Video Project Review: iPhone 9

Final Edit of "iPhone 9 Video"

I shot this video in 2012 for my Intro to Motion Graphics course, at Valencia College. The premise of the assignment was to use motion graphics to advertise a product. I really wanted to push the envelope and deliver more than what was asked. I came up with the idea of a futuristic iPhone, and boy was I off about what the iPhone 9 was going to be in the future. Actually, I'm pretty sure that the iPhone 9 never really did come out, and Apple went from 8 to 10. Maybe they saw this video and didn't think they could compete... Anyway, back to the subject at hand, it's always wise to shoot a demo of the effect that you are trying to achieve. The last thing that you would want is to get on set, shoot a bunch of footage and then get back home to realize that you can't pull off the effect you wanted. Luckily, I know a man named Milton Dorta, who is always game to demo an effect for me.

Testing out the effect with my father

The only access to a camera that I had back then (no my phone camera was not an option back), was my fathers Flip Video Camera that shot in 720p. This would be the same camera that my future job at Freecast wanted me to use, until I got them to get me a Nikon.

Flip Video Cameras were a big deal back then

I had a friend in the same class that volunteered to be my model and helper for the project. Luckily, I never left home without a trusty green screen blanket in my car trunk. I had my friend shoot me on campus walking in place, as I muttered nonsense.

If you aspire to be a VFX artist, never leave home without a portable green screen

To sell the effect, I wanted the camera movement to be as shaky as possible. To be honest I had no idea what a gimbal was back then, nor did I know how to avoid handheld shakiness, but let's just go with me trying to make the shot better ;).

Time to 3D track my footage

In the past, to do a 3D camera track/solve, you had to use a third party plug-in that could cost you in the thousands. This was either the first or second year that After Effects added the 3D track function, and it changed everything. I was able to now add objects into my scene as if they were always there.

Tracking points signifying some of the best options to place my objects. I later had to draw and animate a mask excluding me from the camera solve.

I wanted to push this project forward a little more. I already did a 3D camera solve, but I then took advantage of the program Mocha Tracker, to track my models fingers and composite a stretchy screen. The idea was that this technology was so advanced, you wouldn't even need to have a physical phone.

A very Sci-Fi Cliche

My passion at the time was 3D modeling. I molded an iPhone in Maya, and exported the animation as a PNG sequence, and used it as my end card.

A poor attempt at 3D modeling an iPhone

What could I have done better?

This is the section where I lament at where I failed. I didn't have any access to audio recording equipment, so the audio quality/levels were not very good at the end card. At the time, all I cared about were visuals and didn't truly know the importance of audio, and that was a mistake on my part.