Video & Sound Production / Final Project

16/6/2025 - 14/7/2025 (Week 9 - Week 13)

Rachel Ng Jie Ting/ 0378902

Bachelors of  design (Honours) in creative media

Video & Sound Production / Final Project

---

Table of content 

Tutorial

Tutorial 1: VFX Tutorial (Week 9)

Instructions

Exercise 1: VFX/ stop motion video review (Week 1)

Final Project

Reflections

---

Tutorial

Tutorial 1: VFX Tutorial (Week 9)

Instruction

Fig 1.1 - Tutorial instruction

VFX Editing

For this exercise, we were taught how to make a simple visual effect of a girl being flicked by a giant hand, goes flying and bump into a wall.

Below is a screenshot of me working to the VFX in Adobe After Effects.

Fig 1.2 - VFX practice in After Effects

Final completed VFX tutorial work

Fig 1.3 - Final completed VFX tutorial work, week 9 (16/6/2025)

---

Instructions

Module Information Booklet

Final Project

VFX/ stop motion video review (Week 1)

In week 1, we were instructed to share 3 favourite Zach King videos / Stop motion shorts. 

1. Zach King Video - Christmas Decorating Zach King Style

Rational: 

I like how the food appears on the table through the magazine, and the Christmas tree sliding out of the iPad, very smooth.

2. Zach King Video - Cotton Candy Cloud

Rational: 

It made me want to eat clouds once upon a time. Very smooth transitions from the actual cloud in the background to the cotton candy.

3. Stop motion shorts - Google Chrome アニメ #3「がんばれ！くろーむ "ゆーざーさんぜったいまもる！の巻"」

Rational: 

The animation uses a soft, clean, and inviting art style, with bright colors that create a friendly and approachable atmosphere. The backgrounds are simple yet charming, avoiding clutter while still giving enough context to the scenes.  

By giving the chrome logo some stick hand and legs, and making the blue circle in the center as its eye, it makes them visually endearing and instantly memorable. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting started 

For this task, we were split into groups of 2 and given a tarot card as the theme of our video. I partnered up with my friend Lindsey and our chosen tarot card is "The Empress". 

Planning & Proposal

Before beginning the filming session, we were instructed to propose our plan for the final project. 

The 2 of us got to work on planning the story of our video, and we came up with the synopsis for the storyline:

Fig 2.1 - Theme and story synopsis 

And also the story breakdown for a clearing image of what story we want to tell.

Fig 2.2 - Story Breakdown

After some discussion, we worked together to draw the storyboard, planned out the shot list, and selected the music to be used in the video.

Fig 2.3 - Shot list

Fig 2.4 - Storyboard

As our story involves magic and witches, I hand made a witch hat prop and bought some props (the wand and the "crystals") for filming.

Fig 2.5 - Hand made props

Filming

After planning, we set a date to film the footage needed for our video in campus.

For this part, I was the camera person and Lindsey was the actress. 

Fig 2.6 - Filming team

Fig 2.7 - Raw Video Files

Editing & Visual effects

For editing, we separated the workload with me being the main editor, and Lindsey being the secondary editor. That means I edit the video first, then the remain work goes the Lindsey.

Arranging the footage

After importing the raw video clips over to premier pro, I first arranged them based on the storyboard.

Fig 2.8 - Arranging video clip

VFX 1 - Making the light spell

For this light spell scene, I use the Lens Flare effect on a black colour matte and manually keyframed the position of the effect to the wand. Then I overlaid it over the video clip.

Fig 2.9 - Light spell effect

VFX 2 - Hat grow spell and moving hat

Here, I masked out the hat for a previous footage, adjusted its scale, position and animated it so that it looks like it grew and is being moved by the witch.

Fig 2.10 - Hat grow spell and moving hat

VFX 3 - Colour changing spell

With the "Change to colour" effect, I have made a mask around the blue paper that I want to change the colour of, manually keyframed the mask's position (this is to ensure that only that specific blue paper's colour changed, not all blue paper), and adjusted it's hue to purple.

Fig 2.11 - Colour changing spell

VFX 4 - Failed spell scene

Also using the Lens Flare effect, the magic effect is placed on a black colour matte with the position manually keyframed to the start of the wand, then overlaid over the video clip.

Fig 2.12 - Failed spell scene

VFX 5 - Rainbow light fragments overlay

For the 2 scenes below, I downloaded a folder of rainbow light overlays and overlaid it over the footages using linear dodge (Add). 

Fig 2.13 - Rainbow overlay

VFX 6 - Title

To wrap everything up, I added a title on the first scene.

Fig 2.14 - Title

Final Outcome of Visual Effects Video

Fig 2.15 - Final Project Slides

Fig 2.16 - "Colourful Inspirations"

---

Reflections

This project was both fun and challenging. One key lesson I learned is the importance of time management—we underestimated how long editing and visual effects would take, which led to a last-minute rush.

Using an iPhone camera also caused issues like inconsistent frame rates, which made editing harder and caused errors with the Rotoscope Brush in After Effects. Next time, I would use a proper camera to ensure better footage quality.

Overall, I gained a deeper appreciation for how much time and precision go into video editing and VFX. Despite the challenges, I enjoyed the process and now feel more confident using Premiere Pro and trying out visual effects techniques.