Digital Reflective Journal #10

This week I was able to resolve the final issues with my trailer and produce a final outcome. As I mentioned in the last reflection, due to lag causing a low framerate whist I was animating, the final render came out as flowing way to quick. To fix this I first tried slowing the animation down in Premiere. However, since animation has 24 frames per second this made the animation very choppy. As a result, I started to experiment with an AI that converts footage to 60 fps. After doing some research, I ended up with a software called SVP 4 pro and was able to get a result that I was happy with. Although, since at this stage I was still using the trial version the end result had a water mark pasted on. After confirming that it worked however, I brought the software as it was only a onetime payment. After this I went deep into the editing, with the help of a friend who was well versed in premier and audio design. For this he suggested using the AI to convert the original animation to 60fps before slowing it down as it wasn’t good practice to work with faulty footage. For this however I don’t think the AI worked as well as it did previously because whilst the end result was smoother, there was some artifacts that became noticeable when the footage was slowed down. Overall though we went through multiple iterations of building up the trailer’s atmosphere and colour correction, until it was at a stage that I was happy with. In the end we ended up adding a lightning effect that wasn’t originally planned, along with a song that I didn’t expect to fit until we slowed it down and added effects to the audio. For this I was extremely happy with the end result, however I did feel like the end title sequence was the weakest part of the trailer. This sentiment was echoed when I posted the final edit onto slack and received feedback from my tutor that the font didn’t fit the feel of the rest of the trailer. They also pointed out that I might need to check if I need to reference the modelers for the T-rex and Cat models.

Based on this I redid the end title sequence. It first I thought that the issue was more with the water theme than the font, with the water theme being a remnant from the trailers original vision before it was cut in half. In that version it made sense as there was a diving scene that would cause the camera to be submerged in a metaphorical water, however in the new version it was just the scene in Adam’s library. Because of this I first tried to redo the title scene with a fire theme by lighting it red and adding an ember partial simulation. I also tried to re-colour and resize the letters so that they would be more readable. In the end I came out with a result that looked a lot better. However, when I showed it to my friend, he said that he liked the juxtaposition between the water theme and the fire place in Adam’s room. He also said that the font was still a little hard to read. Because of this I redid the title sequence a second time, this time going back to the water theme. For this I found a new font to make the text easier to read and replaced the ember particles with bubbles. I also lit the scene like it was underwater. I thought that the end result of this was far better than the other two iterations, however when I posted it to slack people felt that the fire one made more sense.

Despite this though I still feel like the bubble version is the better version as it plays more to the theme of dreams in my opinion. As a result, I decided to go ahead with the latest version and add it into the trailer with the help of my friend.

Outside of the trailer I also finished creating my game bible using the text that I had already written up. However, for this it needed more variety than just text so I produced a rough concept render of the player character in their ‘Concept’ form, along with a turnaround render of Adam. To create these, I had to research how to set up 3-point lighting as I was struggling to light the models effectively. For this I was able to find a useful YouTube tutorial and was able to get nice looking renders to act as concept art. I also ended up having to redo the front cover to reflect the new end title sequence.

Overall, I am very happy with where my project led as the final outcomes are very close to what I had originally in visioned.