Week 2 Masking, Introduction to After Effects and early FX

This week we will be looking at the early days of special FX from the reading you were assigned from the History of Special Effects.  Please note that there will be a quiz on the reading posted to the Blackboard site and will be due next week.

Special Effects and Compositing

September 4
Week 1

Welcome to CMS 320 Special Effects and Compositing. This blog will be where you can go to find announcements about the class, assignments, tutorials, reading material, and other helpful resources.

Performing in his own film, George Méliès is amazed by the sight of his own rapidly expanding head, the fantastical result of double exposure, in Indian Rubber Head  (1902)

The goal of this class is to give you a basic understanding of special FXs and how they are used in film production and television.  The goal is not to make you an expert in special FXs techniques or software but to give you an understanding of the history of special FXs, the tools that are currently available to filmmakers, and the processes that are used to create magic on the movie or video screen.

A Trip to the Moon - George Mélies,1902

As a great deal of this class is hands on instruction, and new skills are added each week, any missed class will greatly set you back so regular attendance is a necessity.

There will be three Special Effects projects you will need to complete for this class - these will be presented as real world challenges as if you were a Visual Effects production company. Here are some of examples of the kinds of challenges you can expect.

• Challenge 1  Due October 2:  Students will use masking, compositing, rotoscoping, and text graphics to complete a 10 sec. video.
• Challenge 2:  Due November 6:  Students will use green screen, multi-plane, 3D space as well as the tools from the first challenge to complete a 15 sec. video
• Challenge 3:  Due December 11:  Students will work in small production teams to complete a 30 sec. project using motion-tracking and all the tools that they used in the previous challenges.

In our first class we will all be making a flip book.  Example of flip books will be shown.

Flip Book

A flip book or flick book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.

Trick Photography

In 1856, Oscar Rejlander created the world's first "trick photograph" by combining different sections of 30 negatives into a single image. In 1895, Alfred Clark created what is commonly accepted as the first-ever motion picture special effect. While filming a reenactment of the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots, Clark instructed an actor to step up to the block in Mary's costume. As the executioner brought the axe above his head, Clarke stopped the camera, had all of the actors freeze, and had the person playing Mary step off the set. He placed a Mary dummy in the actor's place, restarted filming, and allowed the executioner to bring the axe down, severing the dummy's head. "Such… techniques would remain at the heart of special effects production for the next century."[1] Beheading Mary, Queen of Scots
Not only the first use of trickery in the cinema, it was the first type of photographic trickery only possible in a motion picture, i.e. the "stop trick".

In 1896, French magician Georges Méliès accidentally discovered the same "stop trick." According to Méliès, his camera jammed while filming a street scene in Paris. When he screened the film, he found that the "stop trick" had caused a truck to turn into a hearse, pedestrians to change direction, and men turn into women. Stop Trick - Georges Méliès

The Great Train Robbery

Homework

Reading Assignment Due September 11

Please read section one - up to page 47 of History of Special Effects. You can download the selection here: History of Special FX  or you can find it under Content on the Blackboard Site.

Also, I have posted a "Bootcamp" introductory chapter from "Visual Effects and Compositing".  This should give you some basic information that will come in handy over the next few weeks.

For fun take a look at these clips to see some of the special effects on Game of Thrones:
Game of Thrones Computer Mattes
Variety looks at Game of Thrones