Last Final Leg: DVD Menu

When Julian told us we are to present all our works on DVD, my thought was - just drop my works and burn into DVD. To my horror, I discovered I need to create a professional looking DVD using Adobe Encore.

From my last post of enjoying all the new skills learnt earlier, for once I really dread and hate Adobe products suddenly. After procastinating for weeks, i finally got serious and went to borrow Encore Books from the Central Library. That book i borrowed was my saviour! The instructions were simple to follow and not too complicated. Some questions that were not found in the book but were quickly solved when I googled on the net.

My Final DVD Menu rolls out on Sunday Morning 4.00am. It was a simple menu but at least I knew how to do it! The only problem I faced was i couldn't make it animate for some reasons despite I had import them to Adobe After Effects to play with key frames. It was something I knew I had to find out and see why it doesn't work. But I was really glad I could create something what I see in most DVD menus. At least I have music playing the background when the DVD menu appears.

That marks the end of my NM3208 journey in NUS :) Thanks everyone I really enjoy alot!

Final Project - MTV

We started this project even earlier when we did the SuperHero filming. *Time is not on our side* sigh.

It was something new for all of us and though we had did similar project in our home university, this was a whole new genere for Huang Shu and myself - MTV. We were required to compose our own song, sing and act. Huang Shu and I decided to be brave and attempted everything on our own. From singing, acting, filming and acting.

Huang Shu's younger sister, Serene helped us to write the following song titled Gone Gone Gone. We were inspired by Corrine May style of music that speaks of its own. Song lyrics that will stand out on its own. Music was composed by Huang Shu's colleague, Bob Du. He had a wonderful voice but it was such a pity that the song he had composed does not match his singing style thus Huang Shu decided to take up the challenge to sing. Thanks Huang Shu :)

Gone Gone Gone
Verse 1

For the past hour and hour and hour
In a cell that is almost so empty
oh no
that's the basic building block in biology
I'm losing my sanity
Trying to string up the numbers
they used to be so simple
but no, no not anymore

Verse 2

For the past hour and hour and hour
In a cell that is almost so empty
oh no
that's the basic building block in biology
I'm losing my sanity
Remembering jargons formed by abc's
they used to be so easy
but no, no not anymore

Chorus

It has gone, gone, gone
A long time gone my dreams
I, I had tried to flee
But I get dragged back into reality
Oh, if only
one two three
i'll be away from these
Save me somebody
Such endless mental cruelty

Background:
Students often listen to music when they study so that they can focus better. We decided to use music to portray how students expressed their frustrations in their studies. The theme of this MTV is “Give Me a Break”

A girl is studying for her final papers in her study room. The more she studies, the more difficult for her to understand what were written in the book. She yearns to escape from this room, from reality to take a break.

To help students to see that in the midst of preparing their assignments and exams, they should still find time to do their favourite things to give their mind a break.

Timeline
Week 1: March 3 – March 9
We will need to designing of graphics that used in the videos. Graphics will be developed in Photoshop and Illustrator. Some of the graphics required to designed are: alarm clock, numerical numbers, stress level bar, clouds or bubble dreams and etc exaggerating designs used in the website. We would also need to prepare the props for the main talent. The talent will be wearing a pair of thick framed black glasses which will be made by us.

Week 2: March 10 – March 16
This week is set for buffering. To complete any activities that is not completed in Week 1.

Week 3: March 17 – March 23
Video Production will commenced in this week

Week 4: March 24 – March 30
This week is set for buffering. This is set aside in case any scenes taken last week is not complete or poor video quality, this week is set aside to retake or to take more scenes.
If all is well, video editing will commence in this week.

Week 5: March 31 – April 4
This week will continue on video editing and adding on the final touches.

Week 6
Final presentation will be done in Week 6.

Conclusion: It was an interesting and challenging project. It would been a better opportunity if we could work with other NUS students. After 1 year of exposure to video editing in both Adobe Premiere Pro & at a later part of dealing with Adobe After Effects, I appreciated and surely gain a better understanding on how movies were made. It had helped me to look out for certain details when i watched any TV shows or movies that embedded with special effects. I began to develope a keen interest on how these effects were made in the TVs and what were the other "easy" way I could do to achieve the same effects. The final project and other projects that I had done for this semester had enabled me to learn new skills that I would never thought of learning. I would very sure I would put all these skills in good use not only in studies but also at work!

Assignment 4 : Hero

We are to create a 1 minute video titled “I am a Superhero”. This idea is inspired from the American Science Fiction Drama Televisions Series, “Heroes” based on the character Hiro Nakamura who is a programmer from Osaka with the ability to manipulate the space time continuum. Likewise, we are to create a character to be able to freeze the time and to “perform” a heroic act – usually saving of somebody from danger.

To make it more interesting, we decided to create a 1 minute video titled “Heroes Training Manual”. This is a video manual target at people who had special ability and to teach them to use this special ability to save potential victims from danger in everyday lives. Below is the case study for reference.

Huang Shu was in her kitchen drinking coffee, munching donuts and reading magazine. While she was reading, a pot of hot soup was boiling on the stove. As time passed, the pot of soup was bubbling fiercely away.

At this time, she stood up and walked to the stove, with eyes still staring at the magazine. She stretched out her hand meant to turn off the stove but her hands went towards the hot boiling pot! Not realizing the danger she was in, Katherine stepped into the kitchen and witness this. She quickly freezes the time and stopped Huang Shu from scalding herself from the hot pot.

When the time was freeze, everything came into standstill except Katherine. She turned off the stove removed the pot off from the stove. Looking at Huang Shu careless attitude still reading the magazine, she snapped and time resumed. She left the kitchen leaving Huang Shu alone.

When Huang Shu thought she was going to turn off the stove, looked up and got a huge shock to see the stove was turned off and the hot pot was now resting on the kitchen table top.

Feeling puzzled and she still didn’t know what happen and pondered deeply.

The case study thus is completed and ends with a message to instruct everyone to practice the skill taught in this video.

Video Editing
We import all videos and edit them in Adobe Premiere. 2 scenes were shot separately with each individual shot to be merged using Adobe After Effects. This is the part we also experience our major problem when we tried to merge them together.

Problems Faced
When we first did the scene, we had Katherine to move in front of the freeze object (Huang Shu). We realized this was impossible as the masking done in Adobe After Effects will prevent us from creating the time freeze effect. Most of the Time Freeze Effect we seen in the tutorials have the object moved behind the freeze object and not in front of the freeze object.
Due to this unseen problem, we had to re-shoot the part where we were at the stove. To ensure we did not repeat the problem and prevent any more possible problems, we “split” the stage scene into half and making sure we did not cross over each other stage as this would make things easier when comes to Adobe After Effect editing.

The 2nd problem was due to the lighting. As we used digital camera, we were not able to do white balance. We learnt that each time a new take, white balance should be conducted to prevent any change of lighting (due to the sun movement and directions)

The good news was we were able to solve the problem by tweaking the brightness and contrast of the video to match the other half of the video such that it was more seamless. We also applied masking and feather technique to blend the 2 videos more seamlessly.

A stable tripod is important as well to ensure the background stay the same throughout the shoot. Any slight movement of the tripod would cause a major problem in the video positioning.

Reference:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/timeFreezeCow.php

Assignment 3: My Valentine - V1.0

Here is the complete video:



Comments: The part where the camera angle move from Bus Stop to Bus Stop is very jerky suggest to use a fade in effect to make it less jerky.

Assignment 3: My Valentine - Reply to all 10 comments

Hello All:

Thanks for you comments. Here are my replies.

rebecca oh said...
I think you should add in 2 people towards the end of your video. Your video will stand out (in a good way) because many others are using people in their pictures but your main characters are soft toys. By using soft toys, it gives your video an extra 'awww... so cute' factor. I also think you should remove the proposal part in your storyline if you're plaaning to focus on the heart thing. This way, the audience will be able to retain the heart thing easier becuase that's the ost important part of the video.

Hi Rebecca: thanks for the suggestion. Will focus on the heart shape and try to refine more. For the 2 people I will continue to explore and see what is best. Once again, many thanks!

jacyie huiyi. * said...
actually i thought the natural change in the lightings pretty nice as it somehow brings out a little difference and an added ambience to the whole effect..
i dunno how it'll look if the lighting on the items are casted the same throughout the entire motion.. but it'll be nice if you could try it out and finally see the differences in the outcome? (: and yes.. i like the idea of focusing on the heart as the final ending as it'll leave room for imagination.. because with the proposal ending.. it'll be like.. the ending is fixed..
just my two cents worth.. ^^
NICE JOB!

Hi Huiyi: Thanks for the comments! I see what you mean it does give an unusual visual approach for the image. Agree with the part on not fixing the ending. Thanks!

Anonymous said...
Just a comment is that will soft toys limit the ability to convey the emotion? Cos I tried something like that for NM2208 but it is a bit hard to get them to smile or have some other expression as the soft toy's expression is fixed. Just something I encountered and thought I can share with you.

Hi Anonymous:
Yeah I get what you trying to say. I will take note and that why I had the 2 main actor and actress to be part of the video now and still allow the soft toy to be there. People will start to notice there is always the same girl and guy in the video. Thanks for the helpful comment!

aline_hs said...
hi katherine, good try for the stop motion part.. i think u should try making it slower...hmm... for the difference in lighting, I'm not sure where the source of light is coming from...the light source seems to be blocked by the books... maybe you can try different places, as the casting of light intensity will differ... else will need to try adjusting it in photoshop to make all the same feel... in my most humble opinion... =)

Hello Huang Shu: Thanks! Yes will have to try different places so that I can improve and yes the video is not going to move as fast as what you see today! Accepting it with in my most humble manner =)

Devi said...
Hey Katherine, it must have taken you ages to come with that sequence! Good technique to use with the soft toys. Perhaps reduce the speed as what aline said. Other than that, looking forward to final product.

Hello Devi: Thanks! It is actually the part on taking pictures that is a trial and error thing but I really enjoy the process.

peiru said...
hi,
ya i think that if you are going to add 2 real people with the soft toy would be interesting. and i really like the storyline of how the different journeys of love would end up meeting together at the same point again.

Hi Peiru: Thank you for your kind comment!

me-myself-i said...
I think the light changes for every picture cuz the books are in the way of the light source and hence blocks off some light in every shot? I suppose if you use an area where the light source is from the top it would be better? But i'm not sure too cuz i've never tried it out. i like the stop motion. i was thinking of doing that too! :) cheers!

Hello Me-Myself-i: Thanks for the comment too. Yeah I will have to surely improve on the light source now. Taking pictures are tough!!

Mark said...
hi, woah stop motion can be a pain to do though, that is if you are considering 27 frames per second.. =X but I liked the effect, and I guess it would be practical to use stop motion with those plushies too so yup, looking foward to see the final vid!

Hi Mark: Thanks for the comment too. Not all will be using stop motion otherwise is going to be tedious!

jamiechew82 said...
Katherine..
jus found out u are Chr's friend. Anyway.. I like stop motion. But probably soft toys can do a better job at stop motion ? For people will be funny right ?Yes but people do better at the protayal of emotions. =p

Hi Jamie: The world is so small! Haha, is possible for people to do stop motion too. I will send you a few copies and take alook! That why my idea is inspired from there.

Joon Yong said...
hi, i think the stop motion idea is great. but just a thought, would some scenes be
difficult to execute? like the train one. but it would be refreshing to see something different though. looking forward to see the final work.

Hi Joon Yong: Thanks for the comment. As mentioned to Mark, not all scenes will be using stop motion. So that I will maintain a fresh feeling throughout the video (I mean this is how I hope I can achieve!)

.
.
.
.
.

6.30pm deadline was so rush! I nearly missed the deadline :S :P

Assignment 3: My Valentine - Stage 2

Introducing the 2 main leads in my video - Their names are Whitsun & Happy!

Hello All:

I manage to do a few test shots on Whitsun. I will be showing how much he loved comics. I had done this in Adobe ImageReady and generated a GIF animated image since that will illustrate my whole idea better. The technique I am trying to achieve is stop motion technqiue.

Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by extremely small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. Software applications such as Stop Motion Pro, istopmotion and monkeyjam have made the technique popular among young filmmakers.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion

There you go:

I had positioned my camera on the tripod thus I could maintain the same position for the background. However I seem to have another problem and that is lighting. Apparently whenever I add the comics in, the lighting seems to have changed. Do advise me if you all have any good idea to ensure uniform lighting when we apply stop motion technique.

Thinking through...

I am thinking of changing the ending. I may not use the idea of proposal but instead focusing on the heart shape in this video instead.

In the previous feedback that I was advised to use people to be the main characters instead of using soft toys. I decided I might include the 2 people after all, together with the soft toys. Somewhere in the picture, the girl will be beside/watching Happy and the guy will be beside/watching Whitsun. This idea was inspired by the Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" where in the last scene Will Smith waved to a black guy which was the actual person in the movie - Chris Gardner.

Do give me your honest feedback! Many thanks in advance.

P/S: I love what Google did on V-Day.

Assignment 3: My Valentine - Stage 1

What is this assignment all about?

Title: My Valentine Medium: “Motion Photograph” /DVD

Design of a simple movie using photographs (i.e. still image)

Theme: Movie with a love theme (Create a .mov)

Description:
Develop a plot on the theme (e.g. something about your boyfriend/girlfriend, glorifying love, what you wish to have in Valentine day, or just a Valentine spirit)
Follow the procedure below
Render the video to .mov
Submit the final product (i.e. mov) through IVLE

Procedure:
Take as many pictures as possible (with love theme) (e.g.
about my love, something good about your boyfriend/girlfriend..i.e. why you idolize her/him, what you wish to have in Valentine day, Valentine spirit or A valentine day in NUS)
Choose 40-70 pictures
Build a story around the pictures taken
Use Microsoft Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker, Premiere or after effects to do the panning, tilting, scaling, and transition etc.
Add the title/credit in your movie
Add voice/a narration/song/background
Requirement: min 2.5-min to max 4-min clip

Storyboard

Most people think that a couple with similar personality or likes can be together for a very long time and couple with opposite personlity will have problems facing each other. But haven't you heard - opposite attracts?

My story illustrates a couple who often has to walk in opposite direction in their relationship. Nope, is not usual turn left turn right love story. What it seems that they are moving further from each other, but actually they are moving closer to each other each day.

(1)(2) They both studied in the same secondary school - He studied 5N and She studied 4E. Many think that they would never work out because of the different academic level.

(3) They both take the same Bus 132 to JCs but the bus moves in opposite direction.

(4) They both take train to work but the train moves in opposite direction.

(5) However despite moving in opposite directions, they always manage to hold hands to walk closely with each other

(6) There are times they felt stretched when they moved in opposite directions.

(7) A wise man once told them - Why is LOVE in this shape? Not a circle not a square? They both begin at the same point. As they walk, there are times they seem that they are moving away from each other. However if they had persevere on and believe that they can work together against all odds, they would find themselves moving together which strengthed their love. The solid line represents where they are right now in the relationship. What seems to be in opposite direction now seems them that the 2 lines will meet again. Will they continue to walk following the dotted lines? Or will they continue to walk in and meet at the finishing point when the heart shape will be completed?

(8) At times, when they felt they are moving away distant from each other, they turned to God and prayed and allowing God to hold their hands to make the distance in this relationship more bearable.

(9) The day came and He got down to propose to Her.

(10) They reached the final point of the heart shape. Together they start another heart shape in their new chapter of their life.

For He & She, I will not be using any actor and actress. They will be replaced with soft-toys. I had purchased them for this project (I really adore them!) However I will be asking my friends to help me in this project. Example, if SHE is hanging out with friends playing or chatting, the SHE-Softtoy will be surrounded by my friends.

Music

I will be giving a shot to compose my own music using the Apple keyboard and other musical instrument to test. The music genere is not fixed yet and i am still exploring.

Video

If time really permits, I would hope to use Adobe Premiere for this project as the features are more exciting! Otherwise, I would be using Window Movie Maker and I think is one of the best video maker that allow you to put a show together in like a few steps! No need to be Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson to produce a 5 stars rating movie. Hehe...

Feedback from Class

Some commented the meaning of the "Love" shape was interesting and can be further build on the highlight. I was also advised to use actor and actress for the main leads as it will be better. However I think i will still stick to soft-toys as it gives a more interesting visual as human can be kind of distracting.

Assignment 2: Just another day

What is this assignment all about?

Title: Just another day Medium: Web (html file)
Design of a simple webpage.
Theme: Create a web based visual narrative of any simple daily/weekend
activity/event.

Description:
Select a simple activity (e.g. marketing/food court/ window shopping,
hobby-building/making/doing something etc)
Take as many pictures as possible
Build a story around the pictures taken
Create a web page using lots of images and a little text (you may use
attached template - download the file in zip format)

Procedure:
Pictures: try to keep background of your picture clean.
Crop images as tightly as possible
Try to use as few colours as possible
Take picture in well lit areas.
Soft lighting: keep shadows to minimum

Here are the selected pictures I had taken from my holiday last year June. It was winter. In my presentation, I had used a black background and centralized my pictures so to bring out the colours taken by the camera. Not sure why I can't seem to place a table in this blog page.

Just Another Day - Travel

One Family

We might have come too early *opps*

Heading to Blue Mountains

Through my eyes...

I am in awe with the Creator's hands

Driving into the town to...

Look for food!

True Friends are a gift from God

Camera Used: Fujifilm FinePix Z2. All pictures are taken in the highest rest of 5 mega pixels in Chrome mode. Macro mode is turned on closed up objects like the sandwiches. When taking landscapes, Nature mode is turned on and knowing the weather is freezing cold when you are the mountains and you have a pair of frozen fingers, I am glad that I have my trustworthy tripod to help me stablizing for most of the photographs.

Process of working on this assignment

I had crop and optimized the pictures using the Photoshop Tools. As you can see some of the pictures have very vibrant colours and thus to make sure I fit the criteria for the webpage size of not more than 180KB, i had used the JEPG "HIGH" quality mode. There are several quality mode you can choose from - From Low to Maximum which of course bring out the best colors.

Assignment 1 – Dream Poster Design – Final

Based on the feedback, here are the updates and the final output of the poster.



I added in the model with a dropping shadow that is shows her past that she is actually a plus size girl. I removed the audience as it was very distracting.

I added a few publicity media icons to make the poster more real.

Below is the presentation I used in my final video presentation.



After Thoughts: I had used Photoshop in my design many areas especially at work. This is quite an interesting assignment as I get to explore more with Adobe Illustrator. I might think that using AI would make the picture more visually interesting as well. Got to continue to work on my AI skills.

Assignment 1 – Dream Poster Design - Draft

Here is the background of the “Dreams” Poster.

Esther, an average looking and plus size girl who designed many award winning and high end clothings.

Her works received recognition and was on its way to compete in an International Fashion Show.
Esther faced a tough decision whether to lose weight in order to look good at the International Fashion Show or to be herself but risked a chance of winning the Top Fashion Designer Title. In the fashion industry, it was known to be ruthless. What will she do to achieve her Dreams?

Comments Given by Tutorial Class:

The audience shape look like balls and isn’t very flattering. Need to improve on the design

The main focus of the character is not in the picture. It is very hard to visualize.