Fix it in post? - EXPENSIVE

For all the filmmakers and cinematographers out there.....

PLEASE HAVE THE VFX SUPERVISOR on set when you are shooting something which involves VFX

than paying him or her extra hundreds fixing the mistakes in post on top of the effects...

Yes, even when you know how to shoot the vfx shot, you might not notice the leaks of the problems since you will be busy focusing on rest of your stuffs or you might think that what you've done is good enough to do the effects on.

THINK ABOUT IT :)

Sanitizer to remove permanent marker

Right!! But Im not sure if it could remove really old marks...
Doesnt mean that you can take it to the set when you are ACing.. Get dry erase instead ;)
Cheers!

Motion Control

In the field of movies and TV production, motion control refers to 'precise and repeatable control of the camera movement, focus, zoom, iris..' Its been widely used in movies and commercials these days. I'm not sure about TV series since I dont watch TV at all :)

Here is a demo reel from the famous motion control company, Pacific Motion Control




To explain better the standard possibilites of motion control technology, watch these 4 parts of Mark Robert's Motion Control Demo..

Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3  -  Part 4
But, for viewers from USA and some other countries, WMG has blocked Part 3 due to copyright issues (Sad!)


As you have noticed, its majorly used for VFX where on the post production end two or more clips are composited into single clip and the effects work seamless..


An interesting example...



This was shot at 600 fps with Phantom Gold HD camera. I came to know from the blog of Vincent Laforet(the DP of this commercial) that he has used 225,000 watts of light, f 2.0, 360º shutter. HELL YEAH! still a very little amount of light reaching the sensor. Check out 'behind the scenes' here.

But the point is... Motion control was used here to do multiple shots with different focus points.

"You’ll notice one shot where the actor puts his foot down from the cab – `and the actress is running towards him.   Getting them both in focus at 600 fps wide open would have been impossible.   Here is the magic of Motion Control + a great post house to splice them together seamlessly." - From his blog


And this one down here with the use of time-slice technology....



No clue how they did it.. I came up with so many possibilities... but check the discussion about this on VFXTalk.com here.

And to add the awesomeness to this, the camera data saved on either end can be used on the other. For example, let say you have a 3D previz of your shot. The camera data can be exported from the 3D applications and imported into the motion control system. And, it works the other way too. The motion control camera can export camera data into the 3D applications for 3D modelling, matte painting, compositing, etc.. HOW COOL?


Check out more cool stuffs here.

Now, watch this clip..It is from my semester film I shot when I did Cinematography in NYFA..



This could be done using motion control. But instead, I merged 3 different static shots in After Effects and created a camera to pan. You could actually see the attachment(flaw) towards the end on the front wall- a thin vertical line.. Thats because of the light change when I shot the third(right-most) clip when I asked my crew to sit on the bed. I didnt realize that they cast shadows over that wall. Quiet easy to fix, but too lazy :p
 Text me to know more on how to make shot like this. Pretty easy and could be done just with a camera, tripod and a little knowledge in After Effects. This trick can be used to make so many cool shots as long as there is no dolly which creates the 3rd dimension and its not possible to attach the clips in post unless the very same camera movement is done in precise timing in every shot. Thats the reason motion control evolved.


Alright, I think we have enough to cover the basics. I will try to find more technical side of this, may be some post production works of the footages shot with motion control. Later!

Nuit Blanche - What's real??

Great piece of work by both the director, Arev Manoukian and VFX artist, Marc-Andre Gray.

And watch the making of this award winning film HERE.


Cheers!

Trapcode Particular - An Overview

For all the After Effects artist, this is one of the super versatile tools...

RED GIANT Software™, creator of this plugin, came up with the version 2.1 which has really cool updates...

And, for After Effects, I think people would agree with me that the other products of Trapcode Suite are not as great/versatile/useful as Particular... In fact, I would say, we can even create almost everything in Particular what the other products do..

Alright, enough texting..... Here we go....

Starting off with my FAVORITE :)

Click here to go to his Vimeo page.. If you could notice, he has used particular in his other videos, Polar and AVP.. Check 'em out ;)

And this one is pretty cool...

A simple algorithm, but the way the particles are manipulated is gorgeous.. And it really goes along with the pretty music...

And now, MY TURN ;)

(drum rolls, please!!)

...

...

Shot by Eliane Wong Seoane, an artistic cinematographer/photographer from Peru...

And the model, Crystal Clear Waters, another talented cinematographer from New York.

Yes, the extended smoke was made using Particular..

The theory behind this tool is based on real life particle...

Definitions of particles on the Web:

• particle - atom: (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything
• particle - a body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions

 

And even the workflow in making these effects obeys the definition of particle system..

1. Emission properties like particles/sec, position, emitter type, Velocity, etc.,
2. Particles properties like shape, size, opacity, life/sec, color, rotation, etc.,
3. Physics(gravity, wind, turbulence, etc.,)
4. Aux System (used to send secondary offshoots from the main particle; fireworks, for example)

Knowing what you trying to make with this plugin, makes the job really easy and practical. In a way, its like designing life to your particles...

I have been using Particular for some of my projects these days... Rain drops, debris, title fx, harry potter'y magic wand effects(yaaaa!!! :D) and I have to admit that, its really, REALLY hard to make water effects though it is classified under the same particle definition... But hey, im not saying its impossible.. You know how dynamic the water moves, right? :p

And these days, its majorly used in making some cool title effects.. Here is a youtube flick..




And check VideoCopilot for more really cool effects and even great tutorials on VFX.. Best site to learn After Effects.

And to all the filmmakers and VFX Artists out there, its a powerful tool to reduce production expenses and to make some cool and realistic effects if its used wisely ;)

PS: "Particular is used in motion pictures like Spider Man 3 and Angels & Demons." -Red Giant

Matte Painting

This is always one of my favorite subjects to talk about...

And one of the best examples to understand the power of matte painting, I always refer the demo reels of 'Hatch', an awesome visual effects company, to my clients and friends..

Click here for the Hatch Demo Reel Page

And these are couple of my recent projects based on matte painiting for thesis project of my friends from NYFA.








Here is a good discussion about matte painting definition on mattepainting.org
http://www.mattepainting.org/vb/showthread.php?t=2616

And click here to watch another interesting matte painting challenge breakdown...

Hope this gives a good idea about matte painting and how to save money on travel for locations. So find a good vfx artist and save money ;)

Good Day!

Great Start

Yes, as the title says.... a really good start for the new year....

-New blog
-First day on set of this year... Worked as 2nd AC with the best crew(my classmates from NYFA) and met some really interesting people from the cast too..
- Really pretty soft snow to start the day for the shoot..
- Some interesting projects lined up already for January.

Iam really excited about 2011.. And 2010 was one of the best years in my life... Met some AWESOME people from around the world. Worked with great cinematographers, special effects team and really cool crews...

I've been learning SO MUCH for last few years on visual story telling and special effects. And, its been my long time plan of starting a blog to share all my activities. So finally, I thought like, if I could find time to facebook, why not this?

Alright folks, I will keep things updated now on. Spread the word...

Rock and Roll :)