Visual effects ideas

For my visual effects and compositing project, I had to come up with a story that I can use non-deforming objects to help portray it. Here are my ideas and the pros and cons when thinking of tracking and compositing of using each one, then which one I stuck with to work on. To narrow down what I can do, I had a good think about objects that I owned and if I could incorporate them into my story.

PlayStation Vita hologram 

I always had an idea of my PlayStation Vita console having a holographic screen that could pop out and add a 3D effect. For this idea, the camera would focus on the console, panning from left to right and return the opposite way, showing the 3D layered hologram. I had the idea that at one point of this it would have the song "Tick Tick Boom by The Hives" play and have two holographic speakers appear side by side of the Vita hologram screen. Then eventually at the BOOM part in the first chorus, the hologram screen would explode and the speakers would also disappear too.

Pros

• Use of lighting would be in one location only 
• Camera panning would be very simple, no complex movements 
• Simple and effective 

Cons 

• Simple storyline, not exciting enough 
• Tracking the reflective surface of the Vita console may disrupt MatchMover and cause tracking points to end up behind the camera and force it to do weird movements in the program 
• Making sure that multiple 3D elements stay in one area 

Holographic Keyboard 

Some keyboards I have seen have lights inside that shine through the keys. I wanted to create a story that illustrates a funky feature to my laptop keyboard. The story is that a person sits down and goes to the laptop to log in. When the keys are pressed, a hologram letter floats up in the air corresponding to the key pressed. The person using the keyboard then has way too much fun and starts pressing every key to see it work even more, to then realise that they locked themselves out of their computer after many failed attempts to log into their laptop. 

Pros 

• Making the 3D hologram letters would be very simple 
• Tracking the footage will be straight forward 
• Again, simple use of lighting 

Cons 

• Camera footage is still and therefore would not track very well or as intended to 
• The entire footage will be tracked, not just segments, causing confusion to me 
• Finding a way to gather together still images and not actually lock myself out of my laptop! 

PlayStation 3 disc insert 

When discussing ideas with classmates, I had always wanted to do a story based off the Dead Space Kinesis module in which you, the player can move or throw objects with a Kinesis device. Realising how ambitious this was, I narrowed it down to something simpler, the idea was then thought of for a PlayStation 3 disc being inserted into the console telepathically. The story is that the person sits down on their bed and next to them is a game in which they open and find a game disc. They are too lazy to simply walk up to the console and insert the disc and so use their "magical" ability to insert the disc into the console. They then use the same power to grab the controller which happens to be on the other side of the room. 

Pros 

• Lighting would be inside again 
• Simple object created in Maya to mimic the game disc 
• Tracking only the disc to fly through the air 

Cons 

• Idea was still too ambitious to try as I had to track the disc actually flying through the air; finding a way to do this was not going to be simple 
• The compositing of the disc would be very difficult getting the reflection of the surface right 
• Making the disc insert into the PlayStation by itself was going to be tricky 

Chosen Idea and development

Looking through and discussing ideas with my classmates and tutor, the feedback was that they thought the PlayStation Vita Hologram screen would be the best one to use as making the objects required no shadows as they are illuminating objects. The tracking of it would be simple too as it would require me to only pan the camera left to right and not in multiple directions.

Ironically, this idea had no thorough story to work from; the simple and original idea was to show the PlayStation Vita hologram screen in which the whole footage was going to be tracked. With help from a collegue, I had come up with a storyline for the Vita hologram: it would demonstrate my friend playing on the Vita and sigh as it doesn't interest him anymore as it used to. Then a voice says "Hey you! Want something new and interesting!?" to which my friend raises one of his eyebrows. Then a mashed up photoshop screen shows the Vita with hologram. After it shows the step by step procedure on how to activate the hologram screen, by simply placing the console on a flat surface, turn it on and watching as a hologram appears from the console. This shot will then have a camera panning left to right and returning showing off the hologram screen with its 3D effects. Then one more screen of my friend showing a thumb's up and a voice saying "Wow this is so fantastic" matching over the screen and finally one more mashed up photoshop screen of the Vita and below a terms and conditions bit stating that the hologram effect may not effect all consoles and that it will cost a ridiculous amount of money.