[4] Special Effects questions
[4] Special Effects
[4-1] At what framerate should I shoot my film?
[4-2] How do I animate a character going through a glass window?
[4-3] How do I create explosions?
[4-4] How can I make something fly?
[4-5] Bluescreening
[4-6] Decapitation
[4-7] "The Matrix" style effects (a.k.a. bullet time)
[4-8] "Star Wars" effects
[4-9] Scrolling titles (animated credits)
[4-10] Sound effects
[4-11] Widescreen
[4-12] Frame Averaging
[4-13] CGI Animation
[4-14] Morphing and warping
[4-15] Snow
[4-16] Subtitles, side by side playback
[4-1] At what framerate should I shoot my film?
12 - 15 frames per second (fps) is genrally accepted as best. Because of persistence of vision, the brain can detect anything lower than 12 fps as less than smooth or "jerky" animation.
The higher the fps, the smoother the animation will appear, although the amount of work involved also increases; the usual maximum is 30 fps.
To help you calculate the number of frames that a certain scene should need, take a look at this Excel spreadsheet designed by mrgraff for just this purpose:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mrgraff/movies/fps_calc.xls
For non-Excel users there is also a stand alone program available for download.
FPS Frames Calculator Setup (1.8 Mb)
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/lego/fps_setup.zip
There is a manual/tutorial at:
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/lego/fpshelp.htm
----
Timing effects such as slowing or speeding up the action can be acheived by filming a particular scene at one rate and rendering the entire film at another.
Take a look at Animation Class #2 by The Bluntman http://www.geocities.com/different_wings/animationclass2.htm which is a tutorial film on the effects of using different framerates.
---
Persistance of Vison, which is optical illusion which makes animation possible, has a little more to it than the 12 FPS threshold. When you completely change from one image to the next, 12 FPS or higher is the threshold in which we perceive fluid movement. And this is the environment we basically have with computer monitors and television sets. When we change one image to the next, we are repainting a section of memory in the video display system and the image changes immediately from one to the next with no different state between images.
The environment is a little different for film projected onto a screen. The animation cells are all arranged in a series in a long strip of film, and in order to show an image projected on the screen the film has to be stopped for a moment, light is passed through the film, the light is turned off (or simply blocked) and then film moves to the next frame. This means that there is a "black" period between frames, and at 12 FPS this is noticable as an annoying flicker.
But if the black flicker is reduced by speeding up the frame rate. And as you increase the frame rate Persistance of Vision eventually kicks in and you see smooth motion again. I think it's somewhere around 20 FPS.
So when Disney makes a movie, they draw at 12 FPS which is enough to make the animation appear smooth to the human eye, and then they double it to 24 FPS by shooting two frames for each cell which takes care of the "black flicker" threshold.
Now for us, since we are using a video display system we don't have to worry about the black flicker. Technically there is a black flicker with many video display systems, especially CRT displays and TV sets, but the video display system handles that for us. If you're display is refreshing at 60 Hz and you play an animation at 12 FPS, your video display will refresh your image about 5 times per frame, so you won't even notice the black flicker.
---
[4-2] How do I animate a character going through a glass window?
Several ways have been suggested for this:
The window could be made of saran wrap, a solid piece, and when the character is jumping through, you slowly cut the saran wrap and peel it away with a razor blade.
Film the minifig going through an empty window frame and then draw in the glass shattering effects afterwards.
Using a thin sheet of ice, film the figure going through it, pulled on a track.
Cook up a batch of "sugar glass" or "break-away glass" a clear sheet of sugar. Recipe: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/9373/SCREAM/glass.html
[4-3] How do I create explosions?
Brickfilms.com does not advocate blowing your fingers off by using firecrackers to make explosions for your stop-motion animation movies. One safe way is to take some sort of a light and shine it in the camera lens causing it to over expose and makes a very real looking explosion. You can also do it by adjusting your camera settings (brightness/contrast) or in post production with your effects program.
You can also use an explosion effect such as
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smeagol/Movies/astroidexplode.avi
or
http://www.chipwork.com/ed/lego_rig_xplodeb.mpg
[4-3-1]
Although this link is actually a tutorial for making things appear, in reverse this effect could serve as an explosion:
http://www.brickz.net/movies/makingthingsappear.htm
[4-4] How can I make something fly?
There are 2 main ways of achieving a flying effect: live-action and stop-motion.
As live-action, you can literally move the object across the screen suspended by a wire or perhaps a strand of hair. If you will not be using computer effects, be sure that your wire is either so thin and white to clear in color that will not be seen on camera, or that it is able to blend in with the background. Otherwise, you will need to do some blue screening to remove the wires.
In stop-motion, the flying objects are suspended in each frame, however you must move them slightly in each frame as you animate any other things in the shot. Then, using the computer, remove the wires. See the next topic below for a blue-screening tool.
One other method is to have the flying object remain stationary, or slightly bobbing from side to side, as the background or sky effect is moving. This can be useful to show a jump to hyperdrive or warp speed type of effect. When done well, this can be very convincing.
Another trick is to place the flying object onto a sheet of glass. Shoot the object by placing the camera under the glass. This will create an illusion of floating. When using glass, be sure that you have sufficient lighting to eliminate reflections.
********
Summary of flying & jumping techniques:
(based on a post by Jason of brickfilms.com)
1. Sticking them to Plastic wrap:
Pros:
Very inexpensive.
Cons:
You must make a "frame" for the plastic wrap, and keep it tight. The plastic wrap tears, wrinkles, and smudges very easily. It's hard to plasti-taq or tape something on plastic wrap and not have it leave a mark or a wrinkle
You can't do this with anything but very small objects
2. Sticking things directly on the wall.
Pros:
Looks great - no post prod needed
East to wipe off smudges and no possbility of tearing or creases. Very easy to work with, requires no post-prod.
Cons:
Can only support smallish things (a bit bigger than plasti wrap - maybe twice as big as a minifig, depending on the surface area you can tack to the wall) Can only have things flying or jumping right next to the wall
3. Having a brick directly behind a model, built into it (i.e the way they make people "levitate" during the old levitating person magician's trick).
Pros:
No post production needed. Can support larger things, such as cars, spacecraft, etc.
Cons:
You must build some kind of "rig" if you want any kind of smooth motion. This can take time. You can generally only show one camera angle and have no rotation. You must also hide the "rig" somehow (through a wall and behind it, etc.).
4. Lifting a putting down a character by the head, or off screen.
Pros:
Super quick and easy. Can have someone "jump" or move offscreen, or fall down. Can use this for objects.
This is a SUPER useful and often used trick, even in hollywood. It can be used to show someone slam dunking a basketball (chest up only), getting knocked off camera, coming down from a jump, and many other things. They even use this in The Matrix a bit. You have to set up the shot and edit it right (cut away to another shot) in order for it to look right.
Cons:
Can only show part of the character, not the entire thing.
Have to be careful about getting your fingers/tweezer in the shot.
5. String and fishing line - suspended from above.
Pros:
Can be used to suspend very big things if you use a sturdy support from the top and multiple lines. Can be used effectively in many ways to move people and ships. Pretty much the ONLY way to move large things around (and have a shot of it from below so it is not supported on a stand).
Can also be used on small or cramped sets where you can't fit anything else on set or have nothing to plasti-tack it to.
Cons:
You have to be very careful of the wire and light or less you will have to remove them frame by frame, which can be a problem. You have to wait for the model to stop swaying if your lines are long. This can mean waiting a long time in between shots.
Unless you want your model to swing in the wind like a cattle rustler, you must use multiple lines, which can take a while to get the angle right.
6. Chromakeying/greenscreening.
Pros:
Supported by lots of software. Very useful for compositing shots (multiple things you need to show on the screen at a time). Great for things that need to move, like a starship banking.
Cons:
Can be difficult to get the color smooth and fairly even. Increasing the "similarity" can sometimes remove part of your model on screen.
Use this as a last resort if you just can't do your shot any other way. It can be very time intensive if you have to go mask every frame individually. Once you get better at the technique, however, it takes less time. This is probably one of the best methods of making things fly, but don't overlook the other methods once you start using this one. Some shots just don't require this much special effects.
**************
[4-5] Blue screening
A great tool written by one of our fellow posters here at brickfilms.com, Wandrer2 (Stephan), is specifically for the process of blue screening. It is called BSOL (Blue Screen Of Life) and is available at:
http://www.stack.nl/~stefanvz/bsol/
Follow this link for downloads and extensive documentation and illustrated tutorials.
The basic principal is this, using flying objects as an example:
1) Film the flying object, held up by standards or whatever
2) Film the scene without the object
3) Use the result of step 1 as foreground, the result of step 2 as background in BSOL. Then simply erase the
standards. The background will shine through then, and your objects will appear to fly!
More detailed instructions for more precise bluescreening and tutorials can be found at the BSOL page.
AlamDV, Axogon Composer, Adobe Premiere & Photoshop, also have blue screening capabilities.
-----
Tips for bluescreening in general:
Video (and particularly webcam-generated video) isn't the greatest footage to try and do bluescreen on for a few reasons. Since it's typically only 640 x 480, it doesn't have a lot of pixels to define the edges well. Typically, it's anti-aliased to make the picture appear smoother.
Things you can do when shooting:
- Put the bluescreen far behind the set (you'll need a lot of colored board, usually four sheets will cover a big enough area) so you don't get as much color spill or reflection.
- Put a light between the set and the bluescreen (out of frame, of course), directed onto the set. It'll light up the "rim" of the figures and should make a sharper edge.
- Shoot the set a bit dark and lighten it up later. The contrast between the bright bluescreen and the set will be greater and the edges more distinct.
- Use a color that doesn't appear at all in your set. The browns, for example, have a fair bit a red in them (depending on the light you shoot in).
- Use a true white light source on the set.
- Don't use red. I've found that CCDs don't seem well calibrated to intense reds ( high wavelength, maybe?) and that the image comes out much worse than with green or blue.
- White balance. If your camera can do this, it will help a LOT. Put a white piece of paper in front of your camera and shoot it using the light that you will be using to shoot your scene. Don't hold it too close but close enough that it fills the screen, and you may need to keep it there for a few seconds. It makes a big difference.
- Crank up the sharpness or your camera and make sure the set is in as good a focus as you can get it. You can blur it after if you need it blurry.
Things that can be done in software (and maybe could be added to the BSOL bag of tricks):
- Multiple passes. Try your most prominent color to be masked out and really crank up the color range. Then, from the leftover spill, pick out a second color but without such a large color range. You can usually work it in pretty close.
- Dropping the saturation. If you shoot with a green background, then there shouldn't be any green in the foreground set (in video, there's all kinds of color noise swirling around but you get the idea (try frame averaging)) so after you've done your color keying, drop the saturation of green way, way down which turns it either black, grey or white depending on how bright it is. It'll still look a bit funny but it won't be as distracting as an eye-burning green or blue. (Chances are that would solve the railing part of the sample image.)
- Try color range by Hue or Chroma instead of plain RGB. This is a bit advanced, but the simple version is that these are different ways of indexing color and so allow for the color range to spread out in different ways. I've had an impossible keying job made awesome but wondering what the 'Chroma' setting was.
- Edge size. Instead of contolling the selected area with only color range, adding edge size allows you to pick N pixels' width around whatever color you are keying out. Very handy to get spill without deleting colors you want in other parts of the image.
- Feathering. Like edge size, but with a graduated opacity.
[4-6] Decapitation
Apart from actually cutting and filing off the heads and/or limbs of your minifigs, this effect can be accomplished using a bluescreen.
Film your minifig (in-tact) in front of a blue background. Later, remove the limbs or head by painting over them in blue, and then insert the background scene using a tool like BSOL.
[4-7] "The Matrix" style effects (a.k.a. bullet time)
First: mount your camera on rails (there's so many LEGO trains out there, it's almost impossible that you don't have one). That will allow for more fluid motion.
1) Put the character on top of two or three blue bricks (they don't have to be blue) To avoid ruining the shadow, attach "supports" to the side of the character.
2) Take a frame
3) Without moving the camera take another frame only this time without the character and the blue bricks.
4) Move the camera (or the set? This would involve building your model on a plate that's sitting on something that rotates; such as a record player/turntable. Then mount your camera off to the side. ) a small very amount around the subject
5) Repeat 2, 3 and 4 until the desired "freeze/pause" is done
6) Split all the frames up with videomach (or something similar)
7) Open up BSOL and put the frames with the character and the bricks as the foreground and the set without the character and the bricks as the background.
8) Draw a mask over the bricks (leaving the character)
9) Select "result" from the drop down menu and..... the bricks are replaced with the background!
If you choose to move the camera and not the set, be sure to make a set with removable walls. This way your camera, regardless of size, will not damage the set. Also, the set can be of any size since the camera will not be in the way.
[4-8] "Star Wars" effects
TheForce.net website has an entire section devoted to the creation of Star Wars effects in fan films. Included are tutorials on creating lightsabers, sound effects, the opening text crawl, even tips on choreographing a saber battle. Many of the articles there can be directly adapted for stop-motion. This link is a must if you plan to make a Star Wars movie.
http://www.theforce.net/theater/tutorials.shtml
[4-9] Scrolling titles (animated credits)
A great tool written by one of our fellow posters here at brickfilms.com, Wandrer2 (Stefan), is specifically for the process of scrolling text. It is called "scroller" and is available at:
http://www.stack.nl/~stefanvz/bsol/scroller.zip
This tool will turn a static image of text, with or without graphics added, into a series of frames that scroll in any direction that you choose.
Quicktime 6 Pro from Apple ($29.99) can also create credits in many different styles, including scrolling.
See FAQ 3-5 to download Quicktime
[4-10] Sound effects
The following sites listed below are great places to download all kinds of sound clips. Nearly all of them are royalty-free and available in various file formats (mp3, wav, asf, aiff, etc.)
FindSounds
http://www.findsounds.com/
Probably the best place on the internet to get sound effects for your movies. You can search an extensive collection of user hosted sounds.
Sound Dogs
http://www.sounddogs.com/catsearch.asp?Type=1
A great place to find all kinds of sounds. An enormous selection of quality sounds, searchable by catagory, with very descriptive titles. They also offer CDs full of sound effects and royalty-free music.
SoundFX
http://www.soundfx.com/
This site links you to thousands of pages and sites offering all sorts of sound effects, music loops, and sound effect collections.
----
At your local music store, you may able to find CD's with sound effects and clips as well.
See question 3-3 "How do I add sound to my film?" elsewhere in the FAQ to find software for using these sound clips.
[4-11] Widescreen
The ratio for widescreen is 16:9.
To do a widescreen shot, it is important to plan for it. Place the upper and lower black bars on your monitor as you shoot the frames. This prevents you from making the crops later and accidentally cutting off the top of a minifig head or something else important.
To calculate widescreen: Using a resolution of "a x b" divide a by 16, multiply this answer by 9, and take that new number and subtract it from b. Then divide this result by 2, call it c. Each black bar must be "a x c" in size. Draw the bars directly on to the frames at pixel 0,0 and 0,c-b.
ie: Suppose that a normal frame is 640 x 480, this would require, 640 / 16 = 40, 40 x 9 = 360, 480 - 360 = 120, 120 / 2 = 60.
Therefore, create two black bars one at the top, one 60 pixels above the bottom, each 640 x 60. This results in a middle area of 640 x 360.
---
Why Widescreen?
Widescreen is more like the way we see the world...ie our eyes are side by side allowing for a wider viewing angle...thus widescreen filming draws the viewer into the film as it is a 'truer' representation of how we see the world.
Maybe this is why the above mentioned 'flashbacks' work well in widescreen.. does it make them seem more realistic?
Widescreen also gives the 'perception' of a wider field of view thus you can fool the viewer into thinking they are seeing more than what is there. It also allows for interesting close-ups; especially of eyes.
It has more of a range for interesting screen composition (as opposed to an almost square 4:3 ratio). This is because the extended rectangle can really change the viewing angle especially when you compare tilted shots, and horizontal to vertical pans.
[4-12] Frame Averaging
A picture taken with a cheap camera like a webcam usually has a bit of graininess or noise in the image. How much depends on the quality of the camera. Frame averaging can help get rid of it and make your image clearer and sharper.
The key to it is that the noise isn't always in the same place. If you take five pictures of the EXACT same scene (i.e. don't move the camera or the characters), a part obscured by a bit of noise in one might be clear in the other four. If you blend all five together equally, the noise will be drastically reduced or even eliminated, leaving you with one clear, sharp frame.
brickfilms.com regular Valtsu has created a piece of software called "S2L Image Averager v1.00" that will do just that:
http://www.angelfire.com/movies/still2life/averager.html
[4-13] CGI Animation
CGI stands for "Computer Generated Images" this kind of animation uses 3-D models designed entirely on the computer. Each individual frame of the animation must be created and rendered using 3-D modeling programs. This method animating is equally as valid as using real life bricks and can allow you to create scenes and effects that are simply not possible in real life (not on a hobbyist's budget anyway).
There are many programs available online, many of them free, that are designed for 3-D animation. The following are specifically meant for 3-D LEGO modeling.
CGI animation and 3-D modeling in general is an advanced topic and skill that is beyond the scope of this FAQ. The sites listed below contain great resources and help for people working with CGI.
To start, check out the following, (all free)
LDRAW: The collection of 3D LEGO element models
http://www.ldraw.org
MLCAD: LDRAW editing and model building/viewing tool
http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/">
POV-RAY: 3D modeling and scene rendering tool
http://www.povray.org
[4-14] Morphing and warping
To create the effect of one object morphing into another, or if you want to warp an object. There is a free program called WinMorph that you should try. WinMorph can also morph video images from one frame to the next. It comes with a free video editing program called 'Wax' and also has plug-ins for Vegas Video and Adobe Premiere.
See the software listings in FAQ 3 for links to WinMorph
[4-15] Snow
There have been a number of different ways suggested to create artificial snow that is realistic enough for a believable winter scene.
- White felt covered with glitter. The glitter can be secured with a glue or hairspray to keep it from shifting about between frames.
- Snow-spray, when still wet, can look a lot like real snow.
- Caster Sugar, wet, a little more realistic, and the easiest to clean up afterwards. If you want to have minifigs walking on this, this is not an easy task.Wandrer2 solved this by creating a layer of clay, and putting a thin layer of sugar on top of it. That way he could press the hollow feet into the clay, thus making them stand up. It also gives cool footprints, and these footprints make it easy to remember where your minifig has to stand in the next frame.
[4-16] Subtitles, side by side playback
Here is one way to add subtitles to your films.
This method uses Real Player files manipulated with a language called SMIL. It allows you, among other tricks, to play more than one Real Media clip in the same Real Player window. Using SMIL you can have two or more clips playing simultaneously. You can also create perfectly timed subtitles or captions to go along with your movies.
mrgraff has created two tutorials to explain how to accomplish these effects. This method is a bit advanced; be sure to follow the tutorials carefully.
Follow the following link to view the tutorials. From there you will also find a 2M zip file download with all the files that you need to follow along. You will need to have Real Player 8 or higher installed on your machine.
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/gpi/tut_menu.html
[4] Special Effects
[4-1] At what framerate should I shoot my film?
[4-2] How do I animate a character going through a glass window?
[4-3] How do I create explosions?
[4-4] How can I make something fly?
[4-5] Bluescreening
[4-6] Decapitation
[4-7] "The Matrix" style effects (a.k.a. bullet time)
[4-8] "Star Wars" effects
[4-9] Scrolling titles (animated credits)
[4-10] Sound effects
[4-11] Widescreen
[4-12] Frame Averaging
[4-13] CGI Animation
[4-14] Morphing and warping
[4-15] Snow
[4-16] Subtitles, side by side playback
[4-1] At what framerate should I shoot my film?
12 - 15 frames per second (fps) is genrally accepted as best. Because of persistence of vision, the brain can detect anything lower than 12 fps as less than smooth or "jerky" animation.
The higher the fps, the smoother the animation will appear, although the amount of work involved also increases; the usual maximum is 30 fps.
To help you calculate the number of frames that a certain scene should need, take a look at this Excel spreadsheet designed by mrgraff for just this purpose:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mrgraff/movies/fps_calc.xls
For non-Excel users there is also a stand alone program available for download.
FPS Frames Calculator Setup (1.8 Mb)
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/lego/fps_setup.zip
There is a manual/tutorial at:
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/lego/fpshelp.htm
----
Timing effects such as slowing or speeding up the action can be acheived by filming a particular scene at one rate and rendering the entire film at another.
Take a look at Animation Class #2 by The Bluntman http://www.geocities.com/different_wings/animationclass2.htm which is a tutorial film on the effects of using different framerates.
---
Persistance of Vison, which is optical illusion which makes animation possible, has a little more to it than the 12 FPS threshold. When you completely change from one image to the next, 12 FPS or higher is the threshold in which we perceive fluid movement. And this is the environment we basically have with computer monitors and television sets. When we change one image to the next, we are repainting a section of memory in the video display system and the image changes immediately from one to the next with no different state between images.
The environment is a little different for film projected onto a screen. The animation cells are all arranged in a series in a long strip of film, and in order to show an image projected on the screen the film has to be stopped for a moment, light is passed through the film, the light is turned off (or simply blocked) and then film moves to the next frame. This means that there is a "black" period between frames, and at 12 FPS this is noticable as an annoying flicker.
But if the black flicker is reduced by speeding up the frame rate. And as you increase the frame rate Persistance of Vision eventually kicks in and you see smooth motion again. I think it's somewhere around 20 FPS.
So when Disney makes a movie, they draw at 12 FPS which is enough to make the animation appear smooth to the human eye, and then they double it to 24 FPS by shooting two frames for each cell which takes care of the "black flicker" threshold.
Now for us, since we are using a video display system we don't have to worry about the black flicker. Technically there is a black flicker with many video display systems, especially CRT displays and TV sets, but the video display system handles that for us. If you're display is refreshing at 60 Hz and you play an animation at 12 FPS, your video display will refresh your image about 5 times per frame, so you won't even notice the black flicker.
---
[4-2] How do I animate a character going through a glass window?
Several ways have been suggested for this:
The window could be made of saran wrap, a solid piece, and when the character is jumping through, you slowly cut the saran wrap and peel it away with a razor blade.
Film the minifig going through an empty window frame and then draw in the glass shattering effects afterwards.
Using a thin sheet of ice, film the figure going through it, pulled on a track.
Cook up a batch of "sugar glass" or "break-away glass" a clear sheet of sugar. Recipe: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/9373/SCREAM/glass.html
[4-3] How do I create explosions?
Brickfilms.com does not advocate blowing your fingers off by using firecrackers to make explosions for your stop-motion animation movies. One safe way is to take some sort of a light and shine it in the camera lens causing it to over expose and makes a very real looking explosion. You can also do it by adjusting your camera settings (brightness/contrast) or in post production with your effects program.
You can also use an explosion effect such as
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/smeagol/Movies/astroidexplode.avi
or
http://www.chipwork.com/ed/lego_rig_xplodeb.mpg
[4-3-1]
Although this link is actually a tutorial for making things appear, in reverse this effect could serve as an explosion:
http://www.brickz.net/movies/makingthingsappear.htm
[4-4] How can I make something fly?
There are 2 main ways of achieving a flying effect: live-action and stop-motion.
As live-action, you can literally move the object across the screen suspended by a wire or perhaps a strand of hair. If you will not be using computer effects, be sure that your wire is either so thin and white to clear in color that will not be seen on camera, or that it is able to blend in with the background. Otherwise, you will need to do some blue screening to remove the wires.
In stop-motion, the flying objects are suspended in each frame, however you must move them slightly in each frame as you animate any other things in the shot. Then, using the computer, remove the wires. See the next topic below for a blue-screening tool.
One other method is to have the flying object remain stationary, or slightly bobbing from side to side, as the background or sky effect is moving. This can be useful to show a jump to hyperdrive or warp speed type of effect. When done well, this can be very convincing.
Another trick is to place the flying object onto a sheet of glass. Shoot the object by placing the camera under the glass. This will create an illusion of floating. When using glass, be sure that you have sufficient lighting to eliminate reflections.
********
Summary of flying & jumping techniques:
(based on a post by Jason of brickfilms.com)
1. Sticking them to Plastic wrap:
Pros:
Very inexpensive.
Cons:
You must make a "frame" for the plastic wrap, and keep it tight. The plastic wrap tears, wrinkles, and smudges very easily. It's hard to plasti-taq or tape something on plastic wrap and not have it leave a mark or a wrinkle
You can't do this with anything but very small objects
2. Sticking things directly on the wall.
Pros:
Looks great - no post prod needed
East to wipe off smudges and no possbility of tearing or creases. Very easy to work with, requires no post-prod.
Cons:
Can only support smallish things (a bit bigger than plasti wrap - maybe twice as big as a minifig, depending on the surface area you can tack to the wall) Can only have things flying or jumping right next to the wall
3. Having a brick directly behind a model, built into it (i.e the way they make people "levitate" during the old levitating person magician's trick).
Pros:
No post production needed. Can support larger things, such as cars, spacecraft, etc.
Cons:
You must build some kind of "rig" if you want any kind of smooth motion. This can take time. You can generally only show one camera angle and have no rotation. You must also hide the "rig" somehow (through a wall and behind it, etc.).
4. Lifting a putting down a character by the head, or off screen.
Pros:
Super quick and easy. Can have someone "jump" or move offscreen, or fall down. Can use this for objects.
This is a SUPER useful and often used trick, even in hollywood. It can be used to show someone slam dunking a basketball (chest up only), getting knocked off camera, coming down from a jump, and many other things. They even use this in The Matrix a bit. You have to set up the shot and edit it right (cut away to another shot) in order for it to look right.
Cons:
Can only show part of the character, not the entire thing.
Have to be careful about getting your fingers/tweezer in the shot.
5. String and fishing line - suspended from above.
Pros:
Can be used to suspend very big things if you use a sturdy support from the top and multiple lines. Can be used effectively in many ways to move people and ships. Pretty much the ONLY way to move large things around (and have a shot of it from below so it is not supported on a stand).
Can also be used on small or cramped sets where you can't fit anything else on set or have nothing to plasti-tack it to.
Cons:
You have to be very careful of the wire and light or less you will have to remove them frame by frame, which can be a problem. You have to wait for the model to stop swaying if your lines are long. This can mean waiting a long time in between shots.
Unless you want your model to swing in the wind like a cattle rustler, you must use multiple lines, which can take a while to get the angle right.
6. Chromakeying/greenscreening.
Pros:
Supported by lots of software. Very useful for compositing shots (multiple things you need to show on the screen at a time). Great for things that need to move, like a starship banking.
Cons:
Can be difficult to get the color smooth and fairly even. Increasing the "similarity" can sometimes remove part of your model on screen.
Use this as a last resort if you just can't do your shot any other way. It can be very time intensive if you have to go mask every frame individually. Once you get better at the technique, however, it takes less time. This is probably one of the best methods of making things fly, but don't overlook the other methods once you start using this one. Some shots just don't require this much special effects.
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[4-5] Blue screening
A great tool written by one of our fellow posters here at brickfilms.com, Wandrer2 (Stephan), is specifically for the process of blue screening. It is called BSOL (Blue Screen Of Life) and is available at:
http://www.stack.nl/~stefanvz/bsol/
Follow this link for downloads and extensive documentation and illustrated tutorials.
The basic principal is this, using flying objects as an example:
1) Film the flying object, held up by standards or whatever
2) Film the scene without the object
3) Use the result of step 1 as foreground, the result of step 2 as background in BSOL. Then simply erase the
standards. The background will shine through then, and your objects will appear to fly!
More detailed instructions for more precise bluescreening and tutorials can be found at the BSOL page.
AlamDV, Axogon Composer, Adobe Premiere & Photoshop, also have blue screening capabilities.
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Tips for bluescreening in general:
Video (and particularly webcam-generated video) isn't the greatest footage to try and do bluescreen on for a few reasons. Since it's typically only 640 x 480, it doesn't have a lot of pixels to define the edges well. Typically, it's anti-aliased to make the picture appear smoother.
Things you can do when shooting:
- Put the bluescreen far behind the set (you'll need a lot of colored board, usually four sheets will cover a big enough area) so you don't get as much color spill or reflection.
- Put a light between the set and the bluescreen (out of frame, of course), directed onto the set. It'll light up the "rim" of the figures and should make a sharper edge.
- Shoot the set a bit dark and lighten it up later. The contrast between the bright bluescreen and the set will be greater and the edges more distinct.
- Use a color that doesn't appear at all in your set. The browns, for example, have a fair bit a red in them (depending on the light you shoot in).
- Use a true white light source on the set.
- Don't use red. I've found that CCDs don't seem well calibrated to intense reds ( high wavelength, maybe?) and that the image comes out much worse than with green or blue.
- White balance. If your camera can do this, it will help a LOT. Put a white piece of paper in front of your camera and shoot it using the light that you will be using to shoot your scene. Don't hold it too close but close enough that it fills the screen, and you may need to keep it there for a few seconds. It makes a big difference.
- Crank up the sharpness or your camera and make sure the set is in as good a focus as you can get it. You can blur it after if you need it blurry.
Things that can be done in software (and maybe could be added to the BSOL bag of tricks):
- Multiple passes. Try your most prominent color to be masked out and really crank up the color range. Then, from the leftover spill, pick out a second color but without such a large color range. You can usually work it in pretty close.
- Dropping the saturation. If you shoot with a green background, then there shouldn't be any green in the foreground set (in video, there's all kinds of color noise swirling around but you get the idea (try frame averaging)) so after you've done your color keying, drop the saturation of green way, way down which turns it either black, grey or white depending on how bright it is. It'll still look a bit funny but it won't be as distracting as an eye-burning green or blue. (Chances are that would solve the railing part of the sample image.)
- Try color range by Hue or Chroma instead of plain RGB. This is a bit advanced, but the simple version is that these are different ways of indexing color and so allow for the color range to spread out in different ways. I've had an impossible keying job made awesome but wondering what the 'Chroma' setting was.
- Edge size. Instead of contolling the selected area with only color range, adding edge size allows you to pick N pixels' width around whatever color you are keying out. Very handy to get spill without deleting colors you want in other parts of the image.
- Feathering. Like edge size, but with a graduated opacity.
[4-6] Decapitation
Apart from actually cutting and filing off the heads and/or limbs of your minifigs, this effect can be accomplished using a bluescreen.
Film your minifig (in-tact) in front of a blue background. Later, remove the limbs or head by painting over them in blue, and then insert the background scene using a tool like BSOL.
[4-7] "The Matrix" style effects (a.k.a. bullet time)
First: mount your camera on rails (there's so many LEGO trains out there, it's almost impossible that you don't have one). That will allow for more fluid motion.
1) Put the character on top of two or three blue bricks (they don't have to be blue) To avoid ruining the shadow, attach "supports" to the side of the character.
2) Take a frame
3) Without moving the camera take another frame only this time without the character and the blue bricks.
4) Move the camera (or the set? This would involve building your model on a plate that's sitting on something that rotates; such as a record player/turntable. Then mount your camera off to the side. ) a small very amount around the subject
5) Repeat 2, 3 and 4 until the desired "freeze/pause" is done
6) Split all the frames up with videomach (or something similar)
7) Open up BSOL and put the frames with the character and the bricks as the foreground and the set without the character and the bricks as the background.
8) Draw a mask over the bricks (leaving the character)
9) Select "result" from the drop down menu and..... the bricks are replaced with the background!
If you choose to move the camera and not the set, be sure to make a set with removable walls. This way your camera, regardless of size, will not damage the set. Also, the set can be of any size since the camera will not be in the way.
[4-8] "Star Wars" effects
TheForce.net website has an entire section devoted to the creation of Star Wars effects in fan films. Included are tutorials on creating lightsabers, sound effects, the opening text crawl, even tips on choreographing a saber battle. Many of the articles there can be directly adapted for stop-motion. This link is a must if you plan to make a Star Wars movie.
http://www.theforce.net/theater/tutorials.shtml
[4-9] Scrolling titles (animated credits)
A great tool written by one of our fellow posters here at brickfilms.com, Wandrer2 (Stefan), is specifically for the process of scrolling text. It is called "scroller" and is available at:
http://www.stack.nl/~stefanvz/bsol/scroller.zip
This tool will turn a static image of text, with or without graphics added, into a series of frames that scroll in any direction that you choose.
Quicktime 6 Pro from Apple ($29.99) can also create credits in many different styles, including scrolling.
See FAQ 3-5 to download Quicktime
[4-10] Sound effects
The following sites listed below are great places to download all kinds of sound clips. Nearly all of them are royalty-free and available in various file formats (mp3, wav, asf, aiff, etc.)
FindSounds
http://www.findsounds.com/
Probably the best place on the internet to get sound effects for your movies. You can search an extensive collection of user hosted sounds.
Sound Dogs
http://www.sounddogs.com/catsearch.asp?Type=1
A great place to find all kinds of sounds. An enormous selection of quality sounds, searchable by catagory, with very descriptive titles. They also offer CDs full of sound effects and royalty-free music.
SoundFX
http://www.soundfx.com/
This site links you to thousands of pages and sites offering all sorts of sound effects, music loops, and sound effect collections.
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At your local music store, you may able to find CD's with sound effects and clips as well.
See question 3-3 "How do I add sound to my film?" elsewhere in the FAQ to find software for using these sound clips.
[4-11] Widescreen
The ratio for widescreen is 16:9.
To do a widescreen shot, it is important to plan for it. Place the upper and lower black bars on your monitor as you shoot the frames. This prevents you from making the crops later and accidentally cutting off the top of a minifig head or something else important.
To calculate widescreen: Using a resolution of "a x b" divide a by 16, multiply this answer by 9, and take that new number and subtract it from b. Then divide this result by 2, call it c. Each black bar must be "a x c" in size. Draw the bars directly on to the frames at pixel 0,0 and 0,c-b.
ie: Suppose that a normal frame is 640 x 480, this would require, 640 / 16 = 40, 40 x 9 = 360, 480 - 360 = 120, 120 / 2 = 60.
Therefore, create two black bars one at the top, one 60 pixels above the bottom, each 640 x 60. This results in a middle area of 640 x 360.
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Why Widescreen?
Widescreen is more like the way we see the world...ie our eyes are side by side allowing for a wider viewing angle...thus widescreen filming draws the viewer into the film as it is a 'truer' representation of how we see the world.
Maybe this is why the above mentioned 'flashbacks' work well in widescreen.. does it make them seem more realistic?
Widescreen also gives the 'perception' of a wider field of view thus you can fool the viewer into thinking they are seeing more than what is there. It also allows for interesting close-ups; especially of eyes.
It has more of a range for interesting screen composition (as opposed to an almost square 4:3 ratio). This is because the extended rectangle can really change the viewing angle especially when you compare tilted shots, and horizontal to vertical pans.
[4-12] Frame Averaging
A picture taken with a cheap camera like a webcam usually has a bit of graininess or noise in the image. How much depends on the quality of the camera. Frame averaging can help get rid of it and make your image clearer and sharper.
The key to it is that the noise isn't always in the same place. If you take five pictures of the EXACT same scene (i.e. don't move the camera or the characters), a part obscured by a bit of noise in one might be clear in the other four. If you blend all five together equally, the noise will be drastically reduced or even eliminated, leaving you with one clear, sharp frame.
brickfilms.com regular Valtsu has created a piece of software called "S2L Image Averager v1.00" that will do just that:
http://www.angelfire.com/movies/still2life/averager.html
[4-13] CGI Animation
CGI stands for "Computer Generated Images" this kind of animation uses 3-D models designed entirely on the computer. Each individual frame of the animation must be created and rendered using 3-D modeling programs. This method animating is equally as valid as using real life bricks and can allow you to create scenes and effects that are simply not possible in real life (not on a hobbyist's budget anyway).
There are many programs available online, many of them free, that are designed for 3-D animation. The following are specifically meant for 3-D LEGO modeling.
CGI animation and 3-D modeling in general is an advanced topic and skill that is beyond the scope of this FAQ. The sites listed below contain great resources and help for people working with CGI.
To start, check out the following, (all free)
LDRAW: The collection of 3D LEGO element models
http://www.ldraw.org
MLCAD: LDRAW editing and model building/viewing tool
http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/">
POV-RAY: 3D modeling and scene rendering tool
http://www.povray.org
[4-14] Morphing and warping
To create the effect of one object morphing into another, or if you want to warp an object. There is a free program called WinMorph that you should try. WinMorph can also morph video images from one frame to the next. It comes with a free video editing program called 'Wax' and also has plug-ins for Vegas Video and Adobe Premiere.
See the software listings in FAQ 3 for links to WinMorph
[4-15] Snow
There have been a number of different ways suggested to create artificial snow that is realistic enough for a believable winter scene.
- White felt covered with glitter. The glitter can be secured with a glue or hairspray to keep it from shifting about between frames.
- Snow-spray, when still wet, can look a lot like real snow.
- Caster Sugar, wet, a little more realistic, and the easiest to clean up afterwards. If you want to have minifigs walking on this, this is not an easy task.Wandrer2 solved this by creating a layer of clay, and putting a thin layer of sugar on top of it. That way he could press the hollow feet into the clay, thus making them stand up. It also gives cool footprints, and these footprints make it easy to remember where your minifig has to stand in the next frame.
[4-16] Subtitles, side by side playback
Here is one way to add subtitles to your films.
This method uses Real Player files manipulated with a language called SMIL. It allows you, among other tricks, to play more than one Real Media clip in the same Real Player window. Using SMIL you can have two or more clips playing simultaneously. You can also create perfectly timed subtitles or captions to go along with your movies.
mrgraff has created two tutorials to explain how to accomplish these effects. This method is a bit advanced; be sure to follow the tutorials carefully.
Follow the following link to view the tutorials. From there you will also find a 2M zip file download with all the files that you need to follow along. You will need to have Real Player 8 or higher installed on your machine.
http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~mrgraff/gpi/tut_menu.html
