the Adobe package assisted us greatly in doing this, as it meant that we could simply export a shot in the Premiere Pro sequence to AE, and it would edit in real time in the Premiere sequence as it was being adjusted in AE. The option shown in the image below shows how this was possible.

Once in After Effects, we came across the 'wiggle' expression tool. This feature allowed us to create a keyframed camera shake, that was already preset. However, this also gave us the flexibility to programme our own level of shake, by offering magnitude and frequency parameters that we could adjust to our own liking. We found this to be a much simpler option than doing this in Cinema 4D due to the minimal render times and therefore easier visual reference, when experimenting to get our desired effect.

When adding a Wiggle Expression in After Effects, we decided to slowly increase the amplitude and frequency as the scene progressed in order to create a progressive effect, with the camera shake rapidly increasing the tension and drama as the climax gets closer and closer. As previously mentioned, the fact that the edited effect displays in Premiere Pro in real time rapidly sped up this process and allowed us to achieve our desired level of shake efficiently and in little time.

Title Screens

Now that we have decided upon our final title idea, I have created the title screens that will be played at the end. For me, title screens in sci-fi/space related cinema are particularly important in upholding the visual standards. I took inspiration when creating the titles from films such as Gravity and Interstellar, where the stylistic choices often remain similar. From my research, I found that fixed width, capitalised fonts with high levels of kerning were particularly on trend at the moment in this field of cinema, so I decided to take a similar approach in Translunar.

When it come to creating our own titles, I decided to use the font 'Futurust Fixed Width', due to the similar aesthetic that it provided, which as aforementioned, I was very fond of. I decided to further our use of motion graphics here also, by adding an element of animation into our title sequence. Choosing to work outside of Cinema 4D this time, I decided to use Adobe After Effects this time for its relative simplicity and due to my familiarity with the software. Looking through the effects panel, I decided to add a glow animation, as I felt it was relevant to our theme, matching the lunar visuals that are intrinsic to our piece. I chose to keyframe this minimal glow into the main title screen as I felt that it's subtlety was effective, whilst it's visuals remained aesthetically pleasing. 

The Final Title Sequence can be seen below:

Collider Body Tags/Physics Aspect

When implenting the movement of our astronaut into our scene, we found it to be imperative that, as an object, he physically reacted to everything around him in the scene. Initially when importing the character, we found that his interaction with the plane in which he was situated was unrealistic. This is because that the programme was treating either object and insolid and malleable. This meant that when moving, his body parts would often penetrate through the surface, obviously looking unfeasible, as the rock surface would be hard and impenetrable in a real life context. In order to counter this, we used collider body tags. Luckily, in my early motion graphics practice, I came across using collider bodies in order to make two objects react with and impact one another in a realistic way. This meant I was conveniently able to apply this knowledge to every scene, which was a huge help.

As can be seen in the bottom right side of the screen, adding this dynamic body tag facilitated us making the movements as realistic as possible, as it meant we could adjust variables such as the friction of the surface and the elasticity, which are factors that independently affect the way in which an object would react to it when coming into contact.

Satellite Scene

In order to make our scene as realistic as possible and better establish the environment in which the audience is positioned, we considered it important that we include secondary objects/props. Because of the complexity of the satellite as an object, and the limited screen time that we planned for it to have we decided to base our satellite on an existing model that we found on an online 3D Model library. Whilst we used this model for the basis of our satellite, we did not think that the textures or overall shape of the satellite were entirely believable or realistic. We therefore decided that our best course of action was to customise the satellite extensively so it was as close to our aesthetic preference as possible. We therefore stripped the satellite model of all its materials, embarking on creating our own to apply to its different parts. We felt that this gave us more creative control and increased the extent to which we could achieve our aesthetic vision.

Although we had the basis of our satellite using the static 3D model, we also customised it a great deal further in terms of animation. As can be seen in the screenshot below, we keyframed the movement in terms of the position co-ordinates in order to make the satellite move towards the moon smoothly. Like much of our other Cinema 4D work however, this required an extensive level of rendering and trial and error, as for us, it was imperative that the satellite was moving at the correct slow speed in order to achieve the most realistic look possible. 

After animating the movement of the satellite however, we come across the most time consuming element of this scene, which also happened to be one of its most minor aspects. We endeavoured to create a small flashing light on the top of the satellite to add a further aspect of movement, making it closer to mirroring a real piece of astro technology. The process of doing this was as follows. Firstly, we had to use the materials tab in order to create a new material for the glowing light. Specifically, this material included Luminance, to make the material appear as if it is emitting light, Glow, to make the button radiate, and also colour, to give it it's red colour. After this, we had to keyframe each aspect of the material simultaneously in order to achieve glow and luminance at the same time as the button 'flashes'. Whilst visually this created a fairly convincing result, we found that the luminance on the button was only creating the impression of light, rather than casting real light beams. We could tell because the satellites remaining surfaces was not reflecting this light. In order to negate this issue, we had to create a red 'omni' light which we hid inside the button, keyframing it at the exact same intervals as the luminance and glow in order to create the impression that the button is radiating light sequentially as it glows. Although this was a particularly lengthy process, we feel as though it was necessary, as the minor details such as this are what contribute to making the piece feel as realistic as possible.

Flickering Animation Issue

Arguably the greatest hurdle that we come across when creating our sequence in Cinema 4D was the presence of a grainy flicker on various materials in our scene. This was an issue that presented itself a great deal amongst the production process and that was one of the most difficult to find a solution to.

The issue at it's worst can be seen in the test that we created below, which we conducted after we began to notice the presence of the flicker.



In order to get past this issue we spend a huge duration of time testing different variable settings in order to try and diagnose the issue. It also required us to search through forums such as CGTalk, in order to find a diagnosis from others who had experienced the issue before. One of the first semi-successful solutions that we found was adjusting the global illumination settings. "Cinema 4D uses the term Global Illumination to describe their Radiosity solution. Radiosity takes into account direct illumination of each surface, and adds to that secondary illumination — light bounced off other nearby surfaces". (http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/global.html). Other C4D users had suggested that sometimes the use of Global Illumination, which adds a realistic depth to the scene, often is the root of shadow flicker. We found that by turning off this setting, a large improvement was made in terms of the levels of flicker. The results can be seen below.



Whilst this made the flicker a fair amount more tolerable, we found that we were still having issues, particularly in the shadows. This lead to us experimenting further with different variables to try and resolve the situation further. Noticing that most of this detail loss appeared in the shadows, we then attempted to experiment with the shadow settings, increasing the shadow mapping on each light, as well as the the shadow subdivisions in the render. This can be seen below.

We found that by increasing both the shadow subdivision, to values such as 4, and the Shadow Map on each light to resolutions of approximately 1000x1000, the issue was largely fixed apart from a few stray flickers. However, the only consequence of adjusting these settings was the significant increase in render time. Whlist a render with minimal shadow subdivisions and small shadow maps, as we carried out originally would take a few hours, this was increasing render times by more than double. However, with the image and final piece in mind, we felt as though this was a sacrifice worth taking. Moreover, the final variable that we found to provide us with success in counteracting the issue was the use of reflectance in the our materials. We found that by removing any trace of reflectance and specular, that the issue was almost entirely eradicated. Although we cannot be sure as to why reflectance was contributing to this issue taking place, we can assume that it is because it contains further detail than a non-reflective surface, making the rendering more of a difficult process.

Title Ideas

Title Brainstorming Session

Zero Gravity/GRAVITY
Apollo
Mission ____
M O O N
COPY THAT
LUNAR
ORB
NORTH MOON
Nearside/Farside
ORBIT
Retrograde
Fall Moon
Fallen
Lost
Sea of Tranquility

TRANSLUNAR

We decided to choose the title 'Translunar' due to its relevance to our narrative. Possessing the definition, "relating to or denoting the trajectory of a spacecraft travelling between the earth and the moon.", we felt as though this encapsulated our main idea fairly well in comparison to our other ideas. Furthermore, this had a sense of uniqueness about it that the other titles did not, making our film standout somewhat and potentially providing the production with a feel of credibility.

Making the Moon

Having already worked out the process of building a planet in C4D after creating the Earth, we endeavoured to create our moon using a very similar process. Considering the level of detail we managed to achieve was fairly reasonable, the effort that went into building the moon was mostly minimal. Beginning with a simple sphere object, we used the colour material editor to apply an image wrap around the shape. The key here was finding an image that was of a high enough resolution to ensure that the moon did not pixelate around the large moon shape, and that the level of detail remained strong even as the moon is navigated around and moved closer to. We found a 8K image wrap from NASA's official catalogue, which provided us with the level of sharpness and detail that we were looking for. I then edited this image using Adobe Photoshop to bring out the contrast and sharpness further in order to create the best result possible. After this, the we subdivided the sphere shape in order to remove any faces that the sphere had, making it as smooth and round as possible.

Although creating this moon was a fairly simple task, the difficulty in making it look realistic came when lighting it. The images below show the various test renders we carried out using various lighting set ups.

Here, we can see how the moon visuals progressed through different lighting experiments. As can be seen, the level of atmosphere and ambience changes dramatically with the different lighting set ups. A simple three point lighting set up was our final choice, experimenting a great deal with intensity levels until we found a set up where each light complimented one another, not only a detailed image but a dramatic tone.

Visual Inspiration: Gravity/A Space Odyssey (Establishing Location)

The two feature films above, Alfonso Cuaron's 'Gravity' and Kubricks '2001: A Space Oddeyssey' provided us with a plethora of visual inspiration in the planning process of our film. As we obviously could not undertake any visual primary research, all of our inspiration had to come from secondary sources i.e previously existing films such as these. We found using these sources particularly insightful, particularly when creating establishing shots, as it was important for us that we created a realistic, life-like representation of outer space, particularly in terms of scale and lighting aesthetics.

2001: A Space Oddeyssey

Gravity

Translunar

Above, some similarities can be seen between Gravity, A Space Odyssey and our production, especially in terms of the scaling and minor details such as the slight level of atmosphere around the earth. However, we decided to take the aesthetics slightly further by adding a starfield around the Earth. We felt that this would enhance the cinematic/dramatic aspect, although not necessary being representative of the view from space.

zero gravity tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb37ndVvPu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A1YXA-aDNE&t=4s

Character Rigging

Today we learnt two different ways of rigging as we knew that animating characters will likely be necessary when we come to make our final piece. Firstly, we attempted to use Cinema 4D's rigging facility to rig our own character. This allowed us to insert a skeletal structure inside a character and fixing it to its inside, making his body parts move as his skeleton does. Cinema 4D's feature that allows this is particularly easy to use, however we found it to be temperamental and often challenging when it come to animating post creating the skeleton.

Next, we decided to try the software Mixamo. Mixamo allowed us to upload our own character, and then place the rigging system inside it within the software. After this, it automatically translated this into several movements, which could be re-downloaded as FBX files and then further edited inside Cinema 4D. This was particularly useful, as it was simple but also gave us flexibility when it come to editing the character and aspects of its movements inside of Cinema 4D due to its editable nature.

Narrative Idea Progression

Floating through space, other objects around him

Falls through space - zero gravity happens

Looks up asteroids falling, rocks falling

Looks right/left

Starts small gets big

Ground rumbling

Massive rock slowly tilts and falls

Perspective rock - point of view falling down on him

Idea Brainstorm - 1st Group Meeting

- Film set in space

• Based around an astronaut floating in space? Aliens?
• Could work well with sound design, specific set of sounds associated with space 'theme'
• Fairly simple settings may make motion graphics simple enough?

- Motion Capture Idea

• Using xbox Kinect to create motion capture files? Use skills previously learnt to make texture these files and make a small meaningless narrative? Monsters dancing etc - inspiration from Estaban Diacono.
• Could also use pre-made motion capture files? However, much simpler so would need more complexity in narrative

- Motion Tracking (Real Footage)

• Each group member excels in cinematography so could it be an idea to incorporate this in our work. Real footage with motion graphics incorporated inside it? 
• Challenging but could be rewarding if done well. Inspiration from Pokémon Go etc.

- Music based video

• Making a motion graphics piece where the graphics responds to music. Take inspiration from Greyscale Gorilla tutorial using Music Effector.

Glitch Art using TextEdit

Above, I have demonstrated the use of editing image text within text edit to make glitched images. Understanding the method, I may take this forward into a future motion graphics project.

Planet Creation C4D

I created the images below using basic image mapping to shape objects. I created this planet earth utilising spheres, and mapping several layers of images taken from NASA over them. Adjusting the specular, luminance and bump settings allowed me to create this realistic look, including the atmosphere and darkness on the side of the earth furthest from the light source. I have created this imagery as a practice of making space-related visuals, in case my production group follow through with the idea of setting our piece in a 'space environment'. This model could potentially be exported as an object and placed within our future project as a background addition.

Transmedia Collaboration/Networking Session

The collaborations session on November 3rd gave not only gave me the opportunity to display my current motion graphics showreel but also to view other's work across various pathways. After the observational session, the two people that caught my eye were Robert Brook (sound designer) and Josh Manley (also motion graphics). We thought that each of our styles could work to compliment one another's so we have decided to form a working group.

Robert's Initial Sound Piece

This piece caught my attention because of the way in which is creates atmosphere and impact on it's audience, which isn't an easy task. This soundtrack oozes tension and uneasiness, and Rob's ability to construct and convey this emotion shows that he could definitely bring lots of talent and skills into our final production.

Immediately after the session, we met as a group and began discussing preliminary ideas:

• Setting that could be complimented by an intense, atmospheric and experimental soundscape with heightened, dramatic visuals: in Space.
• Spaceman trying to weigh down his tv (or object) so it doesn’t float around, scratching head (things won’t stay still)
• Finds a pet
• opens visor and starts to suffocate
• dramatic serious start, clicks button, everything silent, then music starts to play, he looks confused, and then starts dancing.
• Want to create something atmospheric, visually compelling, but perhaps with a humurous side to the narrative?

Inspiration:

Blender vs Cinema 4D

After producing various works using both Cinema 4D and Blender, I have now had the opportunity to make direct comparisons between the two softwares and decide which best suits my personal working styles and ambitions in terms of results. Using both softwares, I have found that both Cinema 4D and Blender can both provide excellent results in terms of realism and image quality. However, although at first I found Blender to be more usable, I have found that being more of an industry standard software, Cinema 4D, in my opinion, allows more flexibility when working by providing a wider range of tools in the production side of the process. Furthermore, it is more integrated with softwares such as Adobe After Effects, which allows further post-production work to be carried out simply. As well as this, I have found that there are more materials and resources online regarding Cinema 4D, so for me, there is more opportunity to learn and progress with this software.

However, having the opportunity to start my motion graphics work using Blender gave me copious transferable skills, and have me the chance to improve my understanding of the fundamentals of the 3D interface, much of which is similar to Cinema 4D, so it has been infinitely useful.

C4D

 

Blender

Motion Graphics Showreel

Showreel for 3rd November cross-pathway collaboration networking

C4D Experiment 4

Returning to the motion capture style of 3D graphics that I am so fascinated with, I decided to give the technique one more attempt. I wanted to try to make improvements on my previous motion capture work, by making more realistic lighting and texturing attempts. I also wanted to use a faster, more dynamic motion in order to give the hair textures more movement and liquidity, I therefore opted for a sports-based motion, using the motion capture data from a boxer. If i were to re-render this, I would like to compose the image more tastefully, as I feel that towards the climax of the scene, the character comes too close to the edges of the frame, so I would like to tilt the camera down by a few degrees.

C4D Experiment 3

In this fairly abstract video, I wanted to experiment with movement in a more natural and less contrived way. To do this I found a tutorial that allowed me to use the cloner tool connected to an particle emitter. This emitter allowed a stream of rigid body spheres to constantly fall from above the camera view, and after connecting the spheres in a tube-like shape, it created the impression of a spaghetti like material, falling as it would naturally according to it's mass and rigidity. As you can see in this video at around 4 seconds and 9 seconds, some glitches can be seen. I am unaware of what has caused these, however it gives the product a more unrealistic feel.