Tutorials: Special Effects for Special Ladies.

[dale coba]

How about, when FC members design a video effect that's used successfully, they could post a gif and describe their methods in a sticky thread in this forum?



- Dale Coba

[EvangelinevonWinter]

Regarding the example shown below....we have actual done this but we have the same problem as in the gif. We used track motion and parented the circuit board but even doing that the circuit board moved, just like the example. We tried three times and each time we threw the effect out. We are still working on it and hope to get the effect down to a believable level sometime soon

[WilloWisp]

There is an achievable solution for open-panel effects which, once established, could be used by independent film producers across a wide variety of applications (not just robotic effects). What we need:

* Matchmoving software
* Someone who knows how to use it
* A CG artist who can put together a few different internal components

Matchmoving software is what film studios use to insert CG into full motion video. Some studios create their own software in-house, but a lot of them use existing software already on the market. The most popular, commercially available options are Boujou and PFTrack, but Boujou runs $5,000 to $10,000 for a single license. Compared to that, PFTrack is a bargain at $1,600, but that's still intimidatingly expensive. There's also SynthEyes, which only costs $400, but it's not as automated. You have to work harder in order to get similar results with it.

Here are some example videos using this kind of software:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUHkhQ-fl0M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5COyRjDlh_Q

The Terminator girl was done in PFTrack.

There is a free alternative: Voodoo Camera Tracker, available here. From what I've been able to gather, this works best on static models. It could handle a camera moving around a rigid object or a person sitting still, but would have more trouble tracking facial movement. This would work well for, say, an open panel in a torso, but not so well for something like the above Terminator effect.

Given the software, the rest is human talent and cost. I know we have proficient CG artists here. I know we have people who are at least passingly familiar with matchmoving software. I don't know how much either of those parties would charge for this kind of thing, though.

[dale coba]

That all seems like one tall order, WilloWisp.
We need hacks, tips, and alternatives at this budgetary scale.

That much effort could add up to a lot, if put into other projects.
(at least for now, IMO)

- Dale Coba

[WilloWisp]

That all seems like one tall order, WilloWisp.
We need hacks, tips, and alternatives at this budgetary scale.

You'd be surprised what some of us can (and have) accomplished in our spare time. Voodoo Camera Tracker might take effort to use competently, but it is capable of doing the job, and it's free. I'm not going to say "I'll do it" at this stage, but I've personally worked with more complicated, less capable software, and come out with acceptable results. If Evangeline and other custom film producers are wanting to include open panels, chances are they're only going to need a handful of frames at a time. If Evangeline were to say "One free video for every full second of rendered SFX," I don't think she'd have a problem finding someone ready, willing, and able to do the job.

Remember, these custom studios have more to offer than just money: Most of them also have a large back-catalog of interesting content. It costs them virtually nothing to grant a SFX person access to previous videos. Some studios offer subscriptions, and I could easily see someone doing SFX purely in exchange for a free subscription. Depending on their connections with other sites or studios, they might be able to offer access to other highly desirable subscription services.

Speaking for myself: Free videos and/or subscriptions would definitely be sufficient for me to throw in my meager talents, such as they are.

[dale coba]

Daunting - to anyone here without your experience.

But hey, you'd make a great contribution if you could take on the FX jobs.

- Dale Coba

[WilloWisp]

Daunting - to anyone here without your experience.

Some of us draw. Some of us manipulate photos. Some of us write. Some of us even do one or more of the above as a profession.

I daresay I'm not the most experienced person in our bunch, and based on my limited experiments with Voodoo, I'm reasonably certain I could make something that would, at a minimum, be comparable to the method depicted in the Janebot animation.

That's not to say that the Janebot animation is bad, just that they didn't necessarily use the best tools to do it.

That said, it looks like Voodoo is only free for non-commercial use. The commercial products still cost hundreds of Euros/Dollars, which means Voodoo Camera Tracker itself could only be used for the hypothetical free video.

[Nathan]

You could probably achieve the same thing using After Effects, using green screen to help with the effect and then do a tripe pass, with different layers stacked on top to get the results. The new's version of After Effects can work with a 3D program i do believe is called 4Cinema. So you can use 3 D creations rather then pictures. For more practical effect making, shoot the same scene once with the actress, once with the hand made computer broad set. :p I do know how to use it some, but it's been a while, so i don't know every new feature on it, but for what they're looking for, it should help create more believe scenes.

Tek~