Green Screen

I decided to try to do some green screen clips...film my avatar in SL before a green screen and superimpose her on some real life footage. I filmed the beach when we were in Florida...waves rolling, seagulls squawking. It's nothing exciting but thought it was plain enough i could easily put my avie in there without worrying about walking over people in the RL footage.

I built a green screen studio in SecondLife. It's a big cylinder and floor *didn't put a roof but may need to because sometimes the camera moves up sometimes as you walk and the shot of blue sky messes up. Here are a couple of shots of the studio with my avatar in it. I"m the little tiny dot since my camera is pulled way up. I used a megaprim to make the studio and colored the cylinder and the floor prim *another megaprim* just basic green.

Here's a closeup of me in the studio. You can see the seam where the cylinder meets the floor.

I played around with the windlight settings and found that one called Nam Optimal Skin1 completely wiped out that line. I took a couple of pictures with that setting. No Seam! I gotta tell ya tho - makes walking hard because there's no clue where the walls are. And sometimes you'll run into the wall and your camera will go outside. Not sure how to deal with that yet.

Here's a bit of the footage i shot in the green screen. It's not very exciting. Remember I mentioned the fact that there are no clues to where the walls are? Well that means it kind of looks like my avatar is walking in place.

Why isn't there a clip of the final product? iMovie seems to make it very very easy to do green screen..there's an option in the menu for goodness sakes. I'm doing something wrong...and yes, I can boil water and I can walk and chew gum. But. at this point i keep getting xray looking results for my avatar.  The two clips individually look just fine. I drop the avatar footage on the real life footage, pick green screen..and wham...xray. Not what I wanted at all. So hopefully I'll figure it out and add a paragraph and a clip..very soon..*fingers crossed*

Here's a clip with problems..that xray issue I mentioned and fuzzy footage. Not sure what happened.

ANd here's a clip that worked..strange content I realize but I got these great wrestling action figures from my machinima buddy and wanted to play with them. No I wouldn't play with them on the beach normally. But I haven't found any good old school wrestling footage yet.

Some Related articles

• Why is it a green screen instead of a blue screen? (grand-alliance.com)
• Green Screen Effects In Latest Harry Potter Film (chromakeygreenscreen.wordpress.com)
• How to Make a Green Screen (brighthub.com)
• Selecting Digital Backgrounds for Green Screen Use (brighthub.com)

Some interesting product displays

THis store is called scribble - very monochromatic displays and decorations. The lobby/landing area is pretty much all black and shades of gray. I like the mannequins that you can see in the 2nd picture. They don't display clothes, they're just standing around.

The clothes at this store are the color. Many products are displayed on boards like you see in the next two pictures. The customer can pick out the color they want or they can buy what's called a fatpack - you get all the colors at a discount.

Beesides the boards with the color/fabric swatches as seen above, some products are displayed in niches and on shelves as seen below.

This store also has the wall of pictures kind of display that I've seen elsewhere. Their displays are different in that many of the images are "scribbled on" or seem hand drawn.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Scribble/69/69/23

And another way to display - with little mannequin statues - gotta love the blue on the walls. That is the happiest color on the planet I think.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rue%20DAntibes/221/159/28

Notes from the VGXPO2008: Breaking into the industry

There were 6 or so people on this panel. Here are some general notes that I"ve tried to organize by topics

General

• Hard to get in, no guaranteed jobs, everyone above average, you have to stand out, you have to be the best at what you do, you have to bring a lot of knowledge about games, and you have to put in a lot of work to find a good job. Industry has a "churn and burn" attitutde towards employees because there is a never-ending stream of people who want the jobs. 30-40% of industry jobs are non-production (marketing/PR brand development, project management)
• Think about games broadly - lots of different types of games - casual, seirous, mobile, simulations - all need people with game making skills
• Have to show you have a passion for the industry, for making games - shows in your portfolio, in your conversations

Education/Learning

• College degree shows you can finish something big - Graduate degrees good for pure game design - grad school like boot camp for the industry. Full sail starting masters program
• Make games while you're in school - all kinds of games. Mod games
• Need experience working on teams
• Play games, lots of games, all kinds of games - don't have to finish them - play and understand the basics. Be able to talk about them. Play the games made by the studios where you would like to work.
  
• Get experience playing and making online games - everyone is looking to be online
• Look at the studios where you want to work and see what jobs are listed on their website, then see what skills they want in those jobs, then look for a program that offers those skills. look for the job titles so you know what to search on. Look for the names of people doing interesting work in the field you want to be in - follow them in the news, read their blogs so you have something to talk about if ya get to meet them.
  
• Get skills to do other stuff in addition to making games so you have stuff to fall back on when jobs are scarce.

Portfolio & Interviews

• Portfolio should have a clean professional design. Include stuff specific to the kind of job you're applying for. Have someone in the biz review your portfolio.
• Degree and resume not enough - you need a solid portfolio that shows how you're different from competition, there is lots of competition, you can put in games that you made in class. Be sure to say what you did on projects - don't lie but don't sell yourself short.
• Start working now to develop and build up your portfolio - mod, mod, mod make own game with lots of tools - XNA, Torque, web tools. Have friends play your games and give you feedback.
• Look for internships - not all companies have organized internship programs so you ahve to contact them and ask for opportunitites
• If artist, put in things that have real world equivalents (reference pictures) and your drawings better be picture perfect. DOn't put in cars, mechs robots, spaceships imaginary sci fi landscapes
• At interiew be very professional be sure you know about the compnay and the games that they make
• play games from the studio(s) where you want to work - they're going to ask you about it at interviews and you need to sound/be informed
  

Networking

• Network, network, network - especially when economy tough, industry very competitive so you have to know people and make good first impressions. Be sure to have business cards (that say the title you want, not student). Talk to the speakers at panels. Ask if you can contact them about portfolio reviews. They believe that most people in the biz are willing to give advice.
• Volunteer at conferences - good for networking, good for showing your dedication to the industry, learn a lot
• Blog, create a website - have an online presence, a professional presence
• Join professional orgs - IGDA, ECA, Videogame Voters Network - take part in student chapters, take leadership roles, invite guests.
  

Here's a good blog post by an audio guy who was on one of the panels - http://www.mikeworthmusic.com/blog/?p=26