19/19
For the next 3-4 months I will be working on part of a project I have been planning for over a year!
Summary: In the evening, a woman visits an arcade. When she touches an arcade machine, she receives an electric shock—triggering a display of electricity, sparks, and smoke. The entire space illuminates as she's transported back in time. A hologram floats above the machine indicating the reversal in time.
Project Goals:
Demonstrate technical proficiency in VFX and seamless compositing onto live action through post-production.
Demonstrate advanced motion graphics skills that enhance and flow naturally with the narrative.
Showcase the ability to produce and direct a creative project by relying on a keen eye for aesthetics.This project showcases visual effects and motion graphics skills through a cinematic video production about loss, redemption, and mental health awareness.
Week 03
After unexpected struggles filming was completed. We had to go back to the filming site three times. First time our camera settings were not the best, second time we were questioned about permission to film. It was devastating to hear we’d have to wait to hear from the franchises headquarters but thankfully we got the thumbs up later that day from the locations manager. They even told us to tag them if we posted the project on social media! The end video was shot at a high quality however not with the best camera settings combination, but I will do my best to fix in post production! Notes I received were that the video looked a bit laggy. Learned our mistake was our camera settings like I mentioned earlier. We shot at 30 frames per second and at 1/13s shutter speed, so each frame is exposed for too long, causing motion blur to be much stronger than what the eye expects. Instead of smooth motion, moving objects appear smeared, making the footage feel sluggish. Since 1/13s is longer than 1/30s, each frame partially overlaps into the next, creating an unnatural, ghosting-like effect. This makes movements seem sluggish and unnatural. Ways I could fix this are reducing frame rate to 24, it will help a bit, and use the sharpen too when editing it again. There is also the option of using a frame interpolation system but I will make sure if I am allowed to use the tool for this project.
Filming Site: Free Play Arcade Dallas
Week 04
Digital scene recreated the live action scene, cameras were done being set up and blocked out geometry to act as digital doubles were finished as well. Electricity has begun!!
Week 05
I worked on scattering electricity on the arcade machine and compositing in nuke. Im very satisfied with the compositing so I will reuse it for the other electricities and make minor adjustments. The electricity however seems a bit fast to me, at least compared to my style reference. I will work to adjust the points being scattered on the machine where rays are coming out of and also adjust the velocity. Here is a video of my hip and a contact sheet of the electricity.
Week 06
This week I revised the electricity on the arcade machine, I reduced the velocity and smoothed it up a bit. I noticed after rendering this pass that I had increased the jitter a bit too much though, so I’ll fix that! This week was very productive and I’m on track with my schedule, however I would like to begin the spark simulations earlier since I will be on a trip for a few days and though I’ll take my work with me to work on the project at night, i’d like to get ahead to stay on track with my schedule! That means that this coming week I will work on the electricity that happens around the arm and the one that travels up the hand. I will have to dedicate time to this electricity all seperately because I would like for the motion to be slower and feel like it’s traveling. The good thing is that I can use some of the elements I used for the machine’s electricity! The sparks will be simple as I want the focus to remain on the electricity so hopefully I can get that done by next week as well or at least half way done! :)
Anyways here are videos of my progress!
Week 07
This week I fixed my long view camera perspective that appeared off when I added more props to the scene like in the live action video. That also helped me notice that some of my blocked out geometry was slightly off and was not imitating the live action actor correctly so I fixed that. After rendering this pass I noticed that I also need to shorten the arms because they are matting out a large area. After receiving feedback last week from my professor I went in and fixed the way my electricity is arching, the amplitude, and the jitter point I had applied. This allows for the electricity to look more like it’s traveling on the machine rather than shooting out. This week I will continue working on the electricity for the arm and hand!
