Final project, Escape pod... Final grade

I received my final grade for my project yesterday.

I got 75% and therefore a distinction overall for my MA.

I graduate in January :D

2010, next step...

Well my MA is over...

I will find out my grade at the end of November and graduate mid January.

This means that decisions need to be made about what to do next...

Luckily I already had a job lined up at a commercial company in Peterborough called FWD creative.

The company mainly specialises in web design and print media. It is my job to take it into video production.

This is a very exciting prospect as I will gain lots of experience, especially hands on experience with clients that you wouldn't normally interact with as a junior worker.

I intend to stay hear for a year or so... The main thing is if I still enjoy it and feel it is relevant. If I am pushing myself and my skills day in day out then I wouldn't rule out staying for longer.

But the main goal is to work in Film, and that would require moving to London.

One way of doing this would be to do one of Escape Studio's courses.

These are a great way to finish my skills and get me ready for the industry. Combined with the experience I gain with FWD I feel very confident I can make a mark on the industry.


At this point I am also undertaking minor freelance work for various other company's. As well as pursuing my own interests in my spare time and have already began planning my next short film.

Final project, Escape pod... Critique

As part of my final project I had to produce at 10,000 word Critique of the whole production process and the product itself...

Here is a link to the whole critique...

Final project, Escape pod... Finished film

After many months of hard work (and even longer to get a chance to upload it). Here is the finished version of my MA final project... ESCAPE.pod



Directed and filmed by Jack Shelbourn and featuring sound effects and score by Dexter Prior.

Synopsis:

When NATHAN (Rex Cahill) awakes in confusion inside a recently launched escape pod, he is greeted by an ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Lucy Mack) that is as out of place as she is out of character. NATHAN quickly discovers his home, a space station, has been destroyed in an enemy attack. As NATHAN works through what happened and becomes acquainted with life in an escape pod, he begins having strange dreams. Will these dreams bring with them the answers he seeks? And will this AI’s out of place character prove to be friend or foe...?

Critique extract:

The project ‘ESCAPE.pod’ has been completed as the final piece for Jack Shelbourn’s MA in media production.
The project took place over the summer 2010, between the months of June and early September. The initial aims of the project where to continue improving skills in Adobe After Effects, to utilise new skills with Autodesk Maya and to produce a piece of work to a high quality standard, with the final goal of gaining attention within the industry and finding employment.
Driven by the objectives to produce a fictional film that shows how the human conscience copes with being confined for a prolonged period of time when the physical body is unable to move; ‘ESCAPE.pod’ highlights the struggle between mind and body whilst both are put under extreme stress and how the mind decides to cope.
Also for the audience to gain enjoyment from the story and enjoy the special effects work, for example the colourful vistas within the human mind and the futuristic setting inside the escape pod.
Finally to create a piece that advertises key skills as a director, cinematographer, visual effects artist and motion graphics artist.
The project ‘ESCAPE.pod’ is a science fiction film lasting approximately 20 minutes.


Credits:

Director, Producer, Editor, Motion Graphics, Visual Effects, DVD/BD menu, disc authoring, Artwork, Costume department, Set construction:
Jack Shelbourn

Audio Production, Sound recording, Music Composition, ‘Presenter’ V/O:
Dexter Prior

Middle animation ‘Quai Industries’, Assistant for day 1:
George Shelbourn

Script Editor, Producer for day 1:
Jennifer Ravenscroft

Producer, Assistant, Make up, Costume department, ‘Anti-Virus’ V/O:
Rhian Mason

Assistant Director, Shot Logger, Clapper Board:
Stephen Milnes

Set Construction:
Ben Shelbourn

Actors:
Rex Cahill & Lucy Mack


Conclusion:

As far as I am concerned this is still a work in progress...

This is the version that was handed into my tutors as part of my MA, however there are aspects I wish to improve on. Plenty of things that need cleaning up, and effects that are still not finished.

Over all though I feel that it is a great reflection of 3 months solid hard work, not just by myself but also Dex who did all of the fantastic sound.

The project pushed myself and my machine right to the limit of what was possible with the time limit, the technology limit and financial limit I worked within.

Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy the film...

Final project, Escape Pod... Critique & Update

The film is rendered... The audio nearly done and the DVD menu waiting to be built.

All that's really left to do is the dreaded 10,000 word critique.

Luckily it can be split in two.

And even more luckily one half is a critique of the production process.

I have just dug into the blog and managed to get out 3,674 words ready to be put into my critique.

This was the reason for the Blog and I believe it has paid off massively... There would have been no way I would remember exactly what went right and what went wrong on day 2!

I am very glad that I have kept this blog and for this reason... :)

So the blog has given me just off 1,500 words left to write and the production process part of the critique is done.... I might be handing in on time after all.

(Note. I was never, at any point, even slightly scared that I wouldn't hand in on time... Its what I do)

Now lets get this 10,000 words written!

Final project, Escape Pod... Rotobrush work-flow

I used Adobe's new Rotobrush tool quite extensively on my project. Being of a Sci-fi nature a lot of GCi has been added to each frame and therefore rotoscoping was needed to place items behind characters etc...

The first time I started rotoscoping on the film I immediately went for the mask tool and began to mask out areas. After taking 4 mins to do one frame I decided I must give the new roto brush a go,

At times I found it frustrating and very slow, for example the rotobrush not automatically setting the footage you are working on to full resolution (if you have to work at full res then that just makes sense). It was also slow when using the rotobrushed layer many times in a comp as it has to 'propagate' ever time for each layer, instead of just once and placing that on each layer.. (I know what I'm on about :P)

Earlier on in my work-flow, long before any CGi started I used the new refine matte tool that is also integrated with the rotobrush. I found this very glitchy and unstable, often blurring the start and end frame of a scene. So I wasn't going to risk making that an integral part of my CGi.

Instead I used the rotobrush to cut out the layer that needed to obscure a CGi element, the characters arm in front of a projection for example. When this was done I would simply put this layer above the CGi layer and then set the CGi layer to alpha matte invert the rotobrushed layer.

Then I would add a fast blur to the roto layer and the whole thing would blend nicely. This also gave me the option when i need to edit, in the middle of a frame, to switch the track matte off, do the edit and switch it back on and not need to wait as it all propagates...

This technique has given me some great looking roto's that made the CGi elements blend in very well.

Here are some screen shots, that I hope explain this a little better than I can :)

Clean shot:

Rotoscoping with the roto brush tool:

Rotoscoped layer:

Track matte applied:

Fast blur applied:

Added to all layers that need it:

Final project, Escape Pod... Visuals finished

The visual aspect of the film has been finished and is all queued up ready to be rendered over the weekend. Audio production is already in full swing, but this will be the main focus over the next week. Along with cover and menu creation.

Final project, Escape Pod... First audio draft

This is an older render of Scene 4, however it is a special older render of scene 4! For this scene 4 has the first draft of audio attached.

Dexter Prior has been hard at work creating fantastic sound effects for the film and this is a mere foot in the water compared to what is to come...

I couldn't be happier with the audio so far and I can wait for the final versions.

Check it out...
(please excuse the messy video, don't know why its uploaded like this, but this is one for the ears anyway...)

Final project, Escape Pod... Hologram test footage.

Here is some test footage I rendered out of the Hologram...

Final project, Escape Pod... Work flow & Update

This week I have managed to get a huge chunk of my film project done.

Firstly I have finished most of the ‘pod’ scenes. This includes compositing the hologram, lights, space scene and the holo screens.

This also involves a lot of the roto brush tool being used, along with track mattes and a lot of pre comps.

This weekend I have also finished all of the location, or ‘dream’, scenes. This has involved more rotoscoping with the roto brush, as well as blurs and turbulent displacements.

Lastly I have finished a very complicated and time consuming space scene for the beginning of the film, made entirely within After Effects. This includes using maps of planets and terrain, combined with the CC Sphere plug-in to create the planets, fractal noise to create a nebula and the stars, lens flares and CC Particle world to create an explosion.

I also made a 3D looking space station from a single 2D outline image, separated into sections using ‘auto trace’ and then the bevel and emboss layer style.

I developed an, at first glance, complicated work flow for the pod scenes. However this workflow allowed me to simply work and organise many layers, at times reaching into the thousands within all the sub compositions.

One main aid within the work flow was to render what I had done as a half resolution MGEG2 video. This allowed me to review first thing in the morning my work and would have saved me days in the future rectifying minor mistakes that are easily missed when working frame by frame.

This process has allowed me to refine my techniques and workflow so that each scene is completed quicker and with better quality.

Basic work flow:

At the very bottom of the workflow are the simple 2 comps each containing the holo screens at their basic forms. This is set out as; left screen and right screen.

Above this is a comp with the two combined and spaced together how they intend to be spaced within the pod itself. This is where certain 3D elements are introduced, such as scan grids and planes.

Within these two compositions all animation for the screens was created and key framed. This was done to keep the screens all in one place. This makes the animations and screens easily transferable within compositions and other scenes. As well as keeping things tidy.

The next level is the pod composition itself. This contains the main keyed out footage, along with any rotoscoped footage, lights, lens flares and the hologram. This comp is where frames are watched and then selected, then matched within the holoscreen comps and then animated with key frames.

Above these individual shot comps was the overall scene comp. This is where, in the case of outside shots, camera shake was added, as well as colour correction and letterboxing.

This combination of sub comps leading to a final comp was also used in the ‘dream’ and ‘space’ scenes.

Each scene, where necessary had the ‘collapse transformations’ switch ticked to keep and 3D and information that rendered past the comps boundaries.

This was used extensively in the space scene. With lower layers of the space station and planets etc, leading to a comp filled with these items and placed within 3D space, with a final comp containing these with a static nebula and stars. The comp containing the 3D aspects was then animated via its position. Due to setting it up in this nature the composition acted as a camera, flying through 3D space.

Here are example screen shots of this work flow...

Pod Scene;

Right screen:

Both Screens:

Pod Scene:

All shots in scene, and letter-boxing:

Dream Scene:

Hologram:

Shot composite:

Scene:

Space Shot:

Space Station:

Explosion:

Planets:

Composite and 3D fly through:

Finished planets:

Finished Explosion: