More Editing - Title

     Throughout this project, obviously the schedule has been pretty messy. Even though we're on track, we haven't been following the strict schedule. Speaking of, the editing was supposed to be due today (even though I've pretty much only combined the clips together). However, even with these messy "due dates", I think we'll still be finished before this weekend. I won't be able to work from Thursday to Sunday (vacation!! yay!) so I should pick up the pace and finish editing by then.

    Today I focused on text again. Specifically, I picked out my font for the credits and animated the title!! I originally tried it on Adobe Premiere Pro, but got frustrated easily. So, I switched to After Effects, a platform I'm more comfortable with when it comes to animation. Luckily, on After Effects, I didn't need a tutorial or anything because of prior knowledge. Here's how I did it:

1. Write out the text on a text layer. Then, trace the letters by adding masks (lines) over the text.

2. Add the "stroke" effect

• check all masks
• change the brush thickness (to make it look like the original font)
• set the paint style to "reveal original image"

3. Keyframe the "end" from 0% in the beginning to 100% where you want it to stop writing

4. (optional) Change the graph of the transition to make it flow more smoothly. In my case, I shifted it a little bit to the left so it goes faster in the beginning and slows down around the end.

5. Render it and add it to the video!! This is the animation I got after exporting it from After Effects.

    I also wanted to update more about the video and the problems I was facing. I chose a very basic font for the credits, Plantagenet Cherokee, which I found on Premiere Pro. I'm using different sizes within the text so they all fit within the same family yet have some variation. We decided on making the "denial" font also very simple, as a stage of grief doesn't have as much as an emotional connection compared to writing a letter to your sister. Instead, the text is more like a divider or a timestamp, meaning it should be simple, clear, and bold.

    We were also trying to film the additional clips that we forgot to originally film. We also wanted to include a scene of the shower running, and keep the shower running throughout the end of the video (until it gets to denial). I gave Andrea the original papers we originally used for the medium shot of the letter so she could rearrange them just the way we did before. She was able to do this and filmed a close-up that could fit well for in between Mara staring at the mirror and being on the floor. We also asked her to film a scene of her hand turning on the shower, but we didn't realize how complex it would be. Andrea's hand simply looks different than mine, including her painted nails. We tried to film a scene without her nails showing, but it was almost impossible. The lighting in my shower is also much different than hers, so me filming at my house wouldn't work either. We decided that, even though it isn't ideal, we could record that final scene on Sunday. This hopefully won't delay us much.