Evaluation of Using Cinema 4D.
For this project, we were
asked to create 3, 5 second idents, containing mixed media and high definition
live footage to put together as a group for the DCM (Digital Cinema Media) 2014
Ident competition, To do this, we would have show our detailed workflow
containing our efforts of creating abstract footage, compositing it in Cinema
4D onto live footage that we have shot ourselves, and then display our hand at
post production editing in Adobe After Effects.
As a whole I think the word
that I can use to describe my time using Cinema 4D is perseverance, as I'm never rellay that confident with using this program and am usually reluctant to go further than I need to with it. But using all the different effectors and
tools to morph and create shapes of literally anything I could think of, really
made me much more confident with using this piece of equipment.
One of the issues I had
with Cinema 4D was being afraid of just messing something good up that I had
created, as we are always told to just play around with the program and “do
what feels right.” However, this time, especially when creating my creatures
for the Euphoric piece, I totally agree that using as many different ways to
create something as you can is just a golden rule that one must abide by to get
anywhere with this kind of software.
I also am very reluctant to
use anything considered close to “abstract” so this module was definitely a
challenge. Despite this, I really enjoyed focusing on creating pieces of
footage that didn't have to be based on anything real, because a lot of the time
I would never get the subject perfect,
just close to what it was meant to be, and in this case there weren't any rules
like that.
In the future, I am to
handle equipment like this much more confidently, and not being afraid to mess
anything up as there is literally an “Undo” button on the top of the screen. I
also want to continue using abstract footage and using compositing techniques
in order to create more intricate and detailed pieces of work.
Evaluation of using Adobe AfterEffects.
For this project, we were
asked to create 3, 5 second idents, containing mixed media and high definition
live footage to put together as a group for the DCM (Digital Cinema Media) 2014
Ident competition, To do this, we would have show our detailed workflow
containing our efforts of creating abstract footage, compositing it in Cinema
4D onto live footage that we have shot ourselves, and then display our hand at
post production editing in Adobe After Effects.
As a whole I think I have
adjusted to AfterEffects really well, and have learned that there is so much
more to post production that editing footage together. I have gained knowledge
of using time correctly on this software, and have also learned the valuable
fact that visuals can’t just be changed by editing the brightness and contrast.
One of the only real issues
that I had with AfterEffects was the use of masks, and although I did look for
a proper solution at the time, the only reasonable thing I could think of to do
when masks were resizing themselves, was to render out and re upload footage
back into it, which technically did work. I had a lot of fun and gained loads
of knowledge about changing the visual effects to suit a certain mood or
emotion, as I’ve never really tried that before, and it’s definitely something
that I’ll try again.
I would definitely like to
keep the skills that I've gained from this module for the future, as I’ve
learned that although getting used to the skills may take some time and effort
to master, they are really worth it when it comes to the quality of my work and
how mundane and boring my work would have looked had I not ventured on a bit
more with it.
