Chris Smith
Forum Replies Created
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Don’t know what you mean by “track him around or in front of the car”. Is the BG in Max as well? Is the camera orbiting around the car? All of this matters.
If it’s just a front shot then just shoot the actor on blue screen, key him out, load this clip into Max with an alpha and apply him to a flat plane inside your car.
If the camera move will show perspective, then on set shoot your actor on a keyable BG with small dots on the walls so that matchmover can make a 3D track. Also set up C stands with tracking points between the subject and the walls so there is more depth data for the tracker. Use this tracking data in Max to render out the car at the same angles. Then render out the alpha of the car windshield to use as matte for your keyed out actor. Then render out separate reflection passes for your car windshield and lay them back on top of your actor.
There’s a LOT more to it than this for an ideal composite, but this is a basic idea.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Here is a link to one of the spots (Need Fastchannel account):
https://creative.fastchannel.com/ss/ssdetails.asp?SpotID=50082
I looked at it frame by frame. Even though it’s a 2D look, 3D stroke would do it incredibly quickly. Because all it is whispy shaped lines with tapered ends. If you use 3D stroke, Make a few whispy masks. Apply 3D stroke to them, color them puples and oranges and animate the start and end points and turn on tapering. It should look pretty close. In fact I think the 3D stroke solution would look better.
Looking closely at theirs though I think they did it somewhat by hand, but it’s only a handful of frames so shouldn’t take too long. You can also get some good ideas from this awesome tutorial:
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
You could try CC Cylinder to make a wheel. But if you’re doing all this why not just do it in a 3D app? You’ll get far more options that way.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Agreed. However the ‘3d trick’ can be done in so many infinite different ways you can’t count 3D out as a whole. I think just pulling a picture into a few layers and moving the camera by it is getting old. That and the ol’ set up the pictures like cards and fly the cam past them thing. But there are so many other ways to use them in 3D.
Other than that, just know that people always complain of flickering in their images. So check the archives. If you look just a few posts down in Ann’s thread you’ll see I posted a bunch of references to the topic as well as Steve’s advice as well.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Unfortunately, it’s always a problem. I would think your vertical line shouldn’t be flickering. However your horizontal line can be blurred vertically a touch to help it smooth itself over between TV scan lines. You can try gauss blur set to vertical only, or directional blur set to vertical, or the ‘reduce interlace flicker’ plug in which is a quick simple way to do it.
However, I would first experiment with different stroke amounts on the line first to see if there is a number that will work better than others.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
HDV isn’t going to support an aplha I’m afraid. You’ll have to use a codec that does and just set it to the same resolution that your HDV project is in.
Some codecs that support alpha are: Quicktime|Animation codec (very popular), PNG, TIFF, TGA, IFF.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
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Thanks for the comments. Our second director is up there in Manhattan, she does documentary work as well as spots.
The good part of :30 spots is that you only work with them a few weeks at a time so there is variety. The bad part of a project whithin :30 is that we too often have to shoot :45 second scripts that get butchered into :30.
Shooting 30 second commercials to me is like eating at a cafeteria: When you’re going through the line you get excited about all the food options and keep asking for different delicious items, but when you sit to eat your selections, you realize how very limited your stomach is.
Then to expand the already odd analogy:
Then once you learn that you just need one focused entre
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Well then if you are only working through Firewire then I think your only solution for ‘the best’ is the AJA IO which is a great box. Other than that I think you’re stuck with a DV solution which is far from ideal for looking at graphics.
Here’s the IO:
https://aja.com/products_Io.html
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com