Project Review

Reviewing the title sequence, I am very happy with what I've created. I feel that I achieved the aims I set when I started the project, and exceeded them in some ways with particular shots (such as the map).

I feel that it represents a comedy cooking show in the particular style I set out to mimic, through the use of the visuals and audio.

However, there are a few things I would change. Firstly, I'd allow myself more time to create a better blueprint shot, as I feel it is a bit basic. Secondly, I'd think of a fix to the road sign issue during the map shot, as its difficult to read the credits due to the speed of the shot.

Overall though, I have used a wide variety of techniques in this production, such as; graphic design, use of expressions, 3D layering & animating through camera movement, layer blending styles, chroma keying, implementing pre-rendered 3DS Max footage, texturing 3D rigs, and merging & modifying compositions into others.

Composing Shot 6

Shot 6 was also fairly difficult to get right, and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I feel it closes the title sequence quite nicely in a sketchy style.

The shot is made up of modified & colour corrected green screen footage of a desert road, some desert hills as a backdrop, and an orange / blue sky gradient.

In this first segment, I animated together two mirroring shots of the truck, with the characters driving it, so that it had a flipbook animated feel to it as it drives closer to the camera. 

The truck was animated by enlarging it, and adding subtle left & right movements as it drives along the road. A solid black layer with masks was added and animated to act as a shadow of the truck.

In this final shot, the characters and logo come from behind the camera, to the centre of the screen to show the show's logo. Like before, they have the shadow & lens flare effect along with a slight vignette. I applied a wiggle effect in post production to simulate a bumpy road at high speed. The title sequence comes to an end with the truck transition covering the screen into blackness.

Composing Shot 5

As predicted, this shot was the most difficult to create, but overall I am very happy with the results.

Shot 5 consists of a background layer of earth / dust, with a custom coloured map of America hovering above it. On top of this is a travel path, that is drawn in by an animated mask. Following the path, is the two character's heads and the barbecue mobile. 

As I planned, I implemented some credits in the form of road signs that pop up along side the journey path. The only issue with these is that they aren't on screen for too long, meaning you may not be able to read them.

The entire shot is animated through camera movements, and positioning of individual objects and compositions. Some lens flare and vignette was added in post production. 

Composing Shot 4

Shot 4 consists of a .PNG sequence render of both of the 3DS Max truck's I created. I had both trucks rotate in the same place so that I could fade the wire frame into the textured version. 

I added text on top of the shot, labelling & describing the construction of the barbecue mobile. I applied a pre made typewriter effect on the text, to give it a blueprint document feel. A simple tv distortion effect was also added in post production, to enhance the blueprint feel.

Composing Shot 2 & 3

Source Images

These are the images that make up the first shot. They were all placed in the correct position in 3D space. Some green screen footage of some flames was placed upon the grill, to make it look in use.
The rocks were placed in front of the group of men, as their legs were obstructed in the original image.

A solid black layer was added under the men with a mask, with some feather & opacity adjustments to give it a shadow.

Colour correction was added to most layers to give them an orange tint to match the environment, along with some lens flare & dust particles for atmospheric effect.

The camera was animated to pan right & zoom out slightly, as in the storyboard.

The same process was used in shot 3, but with different source images / mirrored camera movements.

Composing Shot 1

Source Images -

Composing the first shot went fairly well. I stuck to the idea of the storyboard, used basic camera movements, colour correction, and 3D movements. I also used a masked solid black layer to create shadows for both characters, barrel & tumble weed.

Using Expressions

As part of this assignment is to use expressions, I decided to use one that I had recently seen used for a good, simple effect.

The expression shown in the video uses the audio amplitude from each person, to raise a section of their head to animate their avatar when they talk. This is done by having two image layers, where one layer moves vertically depending on the audio amplitude.

Yogscast animator, Ciaran Askew very kindly gave me the basic expression code that he used here in this video, and with the code I was able to adapt it to my two characters.

"temp = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider"); [961.7, 549.2+1*temp]"

Creating the Truck

As part of this production, I decided to download and custom texture a 3DS Max model of a truck for me to use as the character's BBQ mobile. I created two versions of the truck; a standard textured version, and a wire frame version for future use. This truck is seen in the final shot, and shot 3. It is also used in animated form during the blueprint sequence in shot 4.

Storyboarding

With my idea set in stone, it was time to start storyboarding my introduction sequence.  The main challenge with this was making it dynamic enough to be exciting and humorous. 

The first shot involves the camera moving forward in a scene, with each character popping out from left & right to introduce themselves, before the camera moves back for the two characters to come back together with the show's logo.

The second frame will be used to fully introduce the character of 'Big C'. The scene will consist of a camera pan from left to right, showing the character in front of a barbecue grill. 

The third shot will be a mirroring shot of shot 2, as this will be used to fully introduce the character - 'Small D'. This shot will be made up of a desert background, with an exploding make-shift barbecue - representing the antics that the characters will get up to.

The fourth shot will most likely be the most complex shot of this production. It will consist of a camera movement that will zoom in on a map of America, with a select path running through it, which the characters will follow in a truck. I also plan on having road signs pop up, displaying some of the credits of the production.

The fifth and sixth shot may also be quite difficult to get right. This will be composed of some green screen footage of a road, with a desert hills background, a orange & blue contrasting colours sky, and the swerving truck that the characters will be driving. The shots will end with the truck zooming past the right of the camera, before the logo and characters once again come back together to form the logo for the final shot. 

When it comes to bringing these shots together, I will be using this truck image as a custom transition, blocking the field of view for the scene to change behind it.

Creating the Audio

From the get-go I knew that the audio I used would play a massive part in my production. For my two characters, my house mate and I recorded a script I wrote, as two Rednecks. I saved each of our recordings as separate audio files for later use, and synced them with a humorous redneck sounding song.

Script-

Howdy! I’m the Big C! And I’m the Small D!

And we’re the Redneck Roasters!

We began roasting in 1992 and have been roasting on the road ever since!

We’re renowned for being wild! Hell, we’re wilder than a rattlesnake in a washing machine!

Come with us as we take our BBQ mobile, down the highways of the great US of A!

We don’t know what we’re cooking, hell, we don’t know if it’s real meat!

All we do know however, is that people got food they need cooking!

And no one does that better…

Than the Redneck Roasters!

I applied a noise gate to each track, so that when I apply an expression to each character, their mouths do not move from subtle noises.

Creating a style

After drawing my two main characters for the show, I decided that I really liked the fact that these characters were hand drawn, and imagined placing them in a world with real elements. I liked the concept of having an introduction sequence where an animated / hand drawn representation of the hosts was present, as I feel it creates a goofy, sketchy, comedic style. Not to mention that I wouldn't have to rely on capturing actual footage of actual people in these costumes - I could just draw it how I wanted it myself.

After deciding on the visual style of the characters & world around them, I started thinking of a suitable colour scheme & environments I would be placing them in.

As this title sequence will take place along American highways, there will be a large use of red, orange dusty colours.

Choosing a genre

In the world of television, we have multiple genres & sub-genres ranging from historical documentaries to comedy game-shows. All of these programme types are extremely different in terms of content, and part of what makes them unique is the title sequence.

Programmes of a particular genre may have similarities in the content of their title sequence. For example; a game show typically uses 3D graphics, energetic music, and bright colours, whereas a historical documentary may have less saturated colours and calmer music.

As a class activity, we listed a certain amount of genre's, and then a list of programme types, and was each assigned a mixture of the two. The genre and programme type assigned to me was Comedy Cooking Show.

Immediately, a couple of ideas came to mind. One of my ideas was to create a title sequence for a cooking show in which the person presenting the show was placed against a curtain, and the person doing the cooking would feed their arms through the curtain, behind the presenter / chef.

Another idea was of an American red neck inspired cooking show, where two people would travel across the USA, cooking any road-kill they come across.

I decided against the first idea, due to the fact that I didn't immediately know how I'd convey the concept in a title sequence. Because of this, I decided to play on the second idea, and started drawing concept art for the show.

Before too long, I decided on a catchy name for my potential show.
Redneck Roasters.

 

I took a lot of inspiration from American fake reality TV shows, where stereotypical characteristics are exaggerated for a British audience, such as Lizard Lick Towing.

Although this programme is not a cooking show, I started thinking of ways to bring the cooking show format into this genre and style.