VFX Final Intro

compressed hobbit intro from Chloe Debonnaire on Vimeo.

(no audio)

VFX Process

Once I had decided what to do for my piece, I immediately began choosing which of J R R Tolkien's illustrations to use, making sure to find the highest quality versions I could locate. I then sorted them into chronological order from the book 'The Hobbit.' 

I began to cut out the layers from the images on photoshop. This involved using the quick selection tool on the area I had decided to cut out, then inverting the selected area and making sure I unlock the layer before deleting the section I didn't want. I then saved it as a PSD and made files named after each illustration and placed the layers for each one in them.

I then imported all the layers from one illustration into a composition on After Effects. I made all the layers 3D and arranged them so they were in order, and spacing them so the fact that they were in a 3D space would stand out.

Then, I added a camera and a null object which I made 3D. I parented the camera to the null object so that any movements I did with the camera I could do with the null object which made things easier for me. I began to add in key frames, making the camera move forwards, through the image as if the viewer was going into it. 

I played around with orientation and position, testing out what would look the best. Once I had arranged one scene, and it was ready to be played and zoomed in through the middle of the illustration. Then it was just the matter of completely all of the images I needed to make the intro sequence. 

Something else I knew I was going to have to deal with was the transitions from scene to scene. I decided to use a motion blur that would quickly pan left or right or wherever and blur the movement so that if flowed a lot smoother. 

I then added all my individual compositions into one final composition and edited them into the right order and size, before adding my sound file.

For sound I used premiere pro to cut up a segment of a song from 'The Hobbit' movie series. I thought it was suitable for the intro sequence as it was made for those films. 

VFX Workshops and Research

For our VFX outcome we had a lot of workshops to go over old and new techniques.
For one of them we used shapes and masks and practiced movements. Everything we did was too see if it was something we wanted to try out for out main intro sequence.



We did one workshop where we cut out the layers of different landscapes and placed them in a 3D space, and using a null object and adding a camera we were able to move through the landscape. This particular workshop inspired me for my intro sequence idea. We were told to chose a movie or TV show that we liked and create our own intro sequence for it.
Initially I was thinking of doing one for a TV show called 'Once Upon A Time' as it doesn't have it's own proper intro sequence and I thought it would be interesting to explore the possibilities of what I could do with it.

I was planning on using the circles to create something, maybe using masks and developing from there. I soon abandoned this plan though as it seemed much too dull and I didn't really have any idea of how I could use the circles to make it look good. I also had the idea of creating an intro sequence to Lord of the Rings, and using the ring designs that are on some of the book covers to create a minimalist design - in keeping with the original design.

I quickly realised however, that this was very similar to my 'Once Upon A Time' idea and while there was potential and plenty of ways I could go, I just found the idea a bit boring.
Nevertheless I did like the idea of using Lord of the Rings as the film I made the intro sequence for, and as I was thinking about it I remembered a book my mum had bought me for Christmas one year, full of Tolkien's original illustrations for The Hobbit. They're landscapes mostly, and use beautiful colours and designs. I quickly connected the landscape drawings with a particular workshop we had done in After Effects with the cutting out of landscapes and layering them up in a 3D space. I decided this was what I wanted to do. I would use several of Tolkien's landscape drawings and put them into a 3D space, and move through them, with actors and crew names appearing as I go through, and then changing to another one of his landscapes.