Final Project Blog Post

Greetings!

Welcome to the screening of my final project for RTF344!
The basis of this project revolved around experimenting with the motion tracking feature of After Effects and using it to transition in and out of scenes as well as to manipulate images within the scenes. Overall the production went well, experiencing only a handful of minor problems which I will try to blog about after the video has been uploaded.

A Friend Is... from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

Production Update #2

Things are rolling right along.
I've been able to shoot all the necessary scenes and now am just working on applying the motion tracking effect.

Fortunately, I had a Sony V1U HDV camera checked out to me for another class and I was able to shoot the majority of the footage with that camera..shots look beautiful! Hopefully this will help in the motion tracking process as well because the footage is clearer.

Also I was fortunate to have cooperative weather throughout the week. Most of the days were cloudy and made for good lighting. The only down side was that the weather was also very nasty (hot and humid). Hopefully the HD quality won't come back and bite me..or rather the subjects.

A problem I ran into while filming was that the frames I constructed were not sturdy enough to withstand the wind. On some days when it was really windy, it was tricky to have the subject(s) hold the frame straight.

Can't wait to see the completed project

Production Update

Things are slowly trucking along. Unfortunately I had 2 pretty big projects due this week in other classes so I was unable to organize any shooting just yet. I'm planning on getting some actual shots going this weekend. Here are a few small progress points.

• More white frames have been made
• Obtained a cheap HD camera that will hopefully produce much better footage
• Contacted potential actors
  

Final Project Production Update

I got the ball rolling a little late due to some business last week. I did manage to get some materials together that I needed and was able to test a few shots to figure out the kinks I need to watch out for.

Week 1:

• Assemble all necessary materials. (Buy white poster board and make frames of varying sizes.
• Thoroughly plan out all shots

Week 2:

• Shoot production

Week 3:

• Bring footage into final cut and apply motion tracking effects in After Effects.
• Reshoot any necessary scenes

Problematic areas:

• Motion tracking becomes very inconsistent when lighting is low. I will plan to use all outdoor shots if possible to increase color contrast
• Motion tracking was inconsistent with people who wore t-shirts with white spots on them. I will make sure people wear dark or contrasty colors
• Motion tracking was not possible when the picture frame left the screen. I will make sure people never hold the picture frame outside of the screen unless right by the camera
  
• Frames need to approach the camera in landscape format
• Peoples fingers holding the frame cannot enter the frame itself
• I need to figure out how to make the picture of the second nested sequence stick with it when it's not full frame yet. (The picture of the girl would not move with the rest of the sequence when it was scaled down to fit inside the picture frame in the first sequence. I had to hand size it, thus the varying movement
• For some reason when I applied the motion tracking the 2nd sequence, the picture didn't apply correctly. It was shifted to the left even though the motion tracking points were dead on. I had to hand adjust all the frames, thus the varying movement through this portion as well

I think that's all for now..I will update as I continue
Here is the test run that is very rough. I ended up doing a lot of frame-by-frame motion tracking adjustment

Final Project Test Run from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

Green Screen Exercise

Apologies for the late post. I've been meaning to work with the footage to improve but haven't been very successful.

I ran into a little bit of trouble working with the Chroma Key exercise. Seems like part of the issue may have been the light not correctly positioned. The biggest issue seems to fall around the edges being blurry and grainy. I increased the 'screen softness' to get rid of really grainy edges but it results in a soft edge.


Green Screen Exercise from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

iPhone Motion Tracking

iPhone Motion Tracking Commercial from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

I experimented using Motion Tracking to help stabilize footage captured from my iSight. Please excuse the few jumps here and there. I originally planned to track the whole phone but AE didn't like it. Upon Ben's suggestion I tried tracking the tiny vibrate switch on the side and it did surprisingly well except when the phone neared the edges of the screen.

Particles Galore!

The Adventures of Snuffy the Snowman v2.0 from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

Admist the Trees

3D Assignment


Admist the Trees from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

I worked with "3D" and utilized camera and depth of field adjustments. I'm not too happy with the movement of the camera and will try to refine the speed/movement if I have more time

Me, Myself and...

Me, Myself and... from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.
Playing to a Chris Tomlin track..pardon the mistakes.

Unfortunately during the various takes for this project, I didn't realize the effects of bad lighting until after I started masking so I apologize for the poor job of that. I also found out the take with me playing guitar didn't actually record so I had to go back and refilm that, thus the mismatching lighting and cropped top. Overall it was a good learning experience

On a Ride with the Wind

Here's the FINAL version for the 04 Advanced Animation with Curves assignment.


A Ride with the Wind from Jesse Koay on Vimeo.

After Effects Basic Transformation Video

Photoshop Assignment

Here is the exported version of my Photoshop assignment.

*REVISED EDIT*














*FIRST EDIT*














*ORIGINAL*

Camp Challenge 2007 Promo Video

Here is a promotional mini-short video I filmed and edited for my church to help promote and raise excitement and anticipation for a summer camp.

Memories made senior year after Graduation Banquet

So the basis of this piece and the reason we decided to produce this piece was to make the end of our senior year significant. Little did we know this would become so highly popular amongst our friends and the YouTube community.

May I present to you our rendition of the Backstreet Boys hit song "Incomplete".

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Komedia7 Productions blog!

My name is Jesse Koay and I am currently a senior at the University of Texas at Austin studying under the College of Communications in the Radio-TV-Film department.

While I enjoy working in most all aspects of the Film process, I primarily specialize in post-production/editing. I really enjoy working through stock footage and spending whatever time and effort is necessary to make it achieve the original intended purpose. I prefer to work with Macs and Final Cuto Pro although I am currently learning to work with Avid as well. I'm hoping to improve my skills with After Effects and Motion to supplement editing a piece with Final Cut.

I love to work on silly productions with my friends for fun but when it comes down to it, my passion is to hone and use my skills to advance the causes that I feel strongly about. This ranges from my faith in Jesus Christ as my savior to injustices in society (human trafficking, the homeless population, etc...) to many other topics as well. Many people are not willing to wrestle with difficult issues because it is uncomfortable for them but I hope to challenge that by appealing to them through media.

This is the background for some of my future works and I definitely welcome all comments and criticisms. I will slowly be putting up some older works. Thanks for stopping by!