Special Occasion Photomontage, Part Deux
My sister emailed me today and said that they set a date - November 12, 2005. That's a full 3 months sooner than she was originally planning, so I guess I'll need to get crackin'. That gives me a mere 8 months to get the final video to her!
Get Organized
I like to get my virtual workspace organized before I start a big project.
I create a folder for the project and make several sub-folders. See the sample to the right.
Pretty obvious where the video clips and photos will go. "Other Elements" consists of things like fonts (I keep a copy with the project so it's easy to go back years later), illustrator files, any brushes or shapes I create.... things like that.
The AEPs folder will contain my After Effects Project files. I keep all of them, even if I don't use them. Old versions, you could call them.
Start Collecting your Elements
Scan all of the photos. If you’re lucky, your client will have the photos already scanned for you and on CD. (Tip: Make sure the glass on your scanner is clean and dust free before scanning - yeah, sounds obvious, but if you're in a hurry, it's easy to overlook).- In Photoshop, crop your scans. We will not be doing any major close-ups on photos, so I can safely size them to around 800x600 pixels. This will save me from having to scale them in After Effects and will also decrease my screen redraw time and render time.
- Remove red eye and adjust the levels and curves of your photos to get the best quality possible. You can adjust them in After Effects, but, you may as well do it here.
I'm going to do a tutorial in the future on color correction in Photoshop because I'm rather good at it, but this is not the tutorial. - As you save your photos, put them in one folder called “Photos”. Name your photos according to the order that you want them in your video. For example, MK-001.tif, MK-002.tif, MK-003.tif, etc. This will keep you from having to look back at your sticky notes.
You can use tifs, jpgs, picts or Photoshop files. Tifs and PSDs will be the largest files but have no or minimal compression. Picts and Jpgs will be a lot smaller but may have noticeable compression. I'd do a little bit of experimentation if you're not sure what to use. - Digitize your video. If you have several pieces, number them in order just as the photos were numbered. Small clips of 15-20 seconds will work best and will help break up your photos and keep the interest up.
Get your fonts together now. If you need fonts that you don't have, you can get free fonts at Fontface.com and Fontgarden.com, as well as a million other sites on the web. Or, if you have the budget, buy something really nice from Adobe Type or House Fonts or wherever you like.
Don't forget to get a font that is tasteful and readable and works with your other elements. That should go without saying, but I teach at an art school and you should see some of these fonts that the students choose. Your type should not look like it was designed for Manga.
I will be showing you how to create blowing rose petals with Particle Playground. The brush to make the petals can be downloaded for free at The Adobe Studio Exchange. Petals.abr - Download it and stick it in the "Other Elements" folder. You'll need a username and password for the Adobe Exchange, but it's totally worth it, so don't be timid. And, yes, it is free.