Making Of: Home

This entry is about the creation of the visual effects and the editing of Midwest Angelica Ep. 1: Home. In another post, we will talk about inspirations and trivia. If you don't want the magic of the effects to be ruined, don't read this one!

Okay with that being said, let's get into it.

Most of the VFX work was done for the live-action sequence at the end of the video in which the HOME Lightbringers investigate the Alpha Chunk. We knew from the beginning we wanted the Lightbringers to have a certain appearance, that being the orange suit with the metal cylindrical helmet. This appearance was to signify their affiliation with HOME and also to signify their role as the "flamethrower wielders." The two options were to use a real metal cylinder or to fake it. Of course, faking it ended up being cheaper so we went with that.

A few preliminary tests of the helmet were done using footage of two tracking points (duct tape) on a black mask. The footage was then motion tracked in Blender and the cylinder was mapped to the two points. The effect ended up looking pretty good, so we used it for all the Lightbringer shots. All the Lightbringers were shot on green screen and the cylinder was then tracked in with Blender. There were some lighting differences depending on the angle of the shot, so the lighting was moved around accordingly. After that, the green screen shots were composited over footage of fire and some extra effects were added in, like fire for the flamethrowers or the melting under the helmet.

To add handheld camera movement for any episode of Midwest Angelica, we use a technique in which we film some area of a well lit room, just moving the camera around to create that motion to begin with. That footage is then tracked in After Effects and then the still footage is mapped to the track to give the appearance of accurate camera motion. The only thing that is lost is 3D depth, but you can get around that in a number of ways. Most of the time the effect is just subtle enough that most viewers don't notice the lack of 3D depth in the camera movement.

AZ-001 and the Starkill were created in Blender using the sculpt tools. The appendages were rigged to create animations. The rest of the live action footage was filmed in a field at night, and the shot of the Starkill on the wood was motion tracked and composited in. Fun fact, the handheld shot of the Lightbringer walking from behind was just the camera operator reaching the camera behind himself and filming himself walking. Somehow it worked!

The rest of the video was pretty straightforward in terms of effects. The computer simulations were all created in Blender with the wireframe modifier. We ended up using this technique a few times throughout the series. Some archival footage from NASA was used to fill in the gaps of the video. We've dubbed the aesthetic of the "HOME tapes" as "Nasacore" for its use of austere graphics and designs reminiscent of designs used by NASA in the 80s. But that stretched Arial Bold font is totally Evangelion-inspired! NERV definitely does fall under the umbrella of "Nasacore."

Something interesting that came out of this episode was the soundtrack. At first, all that was needed was a simple jingle for the HOME logo in the beginning. It ended up turning into a whole track! This track can be viewed as the motif of HOME in a way. There's also a second, more ambient piece that is played quietly during the Lightbringer sequence at the end. You can really hear it during the shot of the helmet on the floor right before the cut.

Finally, some fans have been curious about what VHS filter we use. We actually use the Blender VHS effect, and you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qitRVr56Cs&pp=ygUSYmxlbmRlciB2aHMgZWZmZWN0
All the settings are default! We wanted to keep the effect consistent throughout the whole series, and this was the most realistic one we could find without converting the videos through an actual VHS tape. 

That's about it! In the next post, we will discuss trivia and inspirations for episode 1 of Midwest Angelica.