Jump cut attempt?

Well, I don't really have anything good in my mind but I kept in my mind that jump cut can show progression over time of one specific activity (example going down the stairs) and the cuts would show progression in a way that parts of the 'activity' would be missing and this would create one short but fluid video scene. I tried to do few shots/cuts like that in the following video. Let's call it the most boring vid ever^_^

I changed the video camera angle each time just a bit. At first I wanted to show me building the house of cards just with these cuts that wouldn't take anything out but after I realized that the cuts can give it the fluidity the video would need to be "interesting". At least not to bore you to death as well you don't need to see the whole process just something that would show the progression of building it and that's what jump cut is about right? At least from my understanding. (there are other variants of jump cut or well uses for it...so this from my point of view is one of them - hopefully?)

Record/Stop video

Another video we have to do for DVPEE class. Our teacher wanted us to try out the record/stop technique so I just took my camera and I took many short shots of my way to my game store. I appended them together in avisynth and I added Loituma as a background song (exported in Virtual Dub).

Note: video failed to upload for some reason. I will upload it tomorrow...

Little Experiment

Just little experiment in AE.

My Trip to Pilsen - Micro Edit

For micro editing I decided to use footage from our way to Pilsen to play Pump it up. I shot the first videos not featuring me and Xsoft shot the videos while I was playing Pump It Up.

I appended the videos in AviSynth, edited the videos in AviSynth as well. Sound tracks are put together in Goldwave and everything is exported using Virtual Dub.

All this just because Adobe Premiere seems to be on strike.

2nd AE Video

We had a shooting session with Jana and Veronika on Saturday. Each of us recorded what we wanted and then we were ready for post production. The problem is that the videos are of really bad quality. The camera was changing focus during the recording and even the colors were changing at the same time. I tried to mess with the source file with Avisynth and then later I imported in After Effects.

This is the final result. It is me doing Para Para routine called Velfarre2000.

note: Para Para is a popular Japanese synchronised group dance that is danced in clubs, but you can see dancers outside in the streets as well.

Leviathan - Final Post

Before week one I had plenty of time thinking about what I would like to develop as a personal project. I primarily two things in my mind one being sound production/music production project and the other one drawing/painting one. I decided to draw. Wanted result was a full color drawing that would depict a character and/or some being.

During the first two weeks I was trying to come up with a scene that I could develop. I tried few but all were bad. In the second week I came up with few more, even though I did more sketches of animal beasts than of 'scenes' I wanted. I realized few things though. In each of the pictures something was wrong and it wasn't just the perspective. The placement of objects on canvas plays a big role as well. There are certain rules that should be followed. Also foreground and background can be 'connected' by more ways than I thought possible. Well, at least I know that blur and sharpen at certain places is something that can make wonders as this is something that will lead the ideas from one thing to another - to the principal one.

I also did some sketches in digital form and some on paper. I can have much more detail on paper in much shorter time, but when working on a computer I can get much better results with higher resolution that is resized later.
My final piece is a low res image which is the way I decided to go for one reason (ignoring the fact that I can't put as much detail as I would have wanted to in the image). I've spent the last year doing Magic: The Gathering alters which means that I spent time with a brush of the finest size I could fine and 66mm x 83mm 'canvas'. But I know that on this small area I can have really great details and nice backgrounds. That's why I tried drawing/painting a cloud sky. I started with white background doing a fast sketch of where the colors should be different and were the sun should be. I later added base colors for that and then I started using different hues of those colors so I would make it look better. In the end I came up with a very blurry image of a sky. It might not be seen but there are many short brush strokes (it seems that this is the way to go for me if I want to achieve something looking this way).

Next week I was trying to color my leviathan drawing. It was a pain. I knew what colors I wanted to use (like blue, green etc) but the colors I chose did not go together at all. It looked really weird. Some colors were to bright and unrealistic.

In the following weeks I was trying to fix this and finally I desaturated the image and continued drawing in the shades of gray. Later on I added the colors I wanted to use for the image. The result was far better than the last colored version.

Lastly I tried adding more detail and making it look more cohesive and more sophisticated.

I learned about the cohesiveness of a composition, about colors and shading. I learned just a bit but it is important for me and each realization like this is a huge leap forward for me. It might not seem like that but I know that I will be able to use this later in my drawings or paintings. I slowly go forward and learn about the colors, techniques I can use for certain kind of images and about the perspective/foreground/background. Applying my painting technique was something that I should have done earlier. It showed me that this way I can achieve good results as well. It will be much closer to the style I wish to paint/draw. My style is rather Asian and that does not usually work for medieval Fantasy.




Leviathan

It is a simple drawing of a leviathan, a sea (magical) monster. The creature can fly over the sea water. This one decided to twine around a lighthouse to hide the light it produces. It is there levitating and waiting for a ship to see him. The crew might get scared and never come to the island (were some other magical beings live).

I did not want to express anything special with this drawing, I just drew a sketch of it because I liked the idea. It is a fantasy creature drawn there. I like fantasy and I'm encircled with fantasy imagery, books and other items. The rocks should resemble rocks that you can find in Southern Asia. I really like this kind of rocks.

Now the finalization of my work should take place, but as this is the part I struggle the most, I'm not sure if I can make it. I will try adding details or use more colors to make the drawing more vivid but I've come to an end most probably. We will see what staring at it and trying to use imaginary brushes will lead to.

I learned a lot already and I will look forward to trying using my knowledge on my next drawing.

Here is how my drawing looks like so far...