See Hear Part 2 - Pulling it all together (compositing & final film)

The task of compositing was a massive task for us to bring together all the different forms of media (stop-motion, Photoshop, Flash). Thankfully, Toby had begun tackling some of the more challenging shots whilst the animating was still taking place. I worked on compositing with him as well as to bring the final edit together.

Every shot of our model had to have the green-screen effectively keyed out. I had done a test of this before we had properly started animating so at least I knew it worked. We would then re-scale the model to fit the backgrounds when needed for some of the wider shots. 

Example Stop-Motion Footage

Green Screen Keyed-Out

Once keyed out, any key-frame animation was created (doors closing, guy floating in glass tank, etc.) We would then finish off the shot by tweaking the colour-grade and adding a drop-shadow so that our 3D model looked more integrated within its 2D setting.

Final Composited Shot

Each shot required this process. Some shots required more work such as ones with the robots and the model both in the same shot on top of a background where they would both have to be keyed out. Another challenging scene was when the character was floating in the glass tank. Those shots included adding a transparent green mask, stock footage bubbles, glass cracks, keyframing the guy floating, key-framing the background for the POV shots, and tweaks such as adding blur to create the illusion of depth of field.

See Hear Part 2 Final Film

I am happy with the final version of our film. I wasn't happy just after we finished it but that was because we were tight for time so some of the compositing felt that it was compromised hugely. It was also because I had been working on it for so long (as in through the night) so by that point I had lost interest in it and just  wanted it done. However, I find that the compositing of this version is good. Yes, there are parts that could do with more work, particularly the scenes involving both the model and the CGI robots but I think what we have is good enough to work and suggest them sharing the same space. 

I feel we've especially done well with the fact we only managed to begin the stop-motion side of things 5 days before the deadline as there were external factors causing problems: our animation stage not arriving until much later than expected. Were I to do anything again, I would have used less Super Sculpey for the model's head as it made him very top-heavy and thus difficult to keep him standing up. 

Our approach to the sound was thinking more in terms of subtle atmospheric qualities than synchronising image to sound obviously. I feel we managed to bring together a wide variety of media elements to construct a narrative where the sound design and the image worked effectively together.