A MultiPlane animation is a setting that has multiple layers. These layers range in distance from the audience with the sizes of objects on the layers being sized accordingly. When the animation plays, it is made to look as realistic as it would if you were to walk or drive along the setting. The first MultiPlane animations were made by sliding drawings made on transparent celluloid along different shelves and then photographing each fraction of an inch of movement among them. Walt Disney used this setup for his animations:
The Project
We started in Photoshop with a 10000-7000 by 1080 canvas and made at least five layers and a background. We had to keep in mind that the objects on layers in the back had to be smaller than the ones in the front. Also, the background layer must cover the entire canvas as it would not be moving in the animation. (Ex. When you are looking at the moon it does not move and it does not get any bigger or smaller.) When we moved on to After Effects it was simple, we put keyframes for all of the layers at the beginning and at the end. The keyframes at the beginning were all in a line, while the ones at the end had to be tweaked to make the layers closer to the audience move faster than the ones in the back. After that, all we had to do was export the project and we were finished. Majority of the work in this projects was in Photoshop and designing the layers and making sure they were proportioned correctly.
For our second video of the year we were told to interview one of the 2,000 brilliant students at our school about one of their favorite memories from the summer or beyond. In my group, I was the one to be interviewed. I talked about the trip that I took this summer to South Dakota and the wonders I saw there.
Pre-Production
Before we started filming we had to plan. We created a small storyboard showing where we would be filming, we had to choose a place that would fit the theme of our interview. Then, it was the job of the interviewer to write 21 interview questions that we could work off of during the interview. The person receiving the interview was not allowed to have a copy of the questions and was not scripted. This made the interview very natural and less nerve-wracking. We were also told how to conduct the interview. The interviewer would be sitting off screen and to the side so that the person receiving the interview would look at them instead of right into the camera. Once we had all these things down, we were ready to begin filming.
Production
The filming of our interview was very quick because we did it all in one clip. However, getting set up took a little while, we had to play with some stats on the camera to get the microphone to pick up sound. We moved setup as well, the window we were originally filming in front of had too much light coming through and made me look like a shadow. The only problem with filming in front of the courtyard window was that at one point in our video, a person walked by in the background. While filming I had a hard time finding one place to look, it was very tempting to look at the camera. Next time I will be more disciplined to look just at the interviewer. One instruction we forgot was to not pass the microphone back and forth. This created a conflict later in editing.
Post-Production
The first time I edited this video it was very choppy, the interview was too long so I had to cut some unimportant questions out. I also stuttered a few times and there were awkward pauses where I tried to think of what to say. These also had to be cut out along with the pass-off of the microphone. I used only three pieces of b-roll in the first edit. On the second edit my main goal was to make it have less cuts, I did this by putting in some more b-roll over parts with lots of cuts and taking out the interviewer's voice and replacing it with a question screen. I also added an end screen. The second edit looks a lot cleaner and I am happy with the way it turned out.
What I Would Change
If I were to do this project again I would try to find some different music because the music at the beginning is reused from the How to Use a Hall Pass video. During filming I would make every answer a different shot instead of having one long clip, this will prevent awkward cuts in the middle of sentences. I would also keep in mind only giving the microphone to the person receiving the interview so there is no passing the microphone back and forth. Otherwise this video went pretty smoothly.
Overall
Overall I think our group used the five guarantees of e-comm very well; we collaborated at the beginning to decide who we should interview based on what we had to share. We communicated through post-production to make sure we were editing correctly and that everyone had the clips and b-roll to make a professional video possible. We had effective project management because we finished filming and editing in good time. We each took on a bit of a leadership role depending on our part of the project (For example, I had to make sure I had plenty to talk about my trip to South Dakota and was able to bring in some b-roll). We used our existing technical skills combined with some new tricks we learned with the camera and Adobe Premiere Pro to produce and then re-edit our video to make it more professional. This project was fun because I learned a lot on how to film a proper interview.
For this project we first had to create a character of our own on paper. We had to leave out shading and colors because that was to be added in Photoshop later. Then, scanned or sent our drawing to our computers and imported it into Photoshop. From there we edited out the extra space so it was only our character. Next we had to separate and copy the parts of our character if we were planning on having them move in the animation. After that we added in color along with shine and shadows using the dodge and burn tool. Finally, we added in a background and then we were ready to move on to After Effects. In After Effects we started with setting the anchor points for each of the body parts that would be moving in the animation. Then we parented all the parts from the body to keep them from falling off. From there we set position and rotation keyframes accordingly. Every part had to move opposite from each other which was the hardest part. Before moving on to the null object we added a shadow by making a shape and applying a Gaussian Blur effect. The last step was the null object which we only had two keyframes for; one at the beginning, one at the end. If your character walked faster you might have had to move them closer together to make sure your character wasn't gliding across the floor. After that, you were done and you could export and upload to YouTube.
Overview
At the beginning of this project I had a hard time creating a character I really liked I had two designs before I came up with my little dinosaur: a robot and a teddy bear. I ended up pulling out my sketchbook when I had some extra time in another class and started doodling, ending up with my dinosaur. The Photoshop portion of this project was pretty simple for me. I implemented some skills from some previous projects to make the window looking outside and the shadow-like effects on the floor and door. In After Effects things started to get a little tricky. It took me a while to get the movement of the legs to where they are now. There is still a little glitch in the right leg every few seconds. After finishing the arm and leg movements I realized that I needed some head movement to make the animation look more smooth. I had to go back into Photoshop and separate his head into another layer before I could make it move. I ended up having some extra time so I made his eye blink as well.
What I Would Change
Overall, this project was a lot of fun! I missed a day of class due to orchestra but I was able to catch up pretty easily. I really liked how it turned out. The only part I would change would be glitch in his leg. I believe that happened because of a mistake keyframe when I was first attempting to make him walk. I would also like to make the background more realistic because it looks pretty 2-Dimensional.
