[Olly Lawer]

Nor can I, although that is just one item on the list and I wondered if others here might add in their experiences, which there is no substitute for. A salesman, after all, has one wish and one wish only – to sell it to me!

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Believe me, I’ve done a lot of Googling, but there is a lot of crap out there and I tend to put more trust in the opinions of those on these forums.

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Ha. That one is great. I like the seemingly 3D blocks of footage. Must have taken ages to make tho!

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for your reply.

Your link and subsequent posts look interesting. I’ll have to have a play. I’ve done an AE intermediate course, but this just makes me realise how much I don’t know!

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Ah, thanks for that thread link Walter – looks good to see some other ways of doing it.

I’ve posted in that thread to see if Amanda picks up the thread and lets me know how hers went. Seems she was having a lot more success then me.

So i’m thinking I change my approach completely and go with this instead:

I’m thinking:
1. Draw the whole thing. Take a high resolution picture (still SLR camera).
2. Animate a hand doing some motions over an evenly lit green screen (tho not sure wether to draw a faint version of the drawing in green pen first or just some strokes)
3. Animate the drawing appearing using an animated mask
4. Animate the hand over the animation, possibly using a Write-On effect?

Does that sound feasible?

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Hi,

Having attempted this myself with a completely different method – filmed live with different sections stiched together – I can attest to how difficult it is!

Your thread has inspired me. I was starting to think I wouldn’t be able to do it on a small budget, but from the sounds of it, you’ve had some success doing it the way listed above.

It’s been 7 months since this post started so I guess your a master at it now 😉

How did you do it in the end?

I’m thinking:
1. Draw the whole thing. Take a high resolution picture (still SLR camera).
2. Animate a hand doing some motions over an evenly lit green screen (tho not sure wether to draw a faint version of the drawing in green pen first or just some strokes)
3. Animate the drawing appearing using an animated mask
4. Animate the hand over the animation, possibly using a Write-On effect?

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Thanks for your feedback! Appreciated.

All good suggestions too. I’ll have to check that out.

I’ve just put up another, more specific post about how to market a customers video (viral included, but also encompassing all types of online media) ‘Ways to maximise online media’ https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/17/875416 – as I want to understand how best to market the video once you’ve created the online content. The reason I mention it is it kind of crosses over on a few things just discussed on this tread.

I’m interested Ron, what Viral Houses would you look into? The ones I have come across are all for the big boys and thus cost a fortune.

Kind regards,

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Thanks for your feedback. Yeah, I did check it was full manual and all the settings were on full manual, but thanks for the suggestion.

I’ve let them know, so hopefully it will be fixed next time.

Interesting what you say about low light – it was a very low lit scene, but I have noticed it in normal light conditions too. Annoying.

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Hi,

OK, so my test hasn’t gone as well as I hoped!

I recorded a 2 minute voice over and then separated that into segments. I used an A2 white board in a studio with 4 Lowell Tota lamps with softboxes. I over exposed a little using F Stop 4. I started with white balance 2900k, but decided to change it to 3700k. This was a mistake as it change the animation to a yellowish background.

There were 7 segments and after each one I rubbed the board clean and started again for a new segment.

In FCP, I speeded up the drawings (I called them drawings, but I am no artist!) to fit the voiceover. All fine so far apart from the white balance error.

Then I created 7 new sequences and rendered out a QT file for each along with a still image for the last frame of each segment.

In AE, I laid out all the 7 files one after the other and placed the stills after the mov’s so the last segment will stay on screen. I also masked each pre-comp and jigsawed the footage all together so I could animate the camera to go from one to the next and eye dropped the background to the white board.

However, although I can zoom in somewhat, I get two main issues:

– Slightly different shades between drawings, although no settings were changed and camera was locked off.
– When my hand comes in to draw, the shadow creates a nasty contrast from the other segments

To solve these problems I could possibly:

– Colour correct to make sure they are similar shades enough for people not to notice
– Shoot without the softboxes and try and minimise shadow even more

BUT – even with these things, I cannot see how it will get close to the animation I put in this post.

Here are some pics for clarity. Any help, much appreciated.

Olly Lawer

[Olly Lawer]

Brilliant!

I don’t suppose you know how to have the line tail off at the end do you? i.e. as the line animates the mask, the end of the line disappears – for example, the line stays a length of only 4cms at any one time.

Olly Lawer