Aquapax

This marks the last day of the Aquapax project!

Please use the "01-motion-graphics" filter, above, to isolate the posts from this brief.

The Final Cut

Note

Open GL rendering is a must for strong Depth of Field users! I spent hours trying to remove a strange artifact from my final rendering, only to find enabling the Open GL renderer fixed my issues.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a4f2dff7-79e8a.html

Aquapax Conclude

History

The conclusion is designed to be a refreshing step out of the liveliness, that is the flourishing animation, beforehand.

I speak to a lot of people about my ideas, I think it's important to get an idea first-hand, because most of the time an idea will pop into my head after hearing something that someone has to say; that's what happened with this. I was stuck on the word 'poetry'.

I wanted to use this word to conclude with as I felt it a, embraced my motion graphics and b, what the brands' ideals. Here are just a few of the definitions:

po·et·ry
noun

the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.

poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of simple acts and things.

poetic spirit or feeling: The pianist played the prelude with poetry.

And so... I decided a play on words would be the cleverest approach. It was only when I was speaking to my classmate Sam, that the scene in which I could use one unfolded!

With the registered, Aquapax tagline: 'think inside the box'. Swapping 'think' for 'poetry' temporarily was an idea I put to Sam and a family member - they loved it.

Outcome


Click image to enlarge.


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Lights, Camera, Action!

Lights

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_keyframes/story/cmg_hidden_gems_chapter_15_-_lighting_in_3d/

Chapter 15 covers lighting 3D layers in After Effects. It discusses the different types of lights and their parameters, how lights interact with layers and their Material Options, the many secrets of shadows, creating gels and gobos, faking reflections, adjustment lights, projection lights, and using 3D lights to re-illuminate already-shot 2D footage.

This was one of the best sources of information, on lights in After Effects, I've found on the web.

Cameras

TRICKY! Cameras really are tricky, and there is a ton on the web about them, as I found out. Here are three of the most valuable resources I used when building my rig.

http://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/simple-camera-rig/

In this tutorial I will show you a technique that is widely used in camera animation by many artists that work in 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, or any other 3D application.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_keyframes/story/cmg_hidden_gems_chapter_14_-_cameras/

Chapter 14 covers creating and animating a camera, including creating camera rigs and taking advantage of auto orientation, as well as showing how to cut between multiple cameras. We conclude by discussing the camera’s parameters in more detail, including how to fake focus and depth of field effects.

Rough Cut!

That's right! Here's my rough cut and my listed intentions for the final cut.

Rough Cut



Final Cut Intentions

• Tweak order of animated masks. E.G. Letters.
• Tidy up animation duration of some elements.
• Add lighting.
• Camera adjustments:
• Finalise motion path.
• Improve Depth of Field.

Audio 'Mastering'

Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_mastering

...all techniques are generic and can be translated to any genre of music using similar plug-ins and any digital audio workstation software.

Source: http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/how-to-master-a-track-in-15-minutes-or-less/

Translating the above instruction for use with my choice of software, Adobe Soundbooth, I will master my audio track using the following methods:

• Ensure headroom for mastering by making sure the track doesn't 'clip' at loudest points.
• Use a 'compressor' to ensure dynamics across the entire track are as uniform as possible.
• Use an 'equaliser' to reduce and/or boost select sound frequencies.
• Use a 'multi-band compressor' to boost and/or reduce the volume of quiet and/or loud segments in the track.
• Use a stereo enhancer to balance the left and right audio.

Further Reading

http://innig.net/music/recordings/method/mastering.html

Research into a Piano Piece

During my research, I undcovered two composers that've had pieces in the commercial light, some of which I felt were especially suitable for Aquapax.

André Rieu

He composed the theme for the film Romeo and Juliet, a famous play, written by Shakespeare (just like the Sonnet I'm using!).



http://www.youtube.com/artist?a=GxdCwVVULXd95GON88AwbOC2Gy015QAs

Mark Joggerst

He composed many songs for high-tier commercials - the brands of which are listed below.

• Lexus LS 460
• Heidi
• Salonta
• Biborteni
• Nescafe
• Maggi
• Renault
• Coca Cola

http://www.markjoggerst.de/en/music.html

Decision

I have decided on using the commercial (short) version of the delicate Lexus - The Pursuit Of Perfection, and not just because the title suits the Aquapax! The main reason behind my choice is the duration and tone of this piece; it's more uplifting than most of the solo piano pieces I've heard.

My friend's awaiting the sheet music, so I shall email it to him now.

Voiceover: Take Two!

Neil

At the end of client-crit, I took Neils number so that I could organise a voiceover with him. Yesterday he returned from a trip, and today I called him to let him know that I'd found a voice actor. I did this to make sure that extra planning, on his part, wasn't necessary.

Voice

It just so happens that one of my Mums friends has voice-acted for British Airways. I have been throwing emails backwards and forth with Mum, who's forwarded the information to her friend. It has ended up that I will go and meet her for a recording session this evening!

Notes

Andrew said that using the back seat of a car (lol) was good for make-shift audio recording.

Reading

Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution explores the creative and technical process behind a range of international branding projects. Covering brand identity, development, extension and on-screen treatment, these highly original and innovative solutions have been drawn from around the globe to give a picture of contemporary branding practices.

Source: Google Books

Today, I've been reading through an e-book, titled Branding: from brief to finished solution. This was one of the readings which was recommended as further reading, by my lecturer, in the Aquapax brief.

The book is written by Mono Design and published by RotoVision in 2005. It has many illustrations, following case-studies of famous, international businesses, like Coca-Cola. The below image is a figure from page 143.


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Research into QR Audio Content

All of a sudden people were worrying about the fact audio content might not be received by a mobile phone user if the users' device was silenced. Although this is a valid concern, it's not a problem if your piece doesn't rely on audio - and it shouldn't be!

My piece certianly isn't reliant on audio; my time has gone into making it as visually appealing as possible. It begins visually and concludes visually, the audio just enhances what's on-screen.

Many topics uncover professional material being delivered audiably through a QR code.

"Innovative QR Codes Deliver Newspaper Content with Audio"

“We took QR codes beyond advertising and now deliver full audio versions of articles via QR codes directly from the headlines,”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/ASection/Article/Innovative-QR-Codes-Deliver-Newspaper-Content-with-Audio--Video-on-Mobile-Web

"...different QR codes to lead to different content"

A band can put different QR codes to lead to different content -- one code for video, another for audio, and another to add a concert to the user's calendar.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/business-matters-americans-getting-into-1005315862.story

"QR codes bridge the gap between offline and online media"

One of them, a version of Around the World in 80 Days, uses QR codes to provide readers access to the audio versions of the book chapters and to Google Maps.

http://ss.seamlesssocial.com/tools/7-benefits-of-qr-codes-for-content-marketing-or-inbound-marketing

Notes

Before the advertisement begins, I've decided to flash a clear icon of a speaker up on the users display. This should remind them, if their device's silenced, to activate their sound. The idea is to make it minimal and as unobtrusive as possible.

Crit Session

Client

I think I impressed Neil with the demonstration of the final piece - for a second he seemed lost for words. I don't know whether that was a good or a bad thing, but he smiled so I reckon all's good! I did get some feedback from the session, which I noted on PBWorks; see 'Notes' below.

With Chris' input, I believe they wanted me to conclude as 'Aquapax' appeared in the viewport - he liked this shot; I think it was a perspective thing!

However, I completely disagree with this feedback, as I let my lecturer, Sue, know the day after. I believe she was on my side when I said I felt the entire piece needed to have a real conclusion. Mobile viewers, especially those without audio, would definately need a conclusion to satisfy them. This is relevant to Chris' feedback below.

Chris

Journey through the packaging

Strong idea and aesthetic needs careful timing to be most effective.

A quite complex and time consuming animation process could be made easier by careful consideration of work flow and simple tricks in A.E. before starting on the computer.

This piece is completely dependant on the voiceover – how will this work when viewed on a smartphone ?

Notes

http://badmdlewes.pbworks.com/w/page/47071627/Simon%20Sinclair

Audio Editing

Soundbooth

Adobe Soundbooth was a digital audio editor by Adobe Systems Incorporated for Mac OS X, Windows Vista and 7. Adobe has described it as being "in the spirit of SoundEdit 16 and Cool Edit 2000".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Soundbooth

Shown in the image below, I have laid out my vocal and piano track. I have cut and aligned, and used bezier and linear fading to introduce them. This mixdown was used in my client pitch session. I will use a similar method in the final piece.


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Recording Day

Today is Monday and I met up with Elliot Burton, a drama student, who spent an hour and a half reading Shakespeare until we got a recording we were happy with. We use an HHB FlashMic duct-taped to a Mac Pro case for optimal pick-up height.

We made a total of 23 takes, of which, the last four were the best. I now need to review each recording; expect a post to follow regarding audio processing!

Mask Issue

In the image below, notice how the "_TEMP" layer I created, with a basic grey rectangle, shows through the transparent areas in the blue mask.

As you can see, these transparent areas make up a substantial amount of the elements on the design, but they cannot be animated. I will need to drop back into Illustrator, create a solid, white rectangle and use the 'Pathfinder' tool, in conjunction with the blue mask, to 'cookie'-cut the areas from the white layer, thus recreating them as seperate objects I can animate.

It'll slow me down a little, as I must also put these new elements into an existing logical container - but, this will mean I can then animate them, which is obviously what I needed in the first place. Ugh!


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Update

I'm getting pretty efficient at this procedure! All mask elements now exist as white objects, which've been indexed into a logical group (shown in the image below.) I must now move these groups into the pre-existing logical containers before I import back into After Effects.


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Setting up the Project

Composition:

main
...|__ camera
...|__ ai-layers
...|.........|__ ~layers
...|__ base


Main


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AI-Layers


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Preparing an AI for After Effects

Adobe TV
USING ILLUSTRATOR ARTWORK IN AFTER EFFECTS

The tutorial, linked below, is presented by Eran Stern and is a fantastic representation of my current workflow.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-after-effects-cs5/using-illustrator-artwork-in-after-effects/

"Preparing and importing Illustrator files"

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f54a.html

"Continuously rasterize a layer containing vector graphics"

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f49a.html


My title-safe, guided, 720p artboard:


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My artwork in the viewport, ready to go:


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Finishing up in Illustrator

The image below shows the final piece with its elements organised logically, into layers, ready for import into After Effects.


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Layering

A solid day and one night, and every object on my artboard is one I intent to carry into After Effects. I need to separate these objects, currently on sub-layers of the main layer, into logical groups. These logical groups will each form a layer that will exist in the After Effects composition.

As you can see from the image below, I have begun this process. The layers I have circled contain what the layers' name explains. E.G. The first layer contains the letters which make up the text, "EAU MINERALE NATURELLE".

Layer Name Convention

• MIMICKING The Text = Text
• _underscore = Image

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The image below shows an all-encompasing selection of one layer. This layer forms the 'logical group' of the right wave.


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Further Cleaning

In removing the visible elements I didn't require (and temporarily disabling the blue base), I uncovered more which seemed to be an 'Overprint Stroke' to the smaller, more detailed objects. This is shown in the image below. Each stroke like this had to be selected individually and removed.


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The selection, in the image below, shows just how this stroke plagued even the smallest of objects.


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And It Starts

I am at the point where I must begin clearing elements from the PDF (artwork), which are irrelevant to my piece.

Group Selection Tool

As you can see, from the image below, the amount of layers in the piece (even though I've begun clearing) are still in the hundreds; an unworkable amount. I must use the 'Group Selection' tool to rid the each object I do not want to carry over into After Effects.

Because this is a PDF of the 'exploded' artwork, and not the original AI, this is harder than it sounds; selecting one element can lead to erroneously selecting other objects in its wake. A lot of care needs to be taken to ensure you do not end-up deleting something you require. I made incremental back-ups during this procedure to ensure, if that were to occur, I could return to a point before it did.


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