Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Polished Action Shots

As I finish off these last action shots I'm starting to define the finalized look at the climax of the action. Here are some shots in sequence to give you an idea of what the visual evolution has led to.


These are shots 102-104.

The first thing I'll point out is the subtle color palette transition. This plays out entirely through the climax moving transitioning from grayscale to this richer color palette. Along with the transition to color, the background tones move through a more yellow anxiety-filled hue when he gets swatted by the giant. This subtle color choice supports the tone of panic and as he takes on the offensive against the giant the background shifts to red. Red is very representational of the hero throughout the film so it only made sense to use it to this effect in the climax.

Another basic addition to the colors is the use of cel-shading to give better depth.


On the FX front the first thing I did was bring the hero animation into After Effects and placed a directional blur to simulate the motion blur you would see on film and video.


For the sonic blasts I continued work with the idea of ring waves and slight morphs as they pass over visual features. It's not as extensive an effect I was hoping for with this project but I believe it conveys what is necessary and perhaps any other visuals might have detracted from the action.


There's also quite a few little touches like using red-toned dark color for the line work on the hero, gradient fill on the giant, camera shake, etc. These little additions give the film a rich environment and really nice sheen to the overall presentation.