Week 6 – Tasks (In Class)

• Get feedback on your images, influential video, 150 word narrative and your rough sketched 15 image storyboard to guide you through the majority of this project over the break.
• Refine your 15 panel Storyboard for Assignment 2, to be a work of art, depicting the progression of your music video, showing any major transitions or scenes that you feel should be conveyed. Post high quality image/s of your storyboard/s to your blog.
• For the second Assignment, we have been working mainly in After Effects, and have learnt (through tutorials) to work with multiple “compositions” within After Effects. If you are starting to get overly complicated AE projects, there is a better workflow which involves using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects in tandem using the Dynamic Link function.
• Premiere and After Effects can essentially do the same thing, though AE is more of an Effects program (for adding, editing modifying small clip segments), and Premiere is more of an Arrangement program (for putting lots of small clips together. In the end you work wherever you feel more comfortable.
• Here is a link to a video in the “Adobe Video Workshop” site: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0256 that shows a quick demonstration of using the Dynamic Link from Premiere to After Effects. This site has many other useful guides and tutorials.

• Continue working on your Assignment 2 music video.
• You can run through the Camera Tracking Tutorials using Voodoo Camera Tracker (files have been placed on emustore in the samples folder for this course, if you think it is pertinent.

o Blender and Voodoo Tutorial 1/2

o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO4kmT-n3lU

o Blender and Voodoo Tutorial 2/2

o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5POnW5Pkam0

• When exporting your final video, I suggest using “H.264” as the output format. This format gives relatively small file sizes with good quality.
• When exporting from 3Ds Max, I suggest using PNG image sequences. This gives you images rather than a video to work with, and reduces loss of quality. It also gives you transparency within your images.

Tasks to be completed over the Break

• Submit Assignment 2, Due Thursday 1st September.
• Read Through the Assignment 3 Brief from Blackboard.
• Think of a concept for your Final Video.
• Decide on a subject area and direction for your final video.
• Write an initial 150 words outlining a theme, or visual direction for your video. This will begin the idea generation process for your final video.
• Find a minimum of one online Journal article, using Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, CuminCAD, or similar database, that interests you, and helps inform the direction you would like your final video to follow.
• Read through your article and write a 200 word synopsis/review of your article. (If you have chosen more than one article, write a synopsis for each one.) Include a full reference on your blog.
• Create a rough visual outline, or storyboard comprising of around 10 sketchy images, that begin to define your video. You can either use physical sketches, or digital sketches (models, images, montages, etc) as your rough visual outline.

Some Inspiration - Green Screen Magic

Here is some common editing that you see in movies and TV... this should help give you some ideas on how to construct scenes using composite pieces of footage and images.

Week 5 – Tasks (In Class)

Peer Review

• Peer Review two of your fellow students work. Use the peer review Marking Schedule from Blackboard (also on Emustore), under the Assignment Briefs section.

• Peer Review the person above you and below you within blog list from the Course Blog.

• Fill out all fields and give brief constructive comments.

• Post images of the reviews that you do on other students to your own blogs, and submit two word docs to emustore with the file name format of: StudentMarked_Marker.doc.

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• Continue doing After Effects tutorials, getting a feel for some of the techniques that can be used by you.

• Do the tutorials on Synchronising Sound with animations in After Affects:
• http://layersmagazine.com/audio-visualization-in-after-effects.html
• http://www.adobe.com/uk/tips/aft6audio/index.html
• http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/help.html?content=WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7da3.html
• http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/audio_sync.php
• http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hooton_joel/synch_video_to_audio.php

• Try applying techniques from the tutorials using your chosen music.

• I have provided a bunch of professional Sound FX, along with some After Effects Tutorials in the samples folder for this course, on emustore. You can also find many other sound effects with a quick search on Google.

\\emustore\Resources\samples\benv\BENV2402 Time based Visualization - Harkins\Sound FX Media and Tutorials

• You may want to consider mixing in sound effects to your video to provide counterpoint for certain elements.

• You can use Adobe Soundbooth to crop or edit your audio files.

• You are welcome to use external content, but it must be referenced correctly. A good place for Royalty Free Stock footage is: www.archive.org

Tasks to be completed by Week 6 class

• Refine your 150 word draft text for this Assignment with the help of tutors feedback.

• Based on your 150 word story, sketch out a rough, approximately 15 panel storyboard for your music video, concentrating on scene transitions, and the way you will link and combine your media, to form a coherent music video that both supports and is supported by your chosen music. Consider titles, credits, text, special effects, real footage, digital footage and graphics for your videos (credits should include all references for images and music), include these as story board components if they are relevant.

• When developing your story board, consider what (if any) real footage you intend to capture and incorporate with your digital media. You may want to start laying out your storyboard in after effects as place holders for your final video, so you can get an idea of timing, etc.

• Leading from ideas developed in your rough sketched storyboard, start capturing some initial footage (real or digital) using a good quality video camera or Max. Be controlled, and don't overdo the camera movement. It is also a good idea to record some basic measurements of the physical area you are filming if capturing real footage, so you can create a Max model that equates to the real world.

• BECU has video cameras that you can borrow for this purpose. You may want to start combining content from Max files, rendering out elements to start incorporating with After Effects.

Friday Inspiration

Week 4 – Tasks (In Class)
• Submit all Assignmnet 1 outputs correctly! This includes models, textures, images and videos submitted to emustore as well as all output videos posted to your blogs!
• Read Through the Assignmnet 2 Brief from Blackboard.
• Play around with After Effects using the content you created from Assignment 1.
• Start watching the After Effects tutorials at:
• After Effects Beginner Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ypsF-WGRgY
• Video Copilot Tutorials by Andrew Kramer - http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/ (excellent Tutorials, do the first 11 from this page, then there are 120 others from the “Tutorials” link on this page).

Tasks to be completed by Week 5 class
• Continue with the After Effects tutorials.
• Read the 2 readings, “Hypertextural Picturesque” and “Systemic Delay”, write a brief 100 word interpretation of what the articles conveyed to you, concentrating particularly on the idea of the narrative.
• Gather another 15 images drawing on ideas raised in the readings, (and constantly keeping in mind the main theme of the “Architectural Machine”, and that you will use an influence for your music video content, and post them to your blog with references. Choose images that have an emotive effect on you or resonate with an aspect of the Built Environment that interests you. (Post references for the images)
• Write another 150 word draft text, drawing from a particular theme or idea raised in your first 150 word concept from Assignment 1, and influenced by the 15 Images from the point above. This 150 words should have a narrative, or written version of how you perceive the narrative of your final video may be. This will form the basis for your second Assignment.
• Find a song that you would like to use as the basis of your video clip. Here is a site that has Royalty free music that you can use: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
• If you are going to use a song that is not royalty free, you will have to make a silent version for your blogs (or replace the music with generic music), as well as version with sound that you can only submit to emustore.
• Find a short clip from the net (eg: from Youtube, etc.), that displays a technique or atmosphere that you would like to convey in your own music video. Post the video to your blog.
• It’s a good idea to bring headphones to class next week so you can hear your music without having to disturb others.

Friday Inspiration

MEGALOMANIA from Jonathan Gales on Vimeo.

Week 3

Work on Assignmnet 1:

Revised Due date 6pm, Thursday 11th August!

Here are some good vray tutorials that will teach you the basics of V-Rat rendering:
http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/vray/index.htm
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and the first 12 are Free.