This week, I mainly worked on color grading and frame extraction for the animation. Let me introduce these parts of the work separately and highlight some important points to keep in mind:
Regarding color grading, the most crucial aspect is to ensure the video maintains consistent color tones, preventing any jarring changes that might break immersion. Next, it’s essential to establish a primary color tone for the entire animation. For this, I applied a LUT (a pre-set color grading setting) to the video to achieve uniform coloring. Adding a layer of LUT can better restore colors and give the video a unified tone.
- BEFORE
- AFTER
As for frame extraction, I hope this technique can create an unreal feeling and a sense of detachment in my animation, making viewers feel oppressed and unnatural, which is what I want to showcase—a somatic representation of depression. I hope to not only observe myself but also observe those who are experiencing these struggles and feel their pain. To achieve this effect, I used the frame extraction tool in After Effects (AE) to make the animation play three frames per image, while key shots play at two frames per image.