Almost at the end, have to put it in After Effects - THANK GOD!!!!

This is probably my last blog for a very very very very long time. After I rendered both of my scenes and fixed a few minor problems (Maya and 3ds problems), i brought all my resources - pictures, audio and whatever I wanted to put into the trailer - into After Effects. I was going to do it is Premier, but I don't know how to use the latest version and i remember it being a very big pain in the ass. I know more about After Effects and it's easier to use (for me). After Effects was a bit gay at first but after kicking it in the balls real hard it started to work. in After Effects i put the scene together slowly but surely and simply. I wanted the trailer to be simple and not too dramatic, I wanted to show a bit of the history and a bit of the crime scene, but I didn't want to give away the whole story. Once I had imported all the files i needed or wanted I started putting everything together - first I put two production logos up - 'A-Z Entertainment' and 'Team FHS Productions', after this i introduced some text showing some of the history of the Prohibition era (not too much, i don't wanna bore everyone to death, it's the last day of uni). Then I introduced a little bit about the underworld and how it made money off illegal booze - this was one slide and it summed it up well, I used a picture of Lucky Luciano, who was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family.
After the picture I put some text mentioning the date of the St Valentines Day massacre, I wanted this to linger there so people could soak up this info about one of the most horrific days in US history. After this I wanted to put an audio argument (see prev blog for details) over the scene, but after trying this out in a separate program it just didn't fit at all, so i decided to scrap the idea. I wanted to use it, but I didn't have A: enough time to make a new scene for it and B: time to work out if it was even any good. I played the safe option and not use it - from there I brought in the other scene I made in 3Ds max, I realised it ends a bit suddenly and for this I apologise. I had one slight problem - the ending needed a 'coming soon' at the end. I knocked this up; it's not the best, but it works well enough and in 10 minutes time I will not be part of this uni.

Audio script - last minute

This is a last minute thing I came up with as I usually do, I decided it might be a good idea to add an audio track of an argument. I didn't want to use one from a movie, so I wrote one on the train home. It wasn't much, but it's what I have to work with. I may not use it, it will depend on whether it fits the trailer.

Script for Argument
Detective 01 – What happened today?
Detective 02 – What do you mean? We caught some bad guys.
01 – Ya, but I wanted to Capone n’ his men in the act. Not some low-life thugs! I wanted Capone!
02 – Look, we are going around and kicking down doors. We just need to sqeeze these soldiers a bit more.
01 – We aren’t doing it good enough. We should be hitting them where it hurts; their wallets.
02 – What is your problem?! You’ve been in an odd mood ever since the massacre. You ok?
01 – No! Ever since the massacre I’ve wanted to catch them. But we can’t cos we ain’t got enough information on them sons of bitches.
02 – You need to calm down. We were both worried about how far scarface could go. But if there are two gangs in Chicago –
01 – I want no gangs in Chicago, in New York we would – (interrupted)
02 – New York! We’re not in New York anymore This is Chicago, you have to do it the Chicago way. You have to go round knocking down doors goddamnit.

Slow day, but effective

Today's to do list, slow one but it'll be done. Note: writing this on laptop while my scene is rendering (this will take ages so I'm gonna catch up on this thing called blog).

Here is a test shot of the bottles on the table. I'm still messing with texturing and lighting. This also not the opening shot, it's jut a test to get the feel and the look correct. It must be PERFECT! 'Well, in my mind it has to be.


The to do list: (starting to think about all the things i need to get onto the disc).

- CD must readable and well organised otherwise I am fucked
- May do a voice over (will explain this later)
- May include soundbyte from The Untouchables film (will explain later)
- Got to make the text for the scene (moving from 2D to 3D and back)
- Go have subway

The Voice Over

I was thinking about what else to add to the scene, and I was watching a TV show called Las Vegas and at the beginning of a scene they open with a voiceover. A light went on in my head, I thought 'why don't I have a voiceover arguement between two characters about how to get Al Capone. I'm going to look at the arguements in the film and use these for inspiration. I will make up my own arguement.

The Text

I am using 3ds Max to model the text (it's not Maya I know, but fuck it)

First of all I had to find the right font - this took awhile.
The first one i considered was 'Misproject'. This looked good in 2D, but when I tested it in 3D some of the letters wouldn't render properly. After this I tried 'Stereofidelic', which looked ok but there were some problems - the T had an arrow below it, which looked extremely gay. I also considered The Godfather text, but this didn't work in 3D plus it's already been used and I wanted to keep away from the Godfather at all costs. Then I tried 'Simplified Adobe Fix', which was just boring.

I found all these fonts by looking at them in 2D, so when I got to the end of the list and still hadn't found anything I went back and looked at them all again in 3D. While doing this I found 'Kodchiang UPC Bold' - which is a stupid, long name. This works because it is simple, to the point and looks good in 2D and 3D.

Color

I grouped the words 'The' and 'Untouchables' so I could apply a texture to both at the same time. I chose a white-ish grey, it's a universal color and it's easy to put into After Effects.

Background

I decided on a wall texture as the backgound - I got this from the internet, and it was the first picture I clicked on.
I started by putting a plane behind the text, I also put one spot light pointing at the text and the wall so that the text casts a shadow on the wall. When I rendered this it looked ok, but the background looked a bit flat, I thought it would look better if the bricks in the wall were 3D. Whilst attempting I had some problems with the white areas between coming forward when they should have been going backwards. I solved this problem due to my unrivalled prowess and instinctive knowledge of the universe.

Making Bullet holes and adding blood stains (with side order of pizza)

when I rendered one of the wall textures it looked ok, but looking at the photo there are obviously going to be bullet holes and a splattering of blood. You can't really see this on the black and white photo but I decided to add a bit of gruesome detail.

The bullet holes were easy to find - the hard part was finding a good texture for splattered blood. I went to a load of web sites before I found the right one.

Once I had all the source material I opened it in photoshop. To get an idea of how to lay it all out I watched a few films.

Finding Music

I knew I'd have to use music from the 1930s - 40s to create the mood. I have already tried a few tracks in the scene including Sinatra. These did not have the right feel to them. The music for the Godfather has the kind of feel i'm looking for but I can't use it for obvious reasons. I decided to look into the music that has been composed for mob films including the Untouchables.

The mood - the music needs to be somewhere between happy and dull, but with the right level of darkness.

I looked a few soundtracks into the soundtrack for films, but unsurprisingly I found that the musical score for the Untouchables film was best suited to the mood I hope to create.

Of the 13 tracks on the official movie soundtrack only 3 were close to what I wanted:

Track 02 - 'Al Capone'
Track 04 - 'Death Theme'
Track 13 - 'Machine Gun Lobby'

'Al Capone was by far the best one, and most suited to what I want. It builds up in the right way, and I can tie this in with revealing the title in bullet holes on the wall (with a bit of blood).

Making the box

In the scene there are boxes holding illegal bottles of beer. I would have to model these, there was no way around it. The boxes were, fortunately, quite simple to model.

I started with a box shape and made it 50 x 50. I then put the line tool in so I'd know where the lines were. I looked on google for some images to work from. I looked on the Godfather game to see what boxes the game designers had modelled. I saw that they had gone for an old-fashioned wooden crate.

I then extruded to make the box look the way i wanted. I decided not put a lid on the box. Partly because you can't see the top of many of the boxes, and partly because I needed to see the bottles poking out of the top.

Making the bottles and boxes

After taking a break from the chair I decided to do some simpler things. I decided to make the beer bottles and crates that would fill out the scene. First I made the bottles.

In the photo it is hard to tell what types of bottles are on the table. I had to make a judgement call on the bottle shapes. I went with a regular long-necked beer bottle and an old fashioned bottle. The sort you would see with three Xs on in cartoons.

I started with the big bottle. I made this to double check that what I was thinking was the correct way to go. I took a cylinder and modified it, I extruded it into the shape I wanted. This was relatively simple.

After this I moved on to the thin-necked bottle. this was also relatively simple. I found a picture of a long necked bottle, put it to the side-view and copied the shape. After this I needed to find a texture. A bottle is, obviously, transparent. After consulting with tutors etc I found a blend texture; in this texture I put the transparency down and changed it to brown. I didn't add any gleam or sparkle to it as the scene will be dark.

After making a texture for the surface of the bottle I needed a label, but before I could make this i needed to make up a good beer or whisky name. I came up with the following:

'Lucky Johns Irish Cider'
'Bugsy's Wine'
'Montana Lite'
'Goodfella Whiskey'
'Rich's Righteous Whiskey' - hard to say
'Capone's Untouchable Whiskey'
'Al's Sicilian Beer'
'Convict Beer 12091983'
'Joke's Whiskey'
'Las Vegas Special'

I went with Al's Sicilian Beer because it fit better than all the others. It fit the bill. Personal taste I guess.

Initially I planned to base the label design on the design for JD, but this idea changed later.
I wanted something unique - that fitted the scene and didn't look everyday. I also wanted to be quite simple, with no glitz or glamour as the scene is set in the Prohibition era.