WEEK 1
The James Bond title sequence for 'The Spy Who Loved Me' contains many reoccurring imagery. Silhouettes play a main feature through out displaying both people and guns in this way. The Union Jack as well as a changing spot light in red, blue and white are both present at multiple sections of the video. There is some small use of geometry using the circles to highlight certain silhouettes. The women marching with guns are then knocked over by 007 in a way that could represent the idea of toy soldiers. The women doing gymnastics on the gun silhouette is probably the most reoccurring imagery, as typically in James Bond opening sequences the female silhouettes play a large part of the imagery.
Framestore Bond films
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Golden Eye
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Tomorrow Never Dies
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Die another Day
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Casino Royale
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Skyfall
Cinesite- Skyfall
Cinesite's main involvements in the VFX production of Skyfall were creature and environment design. They created the first CG creature in a Bond film, the Komodo Dragon. They also created extended environments for the London Underground for the chase scenes as well as the train crash scene.
James Bond: 50 Years of Main Title Design by Ben Radatz
In this article Ben Radatz discusses the James Bond title sequences over the years and the tropes used throughout.
Radatz 2012, "Female forms, stylized violence, implied danger, guns, imaginative photography, motion graphics, and academic typography are paired with a billboard anthem and presented through the thematic lens of the film itself."
Using a variety of techniques such as, in camera effects, CGI, stop-frame animation and motion capture over the years the 007 sequences have become more advanced and stylised over the years. The title sequences are created to reflect the theme of the movie and represent the James Bond franchise and its overall well known character.
WEEK 2
My practice at using Adobe After Effects to create this 007 image with moving playing cards creating highlights and shapes across Bonds face.
Using the Luma Inverted Matte, created the silhouette effect on the playing cards.
The speed of the animation was too fast when initially created so I changed it from 100% to 150% to reduce the animation speed.
Introduction to masks
Using the rectangle tool to create a box mask over the face.
The creating another shape over the eyes.
Adjusting the feather, opacity and expansion to darken the face and highlight the eyes.
This creates a mask effect which can be used to hide or highlight certain sections of the image.
In this case I used this technique to create shadows over 007's face and frame his eyes.
007 Skull Sequence:
Using the Alpha Matte to place the James Bond face inside the skull and lower transparency. Using the Alpha Channel to move the flames to on top of the image with the skull composition showing through.
WEEK 3
Creating a 007 style silhouette sequence using green screen footage.
Using After Effects Keylight to create this 007 style sequence. I used green screen footage captured in class to create the silhouette figures with Keylight effects. I then created geometry by selecting the circular shape tool to make the red shapes in which I overlapped the silhouettes. This made them appear as if they were standing in the circles. I then downloaded stock footage of ink swirls from Mitch Martinez website, which I changed to black and white and placed inside the silhouettes for a movement effect.
WEEK 4/5
Tracking in After Effects:
The Pyramid
Adding a label to a scene which moves with the object. This allows the camera to pan round the image but the label remains on the focal point chosen.
The Football Boys
Adding mosaic blur to the faces of the children in the video. The blur stays on their faces even when moving.
3D Text Environment
Labelling a 3D scene with text that will remain in place despite the camera moving.
Clean Up Archway
Removing a sign from this video with masking. It creates a layer based off the surrounding textures to create a fill layer over the part not wanted.
WEEK 6
Using 3D effects with cinema 4D renderer to create short animations of '3D space' with spotlights.
3D Text with single white spotlight
3D Text with two coloured spotlights
3D Text with added 3D star geometry
007 shatter effect
WEEK 7
Render Passes, AOVs and EXR export
Using the attribute editor to change the styles of the objects in the scene.
Using AOVs and Arnold rendering. Here I changed the colours and reflections on the objects in the render pass image.
WEEK 8
Intro to Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is the process of using photographs and converting them into 2D or 3D digital models.
Using the Foldio 360 turntable to process photos of a cardboard box in Metashape to create 3D scans.
Final product as seen below.
James Bond Title Sequence Planning
Music:
Song choice for the James Bond title sequence is:
Our Last Stand
Artist: FormantX
Composer: Niklas Johansson
Royalty Free Music from Epidemic Sound.
Inspiration:
1.
2.
3.
Taking inspiration from these three videos. For the dancing, silhouettes, falling and music.
1. Choreography inspiration, movement, female dancer.
2. Silhouettes, effects, transitions.
3. Dancers, upbeat music, power theme, falling effect.
4. Choreography.
For my own title sequence I want to incorporate these aspects. Focusing on a powerful/dramatic theme with choreography thats compliments the music and interesting transitions.
4. SYDANCE 23/11/2021. YouTube.
Sequence Narrative
For my sequence I want to create a dance/movement piece that shows the idea of a 'Bond Girl' in a more powerful way. Using movement and the cinematic music to show the power and ability of the woman in James Bond films, as well as keeping some traditional styles such as the silhouettes and effects. I want to tell a story of her becoming more and more confident and powerful as the sequence progresses. The idea was inspired by the last James Bond film where a female 007 has taken James Bonds place whilst he was away, and I wanted to expend on this idea and create a narrative around it. The idea of using dance to express this theme was something I thought of from the beginning as I have always loved the way dancers can tell a story through their movement, and so I thought it would be the perfect way to show the strength of my female lead.
Thumbnail Sketches for Planning Sequence:
-Dancing throughout.
-Powerful poses/stills.
-Union jack flag with dancing on top like in 'The Spy
Who Loved Me' using the gun silhouette.
-Martini glass being poured and overflowing.
-Chess match between King and Queen.
-Queen knocking down the King.
-Drowning scene in water footage.
-Use of fire and red hues to symbolise power
and revenge.
Further inspiration: specific clips in the James Bond Films.
Use of silhouettes Use of silhouettes and the Union Jack
The dancing silhouettes on the gun The drowning sequence
Chess Piece Build for 007 Title Sequence
Martini Glass Build for 007 Title Sequence
WEEK 9
This week we learned how to implement simulation in Maya working with the BULLET dynamics. Below I demonstrate this in practice with falling objects, domino effect and jenga.
Jenga Workflow
Jenga Final
Falling Objects Workflow
Domino Workflow
A2 Continued Development
TEXTURING THE MODELS
Adding in the chess board base black and white squares by using the square stamp in substance painter by hand.
Changing the chess pieces to a glossy metallic finish to make them reflective.
Experimenting with the lighting to see how the pieces look from different angles.
Making the glass reflective and transparent. Also added details of a red lipstick mark on the rim of the glass.
WEEK 13
In this week we learned how to use Mayas fluid emitters to create smoke effects. Below are my examples of a 2D, 3D and object emitter.
2D emitter showing a keyframed animation of the smoke travelling across the base.
3D emitter container with gradient colour smoke effect.
Geometry emitters placed on a kill plane.
WEEK 14
Here I experimented with Mayas nCloth. This allowed me to create a more realistic fabric material that crumples as it falls and hit the ground. I used the cotton t-shirt material on a plane geometry.
To further my knowledge I experimented with turning the nCloth simulation into a flag animation. To achieve this I attached the top and bottom vertex to a cylinder geometry and applied a gentle wind to prevent the cloth from falling against the pole. I then overlayed an image on to the plane to make it a Union Jack Flag, I later decided to use this in my 007 sequence for assessment 3.
Assessment 3 Development Continued...
For my 007 inspired sequence I wanted to create some silhouettes of a dancer. For this my friend Emily came into the the green screen studio where I recorded her doing a variety of dance routines, movements, tricks/flips and still poses.
I recorded each scene with a video camera on a tri-pod in small segments for easier editing later on.
Emily wore all black more fitted clothing so that her limbs were easily seen when moving so that when I edited it into a silhouette it would be visible.
We improvised most of the dance scenes and poses on the day for a natural feeling as I wanted free flowing movement for my sequence that didn't feel too stiff.
Over all we finished with 64 individual clips that I could choose from.
I then took the clips I had chosen into After Effects to begin turning them into silhouettes using the Keylight effect, as well as adding the Mitch Martinez stock footage I had downloaded for added effect.
I wanted to keep to a simple colour palette for my sequence, focusing mainly on blacks, whites, reds and oranges. This was to keep in reference to the original James Bond sequences and create a powerful tone to the video.
Below are the screenshots of my process developing the silhouettes and stock footage. It also shows the layer arrangement for each of the clips I screenshotted as it took some experimenting to find the right layer format. I have displayed then in a slideshow for easier viewing.
I used Mitch Martines Stock Footage of flames, ink, fireworks, embers and water as features in my sequence. My chosen stock footage is as shown below.
I then continued with my work on the chess pieces I had modelled in Maya. I decided that the materials in Maya worked just as well as the substance ones so I kept the Maya materials instead. I then keyframed the pieces to move so it appears as if the Queen is knocking over the King.
There is still room for improvement on this as the King pieces appears to fall through the ground plane even though it shouldn't have. Also when it falls it doesn't quite hit the floor level, however it was a great learning opportunity as I had very little experience with keyframing animation until this piece so although there is still areas that could be better, I still liked the effect I created.
I then continued developing my martini glass sequence. Here I taught myself how to use Mayas BiFrost Liquid simulation. I used this technique to create a water liquid that pours from a cup into the martini glass. I wanted a dramatic splash which I managed to achieve using this effect. I placed the liquid emitter inside a cylinder geometry inside the cup and changed the geometry to transparent so it would not be visible once rendered. I also changed the material of the martini model to a glass material so it was easier to see the liquid filling inside. To prevent the liquid falling through the glass I made it into a container and made the plane a kill plane, this meant the water droplets would not fall through the composition. I then added a HDRI sky of a lounge with fireplace to keep with the warm red tones of the rest of the sequence. I added a sky dome to create light ready for rendering.
Once all my clips were edited in after effects I compiled them into Premiere Pro where I organised my sequence. I placed the individual clips in the order I wanted and added a few simple transitions to some of the clips where I felt the transition was too harsh. I didn't want to use too many transitions throughout the sequence as I didn't want it too feel like a slide show instead of a cinematic, so I kept them to a minimum.
I then added in my music, which upon review, I had decided to change at the compiling stage. I felt my original choice did not fit the sequence as well as I thought it would. So I decided to go with 'A Most Dignified Betrayal' by Trevor Kowalski, from the Epidemic Sound Library. This had a slower pace and reminded my more of the traditional James Bond style of music. I overlaid the audio on to the sequence in Premiere Pro and edited to make it fit with the imagery.
My final sequence is shown below.