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Precognition Trailer (IMPROVED)

I first made a quick Movie Cover with a bit of animation for a really cool effect and to intrigue the audience to watch the movie.

After seeing my trailer before, I looked at the faults I could improve on and maybe make it more to standard, so I've gone back to photoshop and fixed these problems. The first problem I faced was the blood coming from the ghost on the tele.

I fixed this problem by going back on the photoshop document and changing its colour in every frame.

My other problem was a missing leg on the TV so I went back on photoshop and drew a new one.

I also saw the blood on the wall and the floor and I didn't quite like it, it looked unrealistic and very badly done, especially the floor because the blood doesn't look like its on the floor with its perspective angle, so I improved that.

I also gave a cool look to where the TV has more light and it grows darker the further of the room it gets. I really like this effect and it also gives a more realistic style to it because the TV would be emitting light.

Ive also made the Title at the end of the trailer smaller because It was a bit too big and was quite hard to read in a way.

This is my final outcome to the trailer of Precognition.

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Precognition Trailer

This is my final outcome and I actually really like it. I love its dark features with its strange video showcasing the Edwardian time when the owners were getting haunted and the 70s where the house is still haunted. I really like the static noise and the soundtrack to this, I think it fits in perfectly and brings the scene to life with its uncanniness, and correlates well with the ghost hiding behind the door with its slender looking fingers slowly inviting its way through. This scene gives many questions like:

Does anybody live there?

Is the camera showing the POV of a person in the house watching this video?

Who's blood is that on the wall and the floor?

Is it the new owners? or the previous owners?

How does the video play from such an early decade?

These sort of questions are what I crave about psychological horrors, you question what happened, and what will happen next. Its what horror movies are all about.

There are two faults in this animation that I have seen:

1. The ghost in the television is dripping white blood on the floor which I don't understand how that happened, so when I tried to look back I'd have to start again with its animation.

2. The TV is missing one of its legs which was confusing because I went back to see if it was viewable and It was but I couldn't see it. I would have to re-do the iMovie scene again.

I think as an update for this scene, I will make the room a little darker to attract the TVs light towards the viewer, however I think that might distract them from not looking at the most important features like the ghost and the blood 🩸.

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Final Major Features and Re-thinking About Using Another Software

After using after effects to try and play my animation, it wouldn't work and I got confused and fed up on the software because I haven't taken my time to learn how to use it, so I thought about using an easier software that I have used before in editing, iMovie.

I thought about fitting my banister scene on the TV on iMovie then make another document to make a Ken Burns crop effect to make the camera pan out to wide screen, and I think it did a really good job.

I also thought about using static noice and horror music as the soundtrack for this trailer, I really like how the music fits in to the scary parts like the violin starting when you completely see the hand and the movie title vanishing into nothing. These videos are copyright free from YouTube.

Static noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8JZCqaJ068&t=4s

Horror Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oF5lS0sajs

The reason why I really liked this video was because it sounded very 70s horror to me and the living room scene is set in the 70s which I found very cool and exciting to use.

I also got the static image feature from a no copyright gif from the internet and I found it was the best one because it was 100x100 which fitted my TV screen.

At the end of the scene, I thought about showing the movie title with its red pixelated theme. I got the font from a free website

https://www.1001fonts.com/pixel+horror-fonts.html

Precognition was the reason because this word is my project. I chose ghosts as its subject but the scenes psychological side is a precognition where the owners are being haunted by their own future ghosts. So that's why I decided to call this trailer Precognition.

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Animating the Living Room Scene

I wanted to give one more other creepy animation to make this 'trailer' become more interesting and eerie. I wanted to animate the ghosts hand wrapping round the door frame, like it wants to come in and you know its going to come in.

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Process of living room

I first painted a wall similar to the colour upstairs (the banister scene)

I then drew on a door because I want this scene to have a creepy look to it so I thought about having the ghost appear between the wall and the slightly opened gap of the door.

I then coloured the floor brown, the same as upstairs. I like this ratio of colour, it brings its dead bluntness alive with the interesting scene.

I then thought about having a rug on the floor to tell the audience that that is the floor, and the door showing that is the wall.

I then blocked the gab with darkness and used a hinge to give the perspective of the doors angle and direction.

I then made the room darker to make the scene more tense and scary.

I then added blood on the floor and walls to give the audience a heart racing fear of this scene, a lot of blood is more terrifying.

I then finished the room with the TV in the middle of the shot and the ghost peering its hand around the door frame and its vaguely visible face in the darkness of the other room.

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Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a 2.5D animation software used for animation, visual effects, and motion picture compositing. After Effects is used in film, TV, and web video creation.

This software is used in the post-production phase, and has hundreds of effects that can be used to manipulate imagery. This allows you to combine layers of video and images into the same scene.

After Effects is known for it's versatility, and work created using this program is everywhere. You may recognize some of the following examples, but didn't realize they were created using After Effects, or even how they were created.

Let's get into what After Effects can do, and what it's not really that great at. This program is very deep and there are so many use cases that we may not capture them all. But, if you're new to After Effects this article will give you a great foundational understanding of what it's capable of.

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Building a TV for living room scene

For this scene I am going to display the banister scene on the TV and whilst the camera takes a ken burns shot panning to wide screen the TV goes static and ends. I wanted the 70s because I wanted some years after the Edwardian era to build the fear that these ghosts will never leave, and I also find the TVs really creepy in my opinion. I have three references that I have chosen.

I really liked the last reference because its simple and creepy. I can imagine my scene with this TV perfectly.

So I started building the body of the TV with this greyish brown colour.

I then gave the TVs antennas for signal that's its picking up from the dark secrets from the house.

I then gave the TV some coloured layers to make the design more interesting and fun.

I then drew on the dials on the TV exactly like the TV reference

I then finished it with the black screen, legs and its power cable. I think this is a good design for this scene.

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New Idea for Scene

I am going to expand my idea for this scene by playing this animation on a 70s TV while the camera pans out exposing features like blood on the walls and floor and maybe fitting in the ghost fading in the background or a dead person on the floor.

Im going to be using After Effects for the camera work and to play the animaton. I think this will be the best software to use cause I'm using photoshop for my pixel art so it will easily hold my cloud documents and its very good for its job.

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My Updated Scene

I've now added the blood spilling of the ghost leaving a little pool of blood on the floor which the character soon realises and discovers that it wasn't there when he went passed and also questions who's blood it is. I've also tried to make the character seem like he's turning around by giving a little bit of shadow to his arm and leg so his body is blocking the light.

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Pixel Art dull colour palette

My scene is very dull with its colour palette. The only colours it holds are brown, yellow, a greyish blue and red, the rest are grey, white and black. I chose this scene to be dull because it correlates with its unique eeriness and relates well with its Edwardian era that we modern people think of black and white photographs and film. I think I've made the obvious yet good idea for the colour palette.

These are some examples I've used for dull colours in games and concept art.

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Pixel Art games

Pixel animation is really used just for sprites on games because its difficult to actually assemble a pixel animation movie, though it has been done before with short 5 min pixel art movies. Pixel art is also regularly used for concept art as an art piece or just a replication from a movie scene or characters.

Creating or modifying pixel art characters or objects for video games is sometimes called spriting, a term that arose from the hobbyist community. The term likely came from the term sprite, a term used in computer graphics to describe a two-dimensional bitmap that is used in tandem with other bitmaps to construct a larger scene.

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Character Walking cycle (altered)

After my failed attempt of my characters walking cycle, I thought about how I could rethink of doing this better and suitably well so it doesn't lose its quality. So I rebuilt my character on the same document as the setting, and it worked well for me.

For my next stage, I want to add spilling of blood coming from the ghost because I think it could make the scene more attractive and it could theoretically symbolise the meaning for part of its life that's connected with the character alive.

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Photoshop character walking cycle fail

I didn't use the correct image size on photoshop that connects to my character and setting so when I dragged my character into my setting, its pixels went a bit funny and didn't correlate which ruins my animation, and this was because I didn't use squared. So I will do that from now on.

As you can clearly see the eyes have changed and his hat. It also made is arm missing and his other arm huge but I just drew another one on.

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Weeks to-do list and reflections

Reflections

During this week I have added more blog posts on pixel art and animation but I think I should do more posts together in the following days I have available.

I have re-done the character walking cycle by creating it on the setting document so they fit the same image size.

To-do list

I am going to add more blog posts on pixel animation and try to correlate the colour palette.

I want to complete this one scene for next week and might use another colour like red on the ghost for the blood.

I want to try and finish my site for next week

I think I should change my characters angle so he's in the direction he's walking. I think I want my character turning around because the ghost is behind him but the ghost disappears.

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12 Principles - 12. Appeal

Your characters, objects, and the world in which they live need to appeal to the viewer. This includes having an easy-to-read design, solid drawing, and a personality. There is no formula for getting this right, but it starts with strong character development and being able to tell your story through the art of animation.

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12 Principles - 11. Solid Drawing

You need to understand the basics of drawing. This includes knowing how to draw in three-dimensional space and understanding form and anatomy, weight and volume, and lights and shadows.

While you can push the limits here, too, it's important to remain consistent. If your world has wonky doors and a warped perspective, keep that perspective throughout the entire animation. Otherwise, things will fall apart.

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12 Principles - 10. Exaggeration

Too much realism can ruin an animation, making it appear static and boring. Instead, add some exaggeration to your characters and objects to make them more dynamic. Find ways to push the limits just beyond what's possible, and your animations will pop.