In order to start creating the virtual studio I decided to use only After Effects. At the beginning using Illustrator was a good idea since is designed to edit images and create ones as well, but I decided I wanted to do everything on After Effects and in my opinion it wasn't that harder that I though it would be. The first thing was to look for a base, a background, something to start working on. The most original and very first thing I started with, came from a vector image in the massive vector and images selling website, Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
Although it is just an image that is meant to be for something else, I decided to convert it into a studio that could fit with our brand and this is where After Effects started taking place. The main reason I picked this image as a point of start, was because it already had the monitor we needed, although that is something I could have added myself, it included lights and had the resolution I needed in order to play with it with our making it pixelated. The first thing I did of course was creating a new composition and added the image to it on After Effects. The main change that I did first was zooming into the image, since the actual size didn't work to me. I decided to change the scale of it, cutting all the right side from the TV. After that the main thing I wanted to do was to give it a more straight look, since the image is quite in a circle. In order to do that I had to convert the image into a 3d object and rotate it so it looked from a different angle. Although it was a bit hard to find the right angle, it ended up being fine and this was the outcome of it:
After that it came putting up something in the background. The first idea was to have something on the top left corner saying Breaking News, but it didn't really suit our channel which is why we decided to put Sport News instead. In order to put it I had to create the text and make it 3d on After Effects in order to be able to rotate it and bend it in every way possible as the purple but is not flat but curved. This was the outcome:
The aim after that was to start using the screen and put something there related to our channel. I created a video/animation of our logo to put it up there, that way we would have logo in the background. I will do a post next with that animation and how it was made. This was the outcome of it:
Added to that I had to add a Hard Light so that the image looked like it was coming from the TV and it wasn't just an image on top of it. One main thing when you gonna add an image to a composition that wasn't there from the beginning is that you need to match it with the colors, lights and shadows. The hard light makes it a bit darker so giving that feeling. Next step was to make the middle of it a little bit lighter, but the edges still dark so it still remain looking as the image was actually on the TV and wasn't added after. In order to do that I had to create a mask and make it round around the middle leaving the edges out of it so it kept the hard light tone. This was the outcome:
The issue I had next is that since it was a video it gonna finish after a bit and I didn't want that, because that would mean that the screen on the TV will go black or when use the studio again, the video will just play again every time which I don't want, I want the animation to play only when we introduce our presenter for the first time. In order to do that I created a freeze frame on After Effects so that the animation would stop right on the logo reveal and stay there for the rest of the video. This is a freeze frame (grey little square)
After that it was all set up, all I had to do was to add the Lower Third for the introductory bit and then add Francesca to make it final. This was the very final outcome of it:
The very last issue was something that I realised had to be done as it was important for the look of the studio. The main thing was the position and scale of the presenter. Since it was a green screen and I had to insert every section separate as they were different files, I had to make sure that the scale and position of her was exactly the same. In order to do that I wrote down the values of both of them and then just changed them overtime I had to do them. These are the values and were to find them:
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