Now that we had the appropriate footage, it was time to compile the videos and pictures together and edit them in an interesting way. We were shown a few videos with unique styles to inspire us and give us a few ideas. I found the clips fun but I was struggling to think of how such a dynamic style could be used for anything other than comedy or music, where it can match the beat. With the pictures/videos, our group took last time in mind, I was thinking that the best route to go down would probably be a comedy, since I could do something wacky, strange and fun, to showcase editing skills.
We were first given a quick tutorial on how to do the quick effect diffusion filter/ glow & bloom. This effect is essentially an expensive piece of glass that can create a gloomy or glow effect and can also smooth out the skin, similar to how a photo filter might act.
– Diffusion Filter Demo –
Import the desired footage or image and create an adjustment layer. Then go to ‘effect’, ‘colour correction’ and select ‘levels’. In the editor which then appears in the left box, bring up the option ‘input black’ which enlargens the shadows. Darken the scene so only the lightest parts remain, like highlights and light sources. Then, in ‘effects’, go to ‘blur and sharpen’ and choose any blur filter to apply to the scene. After this, click toggle switches/modes so that the main editor expands, and click ‘Add’ in the mode box for the adjustment layer, which should make the magic happen and complete the effect. Ideally, the scene should now be bright and glowing.
This was my initial scene, which I wanted to apply the filter to since I had a plan to use it first for my video. However, I quickly realised that there simply wasn’t enough light, and the diffusion wouldn’t be as visible as I wanted it to be, so I chose a photo that had better lighting instead.
I am really proud that my photo was used for the example, so I decided to also use it for my work. I believe the blur that I chose was ‘radical blur’, but I wish I had chosen something a bit stronger since the teacher’s example was much brighter. Nevertheless, it worked! I am happy to know how to recreate this effect since it’s very stylistic and can be used in interesting ways.
To speed up the workflow and not have to repeat these steps every time the effect is needed, it can actually be saved and used and reapplied. Shift select both effects and go to ‘animation’ at the top, where you can click the option ‘save animation preset’ to save all of the settings in a little package. When bringing it back in, go to the same place but click ‘apply animation preset’ instead.
From the example videos given earlier, it was clear that we needed a quicker way to rotoscope since the industry-standard method is incredibly tedious and would consume all of the time available in the lesson. Thankfully, there is a handy tool, especially for this purpose!
– Roto Brush Demo –
Double click the video and look for the roto brush (the icon is a little man and a paintbrush). Once this is selected, clicking and dragging allows things to be painted in, which is what is kept, and holding alt allows things to be painted out for things we want to erase. It’s easy to know which mode you are in because the colour of the brush and the occasional little minis or plus that pops up make it very clear. The thing that makes the tool faster and easier to use is that you can paint around a certain object and it will auto-select it depending on the silhouette. Of course, as with anything automatic, it isn’t perfect, and finer details like hair need to be paid more attention to. This is when we can use the refine edge tool, which can be accessed by clicking and holding the roto brush icon and choosing the option, the brush colour for which is purple. Go over any of the pink lines (selected areas) to create a black and white gradient which allows for finer selection and painting in details like glasses and hair.
I went ahead with my plan and started with the video of two of my friends dancing in the stairway. I thought this would be a great way to start off something that is supposed to be energetic and funny because of the dancing and reactions. My plan was to freeze-frame a part of the video where the subject struck a funny pose and duplicate it using the roto brush so that I can then add more of that snapshot around the frame, preferably in time to some music. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I could complete anything substantial since even with the brush, rotoscoping still takes quite a bit of time if you want it to be accurate. I plan to complete the video at home, but it might take some time since Adobe programs run really slowly on my PC. I will update this blog with my progress and hopefully have a completed edit at the end!