The shot is supposed to be 5 seconds long but the crow is actually only on-screen for about 3 - 4 seconds, so I'll simply add in a bit of delay before she actually enters the screen.
Anywho, I've fixed up the head just a little and stopped it breaking away from the body. I also cleaned up the edges a bit and centred the head so it doesn't drift too far away from where the neck should be. I think it's looking a lot better!
The other big change is the addition of lighting effects — it's very simple so far and it looks kinda bad! I made two sets of light beams so that the crow appears to pass in between them, but I want to have them interact with her body a bit more as well as make that shadow a bit more dynamic. I also would like to have some illumination or shadows on the ground cast from the wall of crops but we'll see how we go.
There's also a subtle lens flare to act as a sun that drifts slowly to the right — not sure how noticeable it is. I was also thinking of maybe having some tiny black insects flitting about near the bottom of the screen, just to add a bit more detail. I don't know. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? :]
Wow Alex that looks amazing. I love the crow walk and the head turn is brilliant :D I love her smile as she turns, it shows her confidence very nicely.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to add that second head turn in the other direction to make it look like she's "looking" for the scarecrow. I think she could be turning her head as she walks on screen and do the end of her second head turn as she reaches the center of the screen. She then could be looking forward as she walks off screen. Maybe she could have a different expression? Confused or slightly annoyed that she hasn't found him yet?
The sun rays look really nice but I don't think they're needed. Also it's strange that the light doesn't break when the crow walks in front of the rays. It's almost like it's presenting a deity of some sort.
However I do like the idea of the light though. Is there any way to reduce how intense the light looks? Because the rays can be emphasised when we see the hang glider silhouette before she runs away.
Aside from my criticism I think it looks amazing. You've done a fantastic job with this scene ^^ Just question my words if they don't make sense ;P
Thanks Jazzy!! Sorry about the lack of head turning, I'll definitely give your suggestion a shot - I was having difficulty getting her head to turn the other direction (away from the camera). It probably sounds stupid but I didn't know how far to turn her head away - there aren't many frames between looking forward and looking away from the camera. I did give it a shot and had her head totally faced away (so only the back was visible) but it didn't really "read" - I'll have to keep playing around with it!
DeleteI hear you on the light rays, and don't worry I'm nowhere near done with them yet! They'll be much more subtle in the finished version and like I said I'd like to have them break/interact with the body of the crow a little more - I just haven't quite figured out how to do it yet XD;;... If you want me to remove them entirely that's totally fine, I was mostly just experimenting to see how I could get a bit more depth to the scene :] I'll keep playing around with it!
Thanks again for your feedback!! :D I'll see what I can do with the head turning!
Keep playing around, it gets you more familiar with the software which is a good thing if you want to do it especially in the second year. I really should take a page from your book and do the same :]
DeleteI think it's good that you're thinking about depth but at the same time we don't want things to be too distracting. If the image is too busy the audience won't know what to look at. We need to make sure that in this scene the crow is the obvious target for the viewer's eyes.
Still I'm sure there's no harm in a subtle little detail :D