My Opening Shots (OUAN406)

This week's final crit was really useful. I had a lot to show and got useful feedback. I'm pleased with my first two shots and think that they convey exactly the energy and catharsis I was hoping for.

The movement of the train took some time to get right. I had to play around with the keyframes a lot to give the effect that the train was getting closer, giving it the illusion of speeding up as it approached the camera. I think it looks a little too smooth. It doesn't rattle around like an old freight train should but otherwise the movement is consistent and it certainly looks 3D, which I'm pleased with.

I wanted the train carriages to act like individual frames of an animation, with the words animated onto the side. I played with this effect for a while before deciding to copy the words, move the copy to one side, reduce the opacity of the copy and flicker between the original words and the copy.

I like how it looks.

A large problem I faced was timing, and this was an issue brought to light in our final critique session. Obviously, the focus of the animation should be the words, yet the camera would move so quickly through a scene that the words became a little incomprehensible. This will be partially fixed when I add the narration over the top to match the words. I don't want to make the words themselves too animated. Graffiti fonts are pretty illegible anyway.

It's hard to find a balance between giving the shot energy and making it so fast that it doesn't make sense. Zooming the camera out a little bit would be really useful for making the scene legible.

I'm pleased with the way that the words bulge and interact with the environment in this shot.