Final Project
Isaac Yaw Wai Zac (0343197)
Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Video and Sound Production Final Project
Class Exercises and Progress:
Figure 1. Compilation of Pictures for Week 9 Class Exercise
In week 10's class, we were all given a list of groups (in 4's) to practice the stop motion shooting. However, we were given 2 videos to shoot, where one of them is done manually frame by frame and then applying post-production video editing to create a stop motion video and the other one is to use a phone stop motion application to ease the editing process.
My team consists of Michael, Zheng Chui, and Jia Sheng. Figure 3 below shows the timelapse video of our shoot in week 10's class. With that, the stop motion shoots consist of the 1st shoot which was taken on my mirrorless camera and then post-processed using Adobe Premiere Pro where the result is shown in Figure 4. In the 2nd shoot, the stop motion video was generated through the stop motion phone application where the final result is shown in Figure 5. The storyline for these 2 scenes are explained below:
Scene 1:
The scene is a fighting scene between 2 characters where one of them looks significantly bigger and stronger, but we should not underestimate anyone because the smaller-sized character actually wins against the bigger character. The fighting scene includes using weapons, hitting, dodging, kicking, and flipping motions and the win obtained by the smaller character was finished with a small dabbing celebration.
Scene 2:
The scene is a famous killing scene in the Among Us game where an orange character witnessed a killing scene involving a red and another green character. Of course, the characters were wearing costumes to get on board with the Halloween theme during the shooting of the stop motion.
Figure 2. Compilation of Pictures for Week 10 Class Exercise
Figure 3. Timelapse for Week 10's Class Exercise
Figure 4. Final Outcome for Week 10 Class Exercise - 1st Shoot (Not Using Stop Motion Application)
Figure 5. Final Outcome for Week 10 Class Exercise - 2nd Shoot (Using Stop Motion Application)
As for the stop motion shoot using the camera, all the editing was done in the Adobe Premiere Pro software. In Figure 6, the figure shows the importing of all the frames in the ideal sequence, and then the duration for every frame was configured as shown in Figure 7. Make sure that the ripple edit option was selected to ensure that all the frames are attached to one another right after editing the duration. To improve the stability and smoothness of the video, the nested sequence option was chosen to make all the frames into a sequence so that the smoothing-through effects could be added. however, when this step was performed, we could not undo it to edit the frames again other than the duration.
Figures 6, 7, 8, & 9. Stop Motion Editing Progress in Adobe Premiere Pro
Final Project Progress and Outcome
Inspiration:
a) Street Stop Motion
b) Everyday Object Stop Motion
3) Lego Shopping - by MICHAELHICKOXFilms
c) Lego Stop Motion
In these 3 stop motion videos that I have shortlisted, I found many aspects to be very interesting, intriguing, and of course, very high quality that the stop motion frames are well put together to create a seamless transition between every shot. In the street stop motion video, most of the shots are not conventional and are very creative, leaving viewers in awe and questioning how the shots and editing are made. The everyday object stop-motion video is the one that brings us closer to relate to it because everyday objects are used. What makes it more fascinating is that the creator can utilize these everyday objects in creative stop-motion shots. In the Lego stop motion video, I was very fascinated by the effort, professionalism, and creativity that the creator put into the shooting of this stop motion video. I was already well invested in watching other MICHAELHICKOXFilms videos at a very young age.
In the final project stop motion video, my idea was to make an estimated duration of 30 to 40 seconds short film about the awareness of depression, overthinking, and having negative thoughts. Rather than making a short story, I would like to make a short awareness video/film because I think that this would be an interesting approach and it would be quite different. Other than that, I could showcase the video shooting and editing skills that I learned throughout the semester in this module through this video. Therefore, the stop motion video will include both the shooting of props and also me, myself in the shots. The first storyboard draft is shown in Figure 10 below. The explanations for the scenes are listed according to the numbers.
Figure 10. First Draft for Final Project Storyboard
(1) The opening scene is to explain the general thoughts that people who are facing depression anxiety, or even a bad day would feel or experience.
(2) Then, there will be a transition scene to zoom into the question mark which would be an interesting concept to change into a brain as well.
(3,4) This is to show the brain overthinking.
(5) We should not overthink as it will cause many negative thoughts to occur, implied by the black stains shown in the storyboard.
(6,7) The stain then drops and will be illustrated as a weak, shattered, broken item (representing the thoughts)
(8) Illustration of the blob which is just like a shattered heart
(9,10) Then transitions to me, in a dark scene, and implements the stop motion movement frame by frame to illustrate the bad days that I go through.
(11) Then, the frame will zoom into my hand, holding up a peace sign where it is showing us to spread peace and happiness instead.
(12) We should spread love as well.
With this, I refined the storyboard, and the final storyboard for this project is shown in Figure 11 below. The overall storyline is similar to that, of the first draft, but I included 2 scenes for the stop motion shot of me, where the sad scene will be static whereas the happy scene will be the moving scene. All the explanations are also included below.
Figure 11. Final Project Storyboard
1. The
opening scene is to explain the general thoughts that people who are facing depression,
anxiety, or even a bad day would feel or experience. Therefore, the thoughts
like ‘is the mind where the soul lies?’
2. ‘Or
am I just Lost?’
3. Then,
there will be a transition scene to zoom into the question mark which would be
an interesting concept to change into a brain as well.
4. The
question mark will be changed to a rotational blob that allows the smooth
rotational transition into my head for the next scene.
5. The
smooth transition will change to the static stop motion scene of me going
through different conditions throughout my day, in an unhappy manner.
6. Then,
the head portion would transition once again into a ball that is rotating, to
then transition into a brain for the next scene.
7. This
scene shows the brain overthinking and they would only create a more serious
negative impact to the brain.
8. Therefore,
there will be black stains to illustrate the effect of very bad thoughts, then
the stains will cover the brain.
9. This
will then transition into a blob of negativity.
10. The
blob represents the effect of overthinking and depression, thus illustrated by
‘shattered thoughts.
11. The
blob will now transition into a heart and explained by the words ‘just like a
broken heart’, which will transition into the next scene, with a broken heart.
12. Illustration
of a shattered and broken heart
13. Then,
the full white scene will transition back into me, but this stop motion would
be a happy version of myself going through my days with a moving stop motion
scene. After that movement, the camera will zoom and pan into my body/heart to
show a heart.
14. ‘SPREAD
LOVE’
15. All the items move away from frame and then transition into the end credit scene.
Dialogue/Voice-Over:
Is the mind where the soul lies?
Am I right? Or am I just lost?
Depressed all the time, going through the days without a smile on my face
Why overthink? Why bother? It would only hurt you, causing shattered thoughts, just like a broken heart that needs to be healed.
Why not just put them all aside and put a smile on your face? Spread love, not hate!
In the editing process for the final project, the first part is to import all the frames into the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline and then change the duration for every frame accordingly. This is shown in Figures 12 and 13. Then, some of the scenes were added with warp stabilizer effects (only if needed) to increase the smoothness. This is not suggested entirely because it may implement the crop factor that requires the final outcome to be zoomed in. This is shown in Figures 14, 15, and 16. Then, some of the shots require the frame to be matched accordingly, especially the focus, which is my face. Therefore, the motion in the x and y axes was configured accordingly to ensure that the focus was matched correctly and smoothly. This is shown in Figures 17, 18, and 19. As shown in Figures 21 and 22, to align the shots, the reference shot or frame was used as the higher layer one, and then the opacity was decreased to see and match both the frames accordingly. In Figure 24, several texts were added, such as the closing part or the outro. Then, the color grading was done because the initial shots of the plasticine stop-motion scenes were too dark, and then the whites, highlights, exposure, and contrasts were increased to improve the lighting quality. This was done by adding the adjustment layers accordingly and even throughout the video. For example, the sad and depressed scene requires a more moody color grade, therefore, the use of a desaturated edit. Lastly, the voiceover was added after editing the video, and the final outcome is included below. The overall stop motion project consists of a total frame of 1153 frames and a video duration of 35 seconds.
Figure 12. Final Project Progress 1
Figure 13. Final Project Progress 2
Figure 14. Final Project Progress 3
Figure 15. Final Project Progress 4
Figure 16. Final Project Progress 5
Figure 17. Final Project Progress 6
Figure 18. Final Project Progress 7
Figure 19. Final Project Progress 8
Figure 20. Final Project Progress 9
Figure 21. Final Project Progress 10
Figure 22. Final Project Progress 11
Figure 23. Final Project Progress 12
Figure 24. Final Project Progress 13
Figure 25. Final Project Progress 14
Figure 26. Comparison between Color Grading (Without and With)
Figure 27. Final Project Progress 15
Figure 28. Comparison between B&W Color Grading (Without and With)
Figure 29. Final Project Progress 16
Figure 30. Timelapse for Stop Motion Editing
Figure 31. Video Outcome (Without Audio and Resolution Cropping/Wrong Framing Aspect Ratio)
Figure 32. Final Video Outcome
Behind the Scenes:
Figure 33. Behind the Scenes
Feedback:
My initial idea was to create a stop-motion sequence of myself as the subject and then the motion would be to zoom into my imaginative world, across many other different visuals. However, there is no specific theme to this, and it is relatively hard to visualize the storyline together with the message that I would want to convey. Therefore, Mr. Martin told me to change it up a little bit and then add different types of visuals. Following, I went with a more direct message to be conveyed through awareness spreading, Mr. Martin was happy about my draft and I was able to proceed with it.
Reflection:
In this assignment, I felt that it was a relatively new experience even though I initially had some experience with stop-motion shooting. However, I only tried stop-motion with LEGO, and it was quite fun to play with. In this project, I tried something different, and to shoot plus edit stop-motion using human motion (as the subject), and then using clay/plasticine as the medium for further visuals or illustration. Personally, I felt that stop-motion using plasticine was very fun, but it was very messy and may require more different colors to play with. As for the human motion stop-motion, it was a huge challenge because many factors will cause misalignment of every frame that you are shooting.
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