(Show the science lab) (Show the content I had done) From January we started off our synoptic projects, I'm in the VFX team with Eduard, Aiden, and Sebastian. To further plan and organize our things we used a website called Trello.
First week: In our first week, our team was coming up with ideas. Over the holiday I had a look at Eduard's pitch. The first impression I liked the ideas of the project and when we came back, I started to practice modeling the science lab which (originally) was (going to be) the first scene. As we got into our groups, we discussed the plans for the project itself. Furthermore, we created a brainstorm list for the story itself. The motivation, the plot, the 5 w's, etc. It was fun to play around with the story itself. We were still trying to get ideas, trying our best to simplify the story. Originally, we were going for a time travel story but that was changed within a couple of weeks' time. Second week:
The second week in and I was still practicing on my modeling skills for the science lab (which would've been our first environment.) Originally we were going to start by making our storyboard for the time travel story even then that was scrapped down the line so it's a good thing we didn't go aim for that. This was also where we had to get our project RAG pitch in however, our group would start on this the following week (third week.)
I would also start to make a script for the story and when Leigh reviewed my script. The story seemed decent but it's more or so about the visuals, presentation, and style over anything else in the project.
Leigh showed us one of the older college projects for our group to watch. From what I watched, the visual effects were composted and produced in photoshop and after-effects. For all I know, they might've used something else so it was more of an assumption to what they used. This would then adapt my way of thinking and interpreting of the project itself.
Third week:
This week would start seeing major story changes and settings to the project. Moreover, the setting itself would change even more in the next week. This would be where I'd change up the script for the better and simpler.
This week we'd show off our work so far by doing a project rag pitch. Here we would give our ideas, concepts, and what our team is pitching out for. We needed our project pitch to be green but unfortunately, due to our underwhelming presentation, responses, and effort into the project, our team was in the red zone. Furthermore, this made me feel upset and frustrated at the outcome as I had to leave halfway through the presentation.
That being said, here's the presentation we had done:
Fourth week:
This week we would start making progress and improve upon our work in the pre-production phase. Aiden would start making progress on the animatics, Eduard created a 3D Earth and added the textures for the earth itself, Sebastian started making some 3D models and assets for the VFX project. As for what I was doing, I'd created a script, produce film footage, and from there, time stretch it in After Effects.
Fifth week: As the team is making progress (slowly but surely), we've been clearing up on our pre-production work and making sure everything needed to be ready by next week. I was working on the storyboard and space station concept by photo bashing images together. I also worked on a Rubik's Cube here are the renders of the Rubik's cube:
Sorry to disappoint but this was an incomplete piece of work however that being said, this concept would be unused in the process for our VFX work
Sixth week:
This week I started to produce the pre-production presentation for our group. I asked each member in my group to give me the stuff they've worked on for the pre-production phase. I was carrying a lot of unnecessary weight on my shoulders and this was pointed out after the presentation when Leigh noticed this. Before the presentation, however, my anxiety got to be the best of me and I had to leave class for a while. Furthermore, I realized when I was observing other synoptic presentations, I needed to add more content to the presentation than what I had initially thought.
Here is the pre-production presentation:
So on the third slide, I did the concept art for a character called Dave. Aiden worked on the astronaut concept. The fourth slide is my photo bash of the space shuttle, the storyboard was a work in progress that I had made. The aftermath presentation was a whole discussion based on what needed to improve on as a team and balance the workload between the four of us. We needed more teamwork and cooperation. Balance out the workload Set our tasks for multiple individuals Gather feedback based on the work you've done.
Sam and Leigh lent a hand in by improving on our storyboard which I made. Our group at the time had struggled the most as a team and lacked a form of information and teamwork amongst ourselves. Overall, the VFX team was getting into gear, despite the struggles, a lot more teamwork would be involved in the production stages. More or so we'd focus on-camera work, assets, tracking, motion. We just needed assistance with how to get the VFX project going and creating a good synoptic. Follow on to my next part of the blog: https://s0256844.wixsite.com/website/post/synoptic-project-part-2-production
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