In Game Design we were introduced to the After Effects lightsaber plug-in by Video Co-Pilot. The plug-in allows you to insert a lightsaber over an object and you can keyframe it so that when it moves the saber moves with it and keeps the object concealed. For our project we were required to film an engaging fighting scene. It was a scene of us fighting with sticks that included 5 fencing attacks/blocks: After filming our scene we were supposed to bring it into After Effects and keyframe it which was a very tedious process. It was difficult to keyframe it because for 2 class periods I was moving the entire mask instead of moving the points at the top and the bottom of the saber (located in the picture) The reason for this was because the points didn’t show up immediately and my mask didn’t fit over the entire layer, which was difficult because it set boundaries for where my lightsaber could fit over the stick and also it wasn’t getting keyframed. Once I figured out that I wasn’t supposed to be moving the mask but the two points it was difficult for me to get the two points to show up when I was switching between layers and at times the keyboard shortcut (command+shift+5) didn’t work. Another reason keyframing was challenging for me was because I’m a perfectionist and I didn’t want the stick showing at all. I went through the video at least 7 or 8 times making sure that the stick didn’t show at any point in the video. I had to keyframe almost every frame which was unnecessary and time consuming which dragged the process out for me. Another obstacle I faced was not including a storyline to the video. I wish that I could go back and re-film my video because there’s not a reason behind why I’m fighting. I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to include a storyline in the video so in the video I ran up to Ariel and started fighting with her which is why the editing was difficult. I had to figure out a way to include a storyline and I decided that using text was the best way. Although it was a lengthy and difficult process, it was all worth it in the end. I’m happy with the outcome and I’m proud of how hard I worked on it.
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AuthorHibah Shafi is a Senior at New Technology High School. Archives
May 2019
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