Experiments

1. Experiments
Jack Henderson

2. Process
I began my experiments by capturing some
basic footage of a person walking and staring
out into a landscape. This is due to my focus
being on visual effects so I decided to try create
a set extension or possibly a sky replacement
as these a basic techniques that are used
frequently in the industry. I took a still from the
captured footage so that I could touch up the
landscape by removing the trees and
attempting a basic sky replacement before I
tried to attempt a set extension. I removed the
trees which extruded into the skyline by using
the clone tool in Photoshop as there was
enough sky to manipulate and reuse in
different places.

3. Process
I then removed the sky and replaced it with a
basic spacey scene that I found on Google to
just test out a basic sky replacement. I did not
like this method at all and decided to find a
more productive way to do this which would
create a more realistic look and would be
easier to mask and edit through motion on
After Effects or Premiere Pro. This experiment
was still useful as it allowed me to fine tune
what was good and bad about certain ways of
editing however I do not believe this was the
best way to conduct a set extension. If I had
messed around with the levels and colour
grading I could have potentially made the
overall scene look slightly better however I did
not take the experiment any further after this
stage as it did not look good.

4. Process
I took the same still from the
footage and decided to do a classic
set extension by adding a building
into the background which I found
on Google and used the lasso tool
to transpose it into the new
environment. I then had to work
with the levels to find the perfect
grading for the building to match
the environment. As this was my
first attempt at doing this was my
first time working and
experimenting with levels to
transpose buildings. I thought this
was successful however I believe
with more practice I would be able
to complete it to a better standard.

5. Process
To create this effect in Premiere
Pro I used the mask tool to mask
out the original sky and show the
newly edited background with the
building. I found this tricky as it
was my first time using Premiere
Pro to edit visual effects however I
got used to the way that the layers
worked and the parameters of the
mask tool by experimenting with
it. The one issue I had with using
the mask tool was having to
change the mask parameters for
each frame that the character
moved into the skyline. This
became was only difficult due to
the amount of time it took to do.

6. Process
For my final experiment, I decided
to change the building to a more
futuristic style as then I was able to
motion track a spaceship I found
online to fly through the sky to
create a more dynamic scene. I cut
the ship out using the lasso tool
and then keyframed the motion of
it into Premiere Pro to have it fly
through the scene. This did not
look entirely realistic however it
gave me good knowledge of how
to create this kind of effect for

7. Reflection
What elements of your experiments will you include in your final
product?
This experiment has taught me the processes that it takes to create
visual effects that I would need to create my ideal product. Prior to this
experiment I did not realise that rendering a technique such as this
would require using multiple programs in conjunction to achieve a
decent product. The techniques that I used in each program are also
important as I did not realise how extensive I would have to be with
the mask tool and keyframing in Premiere Pro to create the final
product. This experiment has been very valuable by showing me
different techniques that can be used to create different effects. It has
also shown me the difficulty of this technique and the time that it will
take to complete. This has given me perspective into how I will manage
my time when I am producing my final product and how I will balance
my scheduling as I believe that editing will be a crucial part of my
production due to my plan for using lot of visual effects.