Share Their Voices Editing Contest

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in my first editing contest. The subject was easy: The Latinos in the war. They provided us 50 interviews of veterans, of 2 hours each, with the mission to create a 5 minute editing out of it, about the topic of our choice. We were also free to find footages free of right on internet.

When I read the transcript of Julian Gonzalez' interview, I knew I would chose him. That guy went to France, in Normandy, during the landing, and tells about it with lots of emotions. Plus he wrote a great poem, that I immediately knew how to use.

But that wasn't enough, so I found pictures and video footages illustrating his words, and created some tiny visuel effects for the titles (that you may have already seen on this blog) and for the pictures.

At the end I was happy of my editing (except for the sound of the interview, I didn't have the time to learn how to make it better), and it happens that the jury of professionals which came from Los Angeles for the occasion liked it too, for they gave me the first price.

I am now the proud owner of my first legal version of Final Cut Pro! Hourra!

Now, please, Meet Julian Gonzalez:


Meet Julian Gonzalez from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 4 - DONE!

It's always a great moment when you finally decide "Ok, I'm done" on a big project like that. Of course, before that decision you spent hours and hours dealing with minor details that no-one would have noticed, but you want it to be perfect. And now it is, finally, it is time to export.

So you do export, and it takes hours. But when you watch it after, you realize that something doesn't work quite well, so you change it, and re-export, for hours. And when it's done, you realize you forgot to turn the particles on, because you turned them off to be able to work without slowing the machine, so you have to export again, and it takes hours. And you still find stupid reasons to have to re-export it 3 or 4 times until it is completely done.

And then you watch it, and like it. But the day after, while watching it, you realize that this sound effect could have been placed one or two frames after, but for the first time you're thinking "ah, f**k it.", and you are able to watch it without being annoyed by a thing that no-one on earth would ever notice. That's the moment I like the most. Because every project could always be better, could always have a last change of one or two frames, which of course wouldn't be the last, but you have to find the courage to say "no more."

No more. Working on that project was awesome, and watching it is awesome. It is going to be a good video to show my still very new skill, and at the same time an awesome souvenir from my time here; the special effect class and time spent playing volleyball with friends.

I am really glad because I have been able to do everything I planed to for that final project, and even more. I was afraid it might be hard, and it definitely was at some moments, but with hours of work every problem is solvable (and some of them with the help of Ben Bays).

It was very interesting to work on something step by step, in a way it was different from the big editing projects I was used to, because those are generally divided in very different steps, while here almost every steps needs creation, and every time something is created, you feel great, because you are able to think "I created this from nothing, I am a God", and add it to the rest. And while by itself it can be a cool little effect, when it is included to the whole project, it makes that last one look awesome.

But enough talking, here it comes:


Volleyball - The Duel from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Volleyball Final Project - Post 3 - Alpha (whatever that means)

A ball into space? Dude, that was the greatest idea! Never had a project that fun!

Of course I had a lot of new problems, but overcame them all, just like that: PAF! (actually it was a bit longer than that).

On my last post I was just finishing to create a nice smoke trail, that I had to turn off to be able to work on the other effects without slowing the machine.

I think my next step was my favorite, and one of my worse at the same time: I applied the face of Wilson, from the movie Cast Away, into a side of the volleyball, so we would see it during the camera rotation.

I first tried to parent my Wilson mask on the ball, but of course it wouldn’t be that simple, and it became completely wild. But the one thing it got right was the rotation: I wouldn’t have to worry to much about that. Just about the position, the scale, and the orientation. Haha.

So I did what every visual effects composer has to eventually do on a project or another: I spent hours adding keyframes on every single frame. Hours. Because the more I would work on it, the more I would find new ways to make it look cooler, like the Corner Pin effect. And sometimes I would realize (after keyfraying the whole move) that Wilson looked much smaller at the end than at the beginning, so I would have to start over. Again. And again. Until I was finally satisfied, and not upset anymore at the idea of that stupid ball getting lost in sea.

Wilsooooooooon!

But when I watched it again the day after, it looked awesome, and worth of every effort. I loved Wilson again.

On the other side of the ball, during the rotation, I added a lens flare, just for having something cool to see. Might have been one of the easiest thing on the all project.

And between two sessions of work on After Effects, I took my camera, two volleyball friends, and we spent a few hours shooting a small movie. That was very fun too. There was a lot of ball in the face involved.

Back to After Effects, I used a 3D earth I created on another project and made the ball dive into it, and with a white flash brought us back into the volleyball court (I used the same flash for leaving the court and going into space).

Then I had to bring the 3D volleyball into two shots, where the girl is taking it in the face (front and back). Tracking didn’t really worked, but the shots are so fast that I realized I didn’t really need it. After that I just used masks for putting the ball behind the head of the girl, and that’s all.

However, color correcting the ball for making it look real into the video is a bit harder, but I’m sure I’ll end up with something close enough.

Next post, all will be done, and volleyball will finally be back as one of the best sport in the world. All that thanks to a ball in the face. That is the power of volleyball.

Animation

A few weeks ago, Robots were invading the Campus, and we got some nice shot of them. However, my export is having some terrible problems, and the best I can do right now is a video ponctuated by a lot of black frames, which sucks a lot. I don't have time to deal with it now (and it's already been too long, and too many problems on that project) but I'll try to fix that later. For now, enjoy:


Robot on UT Tower's stairs from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.

Now a quick animation with an hand made character and skeleton. I admit that I spent most of my time on my final project (the volleyball into space) so it is a very basic animation, just to show that I can deal with it.

Meet the Headking!


Headking from Vincent Desgrippes on Vimeo.