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Converting a cup into sugar – no idea how to pull it off
Hello CreativeCow!
I wanted to take a second to thank everyone for being a part of this website. It massively helped me when I was stumbling upon problems and I hope at some point I can give the love back.
Long-short story, I am doing my 2nd year project and I chose to do a 1:30 minute video on sugar.
I want a way to tell the audience ”here’s how much sugar is in these things that are labelled healthy” without pointing fingers.
I was really inspired by the slow-motion food cinematography of Hannibal (The TV series) and this particular ad. https://vimeo.com/15630517
I plan to make a video in the same style, but with ”healthy” foods hitting the table and turning into their sugar content.
Sort of this style, but I want, for example, a cup to be dissapearing into the table as it turns into sugar.
I got some After Effects and Cinema 4D basic knowledge, but I am a fast learner.
I was wondering if someone can point me on a certain learning path as to how I could accomplish this effect. I guess the exact instruction would take a huge chunk of your time so just pointing me as to what techniques do I need to seek tutorials for would go a long way !
My take on this would be to shoot the actual items on a seamless background at high speed, when reaching the table mask them out and make them go ”through” the table while I generate some particle effect (??) at the same time coming from the table. Newbie take on this.
I really appreciate it everyone, thanks for the help!
Tibi
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8 Replies
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If I was doing these I’d probably do (or have someone else do) everything in CG. Model the fruits and then simulate the fruit turning into sugar when hitting the object.
This approach isn’t probably doable on a school project.
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Hi Tero,
Thanks for your response. Really appreciate it.
Yeah, I was thinking of going into the CG route but it is kind of undoable on this project.
How would you go about modeling the sugar ?
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This actually wouldn’t be too difficult. Find any of your favorite disintegration/text to sand/logo to smoke tutorials and adapt them! If you have Particular, it even has a very handy bounce physics mode to get the sugar hitting the table in a somewhat realistic fashion.
You’ll just need to plan your shoot well to make things convincing.
– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Thanks for the fast reply. I’ll definitely check out that.
How would you go about the food hitting the table ?
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I’d just shoot the footage. It’s way more fun to throw fruit at things than to sit there clicking away on a computer.
Heck, if you have a new iPhone, you can shoot 720p at 240fps or full HD 1080p at 120fps and, if you light smartly, you can get some GREAT footage out of the iPhone (considering that it’s a tiny magic glass tablet and not a camera).
If you’d rather shoot with a real camera, you can get the same frame rates with the Sony x1000 and it’s on sale this week at Best Buy for, like, $155 off at Best Buy! The GoPro – HERO4 Black 4K Action Camera is also on sale this week for $100 off at Best Buy, but the image quality is better with the Sony.
If you want really serious slow motion for a pretty good price, you could look into the FPS1000 series of cameras. It was a thing on Kickstarter and seems to be doing alright you can get 1000fps for under £2,000.
Alternatively, you could rent a Sony FS700 to get some really great cinematography.
That being said, doing everything in full 3d offers some very tempting possibilities, but it will take quite a bit of work to get it looking right.
– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Yeah, I’ve keen to shoot the footage as well. Gives me an excuse to rewatch some of the Hannibal episodes as well!
I was wondering more how you could make it to go ”through” the table, or make it somehow so when the sugar comes into the scene it’s inception point is the moment the food start disappearing. I don’t know if I made myself clear enough, so my excuse.
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Cut a hole in the floor/table/surface and put another surface below it. That way, if, say, a bunch of grapes were falling, they would go through the table, but the top part would still be reacting as if the bottom has hit.
Or you could kind of fake a reflective surface in AE (using something like VC Reflect or building it yourself).
– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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A hole in the table certainly sounds like a good way to do it.
Then simply recreate the surface and overlay your sugar animation over the top of it at the point of impact.
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