Creating the Jazzhands intro on Cinema 4D.

Research In order to make our video look as real as possible, we needed to create fictional broadcasting and production companies to advertise before the intro. These companies would need logos and names. We decided that one of our production companies would be called Jazzhands Productions. We would need to create a fictional logo that would suit the name Jazzhands. We wanted to make sure there were no other broadcasting companies named Jazzhands already made, so we searched the internet to check. We found one company located in Texas and also found their business information (below)

The telephone for Jazzhands productions is: (281) 489-6233. I will most likely phone the company to make sure that they are aware of us creating a fictional production company of the same name and that they are ok with the fact that we are using this name. For this title sequence we will want to use Cinema 4D as it gives us the opportunity to make very sleek and eye-catching animations, which will keep the production name in the audiences memory. We wanted the intro to hint at a sign of chaos. We did not want the intro to use very bright colours or positive music that many production companies use for their logo. Many production

companies will actually have a few different title sequences to fit every genre of film. In the Jazzhands intro we will use very minimal lighting and the logo will most likely be black and white. We feel that we can use the broadcasting title sequence to help enhance the thriller atmosphere by giving it a mysterious and quite eerie atmosphere. Most movie studios use very dramatic orchestral music to accompany the intro, we will not use this style of dramatic and uplifting music as it will contrast with our thriller film. Creating the logo We wanted the logo to include two hands that can fit well with text of Jazzhands. We initially started searching the internet for pictures of hands to experiment with and to use as examples. Below is an example of a possible photo that could be used as the logo. The use of harsh lighting to both create strong light and strong shadows is very effective in this picture.

We began experimenting with manipulating the above image on photoshop. We wanted to move the hands closer together in order for the ability of text across the two hands. We cut out the right hand and moved it closer to the left hand. Originally we had the text lie on top of the two hands but we felt that the text seemed out of place. We then tried to have the text interact with the hand by overlapping one over the other. We felt that having the text and picture interact seemed much more sleek and gave the photo more depth.

We decided that the photo above is an adequate logo thus far. We may do some minor changes later on (maybe change film to entertainment) Cinema 4D animation ideas We wanted the logo to be introduced in a chaotic manner. We also did not want to overdo the animation as it could become over the top. We decided that we would have objects fall from the sky and create the Jazzhands logo. To keep things simple and to minimise render time we decided to use small squares as the objects that will fall from the sky. Creating the animation - Initially created the squares then added a rigid body so that they would collide with one another.

- Created a plane with a collider body for the square pieces to fall on. - I turned the logo into a texture that can be applied to the squares. I applied the texture to the squares and changed UVW Mapping (which displays each square to have the picture on it) to camera mapping (which projects the logo onto the squares from a camera I can put into the scene) - I then measured how long it takes for the squares to fall into place and settle on the plane, this took 109 frames. - I then had to make all of the 728 squares editable and erase all of the texture information on them. - I then take the timeline to 109 Frames and select, Generate UVW Coordinates. This setting will print the image on to the squares at that point in time. This will result in the squares falling into their final position and form the logo. To light the scene I added two virtual softboxes into the scene.

As can be seen from the picture above. I included one main softbox, which was located very close to the falling tiles. The main sofbox will create very strong shadows if it is the only light source in the scene. If there are very strong shadows on the tiles the logo will not be legible. In order to create ambient light I added a secondary softbox to the other side of the scene, this softbox was placed much further away in order to keep some slight shadowing and to keep the scene quite dark. After making our final touches to the animation we then exported the title sequence into a quicktime. After looking at the sequence we

thought that the logo was not visible enough at the end of the sequence. We decided that we would experiment with having the video fade into a jpeg of the logo, this would allow us to choose how long we would want the logo to be seen after the title sequence. We took both the image and animation into adobe After Effects. The dimensions of the image were different to that of the video so we had to manipulate the size of the image so that the video and photo can transition seamlessly between one another. We turned the opacity of to 44% in order to be able to see the image underneath, this allowed us to align the image to the video.

Researching Sound. All film production title sequences have music to accompany. We felt we needed something that contrasted the very generic dramatic orchestra music that usually plays along with the title sequence. The orchestra music would not work effectively in creating a chilling atmosphere. We found some royalty free websites that had thousands of songs and beats that we could use. We did not need a full song as the title sequence was only going to be approximately 10 seconds. This fact allowed us to be able to use different sections of songs, we could extract portions of a song from the beginning middle or end. We thought that it would be best to use the end of a song that had a very

quick resolution, as the resolution in the song can accompany the reveal of the logo. The links below are the websites we looked through for our sound effects/music. We found that Yookamusic had a very effective and fitting sound. The song is Subway Underground Chase. The end of the song had a very quick resolution, which is what we were looking for. http://www.yookamusic.com/playlist/soundtracks_suspense_thrille r http://www.audionetwork.com/production-music/moodemotion/mood-emotion/dark/results.aspx \ - Example of films that blend in with the studio logo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40gU7DCusA