Tiles Research

One of the main pieces of feedback yesterday on my tests was that the tiles didn't look so much like tiles and more like holes. It is because of this I am really focusing on this to see how I can change the piece to show the tiles. When experimenting with the tiles to make them more obvious I began to think of other tiles. Immediately Scrabble jumped out in my mind. These tiles are iconic but as this photo shows underneath the reason they look like 3 dimensional tiles is because of the shadows around the tiles which give them depth. This shows I need to experiment with lighting to show the individual tiles.

Scrabble Tiles

I also thought about the movement of the tiles at the end of the piece. They rotate to reveal text on the rear of the tiles and I think this needs to be emphasised. When considering this I thought how could I show that the tiles are in sequence and show that they all react with one another. For this reason I have decided to experiment with the idea of an abacus to show the formation of the tiles and have them spinning on bars as it is a piece that can be interacted with.

Abacus

Monday Presentations

These are 2 tests I produced to show on the Monday before hand-in. Here I played with creating the tiles, projecting the footage on them before rotating the tiles to reveal the text. As a first test it worked well as I got a lot of feedback to improve the piece. The final composition will look quite a lot different to this but that shows that these did there job.

I also had the opportunity to experiment with sound. I have been given some tracks by the Pepsi run competition to use and I experimented here with 2 possible choices. The is one rock track which feels like it is out of the 70/80's and an up tempo techno track. After talking with peers I think the techno track works best as it helps show the busy nature of the piece with multiple things going on.

Test 1

Test 2

The feedback I got from my peers was that it was hard to see so hard to follow. Because of this I have decided to look at making the tiles bigger and reducing the vignetting used on the footage to make each piece of footage easier to view. It was also mentioned that the tiles looked more like holes to start with so I need focus on making the tiles look more like tiles and show how the interact with each other. I have 1 colour running through each line of film and it was suggested that the colour of the text should emphasis this and tie the piece together.

With all this feedback I realised I have a long way to go with this piece for my final piece and with a reshoot that is supposed to be taking place on Wednesday I have a busy week ahead.

Text testing

This is the initial text test I have done. On the rear of the tablets/screens are letters that make up the sentence:-

"Why not make a change?"

This line is to interact with the audience. After seeing this I want people to think "why am I doing the same thing daily", why not change a curtain part of your life and who knows what else you could change. I have also rendered an occlusion layer to create more depth to the 3D text making it really jump off the screen to the audience. This will also give tho whole piece great depth as the tiles revolve.

Textured layer

Occlusion layer

The test below is just experimenting with the sentence turning and appearing on the back of the screens. The footage is more test footage I used just to show the general idea of the screens and you can also see here how well the vignette effect works. The footage does not have the vignette on it here, it is actually the light in maya that creates this effect. I prefer this method as the lights can stay in place to light and soften the text as it revolves also creating depth when they cast shadows.

Grading Tests

This is my first test with grading some footage. This is a sequence from an early project and I wanted to see if I could create a vintage look. I have ended up using some scratched textures and and feathering some plastic textures to create these results.

Plastic feathering

Scratches texture

I wanted to end up with footage that looked like it had been through a lot and found after being neglected for a long period of time. I think it has worked well. I have not added the vignette as the lighting in the final maya piece creates the it on each tile individually.

This is my next test with the same footage but I wanted to try it with the intro and outro footage given. These I have to add on the 1 minute final outcome which leaves me with just 49 seconds to play with. I have also been supplied with music tracks I can use so I need to find the one that best goes with my fast paced piece. This is the next area I need to bee looking into.

Vignette Technique

Looking at previous research I have conducted, I have found that a lot of the vintage footage had a vignetted look. This is best shown using this image below:-

This is a technique I want to use in my piece as I believe it ages a piece well when combined with grading the footage. This can be done in After Effects post-production once the footage ha been collected. I can radial feather a layer produce this kind of effect. I need to se if it darkens the edges of the tiles too much that they blend into the background which is not what I want to happen. Now I will start to play with textures to produce a scratched and abused piece of footage.

Footage style frames

These are my initial tests for my footage for my final piece. Here I got some photographs and framed them up as I wanted them. I played with colour layers over the top as filters to change the mood and composition. I have tried to use a vignetting technique as well to produce similar results to the "Plus Guests" piece I put on my blog earlier.

Style frame 1

Style frame 2

Style frame 3

The Neighbourhood Studio Visit

The Neighbourhood Showreel 2010

After ringing the project manager Sarah Baker last week myself and 2 others went on a portfolio yesterday morning to The Neighbourhood's new design studio. After turning up at their new Lever Street Studio I instantly loved the new place they had just got for themselves. The building itself is fantastic as it has been modernised but still keeping some of the traditional elements of the build. When walking in the studio we were greeted by one of the designers and we sat in their waiting area while the creative director Jon Humphreys had finished in a meeting. From here we could see the studio and the fact they had just moved in the week previous as there were pictures ready to be hung and boxes to be sorted. Even though they had only been there a week they had already made the space their own by adding traditional furniture and creating a coffee table out of old books. This is one of the best studios I have been to as it felt like The Neighbourhood had a home. Some of the other studios I have visited have been quite empty and almost office-like, where as this you could tell they are a design company and they wanted to express that.

After a few minutes we saw the meeting room empty and Sarah (project manager), Jon (creative director) and Stewart (animator, designer and 3D enthusiast) come across to great us and introduce themselves. We then followed them into their new meeting room and sat around their huge traditional dining table. After looking up and seeing all along the wall the awards they had won from various competitions I knew I was in one manchester best design studios. We spoke to the 3 designers about our course and what it was we actually do. They were very interested in what we had to say and where we saw ourselves in the future. They asked where abouts in the country we saw ourselves heading after the course had finished and after we all showed interest of staying up north and hopefully at a design studio around this area they explained that that is where a lot of the business is moving and that we should definitely check out around here before venturing south.

You could tell that the designers liked how we spoke of our work and how we presented them our work. They expected us to take along disks and to use their Tv to show the work but when we said we had brought our laptops to show them our work I think they could tell we were making an effort to show what we were all about as individuals. After the others had shown their work we had a conversation with Jon about how we had recently produced showreels to show the work we had been producing over the last few years. He explained how they can sometimes do more harm that good and that it was important the amount of content you put in as you don't want them to seem repetitive and that a designer only does one way of working. After this Sarah, Stewart and John all looked towards me and I decided that I was still going to show my showreel I had produced. I am glad I did, they were all impressed by it and Jon mentioned he liked the fact I showed my working methods in there as well as my work. After this I showed them my Big draw ident and making of to explain how I put it together and the effort I went through to get the results I did. Also I wanted to show I could do a range of work from Maya to stop-motion. After this is explained the ideas behind ad showed my title sequence which I think went down well.

To finish with they showed us a piece of their work that Stewart had recently made 3D post-production. We all got handed the 3D glasses and were shown how the design world is changing and how ahead of the game The Neighbourhood were. They have been ready for some time for these types of jobs to come around and produce work of which I have never seen before. Stewart explained that making a piece 3D is something else he has just put in his toolbox much like other techniques such as using depth of field. After this we left as we had already taken up plenty of their time and they have deadlines to meet. It was a fantastic studio to visit and I hope one day I can work in a place just like it. The people were friendly, talented and just as passionate about the subject as I am which, is what I want when I leave. This is definitely a studio I will keep in touch with as I think they will be a great contact for the future and hopefully I will be able to go back again sometime.