Final project, Escape Pod... scene 04, test

I rendered out what I have done so far, from scene 04, over night.

It has shown me all the little things, like masking problems, that you miss when viewing frame by frame.

What it shows is that the hologram is working well in the composite.

I used the roto brush for rotoscoping along with some masking.

The audio is only guides, so its probably best to mute...

Final project, Escape Pod... Extra animation

I have just finished editing the Hologram footage ready for direct insertion to the pod footage. I have also prepared all of the effects layers that simply need copying over to this footage.

Once composited its holo screen time.

I tried several methods to do this but finally used Avid to edit as I know understand why its the 'best' to use.

I have also made a decision on the keying of the film. I have been very disappointed with the keying. I simply didn't know enough before starting the film and haven't filmed the blue screen very well. Also due to the use of a flashing blue light a lot of masks are needed.

To put it simply I would do a lot differently if I started now... But I guess that's the point of the project, to make mistakes, learn and move on...

So I am instead not going to key out the pod footage. Instead I will lower the levels of blue and darken the background areas. I will then use little distraction tricks like lens flares etc to make it look like there is a very dark wall there...


On another more fun note, I have employed my brother to do a short animation for the middle of the film. I decided to ask him as I wanted this animation, which will take place on the holo screens, to feel as if it is slightly alien to the pod or at least as if its not from the same direct technology. So I felt it best to get someone else to do it so it had a completely new feel.

Final project, Escape Pod... Alpha channels checked yeah?... Ooops!

So I forgot to check my last 2 days renders to render with an alpha channel! Massive school boy error.

However all is not lost. I am not in the process of using the new Roto Brush to cut the footage out, and tunrs out I'm getting a better matte overall... Every cloud...

Final project, Escape Pod... shot 5, finished

Simple but effective...

Final project, Escape Pod... work flow development

After the success of creating shot 04 I am going to change my work flow a bit.

This has also been brought about by some poor renders. It appears that at the beginning or end of each cut within my original keyed composition, the frame has been corrupted and is unusable. Because of this I intend to render out each scene, work on that scene, render that out finished, then work on the next scene.

So lots of small renders instead of big ones. They will then be placed back together at the end. Similar to my old work flow but in smaller chunks....

Final project, Escape Pod... shot 4, finished

I have finished my first shot of the film. Lasting around 30 seconds, shot 04 is one of the most effects heavy of the film. Almost the whole shot is made within after effects.

I decided to start hear because I knew it would be a great place for me to develop the animating methods and techniques for the rest of the film.

The two days spent on this shot will save me a lot of time later on, especially when shots become repeats (back and forth shots) which will allow for the god send that is 'copy & paste'

Here is the first render I did after day 1:


And here is the render from day 2:


You can see how much I advanced on day two, simply because I had developed my work flow...

Final Project, Escape Pod... Keying and first renders

Last week I keyed out all of the footage and re-rendered the film with an alpha channel.

Whilst the footage has been rendering I have been drawing in Illustrator on my laptop.

I have now finished drawing all of the components for the the holoscreens.

Once the footage has finished rendering I will begin animating the holoscreens onto the footage.

Along with this I will be adding the hologram footage followed by rotoscoping where needed.

This will lead to the next render which will be the beginning of the finishing stage visual wise.

Music production will begin in a weeks time.


I have made an artistic decision on the CGi of the film. On one aspect this is also because I have A. had much difficulty getting my student copy of MAYA activated due to Autodesk making no sense and not being helpful at all. B. I'm not convinced I have the time to make the CGi look as good as I want and therefore the film will have a tacky quality that I want to avoid.

I bet you can guess, but I have decided to restrict CGi and maybe not have any all together.

I am using the term CGi to reflect images created with MAYA or 3DS Max.

When watching the rough cut I felt that I liked how everything focused on the main character and everything was filmed with him in shot. So I thought that maybe CGi of outside the pod and station might not be needed. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea and the more I relaxed about some of the time issues I had.

So the film will focus on the characters and not have any distracting CGi.

Final project, Escape Pod... Finished holo screens

These are some quick renders of the final holo screens. I have added noise (which will show up more on video) and scan lines...

Final project, Escape Pod... compositing test 001

I have finished the testing phase for my film today and here is the 45 second clip I have been working on.

It was made mainly to test how the screens look within the envionment, so theres some very dodgy and quick rotoscoping (which was also my first time with the new roto brush in AE).

I also had a little go with adding some flares onto the footage as well as faking lens blur on the flare where the hologram will be standing.

Compositing test:


Through this experiment I have developed my work flow method and feel ready to get on with working on the film in full.

I intend to refine the final edit of the film. Then render this. This must be as close as possible to the final cut, as making changes will be difficult because of the next steps.

I will then mask and key out this footage where needed and then render again. I will leave the footage for the outside scenes unmasked and keyed as there is no need.

I will now have two renders, one inside the pod and one outside (the dream world).

I will now add CGi to both sets where needed.

I will render out passes of just the CGi when a major point is done. such as the hologram being added and the holo screens animated.

Once all of the CGi has been added I will then place all of the renders together and colour correct.

Once rendered I will again have two renders. The complete, with CGi and colour correction, pod scenes and the complete, with any effects needed, dream sequence.

These will then be re-edited together and rendered as full uncompressed files ready to be transcoded into MPEG2 for DVD and the equivalent for blu-ray, and DivX for web.

Final project, Escape Pod... holo screen test

I have finished off the first holo screen and rendered out some test footage.

Going to tweak it a bit but the idea is there.

This represents the red screen, situated on the right hand side of the pod. It acts as the 'outside' screen, that's all the scanners and navigational information.

It was made with a combination of Illustrator and After Effects.

Here it is: