Imagined environments

short video made using after effects

AFTER EFFECTSDIGITAL COMPOSITINGby arya rajeev

In this project the requirement was to make a short 60s video using after effects that demonstrates 3 different types of motion tracking workflows like 2D point tracking, Planar tracking mochaAE and 3D camera tracking.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Initially when I came to know that the final output was going to be a video. I looked through my gallery to see the clips that I already had. The KR flower market in Bangalore is a special place for me as I always go there with my friend and the people there , the shopkeepers , the dogs the whole place is very close to me and I had already had a lot of clips in landscape mode but the issue was all my clips were very small and most of them did not really involve much movement so I felt like it would be hard to do all kind of tracking in those clips. also I felt like it was something that I can do later , not part as a an assignment so I dropped the idea.

KR MARKET,BANGALORE

Moving to Glasgow was very new to me and then I thought of an idea of maybe me getting lost and depicting myself as a giant navigating through the streets of Glasgow would be a cool idea but then as an idea I thought it was cool but personally it did not really made me excited to do the project. as I walked through the streets of Glasgow I could always see these slogans : people make Glasgow almost everywhere in Glasgow.

It made me think about people and doing something with people. I was talking t o my friends and we talked about how people especially right now in this generation is often very tired and exhausted and often burn out. it has become very common right now. people in their teens to mid 20s are in the constant pressure of the future and as it is very unpredictable, people often feel very lost and it is really hard for others also to help them and to navigate this. having lost a friend just one month before moving here, I felt like eventhough it is a pretty serious topic , I should do it based on this topic.

MOOD BOARD

For more inspiration, I looked into films that I have always admired and liked . the other main inspiration that really captivated me was the running sequence from the film Chungking Express which was made using low shutter speed and another film called Balan which also has a running sequence towards its climax. I wanted to incorporate running in my video as it is also like a short escape from overthinking sometimes and I also think running can evoke a lot of emotions in a person.

I made a mood board and sketched out scenes that I wanted roughly which came to my mind. I also wanted the video to be monochromatic and not colorful. my idea was to start with monochromatic video and towards the end change the background of the people in the video to color.

I thought of starting the video with a person sitting looking very tired and her clone watching her then later that person running through Glasgow and then her running through an inverted Glasgow through the sky and then in the back of her while she is running just keep going text will appear and then the video ends with her looking at her camera where her videos are being played.

CASTING

I didn't know many people in Glasgow, and everyone was busy with college work. So I decided to use a different person in each clip. Each person only had to film their own part, which saved time. It also made the video feel more universal, since everyone experiences burnout and copes with it differently.

INSPIRATIONS

I looked though my letterboxed to see films that uses cgi so that it can help me come up with interesting visuals for my video and I found this film TASTE OF TEA which had really stuck in my mind as it had very interesting looking cgi which seemed a little semi surreal and magical at the same time. what really interested me was these scenes of a small girl's clone looking at herself. I instantly wanted to try something like that and decided to show burn out by the persons clone looking at the person being tired and exhausted sitting in a sofa

THE TASTE OF TEA (CHA NO AJI, 2004), DIRECTED BY KATSUHITO ISHII:

I watch a lot of films and I really like the camera movement of almost all his films. his film Chungking express which was shot at a very short time had a tight budget and as they filmed in the tight, crowded, and poorly lit corridors of the Chungking Mansions, they couldn't fit traditional, heavy lighting rigs. By undercranking the camera to 6 frames per second, the camera's shutter stayed open much longer and that technique brought out a very cool effect that I really liked. but I was doubtful of doing it as my intention was only running clips and as it is just one person running, in the same motion it might not look really cool to see, but I wanted that sort of feeling to be in my video.

CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), DIRECTED BY WONG KAR-WAI:

The main reason behind why I wanted a running sequence in my video was because of this film BALAN: the boy , it had a running sequence in the climax scene which I really liked. the short clip holder a lot of emotions and I wanted to replicate something like that.

BALAN: THE BOY, DIRECTED BY CHIDAMBARAM:

My main visual reference for the video was the monochromatic look the film la Haine had, it is also one of my top favourite films. the film is also about young people and a massive portion of the runtime is spent doing absolutely nothing. The film also kind of portray slow exhaustion youngsters face and also it is about how society can shape people

MATHIEU KASSOVITZ’S 1995 FILM : LA HAINE

MAKING OF THE VIDEO

I started by shooting the first sequence that I wanted which was a girl sitting in sofa looking visibly tired and exhausted and her clone looking at her from the window. since I did not have a tripod the video came out a little shaky but I really liked the outcome I got it.

IN FRAME(KLARA)

I also shot a running sequence by asking my friend for help, but it did not came out quite well so I had to shoot it again and again.

I also shot a clip of buildings that I can view near my window as I came to an understanding that I won't be able to do tracking with all the clips that I had in my mind and also I could 3d track on that clip with doing something with the windows. so I chose that as my starting clip and I also though it would make more sense if I start it that way and then go to persons video

I started by rotoscoping the head of klara that I wanted to be outside the window and then I tried masking her using the pen tool. but since the video was moving, it went outside the window glass frame and it looked very choppy

Then after talking to my faculty , I tried out masking it out using mocha and then it was working well. the one other issue that I was facing was my Clips were taking too long to render cause it was on 4k it was later then solved by changing the dimensions and frame rate of the Clips by using Handbrake.

I tried 3d tracking the building video I took from my window , I tracked all the windows made them yellow and then made one window flicker and then I zoomed in on the building.it was a little time consuming as the building had over 120 windows but the outcome even though did not look realistic came out to how I wanted it to be cause I was not looking for a realistic looking light flickering. I also wanted the light to flicker to black so I did that with the help of adding a short piece of code to my window layer. the only issue I was facing was the solid layer going out of the window when zooming in but it was fixed by resizing each solid layer.

I then also shot the running sequence with my friend from different backgrounds and then I selected the best shots. I also started shooting building clips as I wanted a clip which showed the building and the sky but I wanted it to be one dimensional. cause I wanted to cut out a person running to it.

Since , I could not find a clip where the buildings and sky that I wanted. my backup idea was people walking from the top view, but I could not not get a clip that I was fully satisfied with. Since I did not find any place that has windows where people usually walk by like in the street. I took it from the upper floor of a shop. My initial idea was not to add any effects on to the people walking but then I made them silhouettes and I played around with all the effects I can like noise, grain , Lumetri colors and made them black silhouettes and I layered it on top of a video but it was not looking good so then I changed the background to white and then 2d tracked a person walking for text to come behind him when he is walking.

I also edited most of the clips to black and white , one issue I faced was the setting issue when I was editing the video to black and white the light was too much and it was not working like the YouTube tutorials I watched. Later I understood that I had to change my setting to rec.709 gamma 2.4 for better editing for black and white clips and then I played around with all the effects I changed the saturation levels and everything till I got something I liked. For a running clip I also wanted step printing like effect so I posterized time and also added cc wide time. for the last running zoom in clip, I rotoscoped the person running and changed the backgrounds to see how it looks.

I had a clip of a person standing in a railing. I initially wanted this scene to keep on changing the background. Initially I did not want to add this clip but my video was too short so I had to. I edited it in a different way. I rotoscoped her , refined the video and then layered it on top of another video of buildings I took and then I linked the silhouette to another clip of buildings of Mumbai I took from my flight to Glasgow and I edited the clip to have a riso print ink like look and I ended up liking it so much. the another issue I faced was most of my clips where too short so I had to keyframe a lot of my clips especially this video and then time remap the video.

I joined all my clips using premiere pro cause I had a lot of different files and the dimensions for my first window tracking video was different from the rest so I saved them separately and merged them together in premiere pro along with adding sound.

FINDING AUDIO

Finding audio for my video was so hard. I wanted something very hiphop like and fast but that was not matching the pace of my video, so I decided to find something slow which fits my video.

This was a audio that I really liked but it was not matching the running sequence. the running sequence looked longer with this audio.

The song was very upbeat so it was not matching the first part of the video.

This audio was matching with the video but I was still not sure about it .

This track went well with the overall video. I think if I could have added effects in the audio and slowly merged two audios it would have been better, but it was weirdly going well with the entire video and there were no lyrics also so I stuck with this at last

TECHNICAL RESEARCH

I watched YouTube tutorials about how I can color grade it to black and white and about how to

I used this video for black and white effect

I used this video for the step printing effect

FINAL VIDEO

Just Keep Going: The world is constantly changing and developing and there is this pressure for people especially people in their teen to mid 20's to keep up with everything and it is very easy for anyone to feel confused, burned out and tired . I wanted to showcase that emotion in this video. when you are overthinking and feeling confused it often feels like I could wish I could run to somewhere. I wanted to depict that and I am happy with my results. even though not everything came out the way I planned it and I had to add clips that was not in my mind to use. I like the outcome. one thing I wished I could do better is that I could have taken longer clips. I had long clips but the issue was the content inside the clip was not what I needed. the frames that I needed inside the clips were too short and I also think that I could have added a better audio for the video, so I am not quite happy with that choice , but it goes with the entire video and no matter how much I search I could not find a more better choice.

It was my first time using AE and it was so fun. I think I will keep using it. I really liked playing around with the effects and I am pretty sure that I will use it again. it was a little confusing on how to use it. I also really enjoyed filming the clips and I am also really happy that people actually trusted me on. my vision and actually was ready to help out . I made my friend run like fifteen times just for a 20 second clip but everyone was so nice and sweet and was willing to help me with anything.it was also a very new experience for me and I am happy that I learned a new skill