After Effects FTW!
I have to swallow a little humble pie, I guess. After slamming Adobe in my last post, how can I sing their praises now? Because, I downloaded After Effects, and I love it!
The coolest thing about After Effects is its usage of layers. Just like in Photoshop, layers can contain individual images. Best of all, each layer can have its own properties. So, for example, one layer can be fully transparent, and another layer can be fully opaque. Or, better yet, each layer can have varying levels of opacity. And, even betterer, these opacities can be set on a timeline, using keyframes and tweens. This is what makes Flash so cool, and is what has sold me so completely on After Effects.
Whilst playing around, I quickly realised that it is possible to film something, and then change an element of it and film it again, and then slide the opacities of the 2 layers in playback so that the altered element either appears or dissappears. This has led to me completely revising my original idea. Whilst I still love the comedy inherent in "Lee takes a photo of himself every second for 10 seconds!" I now plan to film sections of my house, or another house, or just random locations in Lincoln. The first filming will contain either myself or a more photogenic actor, and the second filming will be just the background. Then I can fade the person into or out of the footage. Do this 3 or 4 times, and then end with a text scrren saying "I miss you." Provided I can get the right music, this could be extremely effective.
Perhaps building an entire movie around one gimmick/effect is not the best thing to do. However, when the entire movie lasts only 10 seconds, then this becomes an extrememly powerful tool. I am aiming for 'spooky' which leads to 'moving', and I am pretty sure that I can acheive this.
This leaves me with one major problem remaining. Who to use as the 'ghost'? The obvious person is myself, but this is not necessarily the best solution from a dramatic standpoint. An actual actor would clearly be superior, as even though they will be on-screen for mere seconds, they will still have to convey happiness in that short time. Now, I do not know how good an actor I am, so perhaps I should try and find somebody else for this part. Also, as non-PC as this sounds, I do want the actor to be somebody good looking. Possibly even someone visually striking, as this might be the best way to get the emotional pull that I want. Maybe even use a child, although that might upset people. Which, let's face it, is quite an accomplishment in a 10-second movie!
Lots to think about!
The coolest thing about After Effects is its usage of layers. Just like in Photoshop, layers can contain individual images. Best of all, each layer can have its own properties. So, for example, one layer can be fully transparent, and another layer can be fully opaque. Or, better yet, each layer can have varying levels of opacity. And, even betterer, these opacities can be set on a timeline, using keyframes and tweens. This is what makes Flash so cool, and is what has sold me so completely on After Effects.
Whilst playing around, I quickly realised that it is possible to film something, and then change an element of it and film it again, and then slide the opacities of the 2 layers in playback so that the altered element either appears or dissappears. This has led to me completely revising my original idea. Whilst I still love the comedy inherent in "Lee takes a photo of himself every second for 10 seconds!" I now plan to film sections of my house, or another house, or just random locations in Lincoln. The first filming will contain either myself or a more photogenic actor, and the second filming will be just the background. Then I can fade the person into or out of the footage. Do this 3 or 4 times, and then end with a text scrren saying "I miss you." Provided I can get the right music, this could be extremely effective.
Perhaps building an entire movie around one gimmick/effect is not the best thing to do. However, when the entire movie lasts only 10 seconds, then this becomes an extrememly powerful tool. I am aiming for 'spooky' which leads to 'moving', and I am pretty sure that I can acheive this.
This leaves me with one major problem remaining. Who to use as the 'ghost'? The obvious person is myself, but this is not necessarily the best solution from a dramatic standpoint. An actual actor would clearly be superior, as even though they will be on-screen for mere seconds, they will still have to convey happiness in that short time. Now, I do not know how good an actor I am, so perhaps I should try and find somebody else for this part. Also, as non-PC as this sounds, I do want the actor to be somebody good looking. Possibly even someone visually striking, as this might be the best way to get the emotional pull that I want. Maybe even use a child, although that might upset people. Which, let's face it, is quite an accomplishment in a 10-second movie!
Lots to think about!
posted by CheekyLee at 9:18 AM
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