HD title sequence

I've uploaded a hi def version on vimeo so everyone can see what's going on. It's got a bit more punch now, added a more impact to the logo flying in, and the flashes are more organic and erm, flashy. The colour shifts at the end are there subtley, the end poem still probably needs a bit of tweaking at a later date when I've had some time away from it but the main bulk's done now anyway.


Traceur Tag HD titles v.2 from Matt Frodsham on Vimeo.

You can watch the small preview there^^^^ or you can click the link and watch it in HD (recommended, if not only because it's been uploading in the background for about 4 hours)


I'm about a third of the way through 'acquiring' the SFX, from the file names there looks like some great ones - heart beats, crashes, swooshes, ambient, abstract, build ups, explosive impact, rumble etc. so we should be pretty much sorted. The only thing we might have to record is the footsteps and the breathing, but that's not too far fetched.

Has there been any progress on the music front? Something that occurred to me is we haven't discussed any music for the end credits? (Not classical guitar before anyone suggests it!) Are we going to stick with electro music and have something more laid back and organic (check out 'four tet' for some examples of what I'm thinking), that way there wouldn't be a jarring contrast in the music but enough not to want to buy some speed after the high adrenaline drum n bass carried on for 5 minutes of credits haha.

Suppose I should get on with some proper work

-matt

Narrative Test from C-Z

Here it is folks the first full (well nearly full) narrative test.

All sets are placeholders, all footage is rough and low-res, and obstacles are just placeholders.

Remember this is NOT exactly how the final video will look, it will be better. Enjoy!



On agreement amongst the production team at the last full production meeting, the video will be colour-corrected in 5 themes:

Opening roof top scene - naturalistic lighting
Meteor strike run across and down building exterior - red colouring
Interior of building - desaturated colour (bluish)
Fire Exit escape and 2nd building escape - sepia palette
End tag scene - return to naturalistic light

These 5 sequential palettes of colour can then be subtly used in the opening credits of the video behind the poem. The poem words are to be re-paced with a rhythm that reflects the final pace of the film.

Matt/Dave is that summary agreeable?

Credit List update

Can everyone check and amend the credit list so we can sign it off for Matt to design the end credits.

Cast

The Freerunners:

Dominic Andrew
Matthew Fitzhenry
Aaron Ross
Phillip Smith


Story
Dominic Andrew
Matthew Fitzhenry
Aaron Ross
Phillip Smith


Directors
Adam Hamilton & Dave Wood

Producers
Dave Wood & Joanne Millea

----------------------------

Pre-production

----------------------------

Art Direction and Storyboards
Dave Wood

Concept Consultant
Joanne Millea

Conceptual Design
Matt Frodsham

3D Digital Set Concepts
Stas Krakiewicz

With the help of:

Jenny Swann
David Ball
Shaun Johnson

----------------------------

Production

----------------------------

Live Action

--

Camera Operators
Steve Webster & Adam Hamilton

Camera Grips
Mike Farrall & Andrew Sarsfield

Technician
Nikki Rose from Toxteth TV

Freerunner Supervisor
David Ball

-----

CGI

--

Lead 3D Digital Set Modeller
Stas Krakiewicz

3D Asset Creation
Mike van de Waal
Robert Hannah


-----

3D Animation

--

Fire Escape Collapse
licensed from
Chris Hopley

Meteor
licensed from
Jose Flores

Graphic Design
Matt Frodsham

----------------------------

Post-Production

----------------------------

Lead Rotoscope and Video Compositor
Dave Bentick

Assistant Rotoscoper
Matt Frodsham

Visual Effects
Dave Bentick
Jose Flores

Editor
Adam Hamilton

Assistant Editors
Dave Wood
Joanne Millea
Dave Bentick

Original Music
TBC

Traceur Poem
licensed from
Casey Kandel

Interactive Archiving
Dave Wood
Matt Frodsham
&
Alan Bridge of Creative Griffin

----------------------------

Resources

----------------------------

Props
De La Salle School

Camera Equipment
St Helens College's Media Centre

Green Screen Facility
Toxteth TV

----------------------------

Thanks to

Sarah Jones
Stan Millea

----------------------------

This project was achieved through the collaboration between
De La Salle School's art department
and the creative students from
St Helens College's undergraduate degrees:

BA(Hons) Entertainment Media Design
FdA Computer Game Design
FdA Graphic Design

and graduates from:

BA(Hons) Digital Arts
BA(Hons) TV Production
FD Interactive Multimedia

----------------------------

Supported by funding from
Liverpool Biennial 2008

A biennialFreerunner Production
Licensed to De La Salle School/St Helens College
© 2008 All rights reserved.

../add school and college logo/..

Result

Hi Matt,

Very well done!!! If you don't already realise it you have achieved a result some professionals strive for. To animate an established logo (without permission) and then get the green light is a BIG achievement. Very professionally handled, I'm proud of you!

Keep that professionalism going and you'll go far.

winner

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:27:51 +0100
Subject: Re: biennial logo for project
From: jennifer@biennial.com
To: froj2002@hotmail.com

Hi Matthew -

If this is not already confirmed – this is fine, it looks great!

Kindest

Jennifer

------------------------

I'll have to get on to selling it to them now they like it haha, hmm

-matt

HD titles test 1

I'm going to leave it for a while, get some crit & return with fresh eyes, maybe wait until after meeting on friday to do any more to it. I want to add a bit of camera shake when 'Traceur Tag' first appears to add a bit more impact and dynamism but apart from that I think it's coming together.

ps. Rendering tip I just got from mograph.net:

If HD is playing really REALLY choppy in QT for you like it was me, render out your AE files with 'photo jpeg' compression rather than the default lossless animation, looks great and plays really smooth.

-matt

pps. Stas I just got a ton of free vectors with computer arts projects, including a plethora of warning signs you might find useful...

biennialfreerunner logo animation

*deleted vid to save loading too many on blog, see above for the improved version along with a test of the whole intro*

I think it looks pretty nice, worked like I imagined it would, I just need to fine tune the white balance and levels as a few frames are a bit too dark, bloody weather kept changing while I was doing it. I like the flickering though as it adds to the diy aesthetic.

Don't worry, you can actually read everything on the proper render.

Exam and first day of placement went well so I'm back at full force now. I'm waiting for a reply from Jen from biennial regarding the logo but I'll get on with the titles anyway as planned and just swap it out for the 2D logo if they have a problem with it.

-matt

logo legality

Dave, see below for the contact so far regarding the biennial logo. Shall I just send her the video or are there any comments you would like to add regarding where it will be shown etc?
cheers

...........................................................................

It depends where it’s going to be shown you see, there are all these brand guidelines that ‘we must adhere to’! If I could see it, that’d be great

Kindest
Jen


On 16/7/08 17:18, "Matthew Frodsham" wrote:

Thanks very much that's great,

I'm going to be creating a short 3D animation to add a bit of motion to the logo as the biennial is credited at the beginning of the film before the title sequence. The project leader has suggested we run it past you to get clearance before we use it in the final edit.
The colours, shapes and font will all be accurately replicated (which is why the larger logo is really useful)
Shall I e-mail you a preview of the render or is there anyone specific who would need to ok it?

Thanks again for your help

Matt

---

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:23:22 +0100
Subject: Re: biennial logo for project
From: jennifer@biennial.com
To: froj2002@hotmail.com

Re: biennial logo for project Hi Matthew -

Please find attached the logo – eps is the highest res we have -

Hope that this is of use,

Kindest

Jen

Pickups Postponed

Hi Jo,

Just to let you know we will put the pickup filming on hold until the end of August/beginning of September if at all.

Adam is now really busy and I wouldn't trust anyone else at this stage to film the bits we may need. We can discuss the need for pickups when we do the rough edit at the beginning of August.

Adam is still up for getting involved at the end of August. We will have tons to do before then, so a final edit can be fairly safe to leave for then. We can get a score done based on the rough edit.

Cheers

biennialFreerunner logo sting mock ups *updated*

The fire escape scene below looks really good, coming together nicely.
I think the screens above give a decent example of what I'm thinking, obviously the contrast will be stronger, and throughout the fbf animation there'll be a lot of personality showing through the process: hands, pencils, rubber, ruler, coffee popping into shot every now and then etc. If it turns out how I'm thinking then it should look really nice, and if not it will only have taken about an hour anyway. Should do though.

Anyway, exam tomorrow so I'm going to stop clogging up the blog and return at the weekend
-matt

*EDIT: just had a response from Jen at Biennial with an eps attatchment of the logo, bit late but I suppose I'd best withdraw my slating of their service ;)
I'll email back a thanks then send my animation tomorrow to run it past them (make it look like I used the eps she sent)

2nd batch of pre-viz composite tests

Here are another batch of pre-viz composite tests:


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panel 9 - Roof Jump





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panel 27 - Fire Exit





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panel 30 - 2nd Building Roof Jump





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panel 31 - 2nd Building Drop 1

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Panel 35-38 - End Street Scene

biennial logo v.2

biennial freerunner - team name?

I've had a nice idea for the production team logo/sting - basically hand drawn & rendered type (rockwell would be nice) with some technical drawing bits and bobs shot frame by frame (roughly) with a digital camera then animated very quickly through 3 secs. Show process and all that, I like that stuff. Will contrast nicely with the shiny biennial logo too and act as a transition to the titles. I'm off to town to get a cable shutter release now to save my sanity while I do it next week.

Anyway what should the official name be? production team sounds a bit stale, I think everyone's put more into it than that.

biennial freerunner - creative team?

I'll post a story board for the titles up thisafternoon if Dave W could check the order of things and the info's correct etc. before I start on that properly.

cheers, matt

*edit

Biennial logo sting

Need to drop the correct colour values from the logo on the site, sort out the lighting and fix the first camera move as it's a bit tight, but apart from that considering I don't know what I'm doing with 3d... it works at least! I'm currently acquiring a ton of royalty free stock (pre-matted!) footage of grungy things like ink bleeds, splatters, drops etc (Andrew Kramer's Riot Gear Dave B, have you got it? If not I'll sort you out next week with it, it's about 2.5GB) that will come in very handy for adding some movement and texture to the credits and titles.

If we're using 'biennialfreeunner' as the production team name I'll put together another sting using that name with different type etc. and change the current logo to say traceur tag and tighten it up now the title's finalised.

-matt

Sealegs

Biennial Logo

Just did a quick motion test to make sure I could do what I thought I could do in C4d (I can!) I'm sure you can see where I'm going with it: plinky plonky falling blocks, zoom out and swing round reveal the whole logo (which I'm probably going to have to trace seeing as the one reply I got from the biennial was an automatic 'I'm out for a couple weeks, here's some more people to annoy instead'). + reflective floor, some more lights and a dark grey BG rather than black and I think it'll look good enough for a 3 second sting. Better than just fading on and off in helvetica anyway.
This isn't a vid btw, just a screen grab of the the render preview

Some more signs (More to come)

biennial logo

In regards to what Stas said on friday about creating some mock up logo's/stings before the actual titles I have found the biennial site which has quite a nice logo. I've emailed them to see if I can get a vector version or failing that a higher res version (and failing that it's a lot of clicking in Illustrator tracing the type unless anyone knows what font that is, it's like a geometric-ised eurostyle but it's probably custom for the logo) Those multiple blocks lend themselves to a quick simple dropping in animation in after effects (or c4d if I'm feeling brave and have time).






Also I've done a quick poster to put in the last scene with Adam's name in lights and also gets the lads name in there again. I'll do some more signs in different formats to hang from the buildings and also I'll sort out a story board for the titles to check the order of everything is ok before I get started putting it together in a HD comp. I'm going to leave the the credits until they're all finalised, the motion's very simple so might as well just start from scratch when all the info's ready.

Balcony and Corridor renders

Firstly images of the whole in the wall room and corridor. The next are the inside room for the balcony scene and also outside with balcony.

1st High Definition Keyed Image

hay, whats up

Im really liking how the 3d scene are coming along, and im pleased with how the keying out is going, love the nebula meteor.

keep it up.

1st Narrative (composite and pre-vis) test

Yo all,

Here is the first narrative test video to see how the shots contribute to developing the narrative. Footage is just test composites and pre-viz placeholders.

The narrative begins at seeing the meteor strike and ends balancing on the precipice. Each piece of action is prefaced with a scene slug for reference.



Initial narrative flow points I can see needing attention (other than the digital shots indicated by the placeholders) are:

• more footage to be reused to flesh out rooftop run (Stas has designed some great roof assets to jump over);
  
• more footage to be re-used from later drops to extend the panel 10-11 drops;
  
• footage of drops to be used in panel 12 composition to be purloined to show lads dropping down through the floor after coming through the window.
  

Feedback any other suggestions but remember to check the animatic and storyboards as the story is locked to them and we cannot now make changes. It is now a job for polishing. :-)

A sign explanation...

Just so everyone else outside the core production team realises what Matt's signs are for. They are to dress the end dereliction scene and are essentially production team in-jokes and a way for the team, who have worked very hard, to gain some (fleeting) recognition for their work actually on screen. In the final scene the action will be so fast-paced all these references will be passed over quickly but they will at least be there. We may do a tour of the street for the web and DVD to show the references.

Two final things to sort out for this scene:

1st - Jose what reference do you fancy for your sign/poster/advert?

2nd - Stas should now have a poster advertising Krakiewicz's Replacement Knee Caps. :-P

Fire Escape Room Model with Atmoshere

Created the Fire escape room, dulled down some colour and add volume light to add atmosphere. Also added fog outside to see if this helps and I think it does.

Jose's Restaurant... :)

A few signs...

Been busy this week sorting out portfolios, doing client work and designing a font (why did I start doing that?) So just done these for a bit of fun, any more ideas for any more?

3D building render tests

Hi Folks. Sorry not been on-line for a while. It is all looking very good. I’ve been taking up the slack of the loss of are 3D team. This has meant my final scene has been shelved for now. I am looking forward to getting it going again. I have got the roof top finished and the corridor and cliff hanger room also complete. Dave Sci-fi Wood is not sure of the colour but I think it is very David Lynch. Keep up the good work!!!!!

Meteor + nebula (intro???)

I was thinking of using this for the intro... (still testing)

First set of composite tests pre-viz

Here are the first real batch of composite tests.

All skies are tests.

All assets are placeholders and shapes indicate where 3D assets will go.

Storyboard Panel 7 - Looking up at the meteor





Storyboard Panel 8 - Running across the roof





Storyboard Panel 9 - Standing on the ledge





Storyboard Panel 10 - 1st drop (need footage for 2 more lads)





Storyboard Panel 11 - 2nd drop