Double Exposure – VFX

In order to add more VFX to my portfolio I have done some more double exposure today in Gary’s lesson. For this double exposure I combined photos of; a model, flowers and birds, to create the final result below. I am happy with the result I have ended up with, I feel like I have created an elegant and clean image which I can imagine being used for a perfume ad for example.

My hopes are that this image will make my portfolio look more professional as it is very cleanly done and doesn’t consist of any irrelevant / inappropriate images. As well as this it is adding to my VFX section of my portfolio, increasing the amount of credit to hopefully get me the best grade possible.

To conclude I am very happy with how the double exposure turned out, especially considering the lack of VFX I have done. Although I have no intentions of specialising in VFX next year, I am consider still doing some VFX from time to time as I enjoyed creating this image.

Matte Painting

Introduction

Today in Gary’s lesson we learned how to create matte paintings. I was very happy when I found out we would be learning how to do this as I am a big fan of Adobe Photoshop and I love learning new technics and skills which I can use to improve my work.

Mood board

I began by creating a mood board of other peoples matte paintings for inspiration. I came across some really impressive work and I selected my favourite nine to be my inspiration for this project. All of the examples I chose are quite different, showing that there is a lot of creativity that can be used we making this style of art work. I like creating mood boards as they help inspire me to create my very own.

My version of a matte painting

For my own matte painting I have compiled loads of miscellaneous images into one HD image to create an eerie, futuristic, “end of the world” style photo. I am very happy with how this image has turned out, as I stated earlier I really enjoy Photoshop and I feel like I am able to use a wide range of technics to get a fairly nice final look.

3D Character Model (SWAT) – Adobe Fuse

I spent time today experimenting with Adobe Fuse. In this time I created my own 3D model of a person, which I made look like a “SWAT” solider. I began by creating the raw human without any clothing before customising it and adding clothing it make it have the final result I show below. I am overall very pleased with the way the character has turned out and in my opinion It could easily be used in a 3D shooting game and fit in well.

After this I experimented with animating my character. I decided to create a variety of short fighting animations which could be pieced together to make a fighting / hand to hand combat animation, in a game. I plan on learning how to do this in the next VFX lesson so that I can get a good looking final result.

Portfolio intro video – After Effects

Is have used a short green screen video of me and stock footage of a torch being shown throw a forest to create this double contrast effect. I have created an alpha map of the stock footage and played it through my video. I have then altered the effects to get the translucent orange glow through myself.

So far I am very pleased with the way the video looks so far. To improve my video I plan on having “Bailey Brian’s Portfolio” appear as I fold my hand. I believe this would help complete the video and would make it perfect for the intro to my portfolio as it states: what it is, who I am and also highlights some VFX skill.

When making this video I had 2 issues, putting the video in slow motion and adjusting the video showing through me. To solve these issues I researched methods of fixing my problems on the internet and also acquired slight help from a teacher. Both the problems I had proved to be very simple to fix and the adjustments for the video showing through me was fixed by ticking a simple box.

After Effects – Double Exposure Practice

Above is my first attempt at double exposure in Adobe After Effects. I have taken photograph of myself (quality of photo isn’t great because it was taken from my social media) and replaced my face with a mountain which fades, using feather. Finally, to add extra detail to my work, I decided to add birds flying away, representing my head fading away.

I believe that this has been a good effort for my first ever time attempting double exposure. I like this style of art but I know I need a lot more work to get to the standard I want my work to be at. I plan on practicing this technique and After Effects a lot more to improve in anyway possible.

First VFX Lesson – Adobe After Effects

Today was my first lesson doing VFX, I used Adobe After Effect during this lesson. This is software I have had previous experience with in my own time. In this lesson I practiced camera tracking with stock drone footage of a city and text.  As well as this I used multiple techniques, such as; levels, tint, colour balance and , to improve the aesthetic of the video. I also imported music in the background of the video to set the tone, I plan on splitting the video, in the near future, to make the video meet the music as much as possible – creating a more effective mini movie. Above are the before and After 🙂