My ‘The Last Minute’ title sequence/s and how I feel about it:

29/1/11

These are the links to my completed title sequences:

A high quality upload straight from the After Effects render:

A lower quality export from Final Cut, complete with filters and a final film title:

The same as above but converted to MPEG through ‘MPEG Streamclip’:

A version the same as the above, but hosted on Vimeo, so it is slightly better quality:

Overall, I am very happy with my final title sequence/s. I’ve never delved this far into after effects yet the sequence came out pretty much exactly how I wanted it too (relative to my AE abilities). Including the creation of the hands in Photoshop and the modification of the song, it took a total of about 18 hours over three days to complete. I cannot work out why the Final Cut render is poor quality when uploaded to video hosting sites, as the Quicktime file’s quality is fairly good. Despite this, I feel the mood and style of the piece is almost exactly how I set out for it too be and as long as this took, I look forward to being able to create something else similar in future units.

Creating the sequence in After Effects (the production stage):

28/4/11

As the creation of the sequence this unit was the main production, it was a very long-winded process. Due to this, I have decided to write a step-by-step, process-by-process explanation of what I did, as opposed to a long essay like write-up. It’ll  explain each process of each aspect of the production, from everything I did with the clock face to the final exporting process, all with screengrab examples:

1. The first thing I did was create a new composition and add in the modified song as the potential bottom layer.
2. I then began on the sequence by adding in the vectorized image of the face, inverting the colours and making it a 3D layer.
3. A then added the hands to the sequence, inverting them, keying out their backgrounds, scaling them to the right size, positioning them where they needed to be and setting their anchor points (using the ‘Y’ key) to the point I want them to rotate around (centre of the composition). I then set the rotation keyframes to go from 9 ‘o’ clock to 6 ‘o’ clock across the 1:45 timescale, clockwise at 360 degrees every 60 seconds, making the minute hand do a 1¾ rotation. I then did a similar thing for the hour hand but only moving it from 11:59 to 12:00 and 30 seconds, making sure the two hands met with each other dead on 12. I also made sure both the minute hand hit 12 for the first time as the song shifts from it’s introduction, making the camera movement I planned to do later on much more effective.
4. I then moved onto lighting by clicking Layer>New>Light, set it to spotlight and made it a pale yellow shade. This lightened the clock face and hands a pale yellow shade where before they were white. I kept it centred but adjusted the cone angle and cone feathering slightly. To create the flicker effect, I alt-clicked the keyframe button on the ‘Intensity’ option to bring up the expressions bar and typed in the expression ‘wiggle(8,24)’ to randomize the intensity per frame throughout the composition. It took a few different number combinations to get the desired flicker effect, but I settled with (8,24) in the end as it was subtle yet still noticeable. This is a screengrab of my ‘Light’ settings:

5. I then began on creating the many titles throughout the piece (each of which I turned to a 3D layer). I started by creating the fairly large white one (which the light would turn yellow) to begin below the centre using the text tool (making sure it was centred using the proportional grid view) and then added a subtle glow to it. I then moved onto the next two white titles in the top left, making sure they appeared as the camera would move and masked them both in accordance to the minute hand passing over them. I also added another subtle glow to both of them. I then began masking on the black titles that would appear in and around the numerals (in accordance to the position of the minute hand so it appeared as the hand passed over), starting with ‘Max Beesley’, where the music properly begins as the hand crosses 12 signifying the journey around the whole clock. I then went on to carefully sizing (usually to 7/8 pixels), rotating, positioning and masking each of the other titles like I had with the ‘Max Beesley’ title. When it came to titles that couldn’t completely fit inside the numerals (see title storyboard; title 5, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17) I placed a title above the numeral, making it white (which again became yellow – same colour as the clock face and numerals) to fit with the two-colour theme. I continued with this until I got to title 18 near the end, which I split into two parts, the first above and left of the centre and the second being positioned below centre and made relatively large. I gradually lowered the opacity of 17 to 0% as the first part of 18 came fully into shot as well as I adding the same subtle glow used in 1, 2 and 3 to the last (18). I would make sure the timing of all these titles was relevant to camera positioning, which in turn would be in accordance to the audio track. These are some examples of the masking, positioning and effects added to some of the titles:

6. The next important thing I added was a ‘Camera’ by clicking Layer>New>Camera. I didn’t adjust any of the camera settings and made sure ‘depth of field was turned off so as not to blur the sequence when I moved the camera closer to it. I started with the camera in dead centre with the whole clock in shot, I then keyframed in to zoom in and focus on title 1 and 2 as the hand passed over the titles and they masked. I then began to keyframe the movement of the camera in time to the music; zooming it in, shifting the rotation noticeably and focusing on title 4 as the music properly kicked in. I then went on to keyframe the movement of the camera around the clock, as in time with the music as I could make it, trying to vary the path every time so in order to keep it visually stimulating. I made sure the camera floated past the numeral/title and shot to the next on as the minute hand was about to pass over, revealing it’s title. When it came back to 12 (title 17), to signify the end of the minute I began to keyframe a slow zooming out and a full 360 degree rotation revealing the first part of title 18, then the second part as the rotation of the camera draws to a stop and the clock face is back to where it began. I then went through the keyframed motion of the camera in the graph view, smoothing out the motion (similarly to time remapping) making it all seem a little bit more fluid and seamless. These are screenshots of both the camera motion keyframes in standard and graph view:

7. Once I was definitely happy with all of the above, I dragged the composition into the ‘Make New Composition’ icon, putting the whole sequence on a single layer. I then set 2 keyframes at the start and end of the sequence’s position tab and added ‘The Wiggler’, setting the magnitude to 3 for every 2 seconds. This created a subtle shake of the whole composition, making the camera seem more realistic and adding to the feel of the whole sequence. This is a screengrab of the keyframes ‘The Wiggler’ automatically produced:

8. To create the final title (‘The Last Minute’), I created a new composition, added a basic (Trajan Pro) title to the centre of the film’s title, copied the light from the sequence and pasted it in, adjusting the expression to make it flicker slightly stronger (to (8,34)). I also keyframed the intensity down to 0% at four points nears the end to emulate the light flickering off and dying. I then added ‘The Wiggler’ to the text layer using the same technique and settings as in step 7 to keep it consistent and visually more interesting. This is a screengrab of the keyframing of the light and the text layer and a video of the AE title export:

9. I then added both compositions to the render queue, making the sequence’s audio lossless.
10.  Finally I created a Final Cut Pro project, imported them both in and placed them one after another with a simple fade in and out between. I then added the ‘Bad TV’ filter, only upping the ‘Colour Synch’ and ‘Static’ features of it to the sequence and final title to give it a poor signal/broadcast, TV static feel (especially to the final title). I also added the ‘Vignette’ filter, upping the darkness and blur of the edges. When it was exactly how I wanted it, I then exported to H.264 best quality and uploaded it to the Internet. These are some screengrabs of the final cut timeline, the Final cut effects setting I used and the final After Effects composition timeline with all it’s layers:

 

Things to edit, find and create before I begin after effects work:

15/4/11

Before I started the creation of my piece in After Effects, there were a few things that had to be made, altered and found.

Firstly, I needed to find a high-resolution, Roman numeral clock face and Victorian style hands which could then be modified in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make them vector-based so they would not pixellate when zoomed into in After Effects. These are the images I chose:

From here I needed them to be made vector-based, which for the clock face wouldn’t be too hard at all, but for the hands would be a fair amount more difficult as they were not a simple black and white image, nor were they symmetrical which they needed to be. Fortunately, my housemate Jack studies Graphic Design so he helped create these new clock hands in Photoshop and Illustrator. This is the process he used:

1.   First, he separated the two hands in the image to two separate files using the Marquee tool and copy and pasting them into new layers.

2.   Then he put the first into Illustrator and traced around the hand using the pen tool, saving the traced layer as a PDF.

3.   He opened the PDF back in Photoshop and made the trace file symmetrical by cropping it in half, duplicating the layer, mirroring and placing it parallel.

4.   He then filled the image to make it a solid image as opposed to simply an outline.

5.   He then put this image back into Illustrator and made it a vector-based image that wouldn’t loose quality in After Effects (this is because vector images work on an adjustable information basis and thus are not pixel-based. Also, due to the fact they are only straight black and white, keying out their backgrounds in AE would be easy).

6.   Finally, he repeated the process for the second hand.

These are screengrabs of the final hands that I used in the After Effects project:

The last thing that I had to do before work in After Effects began, was edit the audio track so a) it wasn’t too long for the sequence, b) certain points of change in the song occurred earlier and c) to slow down the beginning of the song so the ticking of the clock corresponded to actual seconds, to synch with the hands going around the clock. To do this I slowed down the beginning of the song in a free software called ‘Amadeus Pro’, exported it out full quality, put it into ‘Garageband’ and altered it’s length from there, exporting it out full quality again. This is a comparison between the original (2:57) and modified song (1:47) lengths on the timeline in Garageband:

 

Technical aspects of achieving my sequence’s desired feel and aesthetic.

5/4/11

Now that I almost know exactly what my sequence will be like, and that I know how to achieve it in After Effects, there are four final, technical decisions I have to make in order to make the piece to look exactly as I want it:

Do I make a 3D composition with a moving camera, or a 2D composition and keyframe scale, movement and rotation?

I think the most effective technique to use for this would be to make everything a 3d layer as this would only involve the motion keyframing of one object (the camera) as opposed to having to do it with every layer, which would take much longer and require synchronising of each said layer. A camera can be positioned around without affecting any of the rest of the composition (unless that’s the desired effect), allowing masking or other processes to be as normal. The camera motion paths can also be adjusted in graph view, to smooth out the movement and make it look much more natural. I will most definitely use this technique.

What Typeface should I use?

I feel the most effective typeface to use would be one matching typical Roman numerals, as it would tie in with the title sequences theme entirely whilst also being very subtle. I looked at a selection of Typefaces (using the first actors name in my title sequence; Max Beesley) and these are 5 I narrowed it down too:

I then looked up what the most fitting font for Roman numerals would be and due to this; http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=628198, I decided ‘Trajan Pro’ would work best as ‘It’s the one based off the Roman square capitals’.

How should I reveal the titles?

I wasn’t sure whether with revealing the titles they should just fade in, already be on the numerals or I should do something slightly more complex. After a bit of thinking I realised the titles could reveal as the hands pass over the numerals, so I decided I would spend extra time masking each title as the minute hand passes over. This meant that in After Effects I would also have to make sure that the hands were the top layer and the face was the bottom layer with the text layers in between the two in order for it to work.

What audio track should I use?

After a fair bit of research into what tracks I could use, taking into account the style I wanted the piece to have (looking for melancholy, abstract or possibly sombre songs) as well as the theme of time (looking for songs that may reference this), I settled on a track called ‘No More Wig For Ohio 13’ by the artist ‘Odd Nosdam’ as it fit both of these criteria really well. Throughout the song there is a ticking of a clock and it is also fairly melodic, catchy and melancholy; perfect for my title sequence. This is the album cover:

After Effects: Light, Shadow, 3D Layers, Masking and Cameras.

1/4/11

In order to begin the work in After Effects now that I have my idea pretty much completely set and ready, I have to research how I can achieve these effects in the software. I’ve had experience with AE before so I know my way round it a fair bit, but there are techniques I’ll have to learn in order to create my desired title sequence. I spoke to our technician Jason and also did a fair bit of Internet research in order to get a feel of what would be necessary and these are the techniques I’ll have to use:

Light (and shadow):

With light in After Effects you can create an artificial light source to illuminate a 3D composition or layer. You can adjust the brightness, colour, light type (spotlight, ambient, etc), direction and feathering of it, amongst other things, all keyframeable for desired fluctuation. This is a basic tutorial of lighting in After Effects:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WSAB474311-4B4C-4d54-8887-0F6459F25206a.html

3D Layers (2.5D):

Shifting a 2D layer into ‘3D’ in AE is as simple as selecting the layer and clicking ‘3D Layer’, but the options in opens up are vast. It allows you to work in ‘3D’ space; keyframing/positioning things in a 3rd axis, allowing the use of lighting and ‘3D camerawork, creating ‘3D’ shapes and all manor of other things. I will be making my layers 3D as this will enhance the look of the piece hugely.

Cameras:

Creating cameras in AE is another extremely handy tool as it allows you to toggle an artificial camera anywhere within the 3D space, with all the controls of a real camera, with the added bonus that it is not solid, so can do whatever you want it to. The likelihood is that I will be using a camera in my piece, but there is the possibility that I may experiment with keyframing position, rotation and scale instead, but I will elaborate on this later. This is a tutorial for creating 3D cameras in AE:

This also helped me learn more about cameras in AE: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1273350&seqNum=2

Masking:

Masking is a way to selectively crop a layer in after effects using the rotobezier tool. It allows you to keyframe text appearance to accordance to footage and place certain parts of one footage layer onto another, to name but two specific processes. I am already fairly comfortable with basic masking as I have done it a fair bit over the past year or two so fortunately I didn’t need guidance to learn the basics.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS37445DB7-352A-42e9-BACB-EB40BD421524a.html

This is a test that I created in After Effects to practise using 3D layers, light (and shadow), cameras, and motion keyframing (the fact the camera, title and image moves). I also used ‘The Wiggler’ on the position keyframes of the text to create the shakiness, which I plan to subtly do with the whole composition of the title sequence to create a slight camera shake effect. I did not include masking in this test as I am fairly familiar with it and felt I did not need practise:

Development of my idea: How best to structure my sequence to achieve the desired feel.

24/3/11

I feel the best way to begin creating my ideal title sequence now I have a basic idea, is to think about the style the piece will have. This means the aesthetic, themes, sound and pace must all be thought about:

Aesthetic:

The look and feel of my sequence will be heavily dependant on the stylistic decisions I make. The basic premise of it is a clock, so I must decide what I can incorporate into this to give it the desired feel. I want to make it fairly sombre and gothic, so one of the first things I should do is make everything black apart from the clock. I could also build on this use (or lack of) of colour by making everything else (the clock) a single colour like white or gold; making the whole piece simply consist of duotone gold on black. I think this simplicity would work effectively with my chosen style.

Another thing to take into account however is imagery, so in keeping to the style of the sequence I feel I should focus on how the clock face, hands, numbers and titles look. The clock face could either be simple and plain or have a distinct Victorian style (similarly to the clock face of ‘Big Ben’). Due to the fact there will possibly be titles on the face however, I feel it is worth using a basic, plain one. The hands (specifically the minute hand) will play a big part in the sequence so I feel it is very worth choosing/creating ones that have the desired, Victorian style (similarly to the ‘Big Ben’ clock hands and/or these: http://www.statuaryplace.com/store/images/Black%20Victorian%20clock%20hands.jpg.)

As for the numbers on the clock, the decision is whether to use standard numbers or Roman numerals. If I used standard numbers I would have to make sure I chose a fitting typeface, but I feel the best course of action is to use numerals as they fit to my desired style much more adequately. They automatically hold connotations of Victorian and gothic imagery without even taking into account typeface (which of course I will).

Finally, the titles I use with have to match the Roman numerals around the clock so they do not seem out of place, but I will research this at a slightly later date, nearer to production so I can compare certain typefaces to the numerals. The placement of the titles is also a very important aspect though. I feel that if the sequence were following the hands around the clock, the best positioning for the titles would be in or around the Roman numerals. This would mean the ‘camera’ or sequence would have to rotate around to clock for the titles to be the right way up depending on their exact positioning, but I think this would work well so long as the pacing is good. I also created a storyboard type sheet to show possible title placement and to help me in the production stage, this is it:

Themes:

Another important aspect the title sequence is the themes it holds and how they relate to the films title and/or plot. Mine would relate to its film, as it would be a literal representation of ‘The Last Minute’ (the clock being on 11.59). But it would also hopefully have underlying themes of time running out, a concept featured a fair bit in the film. Giving the title sequence these themes would make it more than just an aesthetic piece and give it far more depth.

Sound:

Sound will play an important part in the piece in order to enhance the aesthetic and themes. I feel a lack of diegetic sound would work well if a non-diegetic soundtrack worked very well. I just have to find the right track that would work with the theme, style and pace of the piece. If I do choose to use some diegetic sound however, I think the most effective would be the ticking sound of an old-style clock in time with the movement of the hands, either throughout, or at the beginning and end of the sequence.

Pace:

Finally, pace will be a strong part of the sequence’s feel. As we are following the hands around the clock, with the titles being in or around each Roman numerals, the obvious thing to do is pace the movement around the clock so it goes from one number to the next (every 5 seconds), while still giving time for the audience to read the title over twice (the amount of time a title needs to be up in order for a viewer to definitely get to read it). This means, the likelihood is that the ‘camera’ will not follow a circular motion around the clock (locked onto the minute hand), but will most probably pass from one numeral to the next, speeding up between and slowing down at the title. I feel this would be enhanced hugely if the motion worked in time to the chosen music; speeding up or shifting to the next title to the beat.

Now I have a strong idea of how I want my title sequence, it’s time to start thinking about how I may achieve this in After Effects.

My chosen films titles/credits.

20/2/11

This is a list of the 18 ‘The Last Minute’ titles/credits, in the order I plan to have them in my sequence:

• Palm Pictures Presents
• A Venom Entertainment Production
• A Stephen Norrington Picture
• Max Beesley
• Emily Corrie
• Tom Bell
• Ciarán McMenamin
• Jason Isaacs
• Kate Ashfield
• Anthony Higgins
• Joseph Bennet
• Director of Photography – James Welland
• Production Designer – Chris Edwards
• Editors – Stephen Norrington + Elliot Graham
• Music – Paul Rabjohns
• Casting – Sue Jones
• Executive Producers – Hooman Majd + Peter Frankfurt
• Written and Directed by – Stephen Norrington

The fact there are 18 titles should allow me to have a title on all the 12 numbers on the clock and a few before and after.

A development of my chosen idea, the film I have chosen and why.

1/2/11

After a fair amount of thought I have decided on what film I will be basing my title sequence around. This film I have chosen is ‘The Last Minute’, directed by Stephen Norrington. I felt that despite this film’s heavy themes throughout, my sequence idea would work perfectly with its title. I feel I could portray the ‘Last Minute’ literally using the clock, with it being 11.59 P.M and it following the hand around the last minute before the next day. I feel this idea would work best out of all the potential films I could have used.

‘The Last Minute’ – Trailer:

Brainstorming to develop my Title Sequence idea and why certain films would work well.

27/1/11

To develop my idea much further, I felt I should create a Brainstorm sheet of ideas. Similarly to my Short Form unit, I wanted the primary theme to be based around Time, but less an idea based around narrative and more a literal portrayal of it. This is why the sheet is primarily focused around time-based themes amongst other things:

From this brainstorm sheet I decided to settle with the idea of an animation following hands around a clock, making time a literal theme within the sequence. To emphasise this I felt using a film where its title or plot and themes could be literally represented within the title sequence would work well to enhance the effectiveness of the sequence.

Here is a list of the films that might work well with this idea and why:

• ‘Memento’ (2000) – Has strong narrative themes of time and memory.
• ‘The Butterfly Effect’ (2004) – Themes of altering the course of history.
• ‘Back to the Future’ (’85, ’89 and ‘90) – Themes of time travel.
• ‘Under the Clock’ (1945) – Title could be referenced in sequence using the clock.
• ‘Seconds’ (1966) – Title could be literally referenced showing seconds around a clock.
• ‘The Last Minute’ (2001) – Title could be very literally referenced, portraying the last minute of the day (11.59 P.M).

I will think about these 6 films and which may work best with my idea over the next few days and make a decision on which I will use in my next blog post. I will also have to take into account how each of these films will vary the title sequence in style and aesthetic and how this might change the piece altogether.

Examples of title sequence in film and how it inspires me: Saul Bass and others.

18/1/11

In order to gain some inspiration for our own and to get a feel of title sequences in general, we looked at influential title sequences as a class and then went to research more on our own afterwards. As a class we looked into the works of Saul Bass, possibly the most renowned and influential title sequence designer of the 20^th century. We watched a documentary that featured the title sequences to ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ (1955), ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959), ‘North By Northwest’ (1959) and ‘Seconds’ (1966), all of which had both a distinct style and a relevant reference to their films. For example, the late Bass described how each had its own relevance; ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’s’ being how the many shapes form into an arm at the end, ‘Anatomy of a Murder’s’ being the body shapes throughout, representing the murder scene, ‘North By Northwest’ being the transition between animation and the introductory shot of the film (the building), and finally ‘Seconds’ being the twisted and warped faces and body parts, representing the themes of body modification which he referenced directly in the documentary. These are the three title sequences:

‘The Man With The Golden Arm’:

‘Anatomy of a Murder’:

‘North By Northwest’ (Embedding disabled):

‘Seconds’:

When it came to researching other title sequences, it became clear how influential Saul Bass really was. When looking at the ‘Catch Me If You Can’ title sequence by Kuntzel and Deygas, the inspiration behind it (with the simple colours and basic, block detail) is obvious:

Other title sequences however caught my interest hugely, mainly due to their aesthetics and themes: ‘Fight Club’, ‘Se7en’, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ and ‘The Number 23’ were the sequences that I felt influenced me the most, as they all had certain styles and aesthetics that I wanted to draw inspiration from with my own piece as well as portraying theme relevant to the films plot and/or style:

‘Fight Club’:

‘Se7en’:

‘The Number 23’: