the edit

so here is the final edit with the sound effects added aswell.

so i believe the sounds along with this makes a huge difference and a marked improvement to the final product. im pleased most by the sounds of the spitfires as to me it fits and enhances the scene. the edit works well so much so iv had people unable to realise that the planes were added in by me. also in the original footage the girl does not die she continues running. the other key thing is the girl that begins to run is a completely different girl that continues running. all of these aspects reinforce my edit.

i have really enjoyed doing this project, to begin with it was the models that kept me interested and i put all my efforts into this. then when i began to animate i became more focussed on getting the edit and compositing right hence the reason why i went through a mass re-edit half way through the project when i realised that the tracking was not going to work.

so overall im really pleased with how this project has come out i have learnt a lot about modelling, compositing and editing through this project, but the main point of learning has been through the uv and texturing as i spent a lot of time on the spitfire getting the textured correctly.

lights shadows and evolution?

so this picture shows the 2 planes and a flat surface plus the lights. this new edit of the shot shows the new animation for the left plane. the surface is there to simply display the shadows of the planes. the surface is modelled to replicate the hillside in the shot so in the final shot the shadows roll over the hillside, so for this shot i rendered the planes and then the shadows separately so i can get more control over the shadows and the planes.

so here we have the final shot completed im much happier with this version where i have taken more time over the animation of the secondary plane, the only issue i have is that of the bullet contacts on the ground but i realise now that i could have created my own video effects quite easily at home with a camera setup from stores and a piece of white card, but this is said in retrospect and i may be enforcing it in later projects with more funding/ edit some funding

flyby

so here is the final shot but im not happy about the way it looks as far as the planes animation goes, the left plane needs to divebomb too et viola

sound effects

sound effect sourcing is going really well and ben has shown me a website called media converter and with this site you can use youtube videos and convert them into a wav, audio file. so in other words you can rip the sound straight from videos, this is highly useful if you can find youtube videos with good sound looooool.

so here is the shot of the plane low flying and gunning heavy on the after effects, only issue is that the dirt pops are a little bit odd but at the same time they pop so quick that the smokiness is not so much of an issue.

some flight reference looking at the movement and stability. the drift and banking is very important

so here we see some basic shots in the beginning stages youtube has made the video really scratchy and hard to see the actual effects but it serves a purpose along side the story board. so the initial plane establishing shots are in effect too disjointed and the planes are so diffused by motion blur that they are hardly registerable. so the first three shots are to be re-rendered as one continuous shot and edited into the final clip. the later shots need more work as far as the planes comming over the hill need to be more prominent and more visible and the shadow shot needs the planes to move faster and keep in time with the rest of the footage, as errors like these can cause havoc to the continuity of the piece.

rough storyboard

so here is the rough story board of my new intention, the reason why it is in rough is due to my rather late changes it is impracticle to make a flashy storyboard, but as this serves its purpose for me and me only then i am happy to keep myself attuned to this rough version. some shots may change though as it all comes down to the edit at the end

schedule

so the schedule is up and running and up to date, and i will be keeping a close eye on it.
although whilst using the software, microsoft project i have encountered irregularities and strange goings on, as i have set tasks and subtasks and also dependencies and due to this the program will not allow me to alter the projects allotted time frame as such in the middle of the project there is ahuge void with several aspects such as animating stuck on a longjevity of 1 day this ofcourse is un obtainable and stupid and the only way i can see of rectifying this problem is to starto from scratcho.

sound

i have begun to source my sound for the piece as i now know the majority will be the spitfire engine which i believe to be the rolls royce merlin engine. this sound is unique and iconic so it has to be done right or not done at all ......

consistency

so i have decided to render out a whole load of footage for the spitfires fly over as the cuts jump back and forth between the approaching 3d element and the original footage, so to keep the speed and position consistent it is necessary to edit it as a whole and simply crop the unnecessary footage. this will make the overall shot much more precise and more believable.

now were getting somewhere

so after the last couple of days iv been able to get some decent work done surrounding the newly developed sequence. the flow of the edit is much better and provides a better grounding for the 3d elements, im really looking forward to how this project turns out as im sure it will be brilliant. the initial establishing shots of the spitfires have come out well although im not too sure about the amount of motion blur added so i might need to kick that back a bit. there was also aproblem with consistency of placement and speed of the planes.

problems

so my second shot involves a long camera track and sweep upwards previously this shot was thought to be ok and unnecessary to track as the cg element would be in the distance and in the sky. but alas there was no such luck and the shot was in need of tracking. so i attempted to use maya live to resolve the problem, only to introduce many more problems. the footage is to sparse and void of any trackable information not to mention the reduced quality of the footage just to get it to play in maya. so after introducing over 30 track points and seeing full green bars i went to solve only to have the green bars turn to red and the pixel slip to 340 ?? baring in mind the ideal slip is 2. so tracking was out of the option.

so i then tried to remove the problem scene and introduce new footage to no avail.
so my resolution is to source new footage and provide a new narrative.

as such now my scene will consist of a more concise narratve in which the spitfires are the main focus. this new footage provides simpler elements of visual effects but overall will be a much better piece of work

first shot

first shot progress

so this shot here shows the blimp model flying behind the tree line. done by simply rendering out as a targa sequence and then composited in after effects by duplicating the original footage and then colour keying out the sky. easy and works well

i have also included a shader within this render, rendering out the maya scene twice: once with the texture and second with the shader, then parented to each other in after effects and then bled together through opacity to overlay both renders.

progress

so here are the textured models of a Blimp and a Spitfire. the models were pretty simple and hopefully work well in the final piece

storyboards

so here are the initial story boards for my section of film and what i plan to do.

the second picture shows the nicer more planned board, blue is original film and red is the 3D comp

so for the moment i have dove into modelling in order to keep on track and have so far managed to model a pretty decent blimp, my reference is all from the hindenburg as my animation is gunna be pretty much that. so on top of this i have been looking for decent free explosions and fireballs for my composite in after effects.

inglorious basterds

so for this project , to intergrate and composite 3d aspects with a section of a live action film, i intend to use a small piece from inglorious basterds and composite an air ship and 2 fighter planes interacting all happening in the background behind the oblivious characters