On the roll

Wednesday afternoon - I have mostly completed my composition in After Effects. I'm just doing one last render at the moment of the mermaid rock as I feel this bit was skipped over quickly and I want to make sure it's clear that there was no real mermaid and just a silhouette which was a rock and foliage. 

I've spent HOURS editing in after effects. I knew I would thouugh so I've managed my time to make that possible. 

I've added a lot of fade transitions between scenes as it shows time has passed and helps the different scenes blend smoothly and more logically. I've also added some light leaks between the transitions for effect. I feel it adds some depth and dynamic to the overall animation. 

I've made a pretty cool opening title scene with an old film and light leak overlay. Not crazy about the font for this context though so may download a new one. Minor details I know, but if I have time definitely worth doing. 

What other layers have you added Ally? Good question sir. Vignette, ambient occlusion and depth of field for various scenes. I've also animated the depth of field to change focus onto the rock mermaid in one of the last scenes which really adds to the story. 

AND

I've added a camera flash to two different scenes. I duplicated and masked the layer, turning down opacity so the flash is reflected in the water. I then used liquidfy to distort the flas reflection in the water.

ALSO

A black layer with a circle which is feathered off to make the viewer understand they're looking through the robots lens - his point of view. 

I now just need to add my ending bit which is almost finished rendering and put the credits in. Then make the poster.

ONE LAST THING

Sound and music. I've spent a few hours playing in garageband already and downloading different camera flash sounds. I'm not 100% happy with any of them yet. I hope to spend tonight and most of tomorrow perfecting the sound and music. 

So this was my update at where I'm at. I'm definitely feeling the stress and pressure at the moment but feeling super pleased with how polished things are looking at glad I'm not still stuck on rendering my master layers like many people are at this point. Very grateful for x-grid, it rendered all my depth layers yesterday so quickly and was super helpful.