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.

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.