Sky's VFS Final Project Blog

Week 11

2008-11-14T16:23:00.001-08:00

This was the insane week, after making all the title intro's for it, thank you ending, VFS plates, etc. I started rendering it out, half way through my file crashed, I restarted AE and lo and behold all my AE data got lost, so all the stitch work got lost with that. So after shedding a few tears and about half hour of shock, I picked myself up, and got in order what I needed to do to get this finished, asap. So luckily I worked this project in two parts the intro and the fighting sequence, I still had those two done and saved in different parts, so I put back together again resaved, and switched on autosave this time! (big lesson) and rebuilt it back up, no sleep, all nighter for a couple of days, and added the sound effects and music. Handed in a version before the end of the week, and during the weekend, refined it even more.

And this was the product of all the hard work and labour.

Ninja Meijin Final Project V1 from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

Week 10

2008-11-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

This week I finalized the fighting footage, and added all the graphics for that, including the adobe illustrator stills which is used for the slow motion sword hits. I then combined the intro and the fighting footage, I stitched them both together so it doesnt look like its stitched together.

Week 9

2008-11-14T15:41:00.001-08:00

This week was starting to get even more intense, and had the footage all ready to go, and now was the time to get all my assets together and piece it together to create the intro, you will see the flowers, plants, clouds, smoke, 3D tree's/moon/sun/sword/ninja stars, I put that all together, and refined it more for timing and colour correction.

Week 8

2008-11-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

So after all the footage was taken, I had a whole slew of editing to do, taking it all in AE render it out to QT, import it into premiere, and edit all the footage that I knew I wanted, after finishing all that, I rendered out all the shots to another QT file for editing in AE. So pretty much it was like a box full of puzzle pieces and now had to put it all together into a sequence that made sense.
So the whole week was pretty much editing of all the footage. :)

week 7

2008-10-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Crazy times indeed, so I have a new martial artist, a student, and very enthusiastic about this project, which makes for two performers who are excited about doing this project, which I am grateful for. Before I get into that, I had to make sure I have their outfits together and boy was that stressful for me, so much goes into this, I haven't thought that getting their outfits together was going to be this tough. I called and emailed at least a dozen seamstress's, and some were too busy, or when I gave them a description of the outfit, they said it looked too complicated to do etc. So now I had to improvise and do everything myself, so what I did was spoke to my advisor and we talked about how I can do this, so what I did was I visited a couple of Value Villages, got a costume for a executioner for a base set template for the bad guy, got alot of fabric, and alot of sports equipment, shin pads, chest pads, arm pads etc. Next I got a nice sleeveless shirt from Zellers, got a belt from this army place on Granville, and for the final piece for the Ryu a silver face mask from Bazaar Party, which on the filming day, was finally custom cut from the Kev (Ryu actor) to form the top part! (good work there Kev!) So it took me a couple of days to make everything, I spray painted and or felt penned all the sports equipment, to make them all black. I cut all the fabric for the head pieces and cut up some strips for Ryu's clothing, to make them tighter for a more of a ninja look. On the day of the shoot the bad guy, he was a bit shorter than I anticipated, so I had cut his fabric a bit shorter, for movement. All in all the outfits turned out pretty good, for doing it all myself.

As for the shoot we shot it all in one day, I had the Chinese Garden in China town booked for that day, although when we got there no one told the front office, so they looked it up, and nada, so I told them who I spoke with, so they just let me use the garden after that. We walked in and looked for a spot, there was a tour guide going around, so we needed a more of a private area, and we found the Scholars area to be that spot. After waiting for the tour guide to finish with that area, and some tourists asking to take a picture of us, well mostly the Ninja actors, with me the film director/cameraman/choreographer in the background with the big smile, we finally got to shoot.

We took about 4 hours of time there, from set up to filming to take down. I got some tips from this choreographer, about what needed to be shot, although with him not being there last minute, I had to again improvise on what I wanted, and what angles to do it at, its pretty tough, and I have complete respect for film makers/directors/choreographers, as its alot of work to direct your actors, as they look to you for direction and to tell them what to do. I have done this before with our green screen projects in term 2 and the music video, but this being my final project, I had to really make this footage above decent, and this is only going to happen once, as there are no re-shoots, as these guys are travelling and are volunteering their time, plus a time constraint as Nov. 6 is the last day to hand in this project.

After this location was done with we then proceeded to the Production room at 420 Homer, or as I like to call it Greeneroom. I had the room booked for 5pm, but lo and behold good ol' pal Morgan was still working...so I heard, but he was no where to be found! we waited for a bit, and he then finally arrived, he said he had the room till 11, but I told him I had it from 5, heh so there was communication problem with booking. So anyways I said we'll wait, the performers checked their emails, and we waited for over a hour, went back no Morgan, we waited for about 20 min. I then was pondering about taking down the set, as we were all starting to get tired, I said I'll wait another 5 min. just in case, lucky I did lol, as Morgan finally got back, and needed to shoot one more guy, as he finished, he shot some cool pics with his fancy camera, and helped setup the lights real fast, he is a pro! Thanks Morgan! So with that we got onto our shots, basically some closeups, some duplicates, the final slice as I like to call it, and some fun ones with Jervin, doing some acrobatic jumps.

Week 6

2008-10-16T21:19:00.001-07:00

So this week, I have finished a basic bone structure on 3D rigging in cinema 4D, and have practised some more After Effects techniques for my final. I am just making the costume myself and am hoping it doesnt look cheesy. Had a last minute choreographer for fighting, commit to a project on a thursday, I was supposed to make final plans on Friday, but I had to help my mom move, and then I had a class, a mentor meeting, pick up camera equipment, and then pick up my daughter, felt a tad ill when I got home and instantly crashed, so the choreographer commited to another project, filming got cancelled, and now I have to wait for another week to commence filming the fight scene, I desperately need. I am making all the assets now, and have a demo for my name skylz I am now putting on all my work.

A Skylz design test from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

Week 5

2008-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

So this week was trying to get alot of things done, basically I found out, seamstress's are harder to get ahold of, and when I do, the job of creating a specialized costume is hard to do and for them to understand it. So I am going to have to look harder, and if not, make it myself, I have started doing tutorials on rigging characters now.

Week 4

2008-09-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

This week we have been getting alot of our presentations ready for our "judges", and getting any help we can. My seamstress has bailed, as it is too busy for her, so I am now trying to acquire another asap! Because I most definately need a outfit for my martial artist, and I need a good one at that, so I am going to have to pay someone to help me for that. As for this week I have started doing some test effects:

Ninja star test 3D from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

3D Level background test from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

Blood Test 2 from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

I have completed my animatic, and chose a classical song, as I am staying away from the typical fast paced music of game trailers.

Animatic for my final project Ninja Meijin from perry sky jack on Vimeo.

Week 3

2008-09-26T05:07:00.001-07:00

So far this week I was battling a cold, I was doing pretty good there for awhile, but my daughter had a cold, so I guess that's I how I got it. But I keep on truckin along, this week got some more guidance and inspiration as we had the advanced 3D course this week, and learned about Voodoo tracking in 3D space, and how that could work with my project, which Eric said no, I would need to learn motion capture, which kind of sank my inspiration, but then now I am thinking about asking the game designers and 3D designers about motion capture, and if I can use that for my upcoming 3D weapon model's as that would be really cool, if that was an integral part of my project, having swift weapons fly around just like the video game. As for the process I have finalized my Project Plan, and my storyboard. Which feels like a real accomplishment, as a motion designer, I am ecstatic about the creation of visuals and seeing it being done, but career wise, I know I have to be able to put together a strong process foundation.

Week 2

2008-09-18T19:20:00.001-07:00

This week was not as busy as expected, and could have been scheduled to go under the 50/50 rule, as it appears I have alot of time, and therefore can hold off on some things. Which is a big no no, if VFS has taught you anything procrastination is your Achilles heal and can make you suffer with plenty of sleepless nights trying to finish off your work in the last week or two, so I am really trying not to do this for my final and ultimate project, which should and will be (positive thinking) my showcase piece from my tenure here at VFS.

The big thing I got from this week is some good advice from meetings, and had a good meeting with my mentor as well, as he helped me stay in focus on my tasks at hand, and really made me aware of what I need to do. Which is take out the Sony EX1, practise shots, and practise techniques in my effects such as ink drops, blood (paint) splatters, and finish off my storyboard.

Got ahold of my martial artist, who I am grateful so far, as he really seems enthusiastic about this project. He has some weapons to bring to the shoot at the end of the month, which saves me some hassle. And am researching for ninja outfit, as well as got ahold of a camera crew which has this camera Red One, a very nice and expensive camera that can shoot 120fps, which would be really sweet for my action sequences.

Week 1

2008-09-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Starting from here on out I will be documenting my process for my final project, for whoever is interested on how this project will get done.

I chose to get a project brief for my final project and got one from AKQA a design firm from San Fransisco, who employs a former VFS graduate Stefan Belavy. The brief is to create a 1:00 + Ninja Gaiden 2 teaser, and the premise has alot to do with violence, grace, fluid smoothness of the game, beauty of Japanese art, violent art of being a ninja and making blood beautiful! Which has had some interesting reactions, some ideals so far were to create some cool blood splatters including a flower blooming whenever the blood hits the wall, but after discussing that with veteran 3D instructor Eric, that would mean learning fluids in 3D, a very difficult task, and one that would take up my entire final time period, unless I use a another program like Blender and incorporate that with C4D, which my advisor has suggested, I have yet to decide on that part of the project. I have a contact for my ninja, a martial artist who has solid experience in weaponry, thanks to fellow classmate Jeff, still waiting for my reply. And put out a roll call for a visual effects artist in the makeup section here at VFS. Contemplating another roll call for a film crew in the film department.

For now I have decided to do live footage for the ninja, as 3D modeling is way beyond the scope of this project, but the project will have all types of design, including 3D (Cinema 4D), 2d (Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects), and HD live footage (Sony EX1).

This week was pretty much preparation for all the hard work coming up, alot of meetings, research and organization, in addition to all the work done at the end of term 4. Completed my first draft of my project plan, got some feedback and now have to improve and elaborate on my ideals. Started my case study, and developed my agile setup on project path, setup alot of tasks in my backlog, and started my sprint for week 1.

Here is my thumbnail sketches, to help lock down my concept and a solid foundation for my storyboard.