Pandemic Film: Digital Depth

Posted on by Thor

Today at the last second this shot replaced a shot of a couch potato lounging with the virus with beer bottles and pizza strewn about. In this shot children inspect the virus with their cell phones. It tied in better with the lyrics. The other issue with the couch potato is that it depicted Mark Wahlberg. Pam picked up on that fact and I realized that if the star caught her attention I might want to change it so the scene would not be about star identification.

This is a depth map I just painted to fix an issue I noticed in the final render of the film. The virus became distorted around the children;s heads so I went in and darkened the negative shapes between them. The fix might not be in the film shown at the free Fringe screening on May 19, 2023 at 6pm in the Shakes outdoor courtyard. I will probably cut this into future edits that will make the rounds at film festivals.

Today I got caught up in trying to complete a final render. The computer kept freezing just as the audio stated in the film. After hours of research I found that the bitrate didn’t match between the audio clip in the timeline and the final output. I had to change the render bitrate from 384 to 320 and then all was well. This type of arbitrary tech stuff is soul crushing but I managed to get the render completed. Pam is going to coach me on how to submit the film using Google Docs. Today I counted and there are over 200 paintings in the animated short I am submitting.

May 11, 2023 the United States is dropping the COVID state of emergency. All future medical expenses are out of pocket for any American infected. The pandemic is not over but the state of emergency is. May 11. 2023 therefor is this films birthday.

Pandemic Film: Wacky Wavy

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In 2021 they literally lined up wacky wavy tube arm men in Times Square since crowds could not gather.This shot in the film seemed fine, but Pam really wanted to see the tube arms wave. I found out that there is something called pin puppet animation in Adobe After Effects. The icon looks like a push pin at the top of the screen. With that tool selected I could place the yellow markers on the layer I wanted to animate. Tube arms seemed like they should be an esy way to learn how to use the tool.

As always I messed up the first several times but persistence pays. The main problem I was having was that I could not find a way to ease in and ease out of the keyframes. A tutorial pointed out that the keyboard shortcut for the tool I wanted was F9 on the keyboard. Well of course my keyboard does not have an F9 key. Since the shot is less than a second long, I decided to get around the issue by simply not stopping an arm wave during the shot. This works since there isn’t time to see the arm accelerate of decelerate if I cut on the movement.

The arms move a bit slow for my taste, but I accepted the shot as is so I could move onto the next shot. In the next shot I will find that darn ease in option come hell or high water. I will be rendering the film tonight or tomorrow night and I suspect that will be it’s own form of torture.

Pandemic Film: Freedom of Religion

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I used VoluMax Pro 7 portrait mode to work on the freedom of religion shot. Though the program works convincingly to create depth maps for the faces, I am limited to just 2 faces. There are a whole lot more people in the shot but they didn’t get screen time largely because the shot is so short. This is happening in many shots where I focus on a detail rather then show the entirety of the painting. The primary goal is to make the story point clear, not to show every detail.

This film isn’t for those who like to linger on details and contemplate the deeper meaning in each shot. I don’t believe many Americans ever take time to contemplate of slow down to think. Mass delusion is a far simpler norm to follow.

Masks caps and gowns were all blocked in as well separate from the mesh work shown here. Noses and lips were hidden by these additional depth maps. Late yesterday I simply painted the details of a depth map and I now realize that that is a far simpler approach to getting facial depth rather than this digital tech approach. I will probably go back and rework shots that lack depth with this in mind as time allows. I have four days to make adjustments. I made a list last night after watching a run through of the film and have 14 shots I would like to rework toady.

Pandemic Film: Stockholm Syndrome

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This shot turned out even better than I expected. That is what I am enjoying about this process, I am often surprised by the results. The couple was separated from the environment behind them. Thankfully I had painted them on a separate level so that was an easy task. Each head was assigned a 3D mesh for the depth mapping. I massively distorted the blue mesh to work with the skull.  The female mesh didn’t require much adjustment at all. Then I drew several depth maps for the bodies.

The shot involved a pan downwards and to add depth I rotated the After Effects camera around the couple. Two separate camera moves were used to get the effect I wanted. The flaming background was scaled and moved independently.

I have just two shots remaining. Both a complex shots. I also have to add more information to the credits at the end. My goal was to finish by May 11, 2023 when the United States would drop the COVID emergency declaration. Yesterday the World Health Organization essentially declared the pandemic to be over. Anyway that is how most people will perceive their declaration. The virus however is not done with humanity. One in ten people infected develop debilitating long COVID. Mass infection and re-infection is not sustainable. A person dies every hour from COVID.

I will be releasing this film as the world embraces mass delusion and denial.

Pandemic Film: Neanderthal

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VoluMax Pro 7  has a portrait mode that makes my painted portraits seem three dimensional as the camera moves. The plug in has a stock 3D blue male mesh and pink female mesh. I decided to see if the mesh could convincingly be distorted to make a skull seem three dimensional. Besides the mesh I also blocked in several different depth maps for the hair.

The end result is indeed convincing. I may go back to several shots that were already finished and add this effect to them. I intend to add some animation to several shots as well, so I need to decide where to invest my time.

Pam wants me to animate a wacky waving balloon arm man, and I might do that on a separate layer. There are dozens of visible wacky waving balloon arm men in the shot and there is no way I will animate them all. I added more depth to the shot and a faster camera zoom which distracts from the lack of waving. I am still not sure how I will resolve that shot.

I should finish the final shots of the film today. Once that step is done I will compile a wish list of shots to improve and refine. With over 168 shots that list might be endless. I will certainly want to re-render some of the earlier shots to add the depth effects that I perfected as I learned how to best use the program.

Pandemic Film: New Year

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This is the most fun shot I worked on yesterday. At first I created a depth map that included the skeleton, but when I started animating the confetti, I quickly discovered that it overlapped him in awkward ways. I decided the skeleton had to have his own layer and he was only overlapped by the upper most confetti animation that I added at the end.

The camera pans down and with the parallax, Times Square seems cavernous. Each confetti layer was moved at different rates. The top layer moved the most and less movement occurred moving back in space.  The shot took several hours to composite but it lasts on the screen for less than a second. It was worth it.

In some ways the film is organized chronologically, in that each year with a new refrain a painting is highlighted for that years Time Square celebration. In other ways the film is arranged thematically based on the lyrics of Andy Matchett‘s song, Just Can’t Wait. The song was written in 2017 for the Fringe show Key of E, which was an apocalyptic rock musical. In so many ways the lyrics are prophetic about the way the COVID pandemic unfolded and continues to unfold.

On May 11, 2023 the United States will end its COVID public health emergency. May 11, 2023 will be this film’s birthday. 1,128,404 Americans have died of COVID-19, with about 200 more still dying every week. 250,000 American children have lost a parent. Millions of Americans are suffering from long COVID. Loneliness may not be the worst thing to come from the pandemic.

COVID is airborne, the pandemic is far from over.

Pandemic Film: Demonically Selfish

Posted on by Thor

This shot shows a selfish Uber passenger knowingly coughing on her driver. The incident was caught on his dashboard camera. The painting is close to how it happened but the visualization of her breath and spatter is missing since I haven’t composited it into the shot yet in After Effects. In most of the shots in the film, breath and spatter are two elements that are animated. The vicious gas expands and the spatter flies through the air as aerosols do. In her case the breath is bright pink. people are selfish and gross.

In some ways social media has helped spread the virus through misinformation and promoting mass gatherings despite the ongoing pandemic. I find it ironic that the CDC just held a superspreader conference to gloat about their victory over the virus. 35 attendees are infected so far. They will get the best possible health care because the CDC doesn’t need it to become more of a public relations train wreck.

Pandemic Film: Living with the Virus

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Yesterday I completed 15 shots. I am now feeling confident that at this pace the film will be complete by May 11, 2023. Originally I picked this as the due date since it was the date President Joe Biden would officially declare the pandemic emergency to have ended. Of course the pandemic will still be raging on that date. May 11 also happened to be the date that the Fringe Film Festival needs films to be submitted for the free screening on May 19, 2023 at 6pm in the Orlando Shakes courtyard outside. There are no coincidences, so I submitted the film to Fringe. Now that it is approved I need to finish the final edit pronto.

In this shot I found it odd that the computer neural filters assumed the virus was so bright and thus close to the camera rather than in the mid ground on the couch. I edited the painting and depth map together in After Effects anyway and I decided I liked the effect. I applied a parallax zoom and the virus swelled as the camera moved in. This turned out to be another happy accident that I will keep in the film.

Pandemic Film: Kansas Surge

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This was a fun shot I worked on yesterday in After Effects. Depth worked really well with the foreground headstones and the far fields. I had to paint the COVID twister a bit to get some depth to that. The fun was in animating the flying cow and house. I had the cow large a the start of the shot and then smaller as it twisted away. The house didn’t change size as much and it flew with a slightly different trajectory. The far tractor and flying boards only moved a small amount in the distance.

You might notice that the virus cyclone isn’t completely painted. That is because it was blocked by the house in the original painting. I put a few sloppy brush strokes in that area as filler but for the most part that area remained blocked by the house during the length of the animation.

I started experimenting with bezier curves in animating the foreground cow and house. Up until now I have only been using linear movements. Bezier curves have a habit of getting away from me, creating unexpected movement. Some of that chaos is evident in this shot and I decided to leave the results since it makes it look like a panicked hand held shot.

I just learned I could press the Y key to move the anchor point of an object. I could have used that knowledge in this shot, but I will use that new knowledge in the next shot. I learn what I need as I go and if I can find a work around I will. Anything to get each shot done on time.

Pandemic Film: No Escape Depth

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I kept camera movement in this prison shot prison shot rather limited since the prison bars would warp to allow for some depth of field. In my painting I unfortunately drew the prison bars on the same level as the virus. I could achieve much more depth if I took the time to separate the bars from the virus. That would allow me to move the bars and prisoner completely independent of the cell behind them. I could then do a depth map just for the virus and the room and a separate depth map for the prisoner and bars. Those tow could then be combined in the final comp with a green screen.

However all those steps take time and for a shot that lasts less than a second, I am debating if all the extra work will be noticed. I will be doing a series of shot today that are very complicated which are close ups on peoples faces. I need to invest the time I have in the shot where the effect will be most noticeable.

I am keeping a mental list of the shots I would like to go back and tweak and make better. I will only go back however after all the shots are complete. I have to keep moving forward to hit the May 11, 2023 final film render date. I tried to render the film midway through the process and the render stalled. It is a strange leap of faith to do all this work with the possibility that the digital gods may thwart a final render. Anyway no time to think about that now. Forward.