PROJECT 1 - DIGITAL IMAGING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

PROJECT 1 - DIGITAL IMAGING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Farissa Eryna Sham (0336814)

Final Project - 

WEEK 9 - WEEK 12

                                                                                                                                                                         

INSTRUCTIONS

Project Brief

For the final project, we were told to build our own city. This project is also divided in to two parts (still image and animated version). We were told to envision the future whether it is utopia or dystopia. We have to build the city from scratch, from highly imaginative to realistic. The format was full hd 1920x1080 landscape. 

PROJECT 2A Week (9-12): Photo Manipulation (Still image)

Firstly, I sketched out my ideas for this project. I roughly drew 4 different type of cities. However, I felt more confident with the first sketched picture. The concept was similar to a cyberpunk city. I wanted to include neon lights, advanced technology, holograms, holographic advertisements  and flying vehicles. I also wanted it to be in space so I will include a galaxy background in my work. Here are pictures of my sketches for this project;

Fig 1.1 Sketches for final project

Fig 1.2 More sketches

Mr Martin told me to choose between the first sketch and the last one. The last one is a city that is half sunken in to water. I felt more confident to work with the first sketch so I choose to digitize it. 

To start off with my work, I gathered pictures to build my own city from scratch. Here are the pictures I used in my work;

Fig 1.3 Neon lighting

In fig 1.3 I used this a reference for the neon lighting. I really liked the colours in this image so I want to create something similar to it. 

Fig 1.4 Cafe included in my work

Fig 1.5 Building included in my work

In fig 1.5 I used one of the buildings in the image to be edited in my work. 

Fig 1.6 Bright orange lighting

Fig 1.7 Reference for point of view

For the composition of my city, I referred to Fig 1.7. I think from this point of view it really shows the small details that is in the city. 

Fig 1.8 Flying vehicle

Fig 1.9 Flying vehicle 2

Fig 1.10 Blue hologram

Fig 1.11 Yellow hologram

This is the image I chose to make it as my background of my work.

Fig 1.12 Background; Space

Once I gathered enough materials for my work, I started digitizing it in Photoshop. I started off with a new document with this format - full hd 1920x1080 landscape. I began with the background. 

Fig 1.13 Background layer

I adjusted the brightness and contrast for this layer. I made it slightly darker/dimmer and increased the level of contrast. 

Fig 1.14 Background; Adjusting brightness & contrast

I also created another layer with just the meteors in it for me to be able to animate them easily in Adobe After Effects later on. 

As I was satisfied with this layer, I moved on to the buildings which was the tricky part. I was sort of struggling with the composition so I tried many different ways to create the one that looks right. 

 Fig 1.15 First building 

I used transform to scale the building. 

 Fig 1.16 Cafe added 

I made the cafe's saturation higher to make it stand out more. 

 Fig 1.17 Road with neon lights

 Fig 1.18 Another building added with holographic advertisement 

Fig 1.19 Added bright neon orange lighting

Next, I added the holograms. I placed them near walking people as I wanted to portray the idea of humans and holograms are living together. 

 Fig 1.20 Hologram

Then I went on and added more of the holograms and placed them accordingly.

 Fig 1.21 Added another building on the left

 Fig 1.22 Flying vehicle 1

In fig 1.22 I added a flying vehicle and made sure to blend it with the background. 

Fig 1.23 Flying vehicle 2

Once I completed the still image for this project, I exported my work in Photoshop as JPEG. Here is the outcome for the still image of this project;

Fig 1.24 Outcome; Still Image

PROJECT 2B (Week 12-14); Animation

For the animation of my work, I used Adobe AfterEffects. I started off with a new composition. I imported my PSD file in to After Effects. I set the duration as 5 seconds just like we were instructed to do so in class. 

Fig 1.25 Imported PSD file

In fig 1.25, I began by pre-composing the layers that I will animate. This is what Mr Martin showed me in class. I find this really helps me a lot as it is easier to manage. So the first layer I animated was one of the meteoroids. 

Fig 1.26 Meteoroid; Puppet tool

I added a glow effect to the meteoroid. I adjusted the glow threshold and radius.

Fig 1.27 Meteoroid; Glow effect

I used the same method for the other meteoroid which is in blue. 

Fig 1.28 Building; Glow effect

My idea in fig 1.28 was to make the light sort of go on and off every few seconds.

 Fig 1.29 Road; Opacity

For the road, Mr Jeffrey said I should make it sort of light up and make the neon lights interesting. So I made it glow but it'll look like it slowly light up. To create that, I played with the opacity and the blending mode. 

Fig 1.30 Road; Blending mode

Next, I animated the holographic advertisement on one of the buildings. I wanted it to glitch subtly. I learned how to do so by watching a tutorial on Youtube. I started off by duplicating the layers.

 Fig 1.31 Duplicated the layers

Then I created a new layer and add in the fractal noise effect. I adjusted the fractal type and also the noise type to block. I also changed the contrast, complexity and turned off the invert.

Fig 1.32 Glitch; Fractal noise

Fig 1.33 Glitch; Added motion tile

I had to re do many of the steps I watched on Youtube as it was quite confusing. I was not really sure how to use displacement map as it was my first time but I managed to figure it out on my own.

 Fig 1.34 Green colour holographic

I also added few more colours to the holographic advertisement. Once I adjusted the anchor point and opacity, I played them all at once.

Fig 1.35 Glitch

 Fig 1.36 Neon orange lighting; Glow effect & adjusted the opacity

Fig 1.37 Hologram; Glow radius and threshold

For the holograms, Mr Jeffrey said I should make it slowly light up from the bottom. To do so I had to adjust the glow effect.

Fig 1.38 Flying vehicle 1; Anchor point

My idea for the flying vehicles were to make them move subtly and make the smoke that's coming out of the car glow. I adjusted the anchor point and change the position of it in each keyframe. 

Fig  1.39 Smoke; Glow effect

Since the smoke that comes out from the vehicles are in a separate layer, I had to adjust the position of it according to the vehicle and make sure it follows it. I also added the glow effect and changed the settings. 

Once I was satisfied with the animation, I added it to render queue and exported it as shown in fig 1.4o.

Fig 1.40 Exporting; Render queue 

Lastly I uploaded the video on Youtube. Here is my final outcome for the animated version of this project;

Fig 1.41 Final project; Animated