James Bond; Title Sequence
Title sequence research:
I want to use this specific title sequence as an inspiration of what type of scenes to create as i like how to sequence starts by firstly having a realistic clip in this case being a flying jet and then zooming in through different clips to create depth into the animation. Another thing i noticed is that it contains a lot of female silhouettes and has areas where scenes fade in to smooth out the process .
An area this I believe was the most successful is the see-through design of the gun and bullets which really intrigued the viewer as it consisted of a very simple scene but still had a lot to look at therefore it did not overload the viewer but also did not bore them.
Tomorrow Never Dies
This title sequence still had some similarities to the previous one such as a realistic clip to open up the sequence and still consisted of a lot of symmetry and silhouettes even tho this time it represented male action scenes and contained a lot more violence.
It seemed like this title sequence stuck more into a designated colour scheme as it mostly consisted of black and red but a visible difference would be that it continued to have the same background animation throughout the clip and for me seemed to be rather more boring to watch as there wasn't much movement than in the previous one.
Casino Royale
Title: Casino Fremont
Las vegas moodboard
When creating this moodboard with the las vegas theme specialising more into the casino aspect i noticed that it introduces a huge amount of colours but due to the fact that i need to keep a limited amount of colour in my James Bond title sequence i minimised it a few colours which include red, blue, black and white as these are pretty much all of the colours used in card games which I would like my project to be a part of.
Another thing i noticed is that las vegas seems to be a very packed and fully night lit environment which i would like to introduce into my title sequence by encorporating maya by creating some sort of Las Vegas inspired landscape whether it will be outside or inside of a casino such as creating a russian roulette table.
This moodboard allowed me to gather basic ideas that will help me decide and create a James Bond title sequence.
Villains:
As i am focusing on a Las vegas theme for my title sequence I decided that my villians will be based around a group of gangsters specifically as shown in the images they would wear a fedora and a slightly stripped black or grey suit. The group will consist of around 5 or 6 gangsters with one being the most dangerous 'manager' of the gang.
Storyboard:
Song choice:
I specifically chose this song after I looked into the type of songs that are typically in the James Bond title sequences i realised that they consist of a rather classical themed tune that is at a decent pace and seems to consisted of a high pitched woman's voice singing, which is why i decided to do this specific song as it has a classical theme and a female singer but it also create a somewhat build up which i think will be useful when wanting to create depth and movement in my title sequence.
Idea of symmetry and silhouettes
In most of the James Bond title sequences I noticed that there is a lot of symmetry especially when dealing with fire and explosions, another point i noticed is that there is a huge use of mainly black silhouettes of women dancing. With this knowledge I will be able to and will create a title sequence that tries to include both symmetry and silhouettes so that my title sequence is successful and can be recognised as a James Bond style title sequence, that will allow us to critically analyse the final animation as it will show how the research based of original title sequences resulted in our own.
Experimenting with after effects:
During my first experiment with after effects i managed to play around with the basic controls to create a short animation which originated from a green screen filmed clip. I firstly cut and composited the ideal length and section of the clip which i then used to pen tool to remove unnecessary background which allowed me to use keylight and remove the green background after playing around to get the right balance as an issue occurred due to the fact there were some shadows being made in the clip, after solving the problem i placed the clip into a background and adjusting the size and angle of the clip to fit tits designated background.
Scene Experimentation
Before I started to come along with my animation I wanted to experiment with the software and have an understanding of the things I could achieve and what works well together, Looking at my research i noticed that James Bond title sequences contain a lot of layering and transitions that either fade out or zoom in to a new scene which is something I want to work on to create a smooth playing animation rather than a very flashy sequence. Taking into consideration that the the contents of most James bond sequences include dancing female silhouettes and action there that would be the main focus of my scenes. In the first video i tried to replicate the style of the James bond sequence 'tomorrow never dies' and strongly replicate the scenes such as realism to match the song and a long process off zooming into different abstract scenes to create a 3D effect and depth that I see as being successful.
Before I started to come along with my animation I wanted to experiment with the software and have an understanding of the things I could achieve and what works well together, Looking at my research i noticed that James Bond title sequences contain a lot of layering and transitions that either fade out or zoom in to a new scene which is something I want to work on to create a smooth playing animation rather than a very flashy sequence. Taking into consideration that the the contents of most James bond sequences include dancing female silhouettes and action there that would be the main focus of my scenes. In the first video i tried to replicate the style of the James bond sequence 'tomorrow never dies' and strongly replicate the scenes such as realism to match the song and a long process off zooming into different abstract scenes to create a 3D effect and depth that I see as being successful.
Before I started to come along with my animation I wanted to experiment with the software and have an understanding of the things I could achieve and what works well together, Looking at my research i noticed that James Bond title sequences contain a lot of layering and transitions that either fade out or zoom in to a new scene which is something I want to work on to create a smooth playing animation rather than a very flashy sequence. Taking into consideration that the the contents of most James bond sequences include dancing female silhouettes and action there that would be the main focus of my scenes. In the first video i tried to replicate the style of the James bond sequence 'tomorrow never dies' and strongly replicate the scenes such as realism to match the song and a long process off zooming into different abstract scenes to create a 3D effect and depth that I see as being successful.
Before I started to come along with my animation I wanted to experiment with the software and have an understanding of the things I could achieve and what works well together, Looking at my research i noticed that James Bond title sequences contain a lot of layering and transitions that either fade out or zoom in to a new scene which is something I want to work on to create a smooth playing animation rather than a very flashy sequence. Taking into consideration that the the contents of most James bond sequences include dancing female silhouettes and action there that would be the main focus of my scenes. In the first video i tried to replicate the style of the James bond sequence 'tomorrow never dies' and strongly replicate the scenes such as realism to match the song and a long process off zooming into different abstract scenes to create a 3D effect and depth that I see as being successful.
1st Scene
1st Scene
I wanted my animation to portray James bond as accurately as possible which is why I decided to replicate the beginning scene but include my own green screened James bond and by using the effect 'Keyring (1.2)' I was capable to eliminate the green screen, i have also adjusted the fade in and out settings due to the fact the clip was not long enough to fit the whole scene so i had to include a fade in and duplicate certain scenes that made the silhouette opaque and create a longer stance. Overall i think the scene is effective but if I had time I would redo the green screen clip to more closely fitting the scene.
Modeling a chip
Modeling a chip
Since I wanted to include a Las Vegas Casino theme throughout the scenes with a continuous colour theme I decided to model a red spinning poker chip which was simply done in Maya and then animated scene by scene to create a spinning animation. Overall I think it was successful but I should have made it not only spin in one direction but rotate in others too so it looked more like a realistic chip spinning on a surface, Also I don't like the original background of the clip therefore I should have changed it by creating a background such as a poker table to really fulfill my theme of a casino.
The final Video
The final Video
Evaluation
Looking at my final animation I am fairly happy with the outcome as it clearly states a colour theme which i have slightly adjusted from my story board and made it black red and white which allows it to have a limitation of colours, another aspect of the animation is that it clearly portrays a James bond casino theme and features similar aspects of the original title sequences. I Like how each scene has a smooth transition creating a flow effect rather than it being choppy. One of the aspects I would improve is specifically the chip scene I feel as if it is incomplete and needs something interesting such as a poker table in the background as I talked about earlier which is something I should focus on more. I could have also slightly adjusted the length and order of the scenes to more appropriately fit the song as later on in the scene the music gets more dramatic but the animation itself has a slow ending therefore if i ended in a fight scene the background music will be more appropriate for the current scene.
When creating the scenes I combined different skills such as modeling a casino chip in Maya and filming different fight scenes in front of a green screen. Inside of After Effects I experimented with different effects and animations by correcting colours experimenting with blending styles animating different transitions and effects such as when the female silhouettes shatter into small circles that create depth during the zooming in process. One of the mostly used effect is the fade in and out using frames that allowed me to blend out different aspects to create smoother transitions.