Done with Interface! Masking and Motion-tracking time!

After completing with the interface design, it is time to make it move according to the movements of the video. Right here, I need to track motion on the dim light of the girl's phone. By the way, I did not mask the phone because it's impossible to mask frame by frame and it's totally insane to do so! So I just make it look like the phone is attached to the glass panel (like S-BEAM) and then it shows the information reflected in front of the girl's face while the girl is typing on the glass panel to interact. :P The other thing is it doesn't really look nice where the interactive screen just shows up on the glass panel itself. Anyway, motion tracking for me is like a "PAIN IN THE ASS" because at first it won't ever track for me. -sobs- I have tried for some time but it didn't work, so I resolved to key-frame the motion manually which was so bloody tedious and painstakingly slow... 

Unfortunately, the interface looks like it moves so I had to ask help from my teachers. After seeking help with motion tracking, I finally tracked my points. It was a success! :) Now I just need to make my hologram move along with the tracking points. I pasted the tracker's anchor points into the positions of the hologram, so it moves along the points. To ensure it doesn't move and stay in the tracker's movements, I had to set the anchor point of the hologram composition and remove all the points I had previously planted.

Many masks and manual key-frames

AS COMPARED TO

2 Masks and neat key-frames

Initially, masking was a problem too. I had to mask out frame by frame for slight movements of Shahrul's hand as he was standing nearer to the camera and in front of the the hologram. So yeah but I managed to finish masking out using 2 layer maskings. :P

And TA-DAA! I have finally finished my Individual Shot after much time. My efforts had paid off well and I never felt so accomplished in my life! ^^

Creating the flicker and loading bar with DNA spinning

I can say it was quite fun when I did the flicker, I got to play around with the adjustments. The flicker's purpose is to give the effect of the interface showing and popping up just like a HOLOGRAM. Imagine without a flicker, the whole scene will just look like a piece of flat interface floating on nothing! It will just look weird and will not make sense at all! I followed the tutorial once again. First, I added a new black solid and added lens flare to it. Then I played around with the adjustments curves, tint and CC Radial Fast Blur. The adjustments vary, so adjusted to make it resemble a small glow. After making the glow, I made the glow move so that it looks more like a flicker instead. Using the flare brightness function under lens flare, I typed in a function called "wiggle", it made the glow flicker constantly. That was how I got a flicker to work. :)

As for the loading bar with a rotating DNA sample, I used a hollow rectangle with a "moving" rectangle inside. The rectangle inside represents the "LOADING BAR" and it is supposed to move to the other end to show that the something has loaded. To do so, I increased the size of the rectangle and moved its positions. I key-framed the positions so that the bar will look like it moved across. And as for the DNA model, I opened up a new composition and made a ladder like structure by using rectangles. After making the structure, I used CC Ball Action to make the structure look like it is formed by multiple minute balls. Of course, I had to play around with the adjustments just to get the desired effect I want. :) Lastly, to make it look like it's spinning, I set the rotations and key-framed them. So that the DNA model spins and not just staying there which doesn't look interactive at all. 

FINAL PRODUCT

First ever attempt on my Individual Shot - Creating pop-up interface

Before I even started on my work for my Individual Shot, I went on YouTube to search for HOLOGRAM Tutorials. I watched quite a few of the AE tutorials and I was most pleased with a tutorial by ECAbrams. I learnt how to do the "LOADING SCREEN" and the flicker from his tutorial. The reason why I chose to follow his tutorial is his work resembles the "POP-UP SCREEN" effect that I want. By the way, he has more tutorials on his channel. Please do check out his channel for more Kinetic Typography Tutorials. :D

Anyway. On my first attempt on my work, I managed to finish doing the interface in two days. At first when I tried out, it was not that easy as I thought. It was quite tedious... I have to rearrange the position of the interface so that it looks "POP-UP" and more appropriate. To do so, I used grids to help me position my interface.

Next step was creating the LOADING SCREEN, I used circles to form the outer and inner rings of the loading screen and used the trim paths to make them move simultaneously. For the loading bars inside the outer circle was formed by multiplying the number of copies of the rectangular bar and making them repeat in  rotations. To make the effect of the screen has finished loading, the shapes and word "LOADING" fade away as they move towards other positions.

FINAL FOOTAGE

FINAL PRODUCT

VFX Shot - The Hologram

Well, I am doing a Holographic Interface for my individual shot. Currently, I am using Iron Man 3 as a basic reference for the hologram.

Here's some examples of what I'm planning to do for my individual shot:

Interactive Hologram just in the palm of your hand(Iron Man 3)

I am planning on doing a hologram interface that is INTERACTIVE and perhaps in 3D.

Adapted from Youtube

Maybe something like this but a lot smaller since I want it to be COMPACT and PORTABLE. 

In my group's film, the actor/actress is supposed to hold onto a translucent/transparent panel which is interactive and panel will be able to show a pop-up translucent screen(a hologram) in front of him/her as he/she interacts with the panel. Besides, both the hologram and the panel will be interactive. 

So far, I have already watched some tutorials on the hologram effect. Anyway, I will be using After Effects to do my Individual Shot.