Stop motion image stabilization in After Effects

You can not fully appreciate the animation if the image is shake. The light could be great and the animation brilliant, but our brain still tells us... the animation is cute but its not quite great, "don't get mi wrong its nice..." we don't wont that kind of comments do we...also it is very difficult to apply masks and other effects on randomly moving images. Movement of one of the elements in the animation doesn't matter if its the original footage or the mask expose the line of the mask, setting the mask in the right place by hand on hundred of images can not be the only solution... I refuse to do it by hand... lets get read of those shake images... I was guessing that Premiere should have tool suitable for doing this, but 5 hours of researching tough me that the best software for this is After Effects, Premiere haven't got such option. There is a few other progtams but I was rather difficult to get them online. Previously I had few attempts of learning AF but never really got the hang of it. It looks that now I haveng got much choice. So I've imported the whole Premiere saved project to AF. I tried to work on the whole project from there and not going back to Premiere any more, but I felt that the program is not for putting the animation together. I bet that there is an option of deciding on the duration of imported images in AF but the time line is designed to add layers to individual object like videos or lingle images. Premiere is the software for sticking the images together...I think...that's my individual preference, but I find it comfortable. For now. So I decided on rendering and editing everything in Premiere and than importing the video to AF to stabilize the image. 

I imported the finished video to AF. Tryed few things with images stabilizer. Watched some youtube tutorials made by some tenagers... and seriously what is the point of doing a tutorial on something that is alredy on youtube... I looked through few of them as I was looking for some more datail info... but there are all the same... silly.
Anyhow, I managed to apply the stabilizations to the video, and the result turned out to be great. the diffrence was biger than I expected. But it created new problems. As the image was still now the frame surrounding the video started to jump... cutting it a bit down would be a solution, but I did not wont to change the composition previously established. I had to come back to Premiere and re-render the video without the frames... I also decided no to compress the image so that I would have the option of working on the peace without any limitations, and this way I'm avoiding problems with frame sizes. Also would be nice to have an original in full size on the hard drive... So I rendered the peace, and from an animation not even 2 minutes long I received 18 gig file (WMV uncompressed). A bit to big for my liking. My computer also seams to unappreciated that size and does not wont to open the animation in any software. In other words... my 5 years old computer is letting me down jet once again.
It seams that Ill have to compress the video into the best quality that I can, and that apply the stabilizer, get it back to Premiere again add the sound and maybe then export it without compression.... and as it goes for the 18gig file, Ill have to wait for a better computer to be dealt with. for now, it'll just hang there.

1500 Pictures uploded in Photoshop

Lets say that the "Not Growing Up" first cut have few small glitches... but the truth is that it will take me another few week to fix it all... well, yes maybe YOU don't notice the obvious animating mistakes, but it's not all about you this time... you know.
In my defence now I'll explain why did I allow those mistakes to take place and how will I avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
- The light was changing cause of my assistant waking up - (solution) Give him more alcohol so he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the shoot. Or give him less alcohol so he wouldn't fall asleep in the first place.
- Camera moving - (solution) Rent a place that will not have old wooden flour.
- Stenography moving - (serious solution) During the planning stage I should consider building the set more solid. Animating a puppet is sometimes quite complicated because of limited access or difficult movements. In this situations it is very hard to focus on being gentle on the set. Cause of that, the set needs to be solid at all times, so that at the stage of animating nobody needs to focus on in.
- Mistakes in animation - (solution) HEY nobody's perfect... I was tired... If I only had a bit more time...
Those are the mistakes in the animation. I can see them, not sure if any one else can... but now comes the difficult bit. Fixing it. Photoshop here I come... I'll see you in a week time.

Shoot from the top.

The up from the tree shot is one of my favourite in the animation. I decided to take that shot so that the animation would be a bit more vibrant. So that there would be a bit more interesting shots.
The audience is looking down through branches at the bunny rabbit standing under the three. The bunny is looking up at the apple.
The truth is that the branches are laying on the ground just next to the bunny. That's because all the branches had to be composed into the right shape. To do this the tree had to be destroyed and put back together.
To make the shot a bit more understanding, I decided to lift the fruit a bit higher so that the lens optics would blur the apple a bit.
I love this shot.

"Not Growing Up" First Cut

"Not Growing Up" my new favourite animation. An animated illustration for Szymon's music.

Music by "Hemofilia" Szymon Szwarc

With help of my good friends Zuza Bukala, Ola Hryniewicz, Panayiotis Melodias... and Tomas Petronis?

Animating The Bunny

The "A.R.T." was the first project in which I used the screw based armature. I can't say that the first skeleton was a huge success. I was a rather difficult task to animate Arty (the robot).
Before I started to construct the armature for "Not Growing Up" boy in a rabbit costume I created a document in with I specified all boys movement. Decided on all gestures and smallest reactions, so that while constructing the skeleton I knew exactly what kind of movements I need the puppet to perform. Then I gathered all my notes on pros and cons of Artys armature design. I completely changed the solution for the shoulders and waists.
- Yeah did you, and how did it work?
- I'm glad that I asked...
It turned out to be brilliant. When I took the bunny for a ride it turned out that it's absolutely intuitive, it reacts exactly the way I expected it to react. I started to animate straight away. Took me two days to animate the whole thing. The eyes were great. Not difficult to animate at all, they escaped me one or twice, but I'll fix it in post editing.
I really enjoyed animating the car toy. The rope from the toy had a wire inside of it. It was a pure stop frame exercise to animate it to look like a loose rope... lovely.
In overall I'm pleased with the quality of animation in the clip. Can't wait to my next movie to make the animation even better... I have some ball joints now... that's right babe... I'm going PRO.

Building The Background

Did you noticed the background? You didn't?... good. That was the whole idea. The whole purpose of the background was the fill up the gaps in the shoots while adding a bit of tonally balanced perspective.

The colours of the animation were chosen on early stages of the project. They were a painters decision (as there is no other point why the sky would be orange). They were compose and balanced in a way which would emphasize the specific mood of the animation. The warm colour of the sky together with cold greens is mixing with rabbit grey costume exactly as planned.

Back to the background. The idea was to create a number of small hills in the distance. To create the effect of distance between two sets I had to pull out the colour from the further sat, because the colours in the distance are always less intense, that's cause of air perspective. I used clothes with desaturated colours, a bit green and white spray on brown clothes, a bit of white on green clothes... and almost done.

Now, what have I used to build the background?
- Old shirts.
- Jacket - that my Mom gave me but I never like it.
- Gradfathers coat.
- Blanket

"Not Growing Up" from the kitche

In this post Ill try to show how did I managed to do some thing in the animation. I find most of this stuff funny and dont get me wrong quite clever as well.

Picture from the set. Panayiotis (art Director and second Photographer) and me checking the composition of the shoot.

This is the middle of the summer in my room. The light is firmly blocked with the use of cheep paper and sleeping mats... usually they did the trick.


The shoot where the apple fly in the air and falls back down... How did you do that, people ask... Nothing easier, you take a needle and tape it to the ceiling, take a thread with is the same colour of the background and simply pull the string.
If that did not work (because the apple pulled up on a string doesn't twist) you do it digitally... and that's what I did.

This is a shoot of the whole set. So if you thought that the animations is made by a professional... you could not be more wrong.
The background is made with the use of window blind pinned to the wall. The 2 set is build with two planks of wood taped to my drawers and cause of that I did not have access to my fresh socks for ... for some time.

Oh yea, and if there is light changing in my movie, that's because of my Lithuanian friend Tomas (catering Master in the project).
Tomas tend to woke up drunk during the shoots. Stud up walk around the room in his white T-shirt changing completely the light in the room. Yeap thats the people I have to work with. But to be fair to Tomas I need to say that thanks to him the movie looks the way it looks... and I have much more post edit work to do...

Bunny Rabit Face

I had a very strong idea on how I want the face of the Rabbit boy to look like. I had it in my head, but I find it difficult to put images from my imagination on paper. Just not enough practice, I usually draw from observation. I decided then to ask an illustrator to give it a go and although it helped it wasn't a simple proses. Mainly to communicate ideas piece. In the process of communicating there is always some information lost. And the gaps of information are filled in by a creative person with there own interpenetration.... with is great and bad at the same time. This proses gave ma something to think about, but I haven't been quite there yet.

A friend gave me a name of a nice illustrator... but I forgot his name just now... anyhow this guy inspired me a bit. He is making loads of illustration with kids having enormous heads and big eyes. Caricature. And that was exactly what I needed to see. It allowed me to clarify my design.

Next step was to make a model ... and this bit of work was very frustrating. Switching from working in 2d into 3d portrait was a bit painful... well, took me one evening.

 

Now to take out the real stuff. A plasticine kind of stuff that dries out in few minutes, and gets solid hard (and light) over nigh. When you take it out of the pack, its nice and  white. But its very easy to make it full of dust, so its important to keep tidy while working with it. I found that the best way of working with it is by using wooden modelling knife and spit. Just like with clay sculpturing, until you work you keep the surface wet.
First, I made two balls. I tried to make them kind of the same size and as round as possible. After they dried I put some nail polish on them, to make them solid and durable but most of all I wanted them to shine.
My objectives:
- Hide all the metal elements.
- Place the head in the right palace on the spine.
- Make the Head the right size comparing to the rest of the body.
- Fit in  the two balls that I have previously made. They needed to be spot on in the right place or the whole face would look wrong.
- Sculpt the face.

 

Well, Ill say that it looks nice. But lets wait for the final result when I finish the shoes and the paint work.

Bunny Rabit #2

I have this flat mate. She is a 50 year old Polish housewife. I thought she knows all about sewing... but nooooo. Just my luck, she turn out to be the cooking/cleaning housewife and not the sewing one.
The material that I used was from a jumper from a second hand shop... paid £2. When I tried to get some similar textiles from a shop I was asked to pay £10 for few bits.

So there's me taking my chances against the devil machine... The two first attempts were far off from satisfying. And the third one, what could I say... it went perfectly, no problems what so ever. No mistakes, no screw ups, exactly what I wanted. Nice.

Bunny Rabbit

Well, I'm not sure which day is it today. I decided to loose track when I didn't do anything through the weekend. Anyhow I'm still working and have loads of new stuff I need to publish.

Armature.
I looked all around Dundee for bolts and nuts and I managed to find nothing. The best and only place as far as I concerned is the internet. I placed my order on The Site Box website. It took them a week to get the stuff to me and a £5 for delivery but still at least now I have all the stuff that I need for making the armature.
This armature is smaller and more complicated than the one I made for the A.R.T project. But thanks to the previous project I know the weak points of an armature of this type. I managed to re-enforce the weak points and stop the bolts unscrewing. The puppet moves and reacts much more precise and fluently than the robot from A.R.T. project. I'm very happy with that, and cant wait to start animating.

Building The Hill

Day 4

Hill = Clay + Chicken Wire + My X-girlfriend's XX-boyfriend's quilt cover.
Tree = Chicken Wire + Scrap Metal + Wire + Plastic Bag

I built the set about three month ago and started a different project after that, so I haven't touched the hill  since. Frankly I had a small problem to get back working on it, but luckily my flat mate came round and helped me to "open the paint". I have to say that it was fun to paint the set. I took out my acrylic paint and just went mental on in. It all went very messy but smooth. My target was to make the set vibrant and three dimensional and not flat with pure light green. I'm happy with what I ended up with. There is a lot of randomness and dirt that in my opinion looks like a real hill. Nice.

Sewing Machine

Day 3
I got the sewing machine to work!!!
I need the machine to sew the rabbit costume. And it could sound easy for some, but the first time I tried to do something with the machine I ended up breaking it. So I have been kind of avoiding the problem for some time now, but its about time to face the mechanical creature.
A grown up lad is spending the evening playing with a sewing machine... that's just not right... I took some parts out, loosen some bolts and added some oil here and there, and got the machine to work, but still it did not sew properly. It takes TWO grow up lads to figure out how it's suppose to be done... Thread here and then there. Bobbin in here and like that... nee bother... How many guys these days know how to use a sewing machine... that right... only gay fashion students and me. Quality.

Rest of the evening spent on sculpturing the boys face... not happy with what I've end up with though.

Rabbit Puppet Armature.

Day 2
Long day at work, long and not very enjoyable evening on Sepulturas concert, but luckily I managed to do some work just before I left for the gig.
Rabbit armature for the "Not Growing Up" project will be made with screws, that are suppose to work as joints. Its a technique that I have already tried out in the "A.R.T." Project. Was it successful... I wouldn't say that. There were cons and pros. Screw armature gave me a very stiff robot that moved in the joints but nowhere elsewhere. The plasticine puppets move all ways and every direction... which is not always good. The screw armature tends to loosen up and requires tightening and the puppet always loses balance... but that last one could be cause of a bad puppet design.

The Rabbit armature is a new design and has, I hope, better solutions for joints placement. The arm should be capable of moving more precisely, than in the previous armatures, as it's placed in a different dimension. I'll use spring washers to get less traction in the joints, I hope that that will make the armature movement more fluent... Well I just can't be bothered explaining what I did with it, its all on the drawing.

"Not Growing Up" Animatex

I did the Animatex some time ago to submit for university. Since then the script changed several times and now it looks quite different but nevertheless watching this animation was very helpful in script writing process.

Not Growing Up Project Starts

Its this time of the year again. Middle of the summer, girlfriend away to London and its raining in Scotland... perfect time to make a animation. I'm starting my next best production. Its called "Not Growing Up" and its a short clip for my friend's music. The story's about a boy who does not know that what he's trying to do is impossible and even more than that its silly and pointless. He is being naive and childish but that is why he succeeds.  He is pure and innocent. The story could be understand on several different levels. It about friendship, sacrifice, nature and if you're weird you could think that the film's about YOU... and vegetarians.

DAY 1
Finishing the script. I have been working on this script for the last few months. I modified it loads of times but could not get it quite right. Sometimes the story did not go well with the sound, sometimes it was expanding into pointless directions, and most of the time I did not like what I was getting. But day 1 was very successful as I finally made up my mind on what the story going to be like. Lets just see if its flawless and I won't have to change in the middle of the animation making process.
It looks like I have discovered my way of script writing. It is much quicker, and the script I end up with is something that I can really rely on. Sounds silly, but it makes sense to me.

A.R.T.... first release

Well shake my legs and call me grandpa, I did it!



The first release, Ill give it a month and then Ill re-edit it as there's still quite a few glimps. Im glad that my sound producer committed to keep working on it with me. To set thing straight I think that there are still few things missing sound wise.

Rough Cut.

There is the full Animation, a rough cut.
I am aware that it is terrible, but nevertheless I LOVE IT, I can see the potential in it, and to prove my point to everybody that reads my blog (my girlfriend) I will make this animation count and it will get me my future dream job... driving licence and a long beard.. NICE.

Re - Edit

It is fascinating what a difference editing makes.
When I edit the video for the first time it looks shocking. It did not make any sense what so ever. And I think that I am the only one that know what was going on in the peace.
But after I work on it for a little bit, extend the pauses, live the shot hanging there just for a bit longer makes a great difference.
Last summer I was working on a film set, and one girl told me that EDITING is a second stage of directing, and Ill have to say that there is a lot to it.



The only problem that I have is that my computer is capable to write Word documents and maybe browsing the web, and not much more than that. When it goes for rendering animation all you can do is click and relax in your hair, cause the computer will take its time to operate your one click. Not to mention the time that my computer take to render the whole peace... I just set it to work during the night... did I mentioned that the whole peace is 5 minutes long... Shocking.

NOISE

Just discovered that in some places I should have made pictures on a much higher ISO, this way I would have got Noise which would have perfectly fit in in the whole concept of red lights that I am using for the day three of the animation. This way the aperture could stay quick, which would be helpful.

Pros of using Noise:
- Interesting look.
- Easier to take pictures.
- Easier to get a red mood.

Cons of using Noise:
- Less control over colours.
- Already made some pictures without the Noise.
- A bit cheesy look.

In this shot the Robot is getting mental and starts to stab the Sculpture...
Few shots made with high ISO.

Day Two/Tree

The artist is having a bad day at the studio, after yesterdays artistic failure he is trying to recover by changing the chisel to a one with a bigger calibre. In result he makes a big dreadful cut in the sculpture. The big scob is falling on the ground. In mid air the blue colour that characterise the day two changes to red which is the colour of the day three.
I have decided that this transition would be visually more interesting than sudden change of colours between shots.

This is a transition between day two and day three of the animation.

How have I done the shot... nothing to it, just a bit of tape red glass and blue foil that I never through out cause I thought I could come in handy.