2 posts tagged “3d”

This is a rough test to see if it’s possible to paint out a moving object from a moving shot.

Obviously this is possible, but it is very hard as one would have to go in frame by frame and even then there would be a strange jittering where the object was. I used a different, easier and faster approach to tackle this. Using 3d motion tracking software and basic camera mapping, one can achieve the effect quite easily.

This is only the first (but usually the most important) stage of a complex visual effects shot. After one is able to remove a person, and construct a ‘clean’ plate behind him, one can do all sorts of things with the person, like having him disintegrate into particles. Again, these effects are easy with a static camera or with bluescreen/ greenscreen footage, but this shot is real; the guy (Lars) is really running at the location, and the bit where he disappears is constructed from the same shot. It is not a 3d environment or anything else like that. The moving camera is also real and ‘live’

This might be a bit technical, and the end effect as it is isn’t that great (there’s no ‘wow’ factor) but as I said, it’s only the first stage of a scala of nice effects that wouldn’t otherwise be possible, or much more expensive to achieve.

Julius Horsthuis

Been wanting to post this for a while now;
Browsing through old files I found a previz I made for the #31 commercial with the girls around the pool with the beanbags, which I was directing for Carbon. I remembered I mocked the shoot up in 3d, playing around with camera angles, editing, look & feel and music. This proved a very useful tool, giving the team, the client, the crew and the models a better feel of what we were doing when I was directing and shooting in a green screen studio. Another nice thing about the previz process was that we could use a laptop for the basic 3d and editing, so I could play with the thing everywhere I was, even on the set of the day of shooting.

In this particular case the client, Upstream Advertising, gave us one picture for the look and feel (the one featured at the end of the previz) And I could use it and follow it through, as well as sit with the client to discuss the project, obviously.

After completing the project I forgot completely about this previz, and when I found it, I was struck by the similarities that survived after so much tweaking in post and in the studio. I tweaked it to show some shots of the final commercial to show the similarities, and the preciousness of the process of pre-visualization.
Please enjoy this modified previz. Check the final commercial here.

Julius Horsthuis