“Using the Audio Waveform plug-in I’ve built several comps with interesting looks, including many with 3D space. I linked some of the waveform settings to a control layer to offset multiple copies. You can swap out your own audio and make changes to the control layer.
“If you want to make some more serious changes, delete all of the copies except for one. Then make changes to the settings and then duplicate it a dozen times or so.”
“In a recent tutorial Animating a Still, we used tracking data from a real hand-held camera to give our still image a natural look, as opposed to using a mathematical expression like the wiggle. This gave our footage a natural organic look that would be difficult to achieve with expressions.
“Then I thought I would try a similar experiment utilizing a real optical rack focus.”
Blog Show: Making of Payment Plan
“Check out the new Blog Show featuring the most in-depth behind the scenes footage for our recent short ‘Payment Plan’.”
“OK, we have a cool tutorial in the works and some fascinating behind the scenes action based on our recent short movie but after that I want to explore Stereo 3D production. I’ve been collaborating with an amazing team of stereo experts and got a chance to talk to some pros handling the stereo workflow on the upcoming film Tron and it’s been a fascinating journey. In 3D!!”
“In this tutorial inject life into a still image by creating a 3d-looking camera movement and animate the movement of the smoke. We will also add realistic camera jitter and simulate a rack focus with dirt on the lens.
“This tutorial was based on this recent test video that everyone seemed interested in so I put together this tutorial with all of my findings. Enjoy!”
Chrono Trigger, Cool Scene with Action!
“Here’s a great action scene by a talented filmmaker I found on youtube. The fx are cool and the action is well designed. Gotta love his style and sense of humor too. Enjoy!
“And ya, I’m pretty sure he used Video Copilot’s Action Essentials 2 for a lot of the bullet hits and muzzle flashes but I must give the credit to the filmmakers for great compositing and integration.”
Freebie Friday: Free 12-Guage Shell
“Good news Thursday May 20th is my 4-year anniversary to my sweet wife so in celebration we’re giving away a free shotgun shell clip. No, we didn’t have a ‘shotgun-wedding’ but we do shoot some of the extra toaster overs.”
“One thing that we did for our recent short was integrated footage shot with the Canon 7D and the Red camera. The Red footage was processed ‘flat’ so the image was not crushed until the final color treatment was established. The 7D footage however was setup at the default settings so there was already more contrast and a nice tone. There are some interesting tips for setting up your 7D with a flat look for those interested to get more color range out of the compressed footage.”
Cool Sci-Fi Short Film: The Raven - 720 HD
“You know what I like more than a Sci-Fi short film?
“One that uses Optical Flares & Action Essentials 2! Well, now that I have exploited the filmmakers to plug some of our sweet products, I WOULD like to say that this short, not only has some great effects and visuals but it also zings some of my favorite movies.
“I really liked the locations and atmosphere of the futuristic world. You can really see the hard work and passion that went into this, plus they pulled it off for only 5K bucks. And now I’m sharing it with everyone here on Video Copilot!”
“In this exciting new tutorial we will be keying, tracking, roto-scoping, exporting, integrating, color correcting and a lot more. This 47 minutes tutorial starts out in After Effects and covers generating the 3D building in 3D Max & Cinema 4D. No match-moving or 3D tracking required everything is done with the 2D tracker in AE. I’ve even included the 3D building for everyone to use.”
