Visual Effects Editing guide

Stop Motion style of animation is a visual effect in itself as you are generating a illusion of movement through pictures. Because you are using raw photographs to make the animation it is very easy to create visual effects on a budget. One of these effects could be where you want a character or object to appear like its flying in the shot, so this is what you do; you have to get some-sort of string to firmly hold the object or character in place, and then up move and hold it in the desired location then use the burst function on your camera and then hastily snap up the pictures, after this you are going to need to edit the pictures so I'd advise putting them into a editorial piece of software such as Adobe Photoshop and then you can edit the piece of string out of each picture and then load it into your production sequence for your animation. A good example of this style of effect is Wallace & Gromit made by the world renowned Aardman studios. They most likely didnt use this style of hold the armature with a piece of string as they have a large budget where they can use state of the art software and equipment.

In my animation I did not use any visual effects as they were not needed to project the image I wanted to project for my client the British charity Crisis, but for other animation projects I would definitely consider using visual effects as they add sense of amazement and wonder to the viewer. Visual effects can be found in a number of different formats such as miniature sets and models, matte paintings, live action effects (actors being placed in front of a green screen or blue screen). Large production companys and studios pay out extreme amounts of money to use state of the art effects in their animations this is the bad side to the visual effects world they can be extremely costly, such as with live-action filming using a green or blue screen it costs extortionate amounts to generate the computer generated imagery to be on the blue/green screen, and that's before just the studio costs of filming the scene.

In this next Section I'm going to explain further how to create a stop motion visual effect of a character falling from the sky. 

Step 1: (Materials & props)                                    Get your characters that you want to use for example lego person,  materials for your background and props etc. Find a clamp or tripod like structure with a solid heavy base that could hover above your set, to create this effect you will would be needing a piece of string on a roll (preferably a long piece 4-5m) as this will help you understand the required length much easier and faster. Of course you will also be needing a camera and a tripod to capture the visuals, a camera such as an DSLR that takes bursts of photos only would be the best. The tripod is essential in order to keep a still shot throughout the animation, so I would invest in a heavy duty solid one to keep the frame absolutely frozen in place.




  

Step 2: (Setting up Equipment)

Place the clamp or tripod so that it will not be in any of the shots of your animation, then you will be needing to cut your piece of string to the required length so that you can lower it each time a photo is taken of the character (Or if you have another pair of spare hands about they could just lower the string while you use the burst function on your camera). You will need to lower it closer and closer to the ground of the set. Next you will need to tie a knot around the lego characters torso securely to hold them place. The final stage should be setting up your backdrops and other props getting them in place to your requirements.


Stage 3: (Acquiring your footage)

This is one of the most important stages in making your animation, it is deciding where you would like to place your tripod and camera for your shot angles. After you've decided your camera angles and positions then you now need to start taking photos of the gradual change of the character falling closer and closer to the ground gradually and fluidly between shots. Through previous experience I suggest each time you change the characters movements you take a burst of at least 3 photos as this will make the movement look smooth and not too quick and sudden. After you have completed this transition of the character falling to the ground, we move to stage four.

Stage 4: (editing)                                                                                                        In this stage you will have to be located to a computer that has some sort of editing program for example - 'Final Cut'. When you have opened this you will need to start uploading your images into the program, you do this by connecting your camera to the computer you do this with the supplied usb lead  and plugging it into the computer and camera. Once the images have then been uploaded onto your desktop or file on your computer, then you highlight all the images and drag them into a photo organizing program I use a stop motion program called 'iStopMotion', one all organized before you export the file your going to need to edit the string out of some pictures that have it in it so...


Stage 5: (photoshop)                                                                                               As you have used string to hold the character up in place you will need to rub the string

out in order to make it seem like the character has actually fallen through into the shot from the sky to the ground. A DSLR style of camera, makes this stage much easier as they are built to have fast shutter speeds, this helps dramatically when shooting this style of shot because it captures the moment quickly making the animation just look generally smoother. Your going to have to use a photo editing piece of software such as Adobe Photoshop to rub out the string as it is a photo, when it is filmed footage it is much harder to edit within photoshop because filmed footage is fluid and realistic. You will need to place each image into photoshop and click the rubber tool to start erasing the string which will make the character eventually look as if it is falling down. You will need to save these images a JPEG. You will need to place the edited pictures back into iStopMotion and then export the file as a .mov and then import it into final cut, the images will already be in order so that you don't need to shift through them in order. The images will also be in sequence as well so it will be a smooth transition through the pictures. Now it is in Final Cut you can now drag the file into your timeline and there you have your finished visual effects piece.