The final Product

Hello readers,

In this issue you will walk through the process of the final advert after editing.

Step 1: Kane

As mentioned in the pre-production of the advert, I wanted the original Kane to be in black and white, to symbolise the life he's having right now, boring and lifeless. As planned this was a very tedious job and after editing, it looks like a five-year-old might have done a better job cloning Kane. I simply took to shots, while filming, the original Kane and the alternate exited version in colour we see on the bench, and placed them on top of each other. Then I masked around the original Kane which was very annoying as he was moving in shot and his arm moved in shot which meant I had to be more observant, when it comes to masking it. After that I simply added a black and white filter then a brightness and contrast filter to make it stand out a bit more. I did this for the other shots where you can see the original Kane and his hand when he's holding the Cannon Bitez, however, upon realisation that I would have to track around the packet and change the masks and everything, I ended up deciding that he should possibly turn to colour, possibly to symbolise that his world has a bit more colour in his life.

Step 2: Editing the base sequence.

Editing the base sequence with the updated version of the shots wasn't that difficult, i just ordered them and added a black and white filter for the first 3 shots and a transition from colour to Black and white. I also added an explosion to make the transition between the shot where there is no packet in his hand to where there is more visually pleasant. I also recorded my lines for Cannon-Head and added them to where I wanted the character to talk, I would later come to animate the character is step 3. Finally I put a title card with the product name at the end for audiences so they'd recognise it when in the shops.

(me exporting the sequence for the next step)

Step 3: Animating Cannon-Head

This was a very strenuous task I had to listen frame by frame when a new syllable started and ended. I also downloaded the base image for Cannon-Head for when his back is to the camera, which was easier to animate as i just needed to move it around. To create the character, I used Photoshop and a tutorial shown below:

This explains everything about animating a character and how you should organise it and what happens in A.E., it also told me which "mouth looks" I needed, which was how i got the mouth to move and look like the character was talking. I started off by Simply getting the characters movements down looking at the other section of the composition to see how it looked and what i needed to do later, for example as you can see on the photo at the bottom of this step there is a mask on the outside of the screen, this is because the cannon is supposed to look like he is coming out of the crisp packet and the best way to do that was to mask remove the parts which you wouldn't see behind the packets, so I created the mask and selected subtract to remove the invisible parts. This made the animation look more believable

After all that had been finished I went on to animate the mouth movements for when my character is talking. This was ultimately the hardest and most patience-filled job I've ever had to do but in the end I was filled with a complete sense of euphoria and I was very happy with how it turned out.

I then edited effects like opacity for when the cack of the head is showing, and for when the baseline transitions to make it seem more fluent and realistic, although, how realist can you get when you've got a floating, talking Cannonball trying to sell crisps?

(The project open in A.E.)

Step 4: Finalisations

After I wanted to add the selected music but when i put it in and played with the speed (trying to make it fit) it didn't really go well with the advert, which led me to having to find a new piece for the advert. I listened to some epic music just as i claim the crisps are an explosion of flavour so i wanted something punchy. I then realised something light and upbeat so i listened to some "Happy Music", which is where I listened to the music found in the final product thinking how this could fit in. I downloaded the music, put it into the project and saw it fit perfectly with how I pictured.

(The selected music)

I then wanted to see if I could make the product more stylish by increasing the contrast of the product. I put an adjustment layer on top of everything in the workspace, but when I saw what it had done to Cannon-Head, I had to immediately delete it. It had turned the character into a sort of brown circle floating in the air.

(The final product)

Step 5: Exporting

I then exported the product feeling accomplished with what I had achieved and happy with the product, wondering what I could have done differently, and wondered how things would look if I had that extra ounce of patience to make things a bit neater. Anyway, the product was finished and I was happy with the result which is the main thing.

The advert is at the bottom of the page for viewing.

Knowing that this is the end of this project is both a relief and a bit sad in all honesty, I have truly enjoyed doing this, making an advert all by myself and having the opportunity to have my creativity run wild I think was the best part of the project and after making the product I think not many people could have come up with something like this. I know that isn't modest, more arrogant if anything but how many people have had the idea of making a floating crisp-selling cannonball show a average crisp-eater an alternate version of himself to see how life would look if he bought the seller's crisps? I bet it's not many.

I'm looking forward to the next project and seeing how creative i can be in it, wish me luck.

The Advert: