So after a few weeks of familiarizing myself with after effects, this is my final project! And as you can see I did a teaser for Mean Girls, one of my all time favourite movies. The tutorials we did in class made the program seem so simple but when I actually had to execute my idea without the tutorials I needed, I'm not going to lie - I was freaking out! I had all my elements ready (audio, photos) and I had this great vision but when I opened up the program I had no clue how to start right. I was so discouraged and thought I wouldn't be able to make look how I want it to. However, after searching online for tutorials and information and after help from my peers in the lab (We were all helping each other out and having a good time - a great reason why I love my program) I DID IT!!!!!
And I am actually happy with it - Which is pretty rare for me!
Now let me tell your hat I wanted to show through this piece in terms of the actual movie. I wanted to tell the story through the 5 seconds the best I can. The first, central doll symbolizes Regina. The next frame is Regina and the 2 other original mean girls, Karen and Gretchen. In the final 2 photos the numbers increase greatly to show how Regina is the nasty popular girl, who is powerful with a growing following of girls who strive to be just like her - that means looking like her and acting like her too. This is shown through the fact that all of the dolls are identical and they are all positioned behind her. They are followers! I used scissor cutting audio for the sequencing to prevent it from becoming boring and I think it goes really well with it!
I made the title into stamps because I just felt like it gave this BANG effect. I used pink since it's a very significant colour in the movie, and I chose hot pink instead of a soft pink to show more power, or at least to me it felt more powerful and had more attitude. Soft pink is too cute. So even though the cutout dolls look cute and angelic, in the end when the girls are laughing (audio) you see the horns growing out, showing that they are not what they seem. The girls in this movie are mean, as you can see through the title. So the horns at the end show how they are fake and simply really rude to each other! I chose to make the photos black and white because they are standard, contrasting colours that are a good base to anything in my opinion.
Overall my project was made pretty simply but it was still a HUGE learning experience! At first it's scary kind of being left to figure out things on your own (that happens in nearly all my classes in RTA) but it's the best way to learned. You are forced to and it's worth it in the end. So, again, it was a simple concept but I think the simplicity worked.
HOW I DID IT ON AFTER EFFECTS: I knew I wanted to do stop motion because I just love the way it looks, perhaps because I am a photographer. Then I created the title in photoshop using a stamp effect tutorial. Finally, I added in the growing devil horns. The devil horns took me a while to figure out. I left it to the end, after I had the image sequence and stamp title effect. I finally figured out how to do it! I selected the central doll in photoshop, made it a png file and pasted it on top of the original image in after effects. I drew the two devil horns in photo shop and pasted them in after effects too and put them under the duplicated central doll. Then I put a position keyframe so that the devil horns would move out from under and expose themselves to full size. Voila! I was going to add in a devil tail that grew out and wiggled but I was happy the way it looked just with the devil horns - it was subtle but effective in my opinion.
- Karoline
(week 11)
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