Our trailer is just about finished, we’ve put in countless hours and each member of the team is feeling incredibly satisfied with the finished product. With luke finishing the final shot of the trailer (the poster scene) that wraps up the video production. Now all that’s left is just the audio and colour grading aspects and then, we’re completely finished.
Poster and Trailer Finalizing
As mentioned in my previous post, all our time and effort is being sinked into ensuring what we’re making is as good as it can be. I’m still working on tweaking the audio, editing and colour grading and luke is currently working on finalizing the poster for Aurora which is also coming along greatly.
As you can see by our burndown we don’t really have many tasks left to do, which is great since we’re right on schedule.
The final few weeks of synoptic
With the deadline getting closer and closer for the synoptic project we’re dedicating more and more time to improving and finalizing our trailer. It’s pretty much about 98% done now, all i need to do is finalize some color grading and audio effects to really push it over the finishing line. As well as this, everyone in our group has been focusing on finishing the breakdowns for the Art Book. Which is what the main focus of next week is going to be.
As you can see by our production schedule we are right on time and everything we need to be doing right now, we’re doing right now.
Synoptic Project Progress
With the deadline of our project coming up soon, we’re all working very hard to polish/ color correct all our scenes and the project as a whole. As of late i’ve been working super hard to refine and complete my character scenes building up to my character intro and on top of this i’m going to start working on mixing and editing the sound and compiling the footage together for the trailer. Which is what is going to be taking up a majority of my time this week. As you can tell by our production schedule we are actually ahead of time and are on track for finishing our project on time. 
Filler Scene Progress.
Over the next one or two weeks i’m going to be getting started on making my character screen filler shots, that ones the build up to my improved character screen. 
As you can see by the 2nd and 3rd pannels, my character will have cyber augmentations in one of his eyes and he will have have a gadget implanted into his arm that projects a heads up display like screen. The final product won’t exactly look like they do in the story board, and this is most prevalent in the last two panels. The idea is still there, but after some discussion with my team, we’ve decided that my character should be scanning a bank for its intel and information. Not only does this thematically make sense, as we need to show our characters planning to rob this bank somehow but it would also look a lot cooler in terms of effects and would juice it up a lot more. I’ve been doing some research into my arm hologram and i want it to look something along the lines of these:
Although these are just some random concept images i’ve found on google they convey what i want nicely. The shot is going to be fist person so i’m obviously going to have to compensate for that too. These next few weeks are going to be the most important ones to me since the due date for this project is getting closer and closer and it’s going to be my job to edit all this footage down as well as do some color correcting and also mix the audio.
Synoptic Project: Back after two weeks
Coming back after two weeks, i’m going to be going back into the swing of things. Currently our production schedule, we’re on target and are working towards our end goal.
Currently, i’m working on B roll city footage to fill the gaps in between the scenes that are important (main city shots, character intros, etc.). As well as this i’ll also be improving and refining on my character intro based on the feedback I’ve received. We’ll also be making changes to our project based on our MVP feedback. I’ve also been working on some personal projects over the two weeks too. I’ve been getting into blender recently so i made a short and basic animation just testing out simple lighting, node buildings for screen filters as well as working on pretty primitive post editing and sound work.
The model itself is based off the “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” model seen in the “TBHC” music videos put out by the Arctic Monkeys.
Upcoming MVP
Our Minimal Viable Product essentially requires us to have all our character scenes completed to the highest standard they possibly can be. Which in my opinion, they are. It also requires that we have at least one city filler shot finished too. The city shot including, VFX touch ups which include us putting cyberpunk adverts, Rotating 3D models, changed to look like holograms and basic color correction making it look more neon and having the colors pop out more, adding to the cyberpunk vibe.
As you can tell by our production schedule, we are right on schedule. We’ve completed our character intro’s which are the MVP and this week and last week, we’ve been working on our city shots.
In terms of individual work, we’re all doing different things to help out the the city shot. I’m working on making 3D models to then put into after effects and then turn that into a hologram. The first model i’ve made and made into a hologram is the stereotypical “soda drink” you just kinda see in the foreground of sci fi cities.
I modeled this in maya to turn 360 degrees on a perfect loop then, again, touched it up in after effects to give it the hologram effect.
Freeze frame feedback and progress
As i said in my previous post, i asked around from my teammates and people from other groups on feedback on my character screen. The general consensus was that i should add something to the background, as it looked way too plain. So i added an image of a robot to fit with the mechanic theme, and i color corrected it to fit the color scheme i was going with. The second biggest thing was to add my “code name”, which is what i did. I added it over a dark red splatter, to add a nice color contrast and to also make it more apparent. Although the text being white does this well since its a pretty different from all the other colors i have going on in the background. I also animated both the splat and the text to give it more of a fun and bouncy vibe, i also really enjoyed doing this too, despite the fact its only a very small thing. Some other suggestions i got was to add a black stroke around myself, again, to add to the cartoonish feel.
I’m pretty proud of what I’ve made so far and in terms of the burn down chart, we’re really on course and i think ahead of time. This project is shaping up to look pretty great and the potential we currently have is enormous, and i’m 100% sure we’re gonna achieve it.
Freeze Frame Progress
These past few weeks i’ve been working on my character screen intro, and it’s going pretty well. Essentially my character is “The mechanic”. He’ll be the one making the gadgets for the rest of the group members to infiltrate the greedy, fat cats tower. You won’t actually be seeing that in the actual trailer but that’s just some lore.
when i was shooting the footage for this, i was going for a surprised look on my face when i come up, or some kind of weird face since my character is kind of the “comic relief” since we don’t want our trailer to be taken too seriously. The shocked looked didn’t really work out either, so I’ve just got a really deadpan look on my face, either way we still think it works and is pretty funny.
I’ve really enjoyed messing around with the splats in the background and animating them. Just animating in general honestly, i really enjoy it. I think the “cartoonized” effect on my could be altered a little, it looks a little off and its not really what i’m going for. However, this is still a work in progress and i’m still messing around and improving it. I’m going to get some feedback from my teammates and people from other groups to get an outsiders perspective, so i can apply it to my work and hopefully improve it.
Synoptic Project: Week 4
After coming back from our weeks holiday we’ve been ready to start getting this project off the ground. Following our production schedule. We’ve been gathering footage for each our character screens, as well as some B rolls shots, that’s going to go in between the important stuff in the trailer. We’ve finished filming luke’s scenes and we’re nearly finished filming mine and over the weekend we’re going to film jamie’s footage in his garage. I’ve also experimenting on the effects that i’m going to be incorporating into my footage. 
I’m pretty excited to see how this is going to play out with my scenes, especially since i haven’t used any of these effects before, and i’m looking forward to learning how.
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