My New Media Studio Logo.

every time i'm about to enjoy a new movie at the theaters, i have to sit through a whole bunch of these animated film studio logos that appear in the beginning of the movie. and with every new big-budget movie that gets released, they seem to tack on more of them. apparently movies now-a-days require more logistical support to film, produce, and post produce. one of the movies i recently watched, "Wanted", had 8 film studio logos to which four of them (i think) - including the main studio - had animated logos that appeared just before the movie started. some of them are pretty cool to watched, and some are visually useless.  but no matter what they are ALL annoying to have to sit through when you just want to get started with the movie.

now i have been toying with the name Arielistix as my fantasy media production studio to give my content some kind of home. i mean to tag my videos and music with "by Ariel" is just plain boring. inspired by these annoying, yet cool-looking studio logos i decided to come up with my very own.



i was able to generate this using Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4). it took several layers including the audio track i generated in GarageBand. motion key-framing allowed all the movements, and the opacity transitions allowed me to fade the "@!" to 21.*

i know it seems kinda stupid, but once i started working on it i couldn't stop. actually i think it's pretty neat. perhaps someday i can turn my fantasy production studio into reality. if it happens, at least i'll have an animated logo to compete with the big boys and annoy someone else. ha ha!

peace,
@riel

* the characters "@" and "!" corresponds with the numbers "2" and "1" respectively on a typical querty keyboard. 21 is my favorite number.

Things to come - Dyson's Revelation, Part 2

i have been having a problem with the opening scene to Dyson's Revelation. when the desert scene appears, as if looking out to the horizon, it transitions to the following scene - a view of the sky. the sky scene is in motion, but the desert scene isn't. it didn't feel right to start off from a stand still and move into motion. so i wondered how to add some motion to the desert scene.

here is the scene in its original edit.



now here it is again but with motion added to it.



this was accomplished in Final Cut Express 4 by blowing up the desert scene beyond the field of view. with the scene expanded i was able to pan the scene from left to right. if you look closely you'll notice how much of the desert ground is missing compare to the original edit. works really well with the transition to the scene of the sky.

peace,
@riel

Things to come - Dyson's Revelation, Part 1

the following is NOT a review or tutorial of Apple's Final Cut Express 4.


i'm working on my second revision of "Dyson's Revelation" prior to my submission to the AMV contest held by Otakon this year, and i have learned, and still learning, some of the options offered in Apple's Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4). one of the coolest things i discovered was a simple effect called "Light Rays" which seems to give this glowing aura around the subject. observe, the following clips show the progression of this cool effect starting with the base stock video pulled off the DVD.




now here is the same clip but with the Light Rays filter added to it.




and again, but with a second Light Rays filter added. this one, however has a little movement to it. check out how the second light source moves as if it's behind the logo.




cool, ain't it?