Final Project Update #1

The Leaf

Pitch: A peek into the life of a falling leaf. The audience will watch this leaf and become a part of its story as it flies throughout a series of scenes and events, eventually coming to rest upon the ground. I would like to make the leaf’s movement through the air as realistic as possible, and transitions between scenes will be seamless. The entire piece should be between 1 and 2 minutes in length.

Proposal: The sequence will start with the leaf detaching from an autumn branch. This leaf will swirl through 5 separate scenes. I will shoot each of these scenes in HD, so they match the image quality of the leaf animation. In order to create a ‘seamless’ transition between scenes, I will have each scene slide to the left as a new scene slides into place; the leaf will fly continuously over the break between the images. I intend to use animated masks to allow the leaf to fly behind and swirl around certain objects within a scene. The leaf will fly around people, trees, and even hover over our Thanksgiving dinner for a little while. Eventually the leaf will wind up resting on the ground in front of the tree from which it detached in the first place.

In order to make the leaf’s movements look more realistic, I will first take a maple leaf image into after effects and rotate it in x, y, and z space using the 3D manipulation. Once I have created a variety of rotations for this leaf, I will export the composition, and bring it back into After Effects as footage. I will then use the puppet tool to make the leaf look more flexible, like it is being blown in the wind. After that, I will export the puppet tool leaf as it’s own composition. Finally, after I have created a motion sketch throughout each of the scenes, I will bring the puppet-tooled footage of the leaf into the final composition.

Here is some footage of falling leaves that I will refer to:

http://footage.shutterstock.com/video.html?id=276880

I hope to maintain a similar aesthetic to the opening scene from Forest Gump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7voy1vit6Y

Asset List:

1. Jpeg image of leaf masked in Photoshop (2 layers)

2. After Effects: 3D rotation of the leaf, puppet tool manipulation of the leaf, motion sketch of the leaf

3. Theme music (to be found at: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Classical)

4. Footage from 2 Thanksgiving parties

HD, 29.97 fps

5. Particle Effects: tree “sparkles,” snow

Storyboard:

Scene 1- CU of leaf attached to branch blowing in the wind, eventually detaches and swirls away

Scene 2- WS of a couple standing & looking at a sunset, 2 trees in the shot, leaf swirls in from the left and flies around the first tree, flies back to where the couple is standing, and, as the leaf swirls around them, the man puts his arm around the woman, leaf flies away and off the screen

Scene 3- MS of a kitchen, Grandmother is cooking Thanksgiving dinner, leaf swirls in from the left side and hovers over the food, flies behind grandmother and off to the right

Scene 4- MS (tilted up) of 2 brothers looking at a Christmas tree, leaf enters the scene, older brother points up at the star as the leaf flies between them and around the back of the tree, leaf makes a loop around the tree 5 times before flying out of the scene

Scene 5- starts out as a WS of the original tree and a children’s swingset, leaf flies into the scene and around the tree once, leaf glides closer to the camera as the camera tilts down to follow the leaf to its final resting place upon the grass, end with CU of leaf on grass

Schedule: Class Project Due Date: December 3^rd

Week 1- preproduction, finalize storyboard, plan out motion of leaf, acquire assets, begin animations of leaf

Week 2- finish 3D leaf rotations, finish puppet tool leaf manipulation, shoot Thanksgiving footage, begin integration of leaf into footage

Week 3- finalize leaf motion within footage, finalize masks, create and perfect additional particle effects, set music to composition, and be sure to polish it all up!