So, I have nearly reached the end of my journey for my Final year Project.
I felt as though this project has been quite a ride since it has been quite unpredictable in a lot of ways and has made me do things that I never imagined myself doing.
Such as:
Padding the Armature - due to the fact that I had to use a different type of armature.
Successfully Masking in Adobe Premiere Pro - I was originally going to use Adobe After Effects, however, as a beginner such as myself I felt as though Premiere Pro was a lot easier to use. I honestly believed I would use the Photoshop technique instead which is to edit each of the frames frame by frame.
Photoshopping the Arm of the armature - due to me filming one of the animations, I accidentally filmed one of the arms going behind the rig, so it made things a lot more complicated.
After having gone through the Masking as well as completing the Photoshop experiment (which I never thought could work), I ended up adding a few sound effects for my animations to make it realistic as well as add some character and style to my work.
All of these complications really allowed me to show skills that I genuinely never thought I could be able to accomplish for my assignment.
FINISHING THE EDITING FOR ALL OF THE ANIMATIONS
To help video edit the animation, I used Premiere Pro to add the audio with my animations. I thought at first, I would voice act for each of the animations all over again, however, I decided against it, since I wanted to add the voices from my video references. I personally preferred this decision, since it felt a lot more authenticity to my work since it came from my acting in the sound stage.
The additional sound effects that I had used, was from Royalty-free channels on You tube since a lot of the places that I hard originally checked either:
Didn't have the specific sound that I was looking for
For the compositing aspect of my work, I decided that I wanted to try to mask the rig out of my animations.
In my first year, I was taught to to edit the shadows as well as unnecessary items out of my animation, frame by frame by using Photoshop.
This was a squash and stretch animation that I had done with plasticine in my first year.
However, I decided against the Photoshop technique since I am currently focusing on 8 animations for this assignment and that method would be too time consuming.
So instead, I decided that it would be a good skill for me to learn how to mask items out of my animations.
MASKING IN PREMIERE PRO
I have used Premiere Pro when it came to video editing work for my assignments, however, I never knew how to edit items that I found unnecessary out of the shot.
The video that I had used to help me out was 'How to Remove Objects with Masking in Premiere Pro' by Motion Array Tutorials.
I found this video extremely useful, since I was struggling to know which item I needed to try to mask in my video. I used this video as a guide to help me remember the steps that I needed to take to be able to edit effectively.
Here is a screenshot that I took of me editing the backdrop to the correct size format
So, in my workspace in Premiere Pro, I noticed that the backdrop that I had captured for my animation was too big. So, here is how I managed to set the frame size to the correct scale that was required for me to video edit. I learned that since all the backdrop photos, were the same size which was 6720x4480p.
The format that I had recorded my animations was 1920x1080p, so I tried to downscale my background effectively without damaging the quality of the photo.
Here is an example of me working on one of my animations and trying to video edit the rig out by using the masking tool. This was my first attempt on masking and I think after this experience, I have been able to feel more confident with this tool throughout the editing phase.
I was originally going to use Adobe After Effects, however, I felt as though it was too complicated of a program and felt as though Premiere Pro, is more beginner friendly.
GAUSSIAN BLUR IN PREMIERE PRO
As I was masking the rig out of my animations, I noticed that the shadows of the armature came out quite sharp. So, I needed to find some way to smoothen them out, to be able to show the shadows appropriately. I managed to find a video on You Tube 'Easy Blur Effect Tutorial Premiere Pro 2021'. I found this video really helpful since it was quite simple, short and straight to the point.
So below is a video of my attempt of using the gaussian blur in Premiere Pro.
So for this animation specifically, I noticed that it was extremely hard to edit the rig's shadow out of the animation. I decided to instead try to cut the shadow out with the masking and try to make it seem as though it was the armature's shadow by softening it.
Another thing that I had done to make sure the shadow was effective, was to reduce the size of it that felt most appropriate with the lighting, as well as make it follow the armature.
ISSUES THAT I FACED?
Apart from the fact that the whole idea of masking was entirely new to me, I also had an issue that was extremely difficult to solve.
So, I had my 'Standing Up' animation that caused quite a few issues. The issue that I faced, was that while animating, I didn't realize I animated one of the arms behind the rig. This caused quite a bit of time in editing, since it was quite difficult for me to mask the rig out without cutting the arm.
Here is the original video without the masking.
As you can see, the arm goes right behind the rig and as mentioned previously, there was no way I could mask the rig out without cutting the arm off. So, I decided that I would try to mask and create an arm in Photoshop to try to edit in.
Here is the animation, with some parts of the rig masked out (not all of it).
As you have noticed how much of the arm has really been cut off, I had to try to find some way to recreate the arm. The issue was that, I had already stripped the armature from the padding and returned him back to the University. So, trying to do the padding, sewing and animating 2 weeks before my deadline was not ideal since I lacked the time to video edit.
So, I decided that a good way to do things, was to try to recreate an arm in Photoshop.
Here were the frames that I had needed to edit for my animation. As you can see, some have more of the arm edited out than most.
WORKSPACE IN PHOTOSHOP
Here is my workspace in Photoshop. So for this experiment, I tried to use the 'Healing tool'. The reason for this was because it was able to replicate the material that I wanted perfectly as shown in this image.
Here is also a video demonstrating on how I was able to capture the texture perfectly. I was extremely worried by this experiment since a big portion of the hand was cropped out due to the Masking. I could've left the rig in for that portion of the hand but what is the fun in that?
Before adding the armature hand, this is what the edit of the arm looks like. I think this was quite effective, since I already had some sort of experience of using Photoshop for my work so I wanted to try to use my skills effectively.
The way that I was able to move the photos of the arms to the video program was quite challenging. I was able to ask advice from a close friend, Marko, since he was used to using video editing programs recreationally. He showed me how to move the items through a program called 'VSDC'. Below is a demonstration video that he had showed me on what to do with the arms throughout the program. This was the first attempt, however it didn't feel right. The arm looked extremely off so we went for another approach.
Below shows what the arm looks like with the edit from Photoshop and then adding it into VSDC movie maker.
FINAL RESULT
This was the final result with the masking as well as the hand edited in through Photoshop as well as using VSDC movie maker.
CONCLUSION
I was extremely fortunate to be able to have be able to think of so many ways to solve issues throughout my project in such a short notice. Not only this, but I was able to use skills that I have learned from previous modules (the photoshop tool being the main one) in my time of need.
I learned that this project has been quite unpredictable in the way things have been happening and how I have been unable to do the things that I wanted to due to some limitations. However, I felt as though I was able to make up for the things I couldn't do with things that I had learned throughout my time in my course.
REFERENCES:
(1) How To Remove Objects With Masking In Premiere Pro (2021) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWepU0R9W7k&t=151s (Accessed: April 18, 2023).
(2) Easy Blur Effect Tutorial | Premiere Pro 2021 (2021) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEEQpy4MmeE (Accessed: April 19, 2023).
Since it was Easter, I decided to take a break since I felt as though that if I had overworked, then I would've definitely had a burn out.
The original plan according to my schedule, was was to be able to create 3 different attempts for my animations.
Here is an example of my plan
Unfortunately, that was impossible since I only had 12 weeks in total for the semester to complete my assignment and I also had to keep in mind that I also had to composite each of my animations in Premiere Pro and learn more in video editing. So in the end, my animation time had to be sacrificed so I could be able to give it in for hand in.
Not only this, there were a lot of things that happened unexpected for me for example:
Padding the armature - I was going to use an armature that already had some sort of muscle on it but since those were not well attached onto the rig, I had to use the basic skeleton. Thankfully I had noticed this early on in the semester, however, I still spent a few days trying to pad it.
The rigs in the studio were lacking the ball rig - The rigs didn't have the bolt with the ball that was needed to help connect my armature. So, I had help from staff who helped me measure the size required as well as create a new one to attach to the rig. Those took quite some time.
Booking the Booths - Due to the fact a lot of the students were animating for their own projects, there would be issues in trying to find a booth to animate on. So, for some of my days, I wouldn't be able to film due to the fact they were fully booked. So, I was unable to go in.
As I digress, here are the final animations that I was able to create for my showreel. The framerate that I decided to film for most of them, was 12fps. There was only one animation that was filmed in 24fps.
FINAL ANIMATIONS
ANNOYED
EVIL
WALK - LAZY
WALK - SNEAK
FEAR
This was the only animation that I had filmed in 24fps. The reason for this was because I really wanted to try to create anticipation in this emotion specifically, since it suited it the best. So, the first part of the animation is filmed on 2's since I wanted to build up the impact that the second part will have. So the end part of the animation is filmed on a mix of 1's and 2's.
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