So what is editing you might ask? Well you see, editing is where a person takes the footage they’ve filmed and then they arrange and enhance that footage in a way that forms a coherent product, these enhancements could include things such as layering in the special effects, changing the colour grading or even replacing the audio in the scene entirely, but here, we’ll be focusing on some of the basic stuff (I.E: types of cuts and transitions), for example…
The Cut
The cut is a really basic type of transition because all that really happens is that we’re jumping abruptly from one shot to the next (in its most basic form), examples of this one can be found in loads of movies and tv shows. (from Gone With The Wind and Laurel and Hardy to The LEGO Movie and Sonic The Hedgehog) But as the old saying goes, the creativity doesn’t come from the tools, but rather how those tools are used. This has resulted in many types of cuts cropping up over the years. Such as...
The Match Cut
One such example is the match cut, where a similar shot composition is maintained between two different shots, these often used to distinguish a character’s fantasy from reality in a rather jarring manner (which is normally the intention), this can give the audience what I’m going to call fantastical whiplash (because we’re suddenly transitioning from fantasy to reality, or vice versa)
Fantasy (as seen above)
And reality
Of course the point of the match cut is to maintain the composition of the shot so it doesn’t always have to be done with the same character in the shot. One example could be that you have side view of a character running in one location and then you could cut to a similar shot of an entirely different character doing the same thing (bonus points if the characters have contrasting personalities thus highlighting some of the similarities and the two characters share, especially if it’s between the good guy and bad guy)
Match Cut Examples
The end of the Grease Lightning scene from Grease (when we go from the red fantasy car to the beat up real car): Grease - Greased Lightning [ With Lyrics ]
The second part of The first LEGO Movie’s final battle (particularly when they cut between shots of the real and lego worlds to strengthen the metaphorical aspect): The LEGO Movie - Emmett vs. (Lord) President Business
The trailers for Ratchet and Clank PS4 and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy (when they have a side view of Ratchet/Spyro running across various levels from the game): (Ratchet): Ratchet & Clank - The Game, Based on the Movie, Based on the Game Trailer | PS4 (Spyro): Spyro Reignited Trilogy | Announcement Trailer | PS4
The Jump Cut
These usually tend to stay in one location but cut through time rather than space, these are used to show the passage of time in a quick and snappy manner (often with the characters changing position between cuts), these mainly get used in montages because of the way they show a character’s growth in a short amount of time. Another purpose of the jump cut is to quickly skim over parts of a character’s daily routine where they’re in the same room so that the audience isn’t sitting there watching some guy get ready for his daily routine for several hours. For example, when Emmet shaves, brushes his teeth and combs his hair in the first LEGO Movie, there’s cuts to each of those actions taking place (although given how this is an animated movie, they probably never actually animated the entire routine, just the parts they needed)
Jump Cut Examples
The Scene at Mushnik’s in Little Shop Of Horrors where the characters are waiting around: Jump Cut Example (I couldn’t find the name of the scene)
Emmet’s morning from The LEGO Movie (mainly when he’s deciding what to wear that day): The LEGO Movie | "Good Morning!" Clip [HD]
During the Driving Scene in an old french film called breathless (when the car keeps jumping forward as the characters are talking to emphasise the long drive): Breathless jump cut scene
Invisible Edits
Now the basic cuts are cool and all, but a real master knows a thing or two about invisible edits.
Invisible edits are what happens when an editor decides to hide the cut (or other types of edits such as wipes and even fades) to the next scene using either the motion blur that results from camera movements or an object within the scene. (one obvious example of this one is having a car pass by the front of the camera to hide the transition but other examples could include falling objects or even one of the characters in a scene walking in front of the camera)
Invisible edits are typically used as a tool to keep the audience immersed in the story and world the directors and/or producers want to create because they usually never notice when it happens (unless they know where to look and have a keen eye for this sort of thing), which helps them more easily follow the storyline of a film (unless the film is poorly written, not even good editing choices can save a poorly written story)
Invisible Examples
Now finding these examples is going to be quite difficult given their invisible nature but the first one I found actually came from This Is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas (scene uploaded by 408nate08), these invisible cuts mainly happen whenever the camera zooms in on parts of the scene that are pitch black. (which itself mostly happens near the beginning of the song) The main use here is to transition between various one off locations such as a staircase and bed that both have monsters underneath (other than those examples however I can’t find anything in the scene), this helps to keep the flow of the song intact (even though the regular cuts don’t actually detract from anything in my opinion) because the pitched black allows the editors to sneak in clever hidden cuts to the bed and eventually the staircase.
Another really good example (at least I think) comes from near the end of Toy Story 4 (so spoilers ahead), {Spoiler} Gives up his {Spoiler} Box (scene uploaded by Randm Vids), in this scene the main invisible edit comes when Woody gets surrounded by ventriloquist dolls and they move in to the point where the entire scene is covered in blackness (which then fades from black to the next shot) which itself uses the focus lens to cleverly simulate woody waking up (and from there it’s back to regular cuts)
The last example I want to get into is actually from Dreams PS4’s story mode (called Art’s Dream), again this bunch happen at the end of the game (so again, spoilers): Art's Dream (Time Moves Slow) (scene uploaded by button masher), in this one, the main thing is that everything fades to black every once in a while while Art (the bass player), in the beginning this hides a change of scene while later on it’s to hide cuts between the bazaar visuals that take place later on in the song which serve as a metaphor for the journey Art himself took throughout the game (in his dreams, the whole game is a dream. Hence the name, Art’s Dream)
French New Wave
What Is French New Wave? And where’s the old one?
Ok, so I’m just finding out about this french new wave from a friend and a teacher briefly bringing it up but from what I can gather by searching the net, New Wave style filmmaking emerged as the result of french filmmakers rejecting traditional narrative styles and conventions in favour of authenticity and making the viewer think for themselves after watching. This era mainly spanned from the 50s to around the late 60s with films such as Breathless (or A Bout De Souffle in french) which released in 1960 (hey wait a minute anyone getting deja vu?), The 400 Blows (or Le Quatre Cents Coups in french) which released in 1959 and even Jules and Jim (or Jules et Jim in french) which released in 1962.
One thing all these films (and more) have in common is that they don’t follow your average cinematic conventions such as a coherent plot, because they’re playing fast and loose with the script (if there’s even one) and dialogue to keep it authentic (much like I do when I’m talking to myself, although I’m not usually gunning for authenticity), they don’t normally have linear editing styles (often making little to no logical sense which might make traditional audiences totally confused as to what’s supposed to be happening) and even the camera takes a less restrictive approach as there are often no tripods involved in the filming process which arguably gives the film a unique energy that can’t be captured with a tripod (although I personally believe having a tripod is preferable)
So what’s a good example of a “french new wave” type of scene?
Well one good example of a scene from the french new wave is The ending of 400 Blows.
As you can see from the clip, the camera rarely cuts (only doing so every once in a while when the location changes) which means most of the shots are simply raw footage of a boy running towards a beach. Another thing that makes this ending different to that of most films is how it comes across as anti-climactic because in most traditional films (that I’ve seen anyway) the ending is usually a point where the characters are celebrating their victory over the antagonist (unless the villain wins, then its a point where they get to take over the world), here on the other hand, we just see a boy running away from a referee (and even then, the referee isn’t much of a threat because he gets bamboozled almost as quickly as he’s established) without a whole lot of fanfare (in the form of either tense or uplifting music) until just after the halfway mark (and then it goes all the way to the end), even after the music kicks in we’re still watching a boy running towards a beach (and this is the part where we need to acknowledge that I’m analysing this scene out of context) where after a quick close up at the end, we get the word “Fin” (or End) on the screen, and then the movie’s over.
While I will admit this opinion might not be valid (because I haven’t actually seen or even heard of this film until a couple of days ago) but I much prefer more traditional films (like Toy Story and The Lego Movie) which have a more defined structure to them rather than films like this one that have a more loose structure (although hey, it’s all just taste at the end of the day, these guys were doing a lot of experimentation in the day)
Le Tide after Le Wave
Even after the main wave had passed, the influence of this experimental era could be felt across the board for generations to come, the list of directors include the likes of Martin Scorsese (famous for films such as Goodfellas, Taxi Driver and most recently, The Irishman), Quintin Tarantino (famous for Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) and even Wes Anderson (well known for Fantastic Mr Fox (2009), Isle Of Dogs and The Grand Budapest Hotel), and those guys would go on to produce masterpieces but to be honest, my favourite of the bunch is Fantastic Mr Fox because I’ve actually seen it, and it creates a unique style that no other animated film I’ve seen was able (or even attempted) to capture (outside of Isle of Dogs, which was also directed by Wes Anderson)
Planning
So Me and a friend ended up getting to work together on this editing unit after all (hallelujah), but because I ended up taking waaaay too long researching editing last week this part had to be done in a flash, here’s what we managed to come up with in about a couple of minutes:
As you can see, things are quite vague but we had a limited window of time to do actually do the filming so we had to come up with ideas and locations quickly if we actually wanted to get this done (originally we wanted to use the tv studio for our match, but due to some difficulties with the tutor being out of the room we ended up using the hallway), after that we got right to filming because there was no time do scripts (thanks to me taking too long to do the research portion of this task last week)
Filming
we each took turns filming the shots on this Canon video camera pictured above and we had mostly filmed in and around the classroom area (with the farthest we ended up going being the hall because it was simply easier to get to than the TV studio)
For the invisible edit sequence we had a problem with some tables being in the way but we eventually ended up simply backing up in the space between two tables and after a couple of takes (because one of the clips hid the door from frame) we managed to get the raw footage, this bunch of shots was achieved due to both of us taking turns being the guy walking towards the class behind the wall (overall it was a rousing success)
For the jump cut, I ended up taking the camera while my friend did the acting, what we did for this one was that I’d hit the record button and record a short clip of my friend waiting and then I’d stop so that he could get into place, then I’d start up again and after a little bit I’d stop once more and then he came up with the idea of himself pacing up and down (which I actually decided to roll with because it was a very good idea) and then for the fourth and final recording session, I’d record him going into the classroom. Overall I like how this thing will turn out once the editing phase.
As for the Match cut, my friend took to the camera while I said some dialogue I’d made up on the spot (because there was no time to script this due to how long I’d taken to do the editing research) about how I’d made a revelation about the Sega Genesis having blast processing (because I seem to be obsessed with that Genesis advert at the minute), the match cut here happens after I say “you know what it is?” but before “The Sega Genesis has Blast Processing while the Super Nintendo doesn’t!” This was the one that was originally meant to happen in class and in the TV studio but some complications ended up meaning we’d have to use the class and the hallway instead (which I think turned out better if I’m being honest)
Editing
My friend ended up taking care of editing the entire thing because unlike me (with my video games), he’s actually used final cut pro for longer than 15 seconds. Luckily for us, I’ve got some pictures of the editing phase before I had to go in and retroactively do a shot list and some storyboards:
Here, he’s getting all the clips we shot from the camera and onto the Mac he was working at, the reason we were using his Mac for the clips was because he was the one that was doing all the editing in the first place (you know, the important bit of the whole project)
in this screenshot my friend is putting all the clips together to form the basis for the complete product (which in our case would showcase the three editing styles at once rather than it being split into 3 separate videos), it’s important to form the basis in the beginning of the editing phase because it will save you a ton of hassle later on.
in this clip, my buddy’s detaching the audio from the visuals so that he can get rid of the original audio that came into the recording (well, for all the clips except the ones where I’m speaking), the reason he’s doing this is so that he can replace said audio with some music after he was done doing the visuals.
Meanwhile, with my frilly behind.
While my friend was actually getting the work done, I sat next to him and watched (hence how I was able to get the pictures) before I was assigned by the support worker to do the storyboards and shot lists for each of the three edits (because we hadn’t done them earlier), so I had to cobble together some retroactive planning as evidence that we did this:
As you can see, I was under such a rush that I decided to draw stick figures instead of doing a worse version of my usual cartoony art style (if only I didn’t take so long doing the research, maybe this project could have had more actual planning done), although at least the shot list came out better (then again, that was only because I did it on a computer rather than on physical paper so I didn’t have to worry about handwriting the whole thing)
The Shot list
Invisible Edit
Shot TypeWhat HappensLongA guy walks across a windowLongA different guy walks into the door
Jump Cut
Shot typeWhat HappensLong (x3)A guy waits in the hallway (x3)LongA guy walks into a classroom
Match Cut
Shot TypeWhat HappensLongA guy has a revelationLongHe continues his revelation in a hallway for some reason
Much like with my Super Sheep tension builder from previously, this only took a couple of minutes for me to do because all I was doing was saying what shot would happen where and even then, it was easier here because I was doing this RETROACTIVELY after the filming had already completed (which means this part was a big farce really)
The Final Product
I’d say the final product came out pretty good in the end (not bad for two dudes under severe time crunch), although my friend would prefer the video stay unlisted (which I can’t honestly blame him for) although I will at least put the link in here for the sake of the work (at least it wasn’t a disaster like Super Mario: Before The Odyssey): Types of Edits
Final Thoughts
While it was quite nice to get out of my comfort zone by working in a team with my friend once again, I’d say I ended up hindering the entire project yet again due to how slow I was in doing research several weeks prior (at least it wasn’t as bad as when I got way too overly ambitious with a Mario advert and almost caused the entire project to collapse by having to scale everything back at nearly the 11th hour), which as you know, ended up causing the entire practical and planning phase to be condensed into a single day. (which would not be Ideal in a real production, especially when it’s an ambitious one like the ones I plan on making once I open Slamination Studios) But overall, I’m glad it all came together in the end, even if it was all due to luck. (because at least the teacher didn’t have to swoop in and save the day this time) It was also a rather weird experience for me to reflect on the actions of someone else because of how often I tend to work alone (which is why I didn’t get into his thoughts, I didn’t wanna say anything and end up being wrong)
Green Screen effects
Get ready folks, this is going to be a fun one (especially once we get practical)
What are they, and why are they green?
Green Screen effects (or Chroma Key as it’s more formally known) are what happens when a film decides that a particular character needs to be somewhere, but either the place isn’t actually real (in the case of Toon-Town from Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Planet Drool from The Adventures of Sharkboy And Lava Girl), or the location is real but they don’t currently have access to it. (which is what happened during the production of the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie) In lue of this, they’ll either recreate the entire area from scratch in a sound stage (which Diary of a Wimpy Kid had to do for certain scenes in Greg’s house so that they could capture certain shots that wouldn’t have been possible on location) or (in the case of more expensive and/or complex locations) they’ll shoot the actors in front of a big green sheet that’ll get replaced by the background in post production (which is usually the editing phase where everything comes together)
(Image Sourced From Youtube.com) Ok, so here, the screen on the bottom is blue but it still gets the point across (that being that a solid coloured background is being replaced with a different background entirely)
The reason this is done instead of building the sets in sound stages often comes down to a combination of one of three factors, 1. It would be too time consuming to make the area. 2. It would cost the studio too much to create. And 3. It would be impractical to make it in the first place.
The reason that these screens are often green is because of the way the colour contrasts with natural human skin (be it black, white or orange), thus meaning it’s unlikely any part of the body will accidently get edited out once the chroma keying comes into effect.
The main reason that people use green screens in movie making they need to be easily replaced with the image or footage that’s needed for a given production (whether it be a cartoon universe or even an explosion) and if you can’t take out the green very well you’ll end up with results like this:
(Image Sourced from Green screen: good vs bad on Wix.com)
And in the words of a wise blue guy, that’s no good.
But you know what else isn’t a good idea? Wearing clothes that happen to be the same colour as the background you’re filming on, because once that green gets keyed out of the frame, it’ll end up looking like your body’s gone missing:
(Image Sourced from Dedrick Koh.com)
Of course, sometimes removing a person from the frame can actually be the point in cases such as the recent Invisible Man movie that chrome out this year. (thus putting it in direct competition with Sonic The Hedgehog) For that one, they had to use a specialised suit that is entirely green (like, from head to toe) that would eventually get removed in post:
(Image Sourced from Amazon.co.uk)
Nightmare fuel aside, when was this green screen stuff first used
(Information Sourced mainly from The Conversation.com)
Green Screens were first conceived all the way back in 1940 when they were used in a film called The Thief of Bagdad (1940) - Theatrical Trailer. The green screens used in this movie were created by a guy called Lawrence W. Butler for use mainly with a character in the movie called “the giant genie” (because if they didn’t, he’d simply be the average sized genie), this ended up winning him an academy award for his work on the special effects and the rest, as they say is history as now it seems everything uses green screen to some extent. (it’s amazing what one green/blue sheet can do, really shows these people’s creativity)
Ok wise guy, what are some examples of green screen effects in Media?
Well dear reader there are so many examples to choose from, where do we even begin? Well one good example I could find actually is the grand majority of the movie simply known as The Adventures Of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The main place you can find green screen in this movie is whenever our heroes are on Planet Drool (which happens to take up most of the run time), one example I could do a before and after comparison for is actually when they’re in the train of thought (which is a literal train, ha ha very clever)
(Video uploaded by Brooksie McWilliams: Nicksclusive - The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl apologies for the low quality, this was the best evidence I could find)
As you can see in this (rather low res) image, the only things that are actually real are Sharkboy, Lavagirl, Max, a steering wheel and a pair of levers. The rest is all a solid green background the actors are standing in, once the filming of the whole movie is done it’s then up to the special effects artists, animators and editors to create the new background and key out the green so that only the characters remain...
(video illegally uploaded and re-cropped by Lenard Pangan: THE Adventures Of SharkbOy And LAvagirl Full MoviE, this could destroy mine and Lenard’s credibility as we know it if word ever gets out)
...and vola, now our heroes are suddenly inside the train of thought realising they’re doomed instead of screaming at some fans in a green room, all thanks to the power of some green screen effects and a little bit of animation to make the actual background. (which in this case is a dynamic moving background)
The reasons green screens are used throughout this movie as a pose to physical sets are because 1, it allows the director (Robert Rodrigez) to save money on the production of physical props. And 2, a lot of the backdrops simply don’t exist in real life, as I’m about to show you:
(image sourced from IMDB) ah yes, the totally real ice castle I saw in greenland that one time.
(Image sourced from Shady’s blog) and here we have the totally real and not at all fantastical gargantuan bed sitting atop a space rock. The property values must be insane around here
(image sourced from Animation World Network) and last but not least we have the actual sahara desert, with its trademark gravity defying clocks and random rail that leads to certain death. (the animals hate living here)
Another good example that immediately springs into my head is during Who Framed Roger Rabbit when Eddie Valiant has to go to ToonTown (a place which up until this point he’s refused to go), the reason I think this example works is because beforehand, the cartoons had to blend in with the real world:
(Image Sourced from Medium.comm)
To achieve this effect, the animators had to draw each frame over the live action footage (which would have been converted to lots of still images by the time post production began) and then they’d send off what they’d done to Industrial Light And Magic so that they could handle shading and highlights
(Image Sourced from Cartoonbrew.com)
However, in the case of scenes that take place in ToonTown, it’s eddie’s turn to blend in with the cartoons, hence why they’d need to bring in the green (or in this case, blue) screen in order to make Eddie seem like he’s in a world of cartoon characters (and unlike with Sharkboy And Lavagirl, I actually have a decent comparison resource that doesn’t involve any illegal uploads of the full movie): Before and After: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Behind The Scenes) (Video uploaded by Headass [excuse the language, I don’t control usernames])
In this behind the scenes video we actually get quite a bit of insight as to how they managed to pull this off with a combination of the blue screen as well as some clever camera trickery
in this shot, we can actually see how they managed to pull off Eddie holding on to the pole while it bounces up and down, the way they did it here was that they actually moved the camera itself along its track to simulate the bouncing pole while Eddie himself remains static until after all the blue screen equipment is removed from the scene, then it starts to look like he was moving the entire time, this technique of moving the camera to capture the illusion of motion is also used whenever we get a still shot of Eddie falling away from or towards the camera:
notice how in the blue screen footage below, the camera is really far away from Eddie to the point where we can’t see him in the final composite shot above
but once the camera quickly moves towards Eddie in the blue screen shot we can suddenly see him falling in the final composite, this clever piece of camera trickery makes it so that the filmmakers don’t need to risk injuring Bob Hoskins (the man that plays Eddie Valiant in the movie) or even get a large room with tons of space (although it must have been one heck of a challenge for the editors and vfx team to also remove the black spaces from the scene)
for that classic moment where we see Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on screen together, they still needed to give Bob something to look at so that once Mickey and Bugs got added, it would still look convincing, so as a substitute, the crew had to use rods with white balls stuck to the end so that Bob had something to look at (and the animators could use this to know where to place the characters relative to Eddie), and once the characters and backgrounds had been completed and the blue screen was removed (as well as the sticks), we get that classic moment that even to this day, has never happened again (at least until Disney inevitably buys Warner Brothers for 6.2 billion in 2025)
(Image sourced from Steemit.com)
The last example I want to delve into is actually from Ant-Man when the main character shrinks for the first time in the bathroom. For this part, the green screen usage starts once he’s actually shrunken down to the size of an ant. For this shot, I want you to have a guess as to what’s real and what was done in post:(Video Uploaded by Marvel Studios Movies)
Give up? Well the only thing that is actually real is Ant Man himself, the rest is just a CG backdrop he was blue screened into:
see, it’s all blue screens, the only things that were real (in this particular shot) were Ant-Man and a slope he was climbing, the rest of the scene was created with animation in post production from the water to the floor. (looks like the lines between animation and live action are getting super blurred, which makes the whole “animation is for kids” mentality even more moronic than it already was)
This scene isn’t even the only time where green screens were used as whenever Ant-Man needed to shrink down he’d either be the only thing that’s real in these extra large environments or (more likely) he’d simply be animated instead (sometimes we even get both at the same time with the suit being animated while the face is a green screen effect):
(video uploaded by CGMeetup)
As you can see, the combination of green screens and the modern invention of CGI (which really exploded in the 90s) have basically allowed for live action films to take a lot more cues from their animated counterparts, whether it be having a bunch of fantastical monsters attacking New York (ala Avengers Assemble) or having live action actors in a surreal environment (like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Adventures Sharkboy and Lavagirl)
To sum it up (at least research wise)
Overall, green screens as a special effects medium have really come a long way ever since Lawrence’s work on the giant genie back in the 40s and they’re now used in tandem with CGI effects (as well as the odd practical effect here and there) to create blockbusters that can dazzle a crowd in lots of spectacle, and yet cinemas are still not making a huge profit margin due to how the studios get more money from a film on opening weekend, and the pandemic isn’t doing them any favours. (if anything it seems to be speeding up their demise, which is a big shame in my book)
Now for some attempts of my own
Unfortunately, due to my lack of proper editing software at home (for the time being) I can only animate the green screen effects using the game Dreams (which means video games will save the day once again), before I even began doing the research for this one I’d actually already done a brief bit of animation with a green background while I was getting feedback for my tension builder
Production Stream
Reflection
So I finally get to reflect on this piece of work (which is only the green screen piece)
The first things I did for this animation were put Super Sheep (who was the only one that actually got animated that day), The Night Pig and Hugo (who both got deleted after a while because I’d be doing too much animation for a simple experiment) into position and record a piece of audio off my phone using the audio recording tools. (which would explain the poor quality of the audio itself) The song I chose to steal a sample from is actually the Japanese Crash Bandicoot Theme, I chose this one because I had an Idea for it in my head for a while and wanted to use this green screen exercise as an excuse to get that Idea out there.
After I’d done the recording it was simply a matter of using the sun and sky gadget to change the sky from blue to green by simply having a green tint dominate the rest of the sky, (which did create a bit of a weird effect where the shadows were tinted green as well, but luckily for me I had the light gadget to help me fix this) after that I simply used the grade and effects tool to saturate the colours because I want these characters to be bright and colourful by default (that way children can watch their adventures and laugh at the goofy antics)
Once that was finished it was just a matter of animating Super sheep while making sure his movements matched the beat of the music (because if it didn’t the entire animation would’d feel right due to being out of sync with the music) and I’ve got to say, I think I did a decent job matching the movements to the music. (because whenever I’d preview the animation it seemed to sync quite nicely) This process was rather easy because once I had one instance of Super Sheep dancing in one direction, I’d simply repeat those two frames until it was time for him to change directions (and then I simply had to get one instance of that direction and repeat until the song said “by bye bye,” as at that point I figured Super Sheep could leave the screen thus ending the animation entirely.
I can’t wait to get this piece of Green Screen Chicanery into some editing software and finally put Super Sheep in the real world (or somewhere fantastical), although I should also replace the audio with a higher quality version of the sample I recorded.
The complete Experiment
The good one: Greeny Screeny Editeeny (High Quality Edition)
The not so good one: Greeny Screeny Editeeny (The Version That Almost Was)
Production Streams
Strap yourselves in folks, this is going to be a special one.
Reflection part 1: The Fruitless Quest for Vegas
Remember yesterday when I said I couldn’t wait to get the green screen into some editing software? Well originally, I would have had to wait until I’d gotten back into college in order to use final cut pro again (because I don’t have any editing software on the computer at home), in the meantime I was actually looking at a piece of editing software called Vegas Pro 18 (which unlike final cut pro, actually works on windows machines like the one I use at home) and I’d mentioned about it to my parents who told me to do some further digging on the software, so I decided to check out the price and they seemed fine with it, so once I went and checked out what the system requirements would be, I ended up finding something that would stop me dead in my tracks:
That’s right, the software would require a 64-bit system in order to even run (I’ve only got a 32-bit system at home), so after all the research I did into Vegas Pro 18, my quest was stopped dead in its track not by the price, but instead by a 64 bit requirement (and I was so excited to get my hands on it too, my disappointment was immeasurable but my day wasn’t ruined), because as far as I can find, there’s no official 32-bit version of this software (curse you Nintendo 64!), this of course made me worry that I wasn’t going to be able to do any of the actual experimentation at home. (and as a result, I ended up fearing failure) And that’s where this story would have ended were it not for what happened the very next day (which brings us to today funnily enough)
Reflection Part 2: Shared Curiosity
After yesterday’s disappointing quest for editing software I ultimately knew I’d have to continue my studies without it (which begs the question as to how I’ll get a Distinction Star this time), so this morning I was focusing on finishing up my photography tutor’s abstract coloured paper assignment (mainly by reflecting on the pictures I’d taken last night and giving my final thoughts) and attending my LLC Hour where as usual, I simply carried on working on what I was already doing.
After I’d taken a break to play Dreams PS4 (because it is a video game after all) I’d finished up my reflection on the Abstract Photography, I ended up realising I didn’t have much to do. That was, until I wondered to myself “does ShareFactory have green screen features?” so while no-one was looking, I decided to turn on my PS4 again to see if ShareFactory, which is a piece of editing software for PS4 used to edit together game clips (Remember when I said “I don’t have any editing software on my COMPUTER,” well the Sharefactory is the reason I’ve had to make that distinction), had any kind of chroma keying tools before I did any streaming and, much to my shock, it actually does contain green screening features. (although they are of a more rudimentary variety) But this revelation does come with one catch however, the green screen only works on “Track 2,” which is a commentary track that’s usually meant for you to record commentary into. Luckily, I could actually put another game clip into this second track and the green screen will actually work. (which meant it was finally time for Super Sheep to get Chroma Keyed)
The twist here is that the background I’d used was drawn from an earlier video I’d made documenting the production of the background of the Colypsia website last year, which meant Dreams early access has unexpectedly come back to save the day in terms of providing a background for me to use. (thank you, me from last year)
Reflection Part 3: Actual Green Screenery
So after I added in the clip of Super Sheep I had to trim it down to exclude any additional footage that happened to get captured I just had to do a little bit of fumbling around with the second video track (which remember, is mainly meant for you to put commentary in) by mainly getting the green screen to look right by messing with the tolerance and feathering (because that’s all this thing will let me do with green screens besides put them in different predetermined locations within the frame so as far as I know, there’s no moving it from side to side or up and down like in more professional software such as Vegas and Final Cut Pro), I’d basically finished the visuals rather quickly.
However, looking at the length of the first stream you can tell still wasn’t satisfied with the audio quality, so what I tried to do was import the actual file I used into the Sharefactory, line up the piece I sampled with the visuals while using the low quality audio as a reference point. This ended up being another source of frustration for me because it meant I had to take my pen drive (which is actually the reason there are so many pauses in the two streams) and jam it into the computer to get the file and then on to the Playstation. Sounds simple enough right, So what went wrong this time?
Well you see, the import process failed because the music wasn’t in the right folder on my pen drive (unfortunately for me, the right folder didn’t actually exist on my pen drive), so I had to create a new folder for the music. It didn’t work. So I tried copying a folder named SHAREfactory™. It also didn’t work, so I had to look up a tutorial on How to import music on sharefactory and I simply paused the video at this spot:
But after another failed attempt I’d decided to give up and export the video (with the poor audio quality) and that would have been the end of it, until I took a closer look at the tutorial and realised the folder actually had to be named “sharefactory” (no caps) and the folder had to be seperate from the main “PS4” folder.
After that stunning revelation I hastily started up another stream (which is why there are two streams by the way) so that I could test if doing this worked. It finally worked after all those attempts (which was rather satisfying if I’m being honest), so I took the opportunity to finally replace the audio (which did take a little bit of messing around to get right but after several trimming attempts I finally got both sets of audio to sync up) by muting the second track and hey presto, the real finished product.
All I had to do afterwards was render the video again and export both versions, sign into my old college account (which I’m still using for videos) and get both videos uploaded so that I can finally say I did a little bit of experimentation after a ton of frustration, and with that, I can officially say that my PS4 has saved the day again, and now I can do more green screen stuff at home (so the moral of this reflection session is that you can do a lot more with limited editing software than you might think if you get a little bit creative)
Some More Green Screening
This time, not as frustrating as the last one
Production Streams
The Dreams Stream: Green Screen Soprano
The Minecraft Stream: Gathering Backgrounds
The Share Factory Stream: Putting things together
Dream Stream Reflection
Today I did some more green screen experimentation (because now I know I can thanks to yesterday’s events), however, I decided to take a slightly different approach with this one (both in terms of the green screen itself and how the character would move) as this time, instead of Super Sheep himself moving, I pulled a Who Framed Roger Rabbit and decided to simply move the camera via keyframes instead. Originally I was going to give the illusion that Super Sheep was falling (much like they did in Who Framed Roger Rabbit) but partway through, I decided “you know what, why don’t I have Super Sheep fly instead,” so after a quick bit or re-posing and putting the camera into position which would start off about as far away as the current scene boundaries would let me, (because placing objects beyond the default boundary actually increases the boundary size) an Idea struck into my head. “Dude, what if we just used the text displayer as a giant green screen backdrop instead.” So I returned the sky to a nice cool blue (with max brightness) and afterwards I plopped the text displayer gadget down.
Once I added that it was simply a matter of making the text box bigger (by dragging the corners to make it as big as I could, and then resizing it like you would any other object), making it green and then adding a blank space into the text field so that it would always be visible. Personally I think this approach to doing the Green Screen in Dreams because it allows me to free up the lighting to really match whatever conditions I want it to. (even if it took me a little bit to realise the lights from previously were still there, but more on that later)
Afterwards I did some keyframe animation to the camera in order to get it to move towards Super Sheep and then away from him, to achieve this I simply animated the camera moving backwards first, and then I placed the keyframe that was super close after the one where the camera was far away, after that I cloned the far away keyframe and placed that one after the super close keyframe. (The reason I chose to do the close keyframe first was so that I could simply pull back the camera without worrying about it going off center) Afterwards I added another keyframe that happens at the same time where Super Sheep turns around so that his backside is facing the camera (thus making it seem like he’s passed two cameras), thus completing the entire animation process.
Next came the sound effects (all one of them), which I grabbed from Media Molecule’s Sound Effects collection (because they’re the developers of the game), I chose a whooshing sound because it’ll make it seem like Super Sheep’s passing by quite quickly.
It was after that point I decided to rejig the sky so that it was more of a sunrise/sunset type of colour, I was having quite a bit of trouble getting it to look right until I realised I’d forgotten to delete the 4 lights I’d placed for the first one (which I’d originally placed back in the first green screening session because the shadows looked odd with the green sky), so after deleting those lights I was able to get the effect to look right at that point using both the sun and sky gadget for the actual sky lighting, which would provide the base lighting, and I’d use the grade and effects gadget to enhance the lighting via the tinting tools (after I did that, I did some messing around with the saturation slider and accidentally created a nifty looking sepia effect, which I’ve chosen to save for future use), and it was there I decided to make Minecraft the backdrop.
Overall, it was pretty easy for me to do the green screen this time because I only had to give Super Sheep one pose (because the camera was doing the actual movement) and from there, it was as simple as changing the lighting conditions and adding some sound and I was done.
Minecraft Stream Reflection
And just when we thought things couldn’t get any less conventional, I ended up using an even gamier game to capture the backdrops for this experiment. (that being Minecraft)
The first thing I did here was create an entirely new Minecraft world where I chose to play in creative mode, (because there I can fly in the air, which is important for these aerial shots) after that it was simply a matter of restoring the graphics back to max fidelity (and hiding the player’s hand) and then I flew upwards and used game commands to make it sunset, which took two attempts because the I had to turn off the daylight cycle after doing the first sunset command. After I did that I simply did the sunset command again, only to realise that the sky wouldn’t be orange at the bottom, so I had to let the daylight cycle run only for a little bit.
After that it was simply a matter of taking the pictures by looking at the sun and moon and using the share button on my controller to capture the screen shots (which is why the stream seems to cut off at least twice):
(that’s right, the video games are multiplying)
Overall, doing this was really easy because all I was doing was flying up and taking some pictures of a Minecraft world. Looking back however, my decision to go with a sunrise type of lighting may have hindered the entire experiment, we’ll get more into that with the Share Factory reflection. (it’s segway time)
Share Factory Stream Reflection
Using Share Factory this time was much less frustrating than last time because I’d already done the hard work of figuring stuff out and I didn’t need any actual music for this one.
The main thing I did here was take the Minecraft screenshots and add the green screened Super Sheep in there to make it seem like he was flying over this Minecraft.
The hardest part here was actually getting the timing down for when the screenshots should change in order to best maintain the illusion of him passing the camera. (but after a little bit of messing around I was able to get the timing down)
Looking back however, I think I should have gone with a more neutral daytime setting because Super Sheep’s lighting clearly doesn’t match that of the Minecraft style, especially in the first half where sky wasn’t even orange at the bottom, and while reflecting I realised his backside should have been darker. (which means I really should have moved the sun to accommodate for the change in perspective) So next time I do something like this with Minecraft specifically, I’ll be using either the day or night for the backdrop. (because doing a sunrise clearly didn’t work out)
Making The Green Screen Project
Alright, I’ve got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it, so without further ado, let’s-a go!
So what’s the plot?
I’m currently thinking about having Super Sheep roam around minecraft land for about a minute, because it’ll provide a unique backdrop that can’t be recreated in dreams. (well, not entirely anyway) The reason I’m choosing Minecraft is because like Dreams, it’s quite an open game which will allow me to capture some nice background footage for Super Sheep to run around in, the only difference is that I don’t have to actually create the terrain myself if I don’t want to, of course this will come at the course of control which means I’d need to generate the world before hand, but I’m sure I’ll manage. (or better yet, I could use the one I’ve already generated for the experiment that influenced this Idea in the first place)
Project Management
and here, we have the all important project management table. Last time I ended up having way more time on my hands than I thought. To account for any extra time I end up getting this time, I’ve decided to add in what I like to call “dummy time,” (which is the purple bunch of boxes that extend beyond october 19th) that way I won’t have to worry about re-formatting the entire table after the fact.
The Script
Currently I’m thinking about calling this “Super Sheep’s Minecraft Adventure” because that was the first thing I came up with (but don’t be surprised if I decide to change the title partway through)
and this time, I’m not making the same mistake of putting literally everything in the middle of the page like I did last time (so that this time it’ll theoretically get read by the BBC before they chuck it for being too rushed)
Here, I want to emphasise the importance of describing your characters in a script. The reason doing this is so important is because it helps your film crew and the actors visualise the character while they’re reading the script (because while you might know what you want the characters to look like, other people might not), these descriptions can be quite difficult to write because they have to tell the crew and actors basically everything about a character while doing so with as few lines as possible (the reason for this is because the page length is mainly reserved as a frame of reference for how long the script is)
So for example, with Hex Moother (since he’s in the script), I’d say he’s “an evil cartoon cow dressed mostly in purple and blue with a pink belt”
aaaaaand I’ve finished the very first draft of this script (because I might want to make some changes) to it later, because right now the humour consists of some of the lowest hanging fruit that Minecraft can offer (those being the joke about the physics and the joke where the creeper blows Super Sheep to smithereens)
The First Version
Super Sheep’s Minecraft Adventures
By Sam Gordon
EXT. FOREST. DAY.
We see Super Sheep, who is a blue cartoon sheep that wears a yellow cape, happily taking a nap under the trees.
A shadowy figure then approaches Super Sheep as he opens his eyes in shock.
This shadowy figure is revealed to be his nemesis Hex Moother, an evil cartoon cow dressed mostly in purple and blue with a pink belt, who’s ready to send our hero to the Minecraft universe for rather malicious reasons.
Before Super Sheep can do anything Hex Moother knocks him unconscious
EXT. A MINECRAFT FOREST. DAY.
We fade to a low angle close up of Super Sheep waking up.
We pan outwards as he suddenly realises he’s in the Minecraft universe, which is made of tons of blocky terrain.
Our hero gets up and starts exploring this place.
He finds a tree and immediately starts examining it from all sides.
He accidently removes a block from it by punching it once.
He then notes that the rest of the tree is just floating there.
He then whistles as he just leaves the tree there.
EXT. A MINECRAFT PLAINS BIOME. DAY.
He walks onto the screen from the left as he scouts around trying to find the lay of the land.
We then cut to the blocky sun setting on the Minecraft world as it becomes night fall.
EXT. A MINECRAFT PLAINS BIOME. DAY.
We then cut back to Super Sheep deciding to try and find his way back to his universe.
A Creeper, which is a green blocky creature that explodes, then walks up to Super Sheep.
Super Sheep then hears the creeper’s distinct hiss as it blows him up, thus ending the cartoon.
THE END.
Some Reflection
Looking back at this script, you can see that once again I’ve opted not to include dialogue (this seems to be a bit of a running theme at the moment), the reason I’ve chosen to do it this time is because I was writing the script very quickly in order to make up for the time I lost thinking I was unable to do the actual experimentation, which happened because I didn’t immediately think to use the Sharefactory’s (severely limited) green screen features. (and now that I’ve only got until wednesday, I’ll have to do this at double speed)
I’d say this script turned out quite alright despite the fact that I went for more obvious jokes about the physics of Minecraft mainly because now I’m in a race against time to get the actual project done, (Ladies and gentlemen, this is likely why video games are rarely utilised in college work) so I’ll have to skip the part where I do a re-write and get on with the storyboarding process (because again, Time crunch is the worst)
Storyboards
I’ll admit this isn’t the exact same template I used fro a lot of projects (well, it is but the entire thing’s part of a bigger image, so it’s a case of it being the exact same template with a minor tweak here and there, the funny thing is it’s still from StudioBinder)
This time, the first thing I did was type in the name of the actual project, normally I like to actually do the visuals first but here I figured it would make sense to just type the name first so that I don’t have to worry about it
This box I just drew is meant to represent the camera’s starting position, which in this case is the sky. (because here we’re starting off in a regular forest before ending up in Minecraft)
In this screenshot, I decided to draw a second box in the bottom corner of the screen because it’s supposed to represent where the camera will end up, in this case I’ve decided it should end on Super Sheep (yup, that’s supposed to be Super Sheep) resting underneath a tree in the forest (for the forest, I’m thinking about reusing the same forest I’d originally made for the Colypsia website I created last year, because it’ll save me some time that I can now allocate to animation and getting those Minecraft shots), the arrow pointing at the bottom box is meant to represent the general path we’ll be taking to get to the second box (with the words “pan down” meant to instruct the theoretical crew as to how we’re supposed to get to Super Sheep himself)
Here, I’m writing some text explaining what’s happening in the box above, that way anyone reading the storyboards can instantly know what’s going on visually (I also decided that since I’m reusing the forest from the Colypsia website, I may as well have this part flat out take place in Colypsia as a sneaky hidden easter egg) because often with these storyboards the visuals tend to be rather messy. (which may sometimes make them unintelligible to the other crew members)
And here, we can see me using the same technique (of which I’m not sure if I actually invented) of having an arrow point towards the next box and indicating how we’re getting to the next shot (in this case we’ll be cutting to the next shot, but you could do anything from pans to dolies)
In this second image, you can see that Super Sheep looks a lot better than he does in the first box, the reason is that since he’s a lot closer to the camera in this shot, I can afford to give him a lot more detail than before (but he’s still not completely on model)
Here, I’ll have to pull a Pac-Man and have the arrow warp through to the other side of the paper in order to establish that this is the same shot (because I’m at the edge of the page right now), I should mention that for the part where Super Sheep’s in the normal forest, there’ll be no green screen because he and the forest are made in dreams (and if I did a chroma key there, it’d be redundant), the chroma key will come in once Super Sheep finds himself in Minecraft land because there’s no way Dreams will be able to handle a fully destructible minecraft world (not to mention it’ll be more authentic to Minecraft itself)
Here, you can see the motion lines being used to represent Hex Moother’s Shadow moving over our hero as he wakes up to see his old nemesis coming to knock him out and thus kick off the transition to Minecraft and allowing the chroma key to take over (I’ve actually got an Idea as to how I’m going to Storyboard the Minecraft section that involves taking pictures of the actual game and drawing Super Sheep over them)
Now here, I’m actually going to try something different with the warping arrow. What I’m thinking of is to use one side to say something (in this case “cut to black”) and then I could have the other side say something completely different (like “fade from black”) to simulate a transition.
and we’ve done batch 1 already (honestly I didn’t think I’d be able to do this one today)
To communicate the zoom out here, I’ve drawn a small little box (which represents where the camera starts or ends depending on if you’re doing a zoom in or zoom out) with lines pointing away from it (thus visually telling the camera crew what they’re supposed to be doing here), to communicate a zoom in, all you’d have to do is have the arrows pointed inwards.
We Interrupt This Program to bring you a fairly grim Project Management Update
Ok so the good news is that the real deadline is actually friday, the bad news is I’m not sure I’ll be able to get this done on time.
Minecraft Streaming
Ok, I know I should have done the shot list first, but this was one opportunity I wasn’t going to waste, so I got to work getting those backdrops
The finished backdrops
The Stream
Reflection
Oh boy what have I gotten myself into. The Stream itself was rather easy for me to do (considering all I was really doing was taking a bunch of pictures and briefly recording a couple of video clips), although I did run into some unexpected frustrations that related to pop ups the playstation would sometimes give me (so I had to wait a little bit) and the sun took too long to go down. (so I simply used the sunset command to fix this)
I will say that looking back, I probably should have done a shot list first (but I didn’t know if I’d even get the opportunity to do this again, so either way I’d probably lose) because then maybe I wouldn’t be fumbling around as much as I did.
Ok back to the boards
right, so I’m thinking that in order for me to actually get this thing done on time, I’m afraid I’ll have to scale back the entire production, this’ll unfortunately means Hex Moother won’t be making his big debut because I’m cutting the scene where he knocks out Super Sheep entirely (thus bringing more emphasis to the green screen effects), this is also an excuse for me to finish the storyboards there (oh no, looks like we’ve got ANOTHER Captain Cartridge on our hands already.)
And like that, we have batch 2 (if you can call it a full batch) done, I guess. (it’s too bad really, I never even got to implement that Minecraft Idea nor did I even get to keep the low hanging jokes I’d put in there)
Boarded Reflection
Ok, so now that I’ve cheaply decided to cut back on the scope of this thing, now’s the time to reflect on where I may have gone wrong. I believe it was when I didn’t do anything of note during the first week (that I was in college) when I was back at my house (much like I’m doing now), maybe if I didn’t procrastinate on that first week I’d be in a much better place, as for one, I’d likely have my work done a week earlier, and two, I’d be able to avoid ruining the editing project by taking too long to do research, thus giving me more time to plan this project. (and I mean ACTUALLY plan it out, in a proper order instead of taking the scattershot approach of doing things) So now all I have to do are the shot and asset lists and I’m all ready to roll on the animation.
The Shot and Asset lists
ShotWhat happensLow angleIt’s revealed we’re in minecraftlongSuper Sheep looks around a bit and leaves
AssetDo I have them?How?Super SheepyesMade in DreamsMinecraft BackgroundyesI took a picture using the PS4’s capture featuresGreen ScreenyesI made it during the experimentation
Yup, I just stuck them both in the same document just to save a little bit of extra time (of which I’ve not got a lot of), I know doing this is a cheap move on my part (because I like to think I’m better than that even though I’m really not) but I think the time save will be worth it once I’m animating and editing the whole thing.
We Interrupt This Program To Bring You Our Last Project Management Update
And after all that corner cutting and rushing through everything in a single day, I’ve finally finished this project. (looks like we’ll need to get a re-make going later on in order to fix all the glaring issues)
Production Day 1 (and editing)
This time I had a lot to do with very little time to do all of it, and after cutting all the corners to get everything done I was able to finish up the whole thing in about an hour or so.
Production Streams
Raw Video Clips
A big bowl of reflection
Ooooooooooh boy what a disorganised mess this last hour or so has been.
Animation Reflection
first I managed to animate all of Super Sheep’s movements in a major flash (it took around two sittings because I had to have my dinner in the middle of the action), which was the biggest batch of H E Double Hockey Sticks I’ve endured thus far because of how fast I had to work (you wanna know how bad it got? I didn’t even bother with a proper clean up phase like I usually do), part way into the Animation process I realised that Super Sheep’s cape would be a bit of an issue during the part where he’s laying down so I elected to remove it entirely instead of looking for ways to fix the issue. (which is why he doesn’t wear a cape in the first place)
In order for me to capture the lighting style of minecraft I simply needed to get four lights to shine on Super Sheep from the left and right (and on his back and front), that way the lighting conditions would match that of a vanilla Minecraft day (because the lighting in Minecraft isn’t very complicated)
I’d say the biggest challenge here was doing the zoom out, mainly because I wouldn’t know until after the fact whether or not it matched the Minecraft footage I captured before hand (which as you can tell from the editing stream, It didn’t but more on that later) so I simply had to wing it for the time being.
Re-capture Reflection
So what happened was that I deleted all the pictures and video footage off my PS4 thinking I’d simply be able to re-import them back into the Share Factory once I needed them again, but boy was I wrong, as I found out while trying to import the whole thing that I’d need to actually create new folders for Importing images and videos separately (because of course I did), so I scrapped that idea and simply decided to just re-capture the backgrounds entirely (which I’ll admit wasn’t that hard to do because all I was doing was playing Minecraft and remembering to capture two images and a video clip)
New Super Background Images
Editing Reflection
And once the second editing stream kicked off, I ended up having to cut even more corners than before (I guess you could call me a pair of scissors with the amount of corners I’ve cut here) as after I’d gotten all the elements together I realised that the green screen footage wouldn’t actually match the Minecraft footage (because the tree he’s lying under never stayed in the middle like I thought so it just looked like he existed on the top layer of reality), unfortunately for me, this was an issue I had no Idea how to fix meaning even if I wanted to fix this issue, I couldn’t due to a lack of knowledge. (trust me, I wish I knew how to fix this) So after pressing on for a few extra minutes and a quick bit of rendering. It was time for me to release the full thing. (yup, no time for feedback unfortunately)
The Full Video (all 11 seconds of it)
Evaluation
I’ll put it this way, this work took a different turn than I was expecting thanks to The Share Factory’s severely limited green screen features, although finding this out ended up being both a blessing, because now I was actually able to do the work at home with Dreams and Minecraft, and a curse, because of the limited window of time I ended up being under by the time I got around to writing the actual script. (which I had to cut most of anyway, thus pulling another Captain Cartridge) Luckily for us, we’ll get to do a deep dive into various aspects of production to see exactly where things may have gone wrong.
The Experimentation
I’d say doing the experimentation for this one was quite fun even if I did it with some severely limited software, and even then, I didn’t realise I could do this until a day or two after I did the first piece of raw green screen footage so I had to spend a day completing that one before I could move on to do the experiment where Super Sheep was flying over Minecraft land (which funnily enough gave me the idea to put Super Sheep in minecraft for the main project in the first place because doing the green screen in Dreams while using a Dreams backdrop, I might as well have the characters actually be there)
Speaking of the flying experiment, the reason that one was so easy for me to do was because I decided to try moving the camera itself to simulate movement (much like what they did when Eddie Valiant was falling from the tower in toon town from Who Framed Roger Rabbit), thus meaning I only had to worry about doing one pose for Super Sheep himself because the camera and cape provide most of the life in this one, even if the lighting didn’t quite match like it should have due to the way lighting works in Minecraft and how it clashes with Dreams’ lighting engine. (on the bright side, at least it helped me decide to have a day time setting instead)
So overall, I had a lot of fun doing the experimentation (mainly because I was buzzed about how the share factory actually has green screen capabilities, albeit severely limited) because it allowed me to test the waters with these effects so that once I did the main piece, I could theoretically get everything right. Except that’s not what ended up happening as you’re about to find out with…
The Idea Generation
I’ll admit that this particular phase didn’t actually go very well. Mainly because I was only able to generate one solitary idea (and even then, I only had this idea because my Minecraft experiment was ok at best), this isn’t anywhere close to ideal because usually one is supposed to come up with multiple ideas, but alas I was on a major time crunch unfortunately. (so I simply went with the Minecraft Idea because it was the most developed, which I’ll admit was a risky move because there was always the possibility that I might change my mind and be stuck with a bad idea)
The Script
Oooooooooooooh boy. I wish I had a lot more time to work on this thing because this version (which was a first draft I’d written in a big rush) wasn’t very good because the only two proper jokes it involved were some of the most low hanging fruit in terms of Minecraft humour (but even then, I ended up having to cut out both jokes due to time constraints), maybe if I had some more time I could have come up with some better jokes about the game like maybe Super Sheep could have punched a stone block so hard it disappeared (referencing what happens when you try mining stone with your hands), or maybe he could have some sand or gravel drop on him after he uses it (referencing how certain blocks in Minecraft are affected by gravity), ext.
I did have at least have a small amount of fun writing it (despite the lack of funny jokes) as it at least helped me gain a vague structure (even if again, most of it got cut out due to time constraints)
The Storyboards
I’d say this part wasn’t very good because partway though I’d decided to cut back on the production for the sake of keeping within the time frame (hey Cartridge, sound familiar?), regardless I still had a little bit of fun doing this part (what little I did anyway) because of all the previous experience I’ve accrued doing storyboards for other cartoons such as Convention F-3 and Operation Compact Disc, so far those are my proudest projects because unlike this thing, I actually had a lot more time on my hands thanks to one being the final major project and the other being a more personal project I did over the summer time before this course began.
The Animation
And here’s where everything really starts going terrible wrong because this part was severely rushed due to how little time I had left to give you an idea as to how rushed this process was, I’d started the animation, finished the animation, edited the whole thing together and then released it on the exact same day without even checking for feedback. (and the lack of a feedback has likely resulted in this video being much worse than it could have been)
Although I was actually in quite a catch 22 when ic came to this situation as if I’d asked for feedback minutes after doing the animation, I’d probably still be improving it (and thus reflecting on said improvements), which while making this video better, would mean I’d be cutting it even closer to the deadline than I already did (so in a way, I’d lose either way), maybe next time I’ll have to try and take more time with the animation process to begin with
Editing
Here, I think the main problem I had here was that I was using severely limited editing software, that being Share Factory on the PS4, which while it’s good for those that want to create epic gamer moments, it’s takes a bit more ingenuity to make something like what I’ve made here (so I guess you could say I’m limited by the technology of my time), so the only way I could see myself improving on an editing front is literally getting new editing software, which I originally wanted to do for Vegas Pro 18, but couldn’t due to it requiring a 64-bit system (Curse you Nintendo 64, again)
One example of a limitation is that you can’t have more than two visual tracks at once (this applies for both images and video) and even then, one of them is technically meant for let’s play style commentary (and as such it’s the only one that allows for any green screen shenanigans), I get a feeling I’ll be brushing up against this limitation in the future, no doubt due to the larger scale of potential projects such as the music video, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
In conclusion
Overall, I’d say this project didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would, likely due to a drought in experimentation back when I tried to get my hands on Vegas Pro 18 to no avail and the alternative I did end up using was severely limited in terms of the green screen (which means for once, video games have actually put me at a disadvantage when it comes to readily available editing features), that’s not even mentioning all the cutbacks I had to make in terms of the script (man, Hex Moother can’t seem to get a proper appearance can he?) which is funny because Captain Cartridge was in a similar pinch last year (with his rubbish skinubbish), and this stinks because when I did that first piece of green screen footage for the experiment, I was actually ahead. (but now I’m not) Oh well, I suppose I know for next time I guess, now it’s time to switch word processing software as we move on to the music video unit.
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