Sunday, 6 December 2015

Practical Screencraft: After Effects Tests

During our lessons, we have taken a look at After Effects. While I knew about what it did, I have never actually used it before so this was a new experience for me. At first I thought it would be intimating however I soon realised that it was quite similar to things I have done before, most notably key framing. I have experimented with key framing in Sony Vegas before and have grown quite competent using however a whole program dedicated offers much more tools and variety. An example of using key frames can be seen here:


The planes that fly by are still images blurred to appear as if they are moving by quickly. Since they are still images, I simply key framed the image to travel from one side of the screen to the other. As mentioned, this was familiar territory so it was a good way of easing me into the program. 

Our second exercise proved to be more useful as these were techniques that I wanted to know but never got around to. Most notably, green screen and masking. The clip below shows an example of both:


The subject seen was filmed entirely on a green screen and imposed into a still image. Getting rid of the green screen was simple however making sue the mask was set up correctly to have him emerge from behind the wall was tricky. Sony Vegas only masks in a straight line while After Effects lets you draw out the exact shape which let me draw around the archway, therefore allowing the subject to pass the wall.

These are techniques I will use in the future as well as using After Effects. Having access to this new equipment allows for more experimentation with how films can be done.

No comments:

Post a Comment