Rotoscoping Exercise

Cat Walk Cycle

Here is my second attempt at a walk cycle. I decided to try and draw it from a front view I used a reference from a fashion show hence the name 'Cat Walk'.

Special Effects Compositions

To begin with we had a go at recreating mars using an image from the film 'The Martian'. This image had a professional green screen setup in what looked like a huge warehouse.

Here is the dope sheet, For the background I used a 'Transform' node for the tilt feature as the ground had a harsh slope to it. I also used a 'Reformat' node to make sure the background image is the same size as the image of Matt Damon.

On the foreground image I had to key out the green screen so I used a keying tool called 'KeyLight' which is used in the industry as keying software. This didn't remove all of the green in the background so i then used a node called 'Roto' which you can use to create an alpha channel, this was very easy for a still image but might prove more difficult when using moving images as you would have to do it frame by frame.

I then used a 'Merge' node to create the final image, making sure that i connected 'A' to the foreground and 'B' to the background.

On this image I tried to make the foreground and the background appear like they where shot under the same lighting. To do this I used a 'Grade' node and a 'ColorCorrection' node. These nodes allowed me to alter the saturation, contrast and exposure of the image which i the messed around with until the two images looked similar in lighting.

I also added a 'Blur' node to the background image. this gave the final result some depth.

On this image I found it the hair extremely difficult to key. In the end I used the 'Roto' node to cut off the stray bits of hair in an attempt to make the image appear a bit more professional.

3D Minotaur Concepts



I wanted to challenge the idea that everyone had about the image of minotaur's. I brain stormed a few ideas and eventually ended up with going with a modernised minotaur. I wanted to also add a comical effect onto my ideas as well.

I looked at a few of the latest trends that have been going around and found the most stupid one which was footwear called 'Nike Sliders' which are basically slippers which you wear with socks and is socially acceptable to wear outside. I then wanted to come up with the weirdest idea for what he was going to be wearing and in the end I went with chefs equipment.

I made sure that I kept some of the defining ideas that come with the name minotaur i.e. Bull head that is attached to a Human torso, larger that human neck and big build. It is said minotaur's are extremely built (big muscles) and are very tall. My minotaur on the other hand has let himself go as he slipped in to modern society. 

Here is my first sketches on Photoshop. I feel that I can define the lines a lot more using a digital program rather that using the sketchbook. I did the initial drawing in my sketchbook then scanned it in to Photoshop and drew over the line work.

I had a go at doing some colouring and shading to prep for the texturing section of the 3D modelling. It also gives a better idea of the depth and shape of the character.

Timing Charts

Bouncing Ball

I decided to have a go at giving the bouncing ball some motion.

Inception - Cinematography

To look at cinematography i chose to look at the film Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. The cinematographer for the film Inception is a man called Wally Pfister who won an award for his part in the production of Inception.

Wally Pfister is known for  'frequently breaking the 180 degree rule'. His shooting style is very 'Gothic', this is very clear when you watch the films 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' which are both films that he took the role of cinematographer.

In Inception there are some very good examples of cinematography and loads of techniques used e.g. Rule Of Thirds, Eye Line Match, Back lighting, Leading Lines and a lot more. A variety of shots are used throughout the film as well.

This image works very well. The scene is shot from far away also known as a Long Shot. The characters are positioned in the left third which creates a clear focus point. The use of back lighting brings the characters out from the cluttered background. The low angle of the shot makes the characters seem very powerful as it makes them look almost as tall as the skyscrapers in the background.

In this images Leonardo DiCaprio is positions in the left third of the scene which draws the eyes of the viewer towards him rather than the people in the background. This shot also uses leading lines very well, it seems as though the banister for the balcony is creating an arrow towards Leonardo DiCaprio's head. This shot is a medium close up shot.

This shot is an establishing shot. In this shot it appears to be using the Fibonacci Spiral. This is a great way to create a clear focus point it is the very similar to using the rule of thirds.

2016 (1990) ‘IMDb Wally Pfister’, in Wally Pfister. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002892/bio (Accessed: 19 November 2016).