Tommysweetfood's 4D Blog

References

tommysweetfood — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:35:33 +0000

BBC- Blue Planet Series

BBC- Planet Earth Series

BBC- Life Of Mammals Series

All Done

tommysweetfood — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:22:58 +0000

This is the final product. I feel this has been a very testing time for me, My knowledge of the software was very limited and my way of thinking (typically a scientific background) was not suited to this very Arty styled project. I have struggled with every aspect, from getting a basic idea, to starting to visual piece right though to having an end product. It has been an extremely down heartening time. I hope the work produced shows a good idea even though i feel the product itself is not a full representation of what i set out to do. This is mainly down to my lack of skill and experience on the software used. I feel the song i made fits well with the project giving it the right feel and vibe i wanted.
All in all I’m happy with what i have produced given the circumstances.

Finally Finished/ Reasons and Explanations of the Piece

tommysweetfood — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:01:00 +0000

Finally finished the project. I have kept to what i know for the majority of the project, using final cut pro to make the video section setting up for some select effects using after effects. I think i have managed to get correct feeling and visuals across, the disappointing thing for me is that i feel i could have done an exceptional project if i have pervious teaching on software such as after effects and 3D’s max. This is one of the reasons i have stuck with a lot of Final Cut, After Effects was taking hours to do the most simple things (like zooming in). Like i stated earlier in my blogs i know that anyone with and after effects background could have made this piece in a couple of hours. This has been playing on my mind a lot and has been very disheartening. However I am glad to have finished the project and feel i have met the criteria. I have added zooms and effects where i feel appropriate, for example The zooms are done to give the viewer the sense of almost becoming the animal or at least understanding it more, This sounds strange i know but i feel it works well, It gives a brief insight into the animals life at a critical time. I think this adds emotion to the project and has worked well. Also the dramatic change in music at odd timeframes in curtain sections also shows the vast difference in feel, i have aimed to do this to work closely with the different emotions felt when seeing beautiful animals in their natural habits doing what they are designed to do, as well as the sadness of an animal been killed.

Getting There

tommysweetfood — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:38:45 +0000

I have completed the majority of the project now, Just putting the final touches to it. I am not massively happy with the out come, however the piece does get the feeling and vibe i am trying to portray in parts but not in the whole thing. I have got to grips with the basics of After Effects. The part I am most happy about is the way the music and visuals go together. Parts of the music and the visual have random changes in feel and they go together well. I’m just going to finish the project over the weekend and put together my presentation for Tuesday.

Starting to put together the more “tech” stuff

tommysweetfood — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:41:59 +0000

I have reached the stage of my project where i am having to start to the more technical things to do with after effects (well i say technical, anyone with any experience will find this very simple). I am doing a lot of zooms and other basic effects like this. It is taking me hours to do things i imagine a competent after effectee could do in minutes. It is highly frustrating and a very slow process. However i am getting through it and the project is taking shape.

First Section Done

tommysweetfood — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:45:29 +0000

Just finished the first section of my project, This section is designed to give an over view of what the project is about, it has video of the four animals involved with some nice clips of nature. It fits very well with the music i have made giving the start of the piece a really good look and feel. However this section is very much just a video (without many effects) and does not really demonstrate time in any way (this comes later in the piece) Next i am starting on the middle section of the project which again will be very much video styled going hand in hand with the music to building up to the section which shows time. The project shows the chase and kill a cheetah and a deer and a shark and seal. The section right as the “killer” catches the pray everything slows down and flash backs by the deer and seal to happier times, eg playing, eating, chilling. so the kill in real time only takes a second but in this piece it will take longer, however the audience will know the “real event” will only take a second. (if you get what i’m trying to do). Its a bit in films when a team needs to score 1 more goal to win with only a few seconds left then the film goes into slow motion and looks at lots of different things that are happening within that time (taking longer then the 5 seconds of real time).

I’ve attached a video from the mighty ducks to try and show what i mean.

2nd Song Finished, With the reasons behind it.

tommysweetfood — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:55:55 +0000

Seen as i Didn’t have any ideas behind the first piece of music i made i decided to do a new piece to fit with the ideas for my final project. I have completed the music so now just need to start finishing the video footage and putting it it the correct order for the new music. Again i have played everything myself on this track but have used a lot more synths and electro equipment including a Korg Kaossilator Pro, MicroKorg, Macbook Pro, And a Roland Juno Di Keyboard. I am happy with the results and feel in that the Audio and Visual complement each other well which i feel is key to the overall piece working well. The sounds i have chosen reflect well with the footage i am using for the piece. I have made the Drums very electronic and reverby to give the whole project a slightly eerie feel, as well as this the high synth tones a typical of this kind of music and almost resemble pan pipes (this coincides with the nature shots and the vastness of the footage). Obviously the quicker harder parts of the music fit well with the fast moving edit and type of footage used, this really adds to the progression of the visual giving the viewer a completely different feel for this section showing a massive contrast with the pad sounds which interlock with this section. Finally the “screechy” sounds at the end are used with the most dramatic shots of the whole piece ending the project with a high energy feel. (all of the above will become clear as you watch the final project).

After Effects

tommysweetfood — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:36:29 +0000

Starting to get to grips with After Effects, Project starting to take some form of shape (basic shape) as i have no photoshop or after effects experience making this process very unpleasant, slow and very basic. My ideas are all down in storyboard and script forms but due to lack of skill on the computer programs i am finding it hard to transfer ideas from my storyboard and script to my final piece.

Final Idea, SWEEEEEET.

tommysweetfood — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:38:50 +0000

I have finally got an Idea that i am happy with for the project. The theme of the project is looking at the amount of time spent waiting for specific moments for example when you go for a surf the majority of time is spent paddling and sitting/waiting for the right waves, also watching a football match the most influential things only happen a few times within the 90 minutes spent watching it. This can go further to every day life like catching the bus, waiting at the bank, getting food and so on. I am still working on the way i am going to present it but am thinking something along the lines of the link added with this blog.

Music Finished

tommysweetfood — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:20:13 +0000

I have finally finished the music for my final project (without really having a final project in mind). The music was done by simply plugging live instruments into my Mac. The piece is just over 1 minute long and consists of 3 Drum tracks using Roland VDrum TD9′s, 2 Synth tracks using a Micro Korg synth, 1 Keyboard track using a Korg Stage piano and 1 guitar Track using a Fender Telecaster. I have also included some of the loops from the Garageband library. The vocals are samples from a selection of different people doing talks, preaches and presentations. My musical ability is very average so i have tried to keep it simple. I played around with all the sounds and different amp’s after the instruments were recorded.