How to do 3D Time Freeze?

[Joseph W. bourke]

Generally that’s done with a multi-camera array of up to 150 still cameras connected to some sort of controller computer:

https://www.reelefx.com/index.php?c=multicam.list

The link above is to a company who rents these rigs. There’s quite a bit of information on the site.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Issac Ng]

That is so cool. Jaw dropped.

Thank you for the info.
Anyway, is there any cheap alternative? Because I don’t think the production team of the video I posted above has the budget to do multicam. Hmm…

[Joseph W. bourke]

Here’s a “cheaper” way to do it using GoPro cameras and dedicated controller hardware:

https://cam-do.com/pentapus.html

I don’t know how much cheaper, but the first link I showed you was the high-end Hollywood budget project.

Here’s another approach using Canon cameras, and software created to link them:

https://www.breezebrowser.com/MultiCamera/index.htm

Doesn’t look as if it’s much less expensive – and of course you want crew on this type of shoot who have done it before. There are all sorts of ways this level of shoot could get screwed up!

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

Dave hit the nail on the head – it’s the age-old mantra of “good, fast, or cheap, pick any two”, and then plan it to death. That said, if you’re doing the production, and the shot you want the FX in can be somewhat wider (so that facial detail is minimal), you might think about doing the time freeze in a 3D package, such as 3DS Max. Given that, you’d have to have some pretty good talent on hand to do facial capture, motion capture, 3D rigging, and texture mapping, but there are quite a few people around who could pull that off. That’s said, it might not be cheaper, depending on who you find to jump on the project. You might have someone on your crew…

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Jim Arco]

For a very short clip, it is possible to take a single frame, pull it apart so that there are several planes in the image, then rebuild the ‘missing’ background elements. Put this in After Effects, move the planes in 3D space, and then move a virtual camera around the action.

This effect was used extensively in a movie, “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” so you might want to start googling there. Also Andrew Kramer’s tutorial has some similar ideas:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/timeFreezeCow.php

Jim

[Stephen Smith]

Here is a fun video to check out where they did the freezing technique with surfers:

https://www.petapixel.com/2010/10/02/52-canon-5d-mark-ii-cameras-used-for-matrix-style-surfing-shots/

There is also a making of video.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

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