Kate Lyford

Adventuring through my work

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I decided to create a new separate tumblr for my third and FINAL year of vfx and motion graphics! I really don't know where the past two years have gone. But from now on, work will be posted over there.

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Delight for its sheer randomness 

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Markus Magnusson 

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The pain of UV maps. 

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EVALUATION TIME

This project started out with a good start. But I have encountered a number of problems. However I think I've achieved an okay final piece. 

The initial problem was filming, trying to arrange a day for two actors and myself during daylight hours while the park is open and not raining can be sometimes difficult to arrange. However the shoot was broken down over several days, this way I could also check the footage and not both actors were required at the same time so neither of them had to wait around. However I did feel a little guilty making them run repeatedly for short bursts in the cold, and drizzle. 

Tracking proved a little difficult as I was used to tracking the scene rather than an object moving in the scene so this took so time for me to achieve using PFtrack. It was a little more awkward as there were no axis to work from as a head is round. Also it probably would have been helpful had I got a large sun hat and stuck large multiple track markers on there. As I couldn't really do that to hair. However it did help that the actor was wearing a polka dot shirt. I also learnt the importance of tracking from the correct frame and double and triple checking the frame rate for each comp, as I've learnt from previous projects. 

Using extra options such as choosing to track the scale and the rotation and the target amount of trackers significantly helped the track. It's still a little shaky though. I also tracked it in mocha which worked really well, but PFtrack was appropriate as it was a 3D object being stuck on. 

I had slight issues bringing the tracking data in maya as I had been importing the file, rather than opening it. Which slowed me down considerably. I had a little trouble modelling the burger too. I tried using 123Catch but that was an unlikely option. I ended up learning to use some nurbs and then converting them to polygons. I also learnt the importance of the UV editor and often used the the automatic mapping option although there are still a lot of noticeable scenes. 

A lot of time got taken up on a shot that I didn't anticipate to take so long. The roto had to be broken down a lot to get a a better result. I think my rotoing may have improved because of this. Although as I went to render I had to stop and go back and fill in about 20 frames that I had somehow missed. Also the illustrations took quite awhile to do as well and most of the inspiration came from illustrations on shutter stock.com. 

Tracking those into the shot was very time consuming as I had to do it manually and the iPod wasn't square like it makes out to be either, so its a little but wonky in places. I tried using mocha to track, but in hindsight I should have stabilised the shot then done the roto and THEN put in the shots. 

Overall the I think this project has more potential and I didn't fully push it, and it doesn't feel like enough of a comedy piece. 

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Tried using 3d catch... This was my result, the first attempt didn't work out and it didn't look like the second attempt worked until further inspection, you just had to zoom in close, this is the result.

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I used pftrack and exported the data into after effects as a test these are the results. As I didn't use track markers this took a little time to achieve, I tried mocha too and it worked well.

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What I thought was a nice piece of motion graphics that enhanced the story and it a very good form advertising

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Probably the most relevant music video for this project. I'd quite like to include quick cuts of burger being made as well, and really quick cuts of a finalized burger

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Old storyboard

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the idea of having a temptation villain coming out or even the actor dressed as a darker version of themselves with a burger on a plate telling them to take it, amuses me. But… I don't think this is where this piece is quite suppose to go. 

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Narrative

I went into to have a chat with Jason about narrative of the whole piece.

1. It's a comedic short film

2. Actress needs to get more anxious

3. more comedic points

e.g. bird turns into a flying fried chicken, circus poster into a food festival

4. Try and film in the cafe in Bute Park to get them cooking up the burger

5. Use edits!

6. needs to have a PUNCHLINE

who's the main person ? are they going back to work with ketchup on their face? are they a student ? do they "infect" another person ? Come in the house with their back turned and the evidence on their face when someone asks if there's a good run. Did their resist temptation did they speak to someone at work and did their own head turn into a burger.

Also I'm going to get help with the burger, its not yet clear if someone from animation can help yet or not.

Conclusion

redraw storyboard

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Trying to work out where the head fits into all of this 

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cats and dogs advert J20

Absolute, BBH and Pretty Bird have joined forces to deliver “A Bottle of Togetherness,” creating a world where dogs and cats can resolve their differences over a bottle of Britvic J2O. BBH enlisted Absolute and Pretty Bird Directors the Daniels to turn a house party into a wildly entertaining spot featuring rival animals thrown into normal human situations, united by their drink of choice. The new ad captures a typical house party scene as a group of dogs show up to a party full of cats. As the cats begin to encroach on their unwanted guests, the tension is broken by a four-pack of J2O, leading to a night of dancing, hook-ups and hilarity. The feel good spot even explores an unexpected romance that blossoms between a dog and a cat. All is right with the world, until a mouse shows up to the party… "We first cast our office dogs Alfie and Larry to test different compositing techniques that would combine human bodies with animal heads,” explains Absolute Producer Dan Bennett.“Then we were very involved in the editing process, helping to select the dog and cat performances that best suited the movements of humans.” Absolute Flame Artists Phil Oldham and Michael Smith attended the shoot in East London to assist and supervise the shots for VFX. The team initially intended to shoot the cat and dog heads in-situ as plates, however some of the animals were too big to fit on set. Ultimately a green screen studio was constructed and they captured the heads using two cameras shooting simultaneously from different angles. “Ask any flame artist what they find to be the most challenging and they will say head replacements,” says Absolute Flame Artist Phil Oldham. “That, combined with the fact that you can’t get a dog or cat to take direction, was no small feat. Thankfully BBH and the Daniels were trusting and are both incredibly well versed in visual effects. No explanations were necessary and they pushed for the very best result, as they always do.” Working closely with the agency and production teams, Absolute used a mixture of compositing live action and CG augmentation to create the scenes and characters. Flame, Nuke and Final Cut Pro were the main platforms used. Absolute and BBH have worked together numerous times over the past eight years, previously partnering with the Daniels on Weetabix “Dancer.”