Brandfighters.com (a company who organizes competitions for student film makers) started a competition for the brand TUC (famous from it’s cookies). The assignment was: TUC is looking for a brilliant viral video which connects to the current TUC commercial on television.

The rules were explained in the briefing from Brandfighters. After reading it carefully we started working on our assignment.

Randy and I worked 4 weeks almost full-time on this commercial. The more visual effects you put in it the more points you score. Unfortunnately our entry got rejected becouse we used guns in our video wich was nog listed in the “Not allowed in the video” rules. This was a big dissapointment for us. But we still want to show our video to you all. So we made this blog with the video and the making of. Starting from scratch to the end product. Let us know what you think of it!

Original title:        Double O Tuc
New title:             Double O Cut
Duration:             0:56 sec
Camera:             Canon HF S100
Software:            3dsmax, FumeFx, MentalRay, Photoshop, After Effects
Production time:   4 weeks

Camera Tracking:

For the Camera Tracking we used Syntheyes.



Before and After shots:

The Building shot
We had to find a way to let the actor (Ronald Huijskens) hang on a building. This would ofcourse
be way to dangerous so we used a greenscreen for this.

The Alley shot
We first wanted to have the actor being chased by rockets but we saw the garbage cans on the background and improvised by that. And add an impact from a clusterbomb/napalm kind a thing.

The Car shot
This is a very short shot in the video. But a very important element to tell the story.

The Gun shots
Added muscle flashes to this shot, some debris and impacts on the wall.
To give it a more realistic look we added reflections on the sun glasses of the actor.

Matte painting
The matte painting is created by Randy van der Weide. We replaced the flat background with an industrial one.

Pictures on set:

The pictures we made during the shooting days can be seen here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45340281@N04/

This is a neat trick I was told when I was heavily tasked with querying The Company’s main system for various data. Sometimes, I need two simultaneous sessions with the AS/400 console, but the system won’t allow it (actually, it’s a security parameter implemented by my QSECOFR). So here’s the work around so we can at least have two simultaneous sessions with the AS/400 console (green screen).

1. From any screen, press [Shift]-[Esc] keys on the keyboard simultaneously.
2. On the blue line that appears in bottom of the screen, type “1″.
3. You will be taken to a the system log-on screen, log-on as usual. You can either use your original credential or another one.
4. Voila! Your second session is in place.
5. To switch back to the first session, press [Shift]-[Esc] keys again.
6. And don’t forget the “1″.
7. You’re back!

Here’s three designs that are going to go on the merchandise at The Movie Industry stores.   You know you a Body of Art thong is exactly what you need! Check the stuff out at Cafepress and Printfection.

Today’s blog post comes from Ross Fetterman, a Tech Support Specialist III in Concord and a member of the Solution Center Staff. Enjoy!

TLi has been around a long time and so have many of our users.  Support will often know we are assisting a legacy user when the customer absolutely insists on accessing TLi via the greenscreen and grumbles at the idea of needing to start the GUI to access the Visual Mapper.  Here in support, we will often need to readily bounce from one TLi version to another in order to answer mapping questions and I recognize how it can be slightly annoying to be in a greenscreen session and then have to sign onto a brand new GUI session to start the Visual Mapper. Well, the TLi software developers must have also had the same feeling because they have created a new tool available with the TLi v6.3 Client installer called the “Visual Mapper Launcher”.

This timesaving tool allows you to easily create any number of desktop shortcuts that you can use to launch the Visual Mapper that can readily connect to any version of TLi v6.1 and higher that exists on any System i that you have access to.  This tool is great for people that have multiple versions of TLi, who have TLi on more than one server, who commonly go between Production and Test environments, or who are diehard greenscreen fans that feel angst against the GUI.

Once a desktop shortcut is created, you can easily double-click it and be in your map within seconds.  This tool also eliminates the need to always have the Seagull License Manager server running since you don’t need to go into the TLi GUI Client to launch the Visual Mapper.  This tool is valuable in support and I hope that all of our legacy and power users appreciate it as well.

Originally I planned to have set builders create a realistic “cliff set” for the actors to interact with and then do matte painted set extensions in comp. The cliff set would be arduously sculpted and painted to look like a cliff and would take a significant portion of the budget. However, the following greenscreen test proves that I can get away with using a simple “green set” for the actors to interact with. This green set would be just a plywood set painted green. It would be easier to construct and cost much less.

Here is the final result of the test:

Now let’s break it down. Why was I so afraid of having a simple green set in the first place? Take a look at the plate below. The subject is touching the screen. Which means that the subject is casting a shadow on the greenscreen and the greenscreen is bouncing light on the subject! This is basically the absolute worst case scenario for greenscreen work.

So the idea here is to extract the subject element and the shadow element and comp them over some background. The first thing I did was pull two keys: one for the lighter portion of the greenscreen and one for the shadow portion.

I color corrected the plate using Lab curves to suppress the green spill on the subject’s forehead and arm. I multiplied the two greenscreen keys together; this gave me an alpha for the subject. Then I premultiplied the color corrected plate by this alpha:

Now for the shadow. I multiplied the shadow key over the background at 90%, but it looked really flat and boring. So I decided to use an ambient occlusion pass; this was just a threshold of the darkest areas of the plate. I multiplied the ambient occlusion with the shadow and the shadow immediately came to life.

Finally, I comped the subject over the shadow. The edges were looking really crunchy so I blurred the edges masked by a contour pass (derived from the subject’s alpha).

While the final result still needs a lot of roto/paint cleanup, I’m happy with the overall look. What do you think?

]]> http://suirebit.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/small-tutorial-on-matte-painting/ Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:40:29 +0000 suirebit http://suirebit.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/small-tutorial-on-matte-painting/

Hey guys,

Since a lot of people are still wondering what a matte painter really does in a studio, I put up an overview of most basic tasks you would undertake as Junior Matte Painter: cleaning, extending, light enhancement and grading.

This article is very simple and intended for the students and guys who want to begin on this path, so everyone else please don’t take offence

I hope that in the future I will be able to put up some more advanced aspects such as cityscape and camera projection

Anyway, here’s the link

http://www.tiberius-viris.com/tut1.html

Let me know if it’s of any use!

Paul Hart and Cinematographer Eric G. Petersen checking the rig…..making the last adjustments…..

…..and finally success. Our guy is falling to his death.

Even the most rudimentary Creative Writing 101 class at the Learning Annex will instruct you that stories that end with “and it was all in his mind” are usually very, very bad. But as the new web series Coma, Period proves, a story that begins that way can be highly entertaining.

Set entirely in the white-walled subconscious of comatose accident victim Dan Humford (Rob Delaney), Coma, Period creates a surreal comic fantasy world populated by magicians, naked women, mysterious doors with bad things behind them, and candy bars. Humford wanders around his own mind, alternately bored, terrified and perplexed by what he finds there. The result, fueled by Delaney’s pitch-perfect and exuberant performance, is a satisfying blend of dark humor and goofy whimsy — a fusion often attempted in web video that’s rarely done as well as it is here.

In fact, few things in web video are done as well as they are in Coma, Period. Produced by Lead Balloon, the in-house original content arm of freelance hybrid media studio Psychic Bunny, and shot entirely on greenscreen with a Panasonic HVX200, the series shows the creative savviness and tech pedigree of writer-director Rick Castaneda and Psychic Bunny partners Doug Spice, Asa Shumskas-Tait and Jesse Vigil at every turn. And that’s really what’s noteworthy: It’s not just that Delaney’s performance is so great, or the production values are so professional or that the comedy works so well. All of those things are true, but a lot of series have good actors or funny writers or good use of greenscreen — “or” being the operative word. What Coma, Period does, delightfully, is bring “and” into the equation. It has the technical proficiency to make you believe you’re really watching a guy in an endless white room, writing that goes beyond the obvious jokes inherent to the premise, and a lead actor who’s so great at both voiceover and physical acting that you may be a couple of episodes in before you realize you haven’t seen him speak on camera.

And when you watch enough shows shot with greenscreen and post-production effects, you really appreciate it when, say, an actor’s sight line actually looks like it’s going directly to the big, tall, imaginary thing they put in after the shoot was completed.

Each episode of Coma, Period — which runs between two and four minutes long and is released every Wednesday on Strike.tv — contains two segments: an introductory teaser followed by a main story. Castaneda conceived the series as a “comic strip of a show,” and the aesthetic, with punchy visuals and a three-beat story structure reminscent of old-school comic panels, makes for a highly digestible web video format. But it’s Delaney — previously spotted online in Warner Bros. Responds to Christian Bale — who really makes the series sing with his 100 percent commitment to every emotion, dance number and alter ego that comes his way.

The team at Lead Balloon has already scored some great advance buzz, with articles at Tubefilter and Markee covering both the creative and the technical. You can even follow Dan Humford on Twitter, although there’s no guarantee as to how frequently he can tweet from within the recesses of his own mind. (Dan’s mind, by the way, is centered at Ringleader Studios.) And since the team at Lead Balloon looks shockingly like the team at Psychic Bunny, the end goal is to have the creative freedom of an independent studio while still showing off the skills and resources that Psychic Bunny can provide for hire. Which, given the quality of Coma, Period, seems like it’s going to work out just fine.

It’s as if new-media-savvy web creators who know how to produce technical quality on a shoestring and web creators with actual creative talent got together and had babies, and those babies made a web series.

In fact, it’s so good we’re almost afraid we’re going to wake up and find out we dreamed the whole thing. Uh-oh.

Follow LEAVES’ EYES, director Patric Ullaeus and the REVOLVER.SE team when they create the video for ‘My Destiny’.

Aujourd’hui c’est la rentrée, départ de l’année scolaire 2009-2010. Notre système «greenscreen» sera mis à votre service cette année.

La Boutique Photo est un nouveau service que nous offrons, il s’agit de la possibilité de commander vos photos produites par nous sur le web.

Vous désirez voir de quoi il retourne cliquez ici et entrez le code d’accès suivant : MANSCO et mot de passe : DEMO.

Familiarisez-vous, il y a de fortes chances que vous ferez bientôt vos achats photos avec ce système «La Boutique Photo» !

Prenez note que la forme imprimée demeure, «La Boutique Photo» est un complément. Sur le formulaire vous aurez le choix de six fonds, tandis que sur notre boutique photo, vous avez au-delà de 150 fonds.

Ce qui est intéressant dans ce système, c’est que vous pouvez y revenir comme bon vous semble. Et vous remarquerez que dans les décors disponibles, il y a deux fonds de Noël.

My film, Safety First: the Rise of Women! is in the Sexy International Film Festival in Australia at the end of October 2009. Inspired by Russ Meyer; 1970’s vulgar, absurd, sexy, socially satirical and happy! Enjoy the trailer!

The VJ website Video Olympic has just been updated. VJ Eggatroinx has donated 4 batches of 6 video clips designed for Vjing with Modul8. Also there are 3 batches of 3 Green Screen video clips all completely free!

Video Olympic

Source: flickr (User: kantan2007a)

Melinda Kendall wrote an interesting posting on her Event View blog titled, “Improving event flow“.  Her blog posting begins:

Run across ethnoMetrics yet?  They put 45 video cameras with 360-degree panning in the ceiling of a convention center and watch what really happens at an event.  A lot of the value comes in analyzing the behavior of attendees at individual booths…information that, if acted on, could really improve an exhibitor’s results from an event.

Melinda references a May 2009 issue of Expo that highlights optimizations and improvements made by the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) event team for their conference.  For me, the technology from ethnoMetrics is intriguing, but what most interests me is their methodology - that is, capture detailed information from an event (that otherwise would have been “lost”) and perform in-depth analysis to improve an event’s ROI.

Can an equivalent approach of analysis be applied to virtual events?  Of course – because virtual event platforms already track all activities – meaning the 360-degree panning ceiling cameras area already installed.  Today, however, most virtual event show hosts view event data in a tactical, results-based manner.  Important metrics include number of registrants/attendees, number of visits per booth, number of viewers per Webcast, number of chats, number of document downloads, etc.

And while that’s all fine and good, both the show host and virtual event platform provider might want to take a step back (once the event is done) and analyze the overall attendee experience.  I’ll call this Web Analytics for your Virtual Event.  For content and e-commerce sites, web analytics can be a very effective tool to increase page views (content site) or online purchases (e-commerce site).  So in the same way that an e-tailer may analyze “shopping cart abandonments”, a virtual event show host (and provider) may want to analyze why the average visit time to an exhibitor’s booth was only 5 minutes long.

Other analytics exercises that come to mind:

1. Greenscreen video -  did you invest a lot of time and money to have your CEO welcome visitors to your booth?  Have a look at average view time of that greenscreen unit.  Then, look at the number of return visitors who “clicked to play” to replay the greenscreen video a second time.  If you score a lot of replays, your use of greenscreen was effective.
2. Where is my traffic coming from -  or, where is it not coming from?  On the web, we frequently look at “referral URL” – for virtual events, the same need applies.  If I had 1,000 booth visits, did they come from the Exhibit Hall?  Or, did they come from a search result – or, somewhere else?  If 70% of my booth visits came from sources other than the Exhibit Hall, then I need to assess (a) the amount of traffic to the Exhibit Hall in the first place and (b) the effectiveness of my Exhibit Hall layout.
3. Biological tracking – this obviously adds to your costs, but consider pairing your web analytics with physical instrumentation – have a panel of users experience your virtual event and track eye movement, heart rate, facial expressions, etc.  If I spent 2 months creating a visually rich 3D environment, did it make an emotional impact on the user who saw it for the first time?  Are users looking at areas of the event that I want them to?  Or, are they skipping past the important areas?

The possibilities are nearly endless.  This is an important next step for the  industry – with video monitors already installed, tapping into the existing data will be a key to creating better and more effective virtual events.

Related links:

1. Event View blog
2. ethnoMetrics home page
3. Wikipedia entry on web analytics
4. NY Times article: Lab Watches Web Surfers to See Which Ads Work

There’s no shortage of reasons why the Star Wars franchise fell apart, but I think that this picture sums up the biggest reason beautifully:

We are a full-service, boutique production facility specializing in HD green screen studio production, editing and digital compositing, Aftereffects post processing, new media, webstreaming and HD broadcasting.

We offer daily and hourly “all inclusive rates” in our green screen Sound Stages in the media-savvy “Silicon Alley” section of Manhattan near Wall Street.

Our new tech center at 50 Broadway is now connected by highspeed fibre to the large ballroom Stage C, confrence center and many classroom and breakout rooms in the adjoining building. We can now do multicamera shoots and stream live or HD broadcast over satellite.

Camera & Monitor Options:

Studio A, B or C comes with Panasonic HVX-200 or new HPX–170 HD camera and operator at no additional charge.

The HVX-200 is HD/SD switchable and can shoot on P2 cards (supplied) in HD or on Mini DV tape in SD. There is no additional charge for HD.

The new HPX-170 has a slightly wider Zeiss lens and an HD SDI output. Both cameras can output composite and component. Both cameras can shoot 720p, 1080i and 1080p.

We can download P2 cards via Dual Adaptors (supplied) to your hard drive or download 720p HD video directly to your hard drive via our included Mac Pro laptop. This option is particularly useful for extended shooting with no interruptions. There is no additional charge for this service.

RedCam – designed for flexibility and functionality. Weighing in at 10 lbs, this is a streamlined package specifically designed to maximize your shooting options. Matched with a 35mm PL lens mount, it allows you to take advantage of the world’s finest optics. Modular and upgradeable, the RED ONE™ camera is a future-proof acquisition system you can build upon. RED ONE™’s modular design means you can upgrade with us as we add new features and accessories, as well as benefitting from performance improvements with each new free firmware upgrade

Sony F900 HD CineAlta camcorder, offering 2.2 million pixels per colour, HDCAM recording and switchable between multiple frame rates including 50i, 24P and 25P. .

Panasonic HVX-200 (included in studio rental) Superb HD video; a raft of frame-rate choices; supports solid-state P2 media as well as tape; terrific, relatively wide-angle lens.With its AG-HVX200, Panasonic raises the bar again, bringing us professional HD versatility and quality at a lower price than ever.

AMC Video Editing & Digital Compositing Suites

Hardware | Two Mac Pro / Final Cut Pro edit suites, WD Velociraptor 10K boot drives, 16GB RAM, 30” Apple display, 26″ BT-LH2600W Multi-Format Color Production Monitor, 60″ Panasonic Plasma client monitor, Aja Kona 3 and Blackmagic Deck Link HD video cards, Mackie HR626 reference monitors, Mackie 1402-VLZPRO mixing boards, Sony DSR-20 video deck, 3/4″ Sony Deck.

Software | Final Cut Studio 2, CS4 Production Suite, Maya, ZBrush, Mocha.

Follow Europe and director Patric Ullaeus when they create the ‘Last Look At Eden’ video.

Warner Bros. was proudly showing off their new immersive technology of their upcoming Watchmen and 300 Blu-ray releases with the films’ director gushing about it at their press conference earlier today.

I have to admit the flashy sounding tech sounds…well.. flashy, but the real killer for me was the news about the 300 sequel right out of the director’s mouth. How much more authentic and real can it get?

Check out what Snyder dished out below the cut:

Here is what Snyder dished out according to ComingSoon:

“I know for a fact that Frank [Miller] is writing right now,” says Snyder, who explains that the plan is for Miller to create the story as a comic book first, “[He's] drawing away and seems to be knee-deep in it. I think he’s going to head back to Greece again and do another reconnaissance.”

“I think we would use the same technology… I don’t want it to look too Star Wars-ian… Just from what [Miller] told me, it would be bigger as far as landscape and terrain. We’re going to see Athens and the Aegean and other places. There would be an opportunity for bigger visions, though I’d hope for the same aesthetic. The tech we used for ‘300′ was not a revolution. It’s basically what the weatherman has. Look, instead of Accuweather it’s Sparta… It’s going to be the same way, but on crazier steroids.”

Speaking of water (just in case you didn’t know the Aegean was water…), my mouth is literally watering at the prospect of seeing this stuff in 300-ish visuals. I loved the original and with Miller personally writing/drawing the sequel I am sure I will love that one as well. Just make sure to not forget about the hot, ass-kicking chick like Lena Headey and I am sold.

Are you excited about the sequel? Or do you consider the whole thing a bad idea?

ว่ากันต่อ จริงๆ ก่อนที่จะถ่ายทำเนี่ยมีหลายขั้นตอนอยู่กว่าจะได้ถ่าย แต่ข้ามมาเลยละกันเดี๋ยวจะยาวไป ถ่ายงานต้องถ่าย2ส่วนคือถ่ายตัวแสดง กับถ่ายสต๊อปโมชั่นกระดาษ

นักแสดง : ตอนวาดสตอรี่บอร์ดแอบมีอยู่ในใจแล้ว เป็นรุ่นพี่ที่คณะ ต้องขอบคุณมากๆ ที่พี่นุใจดีมาช่วย สลัดคราบเด็กสเก๊ตสุดคูลล มาเป็นมนุษย์เงินเดือนได้ พี่เค้าก็เข้ากับคาแรกเตอร์ดี แต่ก็แอบหน้าเด็กมากๆ แล้วเวลาเครียดกลับเหมือนยิ้มซะงั้น

ถ่าย+ถ่ายแก้ไปทั้งหมด 3 ครั้งง!! ครั้งแรกไม่เคยมาก่อน ผิดพลาดเยอะเลยต้องมาถ่ายแก้เอา ยังดีที่ตอนฝึกงานเคยดูพี่ๆถ่ายงานมาบ้างแต่พอทำเองแล้วย๊าก ยากก และยังดีมีเพื่อนๆ น้องๆ พี่ตั้มแล้วก็อาจารย์เอิท มาช่วยแวะเวียนกันไปขอบคุณทุกคนมากๆ

อีกส่วนนึงก็ถ่ายกันไป ให้ครบคำ = =

ติดตามต่อตอน 3

I’ve just finished filming all of the actor’s parts for my film today. After a bit of a slow start due to camera setup, it went extremely well. It was nice to work with trained actors for a change, as they already know how to respond to situations – so have been able to work pretty much as fast as I can set every scene up.

The camera (Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2) was a little dissapointing. It might have been very big and elaborate, but in my opinion had a very badly designed user interface. The lense was also limiting as I had to shoot some scenes right from the back of the studio in order to get a wide enough view of the actors. For some scenes I actually used a handycam, because their lenses cover a slightly wider area.

It was great to use something so big for a change, but now that I have – I can say I prefer the smaller Sony A1. The interface, for some reason is far more accessible. I also like to cut shots a lot and try new angles, so its good for me to be able to jump around with a small camera. One plus though, is that the Panasonic produces stunning SLR quality images. Definitely the best I’ve used, but I question whether I need such quality for my work at the moment. I’ve tried to avoid realism to a certain extent, so really – it doesn’t matter how far from crisp my images look.

Rich (Active Man - setting up actors with 3d Scenes)

I began every shot by trying to orientate the actors with my 3d scenes. In many cases this was no trouble, but in some cases I had to break the plan. This is because some of the camera angles and setups from my scenes would be impossible to cater for with the equipment I have available to me.

Adam (Lazy Man - Looking out of Window at a Monster)

An example of something I could not match up exactly is where we view Adam from a very high angle. The problem is that in 3d programs I have been unlimited to where I can position cameras – where in real life, the tripods won’t go high enough and the cameras can’t get a wide enough angle. Although very close, for scenes like this I will have to go back into Maya and reajust the virtual cameras.

Mitch (Serveyor)

Rich (sitting in his house looking out a window)

For many scenes, we would have to drop items on the floor or in this case on a table. This was to tell the actors about a boundary – here, the 3d table only reaches up to the two items either side of Rich’s arms. What was also good was Adam (bottom right), filling in for Rich’s imaginary dog, ‘Pancake’. As well as this, we used items in the studio and drawn crosses on the screen to get their eye lines correct.

Adam (lazy man running from a monster)

What was also quite challenging was capturing scenes where the actors walk or run in any direction. Luckily they were very good at running and walking on the spot.

Adam & Rich (Just built a new house)

Because of the space we had, it was difficult for the actors to appear in the same scene. However, with some consideration we managed to pull this off.

Adam (lazy man looks through his window at a monster)

Adam (lazy man shouting on the phone)

It was great to have people who can produce dialogue on the spot to a given situation. I’m not actually using the sound, but it looks far more believable this way.

Adam (lazy man is disturbed by door knock)

Important tips to help actors with their greenscreen acting.