Fields & Frames - Bringing The Painting To Life

I had started creating a bank of images and video to use for my edited sequence. I went to a local lake when it had rained to get the rain texture on the lake. The only images I had to use from the internet where the two second to last images for the dry mud to the cracks. 

I didn't really have much luck in starting this editing sequence as I had this idea that if I created an incredibly long image on photoshop, that I could simply import it into after effects into its own composition and then move it across mimicking the sky using positioning key frames. HOWEVER, this didn't work due to the limitations of the software composition aspect ratio rates. I tried to import my long image as a JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF you name it and still had no luck so I decided the best way would be to create the composition aspect ratio to the longest it would allow me to in After Effects the create a new Photoshop file where the composition matched the splice my long image into 13 pieces and export them separately as their own JPEGS into AE. 

I didn't like the transition from the light clouds to the dark so I created a new piece of the puzzles and key framed it in as this is more gradual and accurate to real life. 

After I had exported them all not all of them wanted to show up as a file in AE so I went back and exported those as PNGs which was fine. 

Next I had to change my composition time frame as I had it originally set to 5 minutes but the sky was too rapid. I changed this to 6 minutes 30 seconds and started to key frame the images so the position of them would move from the right of the composition to the left, creating the illusion of the sky just rolling by. 

After completing this so far I have realized that it is all too fast. I want to go back through and make the composition at least 20 minutes long I believe this will be the most effective thing to do as this is meant to be a gallery piece and I like the idea of it slowly changing and the audience being able to come back and view it and it has changed from the last time they have looked at it. Unfortunately this is going to take a long time to readjust the key frames again. I think whilst doing this I will also readjust the gradient between the changing of the sky from the blue to grey as it looks like a line and I want it to be more subtle. 

I played a lot with the brightness and lighting within the adjustment layer as the scene needed to go darker when the clouds were darker. 

I also used some footage of a lake a captured when it was raining to get the effect of the flooding on the grass. I simply key framed the opacity of the video. 

For the Thames behind the railing I simply used an image of a lake from my archive and added a wave effect and changed it to horizontal so it would wiggle like water. 

I also used another adjustment layer to add a rain simulation in which allows you to key frame the amount of drops, how fast they land, the direction of the wind etc. This I believe allowed me to create the most accurate representation of rain I possibly could with the software. 

After I had focused a lot on the storm element of the sequence I realised the drought didn't have much too it. I decided I would add some adjustments to the photoshop file of the building. I also added a shine glare from the sky and key framed when I wanted this in. I also added an adjustment layer and applied a Lumier adjustments which allowed me to change the temperature to more orange. 

I didn't think this was enough and decided to look into some more footage from hot days of the year and many of them had the heatwaves bouncing off the ground. I found a quick tutorial and follow this to achieve a similar effect. I did this by creating a new composition and adding a solid layer. I used a particle simulator which allowed me to create large particles which float upwards. Then by adding a displacement map to the animation and changing the source to the solid particles creates this heatwave effect. 

I went back to my photoshop file and changed the brightness to brighter on the colour of the building and changed it to a dingy green colour as if it had been so sun bleached. I also added some aging cracks which I think work with the crack on the ground well. 

Once I had added the last bits of the animation I thought that it was too 2D with simply the clouds going behind the buildings, so I found some clouds from my archive and changed the blend mode to screen to get rid of the white for the light dark clouds and multiply for the light. 

Exporting 

I had a lot of issues rendering. My file is essentially 50GB. I initially rendered it as an animation which rendered the file as something like 340GB which my laptop couldn't even open. I then had to battle my laptop over heating and then turning off mid way through rendering. The renders take about 14 hours each time. I have now rendered this 7 times. I don't even want to count how long my laptop has been permanently on the last few days. 

Just when I thought my rendering days were over. I realised that I had made a simple mistake with my river fading out at a random time so I had to go back in and key frame this to correct it. Another 14 hours later and I finally have my render.