Digital News: After Effects Workshop

To help us become more advanced with our projects, we have been assigned a few workshop projects focusing on how to use the software 'After Effects'.

Text Design

After being introduced into After Effects, we begun by creating a simple graphic which will become animated. We firstly started off with a simple square however then decided to move onto text.

Firstly, we wrote out an example text (I just wrote my whole name in short, 'Sam Babs'). After this we were then shown how to use key frames to move, rotate, change the transparency of a text etc. This seemed quite easy as it was a similar approach to Final Cut Pro, so I picked this up quite easily.

However things got a little bit more complex as we then become duplicating layers (the text) and basically trying to make the text seem more enthusiastic and stand out more. I added 2 layers where I changed the colour and the thickness of the text to make it seem more bold.

We were then shown how to add effects to our work. We had a large variety to choose from - it could be simple transitions up to vast 3D movements. Below is my first try at animating text. It isn't anything special, just simply some experimenting!

Still Image Green Screen

As we are likely to be using green screens to film for our news reports, we then had a tutorial on how to edit a green screen image/video onto a different background. The process is actually quite simple - After Effects has a processor called Keylight (1.2) which allows you to remove the green screen and

give you a background colour of your choice.

Below is the green screen image which we edited as an example:

The original image, which I turned into...

This Image.

However to try and make the green screen seem more realistic and accurate, you can then alter settings such as the amount of white and black balance by using the screen matte. From the image below you can see the original image compared to it when the balance has been altered. The higher the contrast between black and white, then the better the image should look on the green screen.

The original image: the image is quite sketchy and has areas of grey, meaning that the green
screen isn't as efficient as it could be.

The new image. You can see how the grey has been erased and that there
is no longer any sketchy parts on the image.

Additionally, the image may also sometimes seem very sharp when the green screen has been used. You can also blur the focus of the image so that it looks like it is blending in better with the background. You can also use a colour correction tool to erase any green (caused by reflection from the green screen) to enhance the quality of your image. Below is an image showing how the edge of the character is blurring to blend it in better with the background.

The grey outline shows that the blending is taking place.

Here is another example of a green screen:

Before the Green screen...

... After the green screen.

Moving Image Green Screen

We then tried this with moving image. Although you cannot see the videos of the transformation, the process is very similar compared to still image. Nonetheless, as you can see from the green screen original image, there are some parts which need to be cropped out. This can be removerd by using the pen tool to highlighting the parts you want to remove, which can then be inverted by using the tool. After this has been removed, you can then edit this onto your background.

A problem I noticed with this however was making sure that the object remains transparent. If this isn't made aware, then the object may loose parts whilst the image is moving, showing that it has been green screened and more importantly not looking very good. 

The video consisted of a young man simply just dancing about, pretending to sing holding a bottle win his hand. Below is a screenshot of the example we green screened:

The green screen original

Cropping the unwanted piece from the green screen

Altering the white and black balance

The final product.

Stabilising Tool

We were then given a moving image showing posters on a wall/post, as you can see below. The film itself is very shaky. So, we learnt how to make the film less shaky and instead giving it a much more stable view. This was all done from a tool called "warp stabiliser" - after using, the film begins to become stable after a couple of minutes of editing. I would show you what the film looked like after however I couldn't format it from after effects to put on my blog, sorry!

Motion Tracking

We then begun to use something called motion tracking, which consisted of the software focusing on a target whilst it moves. It tracks every single piece of moment and the point of this is so that you can add on CGI onto the moving spot, so it moves with the rest of the film. 

So we were introduced into an example of how this works. We watched a short clip of a fruit bowl (which you can see in the image below) being moved by someone, where it was covering a pink square  - which in other words is where your CGI goes (it's only used so that you know where to put it).

We tracked the motion and then added in our CGI. Considering this was our first time, it almost fitted perfectly! We then however had to perfect it by moving the CGI into the exact spot. The CGI was basically a black box opening to have lots of blue spheres flying out of it - as if something has been trapped and then suddenly releases. Below are some screen shots showing how the CGI was added.

The original. The pink squares is where the CGI will be placed.

We begun to use motion tracking, focusing on one of the squares to record
every piece of movement

After this, we added the CGI where it fitted in sync with the film. This is what we saw when
the box opened

And this is what it looked like when it was shut.

This is all which we were taught for the first workshop. I've never used After Effects before and it still seems rather difficult to use! However we still have a couple more workshops so hopefully i'll be able to feel more confident.