New alien landing test 23/5/23

New alien landing test                                                                                                                                   23/5/23

Figure 1: New alien landing test

This afternoon's session of compositing has been one of the most stressful, and I have seldom been irked more by the presence of video edges in a visual effect.  Even though I managed to make a great looking shot the first time around, it is good to have a second draft handy.  This session, I had to recreate the alien landing shot in to make it look more animated, and the effect composition required positioning the solid in a way where it looked relatively integral and didn't stick out.  This method was relatively similar to the original shot, but I ran into trouble in compositing where you could blatantly see where the effect was cut off and no matter how many masks I tried to put on, the problem wasn't solved.  This is a time where I really wish After Effects would let you open two projects at the same time so I could compare the two.  All in all, I had to restart the project four times to get into a workflow that actually produced decent end results, and I wish I could copy the effects from the previous file over but I had to make do with what I had.  In the end, I managed to make a decent looking effect that looks more or less as good as I want, but I hope I can convince the tutor to just keep the old shot in the final cut since it is ultimately the one that's more effective.  Sometimes, the original try is a lot better than you think.

Figure 2: After Effects composition

I've also found a way to utilise some new shot composition tests I've tried.  In order to reference the gaming and comic industries of Dundee, I will have to do two more shots that will bulk up the final running time ever so slightly.  The first shot will be a POV shot overlooking Abertay University, which is renowned for its game design courses and training of game development talent, and a POV shot of the DC Thomson publishing house which is renowned for its publication of Beano, Dandy and local popular characters.  This will be done with a much smaller and lighter camera such as the DJI Osmo which will allow for more fluid movement and less need to smooth out the shot in After Effects.  Also, the shot at Camperdown needs some camera movement in order to be more visually engaging, as does the shot at Cox's Stack.

Figure 3: New Verdant Works Composition