First off, to everyone who made it to Drive, thanks for coming.  We thoroughly enjoy the chance to visit with and learn from you.

Sometimes in these visits, we’ll get asked a question along the lines of “How did you make that?”  Since it’s difficult to answer that question succinctly, I’ll often respond with something useless like “Magic!”, which I imagine is really irritating.  Sorry about that.

But that’s one of the reasons we have this blog– to continue these conversations throughout the year and get into those details.

I had the privilege of working on the center screen content for the opener to this year’s Drive.  It was easily the most gargantuan project I’ve worked on in my time at North Point, and it couldn’t have been pulled off with out a ton of help from Andy Wadell, Matt Gibson, and Brad Bretz, who were a huge help in pre-production and the execution of the side-screen content.  I may ask them to post something about the green screen shoot, since that’s not my area of expertise.  Anyways, here’s a small peek at what it took to execute the orchestral section of the opener.

(Note: For the time being we cannot post video of the actual performance, since we don’t yet have internet distribution rights on the music.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully that will be resolved.)

Obviously, before any footage was shot, composited, or animated, we planned extensively.  We made storyboards, test sequences, and sometimes just doodled:

While Andy and Matt were shooting our instrumentalists, I started work on creating the stage, which took form as something like a bandstand, since the orchestra needed to fit into a three-level-tall grid.  It was modeled in Cinema4D and exported as a single still image.

The stage was brought into After Effects, and it was time to begin compositing.  Now, I’m not sure how obvious this was live, but the eventual 49-piece orchestra was actually only made up of 7 unique individuals.  Andy and Matt shot them from different angles, wearing different clothes, with hair up and down, etc.  Even so, making sure our orchestra didn’t look like some sort of clone army was a bit of a challenge.  Luckily, we were going for a mostly silhouetted look (with highlights being the primary details), so the identical faces weren’t a huge problem.  I should also note that the string and percussion players were legitimately playing the music you heard.  That’s not something you can fake and get away with.

Easily the most tedious part of the whole process–in fact, the entire opener– was getting all of the instrumentalists timed to the final music track exactly.  I’m not sure how many of you have ever worked with audio in After Effects, but let me assure you, it’s not the place for precision audio editing.  Fortunately, Andy worked up a sync system later on in the process that really helped streamline the rest of our work.

To create the illusion of depth, each successive row was increased in brightness and blur, as though they were disappearing in a haze of bright light.  Each player’s color correction had to be animated individually as the center lights expanded and intensified.

The lights themselves were a product of Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plugin (link).  If you’re not familiar with Optical Flares or Video Copilot, I encourage you to check it out.  They make some of our favorite plug-ins and scripts, ranging from free to not-that-expensive.  My Optical Flares layers were controlled by regular-old After Effects light layers, which allowed me to easily animate the intensity of each individual light.

On top of it all, I used a plug-in called Magic Bullet Looks to adjust the overall color and give it that bronze “epic” feel.  The most important addition was a diffusion layer, which gave all of the brightest points a realistic glow.

For the climax, it was as simple as cranking up the lights even further and animating a curves adjustment layer (the red and green channels specifically) to transition the bronze into a bright gold.  Because we all know that gold beats bronze.

When it was all said and done, this section of the opener (roughly 1 minute and 45 seconds) took 22 hours to render.  When you have 49 keyed 1080p video files playing simultaneously (not to mention layers and layers of color correction and plug-ins), it’s going to take some time to digest.  So make sure you anticipate your render times when working on large projects.

Check back in soon and we’ll walk through Part 2…

Few tips I used:
Public Domain, Public Domain, Public Domain, did I mention Public Domain?
Search the World Wide Web (invented by Al Gore) for Public Domain images & video clips.  Presidential Archives/Library of Congress.  Be sure to read the fine print for usage.

3D space + Depth of Field
A simple camera move with small variable depths in Z space adds big impact.  Make sure DOF is enabled on your 3D Camera.

Blending + Feathering Edges
Play with blend modes (Click Layer, keystroke: Shift +) is the AfterFX shortcut to fly through them. You’re bound to find one that is AWESOMENESS.  I wanted seamless montage, Mask and Feather your edges

Effects: Turbulent Displacement
To make a still flag wave from the key art I used Turbulent Displacement. Play with keyframing it.

Effects: Stroke
Mask your Text layer and then use Stroke to draw it on.

Adjustment Layer
I added an overall adjustment layer to BOOST Saturation and give the Key Art colors more pop for video.  Print colors and video usually don’t translate well.

Well, Hope you find some of these tips helpful, they aren’t much but are pretty simple methods to help make simple things more dynamic.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GO TO TRICKS?

Key Art Design- Pat Malone

Typographic motion graphics pieces are all the rage right now– and why not?  If communication is your goal, words are usually helpful.  However, since typography-centric videos have become so common, you need to stretch your creative canvas a bit if you’re going to create a piece that is both powerful and unique.

For the one-part sermon “Focus” at Browns Bridge Community Church, the art direction– led by Mike Davis– gravitated toward the concept of the eye chart.  It’s a simple symbol, it’s easy to understand, and when you play with depth-of-field, it’s visually interesting.

When I set out to create a Title Package (a one-minute video we create and use to introduce each sermon), my initial idea was to continue in this same direction: eye-chart, depth of field, some motion, some relevant words, etc.  And that probably would have made for an adequate Title Package.  But as I worked, I had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t using the medium to its fullest extent.  Motion design has incredible potential for communication– you can use images, movement, sound, anything to present an idea.  Here, I saw a great opportunity to use movement to communicate.

The idea of the sermon, very simply, is that there are many things in our lives– such as work, family, school, money, friends, etc.– that, though they are important, can distract us from God.  But rather than present these words with meaningless motion, I wanted to capture the sense that all of these aspects of our lives are competing for our attention, and in our frenzied attempt to keep up with all of them, we lose focus.

I was inspired by metaphorical images for the internet, or “the information superhighway”– all of these little pieces speedily moving in different directions.  As the camera jumps from piece to piece, I wanted it to be slightly difficult for the viewer to focus on even the one word in the frame, like they’ve been dropped into some sort of race, and, in their struggle to hang on, they’ve become a bit disoriented.  (Nothing too crazy, though… “pain” isn’t typically one of our goals.)

With the reveal at the end, my thinking was: there was this big, important, stationary thing that we were missing the whole time.  All we needed to do was pull out, change our focus, and everything else fades away.  Originally the reveal was going to be “God,” but we make an effort in our Title Packages to not give away the meat of the sermon.  But hopefully, the message still came through clearly.

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO. Let’s start with the last video played.
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE OPENER
For copyright purposes we can’t put the TobyMac song we played (and the singer coming out of the ceiling.) Some things you just have to be there for!
We will try to get the graphics up for the song a bit later.
Click here to view the embedded video.

TITLE PACKAGES for all sessions.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE-BYEs for all sessions
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.

MINUTE TO WIN IT intro.
We copied the show but had to start from scratch on ALL the graphics.
Click here to view the embedded video.

SUNDAY’S COMING
Click here to view the embedded video.

FUN THEORY
Click here to view the embedded video.

TWITTER TRACKER (intro)
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE LOGO (loop)
Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.
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ORIGINAL CLIP (purchased from iStockVideo)
 
FINAL PRODUCT
 
Different Levels of Animation
 
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AfterFX SCREENS

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CREATING LANDSCAPE 
Original image felt very flat to me.  So i wanted to add some depth/scenery.  Remember your Old Artbeats Nature footage- it’s still useful for compositing & makes things better.

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COLOR TREATMENT
CREATING A QUICK SUNSET.  Place this Color Solid above ALL layers and blend it down.  I chose “Color Burn”, but whatever works best in your situation.


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ADJUSTMENT LAYER - Add Contrast
Place Adjustment Layer above ALL layers, Add LEVELS to it.  Jack the contrast and you’ll be amazing at what was once flat quickly becomes DYNAMIC!
   
Before & After LEVELS
 
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LIGHTING
Add a Light to your 3D Camera.  Helps create a Vignette Effect, and can really do some cool things as foreground objects fly by.
Make sure your layers have 3D turned on, or the light will not show up.
 
Before & After Lighting (Subtle but Nicer)
 
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FOREGROUND OBJECTS
Adding Foreground layers really makes your 3D camera move become dynamic because of the different speed it moves as compared with background.  Also has a nice effect when you have your camera DOF turn on.
 
Use Blending Modes as Needed

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ADDING MORE LAYERS (Realism)
I purchased pre-made birds in iStockVideo.  You can also create your own birds.  Sometimes it’s just worth the $25 to save you the time.
CreativeCow Bird Tutorial

Multiply Layer or key out white. I multiplied layer and slowed down footage for effect.

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LENS FLARE
Creating a realistic sun.  AfterFX Lens Flare can suffice, but I really wanted the sun to feel as realistic as possible.  We purchased an amazing plug-in from Video Copilot called OPTICAL FLARES.  This plug is incredible!  So many options and Flare FX.  This won’t be last time we use this.  You know all those Star Trek lens flares… this can create those as well.

 
I masked out tree trunk and put it above FLARE layer as to not completely blow out tree.

Before & After
   
Keyframe your Brightness to create your sunrise.
 
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WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUES IN AFTERFX or FCP?

Earlier this month, I was given the task of creating a new promo for this year’s MarriedLife Live Christmas event.  Last year’s promo was both simple and effective, so we wanted to build on that foundation with a fresh coat of paint.  Charged with merely adding “more pizazz” (I believe that was the phrase), I thought this was a good opportunity to experiment some.  (Note: This is not always a good idea.  It can be time-consuming and has a 46.5% chance of ending in tears.  It’s better to experiment in your free time and apply later.  I got lucky this time.)

Creating the Scene

I’ve dabbled a little in 3D modeling in the past, mostly with the headache/opportunity known as Blender (a free, open-source 3D program).  Most of my work, however, was based more in typography than actual objects or scenes.  But after searching around the internet for some Christmas motion graphics inspiration, I thought I would try my hand at modeling a three-dimensional cartoon-style forest.

After about an hour in Cinema4D, I had something that may have resembled a few trees, but was probably more akin to some clusters of green Hershey’s Kisses.  Still, it was an okay proof-of-concept– even if it’s not the greatest looking thing in the world, it’s good to reach a point where you know that, if you keep pushing it forward, it’ll eventually get there.

The models ended up being the easiest part of the project.  Other little details– like camera rigging, lighting, and especially texture work – proved to be a bit more difficult.  I spent probably more time than I should have trying to perfect the texture for the fallen snow, trying to find that right balance between smoothness, bumpiness, and reflectivity.  I also played around with actually modeling the clumps of snow on the trees themselves, and it could have looked great . . . after a few weeks of work.

Making the Scene…Magical?

My renders out of Cinema4D were actually pretty bland.  Fortunately that was part of the plan.  Cinema4D and After Effects work really well together, and it saves hours if you leave tasks like color correction, effects, and particle systems to After Effects.  When you render out of Cinema, you can also tell it to create an AE comp, complete with camera and lighting data.  From there, I was able to create falling snow with Particular within After Effects that actually reacted to my Cinema4D camera.  Thanks to a new feature of Particular 2, the individual particles can be shaded by your After Effects lights (which in this case, again, were originally generated by Cinema4D).  This little trick added a lot of realism and depth to the falling snow, if even only for a couple of seconds.  All of the other little finishing touches– the sky, the stars, the glow, the general color of the scene, and the text– were all done in After Effects.

Bringing it Together

The team did a great job of giving me feedback early on in the process.  This was essential since each Cinema4D scene took anywhere from 1 to 4 hours to render, even at the most basic settings.  The last part of the project was spent in Final Cut, just like any other project, making sure the timing, the music, and the flow of the story all felt right– not to mention the actual information presented by the video…which can change at any moment, including the last one.

For Christmas we had quite a few requirements for our Keyart.

1. Tension
2. Symbolism
3. Uniqueness
4. Excellence

Keyart Requirements
We wanted something that was “Christmasy” but unique. Generally for Christmas, I am of the opinion that we should strive for something warm, inviting, and dare I say traditional. I’m very careful saying traditional here, but I do mean it. With Christmas I feel being too cutting edge can be disengaging. We want people in our environment to feel caught up in the season. There is so much emotional connection to Christmas already, so why not leverage that to make people feel welcomed and excited. I’m not saying everything needs to look like a Thomas Kincade painting, but some tradition is good. Starbucks does a really great job of this in my opinion. Everything feels warm, inviting, and traditional, but STILL unique. Would really love to know your feedback on this as well. It would be helpful (got to make Christmas unique again next year after all :-).

Also, this year, we have a very prominent sketch in our title package. The sketch (called “Velma’s Diner”) is set like a sitcom with its own music and title package that is separate from the rest of the keyart. We needed to come up with keyart that referenced the sketch without being too closely tied. There needed to be elements that matched, but we didn’t want the sketch to become the look and feel. We felt that if the sketch became the look and feel the overall communication of the “bottom line” for the series would suffer. This became difficult to figure out, but it was an important challenge. Even when a sketch is present, keyart should always err on the side of reinforcing the bottom line. When someone thinks of the series later, or looks at the DVD in our resource center, what they see should communicate the point of the series as clearly as possible. The more this is true the more successful we feel we were on a series design.

Creative Chronology
First, we brainstormed a bunch of ideas and directions steaming from the idea of “unexpected” or “unlikely” people being a part of Christmas. A lot of energy started forming around the idea of having a perfect classic Christmas scene with something just a little bit “off”. Maybe a Christmas tree with a star falling at the top, or a shabby tree in the middle of a town square. After some initial ideas started coming though, we got this logo sketch from one of our freelance designers, Brian Manley.  This really got our imaginations going:

So we started pushing in somewhat of a new direction. We thought it would be cool to have the keyart look like a perfect Hallmark Christmas card, with the “An _____ Christmas” part of the logo being part of that card. Then make it look like someone taped the word “Unexpected” over the card. There was a lot of debate over what the card should look like. Should it be “overly” perfect like a Thomas Kincade painting, or a Christmas card you’d give your grandmother? At first we thought this could be a cool idea, like we took something that was so overly traditional and we “messed it up.” But we soon realized that by having the majority of the keyart be overly traditional and dated we were in effect making something overly traditional and dated. So we decided to go with something that would look good even without the “unexpected” but was still warm and inviting. Hopefully we pulled it off, though I still wonder if we played it too safe.

Also, throughout all of this we tried to keep in mind the small town aspect of things. We figured the best way to do this would be with the front cover image. We tried dozens of pictures for the front cover, with each of them trying to find the one that really emphasized a small town and Christmas. Not really finding any, we made one. (I mean REALLY, stock websites, not one valid small town Christmas image, REALLY?! — that made for a couple “calm down” walks around the building.) So, we found a snowy small town and added a christmas tree to what we saw as the city center. The effect worked better than expected. I was really nervous about it looking cheesy, still kind-of am, but my mom tells me its AWESOME!

With Brian refining the logo and keyart image, we landed on this (right):

Promo Woes and Why its Good to have Teammates
For the promo, we were stuck with yet another problem.  As we mentioned, our team has been putting TONS of energy into a series of sitcom-style sketches entitled “Velma’s Diner” that we are playing before each message as an entertaining parallel to Andy’s content.  (The sketches are coming out GREAT by the way, and I’m sure we’ll be posting them soon as well as some stuff we’ve learned along the way.)  We had visual content from the Velma’s Diner shoot, but we’d only decided on the series keyart on Monday and it was Tuesday afternoon with a promo needing to run on Sunday. When we had first discussed how to promote the series (many weeks prior), we figured we’d simply create our “Unexpected Christmas” promo by doing some small changes to the sitcom style intro animation that we did for Velma’s Diner (below).

Click here to view the embedded video.

It wasn’t working.  The animation fit great as the intro for the actual Velma’s Diner sketches, but even if we were to modify it completely as planned (taking out the name credits, changing the end tag to “an Unexpected Christmas”, etc), it didn’t have enough to do with the overall message series to act as a motivator for people to attend–basically, its frame of reference was too narrow. The sketches are a PART of the series, but the scope of Andy’s messages and the keyart as a whole is actually much broader–the sketches are more of a supplement. So we scrapped that idea and pulled the team together.

I still can’t believe it worked, but Brad called Lane Jones (the brilliant script writer for Velma’s and Campus Director at Browns Bridge), who wrote a script Tuesday night tying the bottom lines of Andy’s messages AND the Velma’s sketches together into a compelling trailer. Wednesday afternoon we got one of our best voice over guys in to read it, Paul Ryden. Then Brad worked on the motion graphics from home that night and came in the next morning with an awesome promo draft. After some small touch ups by the team, it was out the door ready to go on Thursday afternoon.  The finished promo ended up going a COMPLETELY different direction than we had originally intended, but it helped to better promote the “big picture” identity of the series, really hinging on the magic of Christmas and the emotional connection that people have to the season.  For the time we had to create it, I think it came out pretty strong:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you guys doing a Christmas series at your church?  How are you designing/branding it?