Volleyball Final Project - Post 2 (The Return!) - Progress

A ball into space, uh? What a stupid idea! Why didn’t I chose something a bit less complicated, like… I dunno… a text into space? Oh, no, wait, I’ve already done this one… But still, this ball is killing me.

Because, first of all, I have to create that ball, that dear and sweet ball. At first I thought that I could use a texture I found on internet, and apply it to a sphere.

Fail.

The volleyball texture I found on internet. I don't want to think about what they did to that poor ball...

Then I tried to modify it, and worked harder to apply it on a sphere.

Fail.

Then I tried to follow a very non explicit tutorial to create a volleyball under Maya.

Fail. After 6 hours of work.

Then I attempted to kill myself.

Fail.

And the next day, I tried to restart to work on that ball from the beginning, knowing where I failed.

Success.

Wait… success? Really? Oh my God yes! Yes it IS a success! And look at that, if I apply a white leather texture on it, it’s just perfect! That’s crazy! I created a Volleyball! I feel like a God!

I’m really proud of that ball especially because of all the lines, who aren’t textured, but real little line on which I used the tool Bevel to create deepness (when it didn’t completely screwed it up, like the day before).

The white leather texture I applied on the ball.

The Masterpiece! Seriously, how cool is that ball?

Then I tried to import the ball into Photoshop and then After Effect and had a lot of issues with light, which Photoshop recreated. I had to create an environment of light all around the ball to erase all shadow. It worked out at the end.

Now I could start to create an environment for that ball into After Effect. Using particles, I created stars that would move toward the ball, giving an impression of speed. The ball is constantly rotating on itself, like if it was moving forward. This part worked out (with the help of Ben to master those undisciplined stars).

I then added the Death Star from Star Wars, which the ball would pass very quickly. The effect worked well, so I know I’m going to use it later on with other ships.

My next step was to create a camera, and to rotate around the ball. Success.

But when I created the smoke trail, I started to have some issues.
First of all, one of Andrew Kramer’s tutorial inspired me to create the smoke (see the tutorial on http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_trails/ ). But I had a hard time putting the smoke right in front of the camera and behind the ball. Once again, Ben rescued me.

The cloud I used to create the smoke.

Once my smoke was in position, I duplicated it, and used it to create the fire and sparkles effect. Then the main problem was that I had way too many particles, and it slowed down the project. But it looked awesome.

With the same idea, I used that footage of fire in order to create it.

Here is a little preview of the effect of the smoke, fire, and the rotation.


Preview final project FX from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Just to let you know, it took one hour to render... that tiny little piece of footage, one hour. I don't want to think about the final export...

I realize that time passes super quickly, and that I’ll have to shoot the footage that will held the special effect. Just have to find a girl who will agree to take a fake ball on the face. Easy…

Then I’ll finish to add the few effects I have in mind, add the sound FX, and put everything inside a small editing.

But it's alright, because now I love this project.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 1 - Preproduction

Pitch:

A guy hits a volleyball so hard that it goes into another dimension, than comes back and smash a girl in the face.

Description :

I have to admit that, at first, I had no idea what to do for my final project. When I realized that it wouldn’t help to keep cursing Ben Bays in English or in French for not giving us something more specific than “do anything you want”, I started to put my ideas on the table:

I wanted to do something cool.
I wanted to do something funny.
I wanted to play volleyball.

Of course that last line was being a problem, because I really needed to find an idea. Then I thought “why not including volleyball in my project?”. Yes. That would be awesome. For me. Probably lame for others tho. Because how could I mix volleyball and special effects, with my still poor skills, and make it look cool?

But I had absolutely no other idea, so I started to seriously think about it.

Ok, it has to be funny. What is funny in volleyball? There is only one true answer: Someone taking a ball on the face.

That’s a beginning. Or, more precisely, an end. Now, what would come first?

Me (because I have to be part of it, as every good French narcissist), probably serving. After would come some cool shoots of the ball hit, with funny faces. The effect would start here.

I would use Maya for making a ball in 3D, and import it into after effects where I'll create all the other effects. We would then follow the ball through space (because it would go so fast that it would leave our dimension), now would be the time for a series of cool effects, like light speed, rotating around the ball and letting us discover for one rotation the face of Wilson from Cast away, stuffs like that.

It would also cross the way of some famous spaceships, like a Star Wars Stardestroyer, the Star Trek Enterprise, the MIR station, Tintin rocket, the ship of toy story. The ball would go so fast that it would start to burn, as in coming into the atmosphere, and create smoke. It would start to have the look of a meteorite.

It would then ends its course in the face of my opponent (a girl, because I’m a jerk) in an explosion of pain (I’m pretty sure After Effects has a lot of tools allowing us to create pain).

A final joke for ending it, a fast credit involving volleyballs, and that’s it. Also, because I still kind of feel bad to hit a girl in the face (even if it's my specialty in volleyball), the short movie will end with me taking a ball into the face, without effects. because it's always fun.

It’s maybe a bit ambitious, I don’t really now yet how I’m going to do some of those effects. I also hope that the 3D ball won’t slow after effect too much. But I think I can have a lot of fun doing it. Plus I get to look cool while hitting a ball, and that’s priceless.

Fire and Clouds

Today I decided to make a small commercial for a famous company. Why? Because my tests with the matte tool brought me to that situation.


CertenPoint Energy from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

I first used a green screen video we shoot in class. Then, with the matte tool and some cool footage, I created those both natural energy, pumping the ground. That's when I thought it look like an energy commercial.

I just needed to zoom out, and create a world. Which I did by taking a map of the world on google image, duplicated it several time, and made it rotate on itself. Then, with the CC shpere effect, I had my planet. The clouds are coming from the same process, with the effect Fractal Noise.

A few particles, a title, and the commercial was born.

"It works on steam!"

I think I just had the best assignment of my life, along with my 3D class: "Hey guys, let's build and old west town!". Useless to say that we were all very excited about it. We could choose which building we wanted to create, and I chose the locomotive, because old west locomotive are badass.

So here is the evolution of my little baby:

The New Blair Witch Project (with green screen)

They lied to us! The blair with project didn't simply used 2 cameras, but also a green screen!

The proof right here, at the end of the movie :


The Very New Blair Witch Project from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Looks like our dear professor hided us that he also own some good actor (dancer?) skills!