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1 Minute of the IC2 Rough Cut

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

I'm tacking a scene with interesting effects. I just enhanced the effects for Artemis' touchdown on the planet's surface to be more god-like.

This is what I have so far:

http://vimeo.com/27130481

Password is membersonly

Any suggestions on things to do better?

In the rough cut stage, there is always room for improvement and changes as the production is being put together. It's too late when there final cut comes out. The music is royalty free stuff until later when it will be sound scored. The final sound mix will be done by an audio editing house next year.

This follows the initial intro here http://vimeo.com/26823357 with the same password.

I just shot the sky footage this past Sunday in Forest Park, where the scene that follows was filmed. My camera seems to film darker than my DPs camera. So, I did a work around.

This scene incorporates ideas I was seeking help with last year. And, Ozhair gave me useful suggestions that we worked with here.

This is the last part of the intro before the fun begins where the other characters are introduced in the heat of battle and abduction by the silver demon hunters.
 
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Looks awesome! Most of the suggestions I could think of you already mentioned (music, mixing, etc). I like the setup and can't wait to see where things go from here!
 
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Thanks for the tip.

I've been trying to build up thee second sun like the first. So far, it's not working out with Photoshop or Vegas. I'll see if I can try something else.

I'm trying too to make it appear one sun is millions of miles closer than the other. So, the intensity will be different. One sun should also be bigger than the other. That is not because of distance as much as for the 2 binary star systems in our galaxy I've looked up in Google, one star is bigger than the other by nature like Sirius A and Sirus B.

I can also shoot more footage of the sun on another day when there are no clouds and superimpose it into the frame, making one appear to be bigger than the other and play with the intensity with both lens flare and light effects.

Thanks for the input.
 
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actually, having the clouds ocassionaly obscure BOTH suns will SELL the effect more, its hard and will take some work, but it will really make a difference.

EDIT:
It occurs to me that your better off faking BOTH suns, no reason to use the real one at all, that way you can MATCH the flares etc.. just a thought
 
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The voice over, when ever I do VO outside of the studio, there are two places I'll do it. First: Outside, into the desert mountains about 10-18 miles, at night. This is only for large productions. This is because most of Reno/Sparks/Tahoe is under a huge airspace/flight paths, (a lot of it is military traffic), except I only use this for large productions because I have to call it in and describe my intent. This place is good because there is no traffic, the only wildlife is... nothing. No echo. No little sisters wanting to play team fortress two on your editing system. Second: Inside my mom's walk-in closet. The clothes absorb sound like the foam or whatever they use in a studio. In the studio I work in we use bones of interns. The walk in closet has no windows, and is INSIDE the building so no traffic or outside noise other than other people in the house. Only downside is, "Hunty, can I play TF2?! Mom won't let me download it!"
 
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I think I'll try the sun both ways:: live footage and cgi and may even end up doing a combination. It is like working with fire. Editors recommend touching up real fire with cgi for best results.

VO was recorded in a sound recording studio. The audio will be mixed next year by a post audio editing house. They cost big bucks. But, the results make it worth the money.

I will shoot more sky footage this weekend to have the footage available.
 
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The second sun, to the right, does a strange move when the video first starts up, as if orienting itself on screen, that looks wrong.

I would separate the suns more - put the second one further to the right of the frame, and make it smaller or larger. Give it a different sense of visual perspective than the other one.

Looks nice.

gelder
 
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I think I'm on the right track with the 2 suns and a moon as you can see here:

308919_2397607862187_1310719072_2869685_447243045_n.jpg


The moon appears and vanishes according to the movement of the 2 suns.
 
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Ehh, it's off. It's not flaring, and if one sun flares the other should. Plus the transfer mode is leaving a dark rim around the outside. Try setting it to Add or Screen or similar. Overlay might do the trick, maybe.

Try using this one man. It's a 5 minute photoshop job but it should match a little better. Set it to screen or Add and the black BG will disappear. I made it a bit more orange like you were talking about before. It's still not going to match because the flare won't move, but it'll be closer.

EDIT: Whoops, it's in a squished DV pixel aspect ratio. If you squish it horizontally a tad it'll be round again.
 

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PaulGriffith said:
Ehh, it's off. It's not flaring, and if one sun flares the other should. Plus the transfer mode is leaving a dark rim around the outside. Try setting it to Add or Screen or similar. Overlay might do the trick, maybe.

Try using this one man. It's a 5 minute photoshop job but it should match a little better. Set it to screen or Add and the black BG will disappear. I made it a bit more orange like you were talking about before. It's still not going to match because the flare won't move, but it'll be closer.

EDIT: Whoops, it's in a squished DV pixel aspect ratio. If you squish it horizontally a tad it'll be round again.
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul.
 
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Thanks for the articles, Steve.

Yahoo news just this past week had an article about the discovery of a super Earth-like planet 10 times larger than Earth, but it has land masses and bodies of running water. The planet is in another star system in our galaxy.
 
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On the "Artemis arrives" sequence:
Ball coming down should change in scale as it angles toward or away from the camera to make it more dynamic. It currently seems just like a fuzzy white circle and doesn't fit into the shot too well. Not sure what software you have access to for FX, but a particles generator should be able to make not only a more realistic glowing orb with some energy to it, but allow you to blend it into the scene more realistically... perhaps some reactive lighting as it's coming down on the scene as well:

Some examples to spark some possibilities -
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_light_casting/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/energy/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/realistic_gun_blow_back/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/disintegration/

I know it's rough at this point, but the harp transition sound effect seems a bit comical and I don't think that's what you're going for. The VO seems to have a bit much echo on it for the visuals as well, you could perhaps crank that down for a more foresty sound, or show us the environment from which the dialog is being delivered to contextualize the echo.

Pacing wise, I think the shot with the body in the foreground waits a bit to long with no camera motion before Artemis enters frame.

In the second piece, the composites don't seem to move in concert with the foreground motion. Tracking software is relatively accessible for match moving footage. The live action foregrounds and stylized backgrounds feel too far removed for me to fully invest in the unreality of it, perhaps a CC later down the pipeline will get them into the same "Space" for me. They also don't cast shadows on the floor at all which feels weird.

The edges of the composite seem a bit hard and could be softened slightly as well (or perhaps it needs some light wrap from the background around the edges to bring them together).

Can't wait to see how this comes together.
 
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knightly said:
On the "Artemis arrives" sequence:
Ball coming down should change in scale as it angles toward or away from the camera to make it more dynamic. It currently seems just like a fuzzy white circle and doesn't fit into the shot too well. Not sure what software you have access to for FX, but a particles generator should be able to make not only a more realistic glowing orb with some energy to it, but allow you to blend it into the scene more realistically... perhaps some reactive lighting as it's coming down on the scene as well:

Some examples to spark some possibilities -
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_light_casting/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/energy/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/realistic_gun_blow_back/
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/disintegration/

I know it's rough at this point, but the harp transition sound effect seems a bit comical and I don't think that's what you're going for. The VO seems to have a bit much echo on it for the visuals as well, you could perhaps crank that down for a more foresty sound, or show us the environment from which the dialog is being delivered to contextualize the echo.

Pacing wise, I think the shot with the body in the foreground waits a bit to long with no camera motion before Artemis enters frame.

In the second piece, the composites don't seem to move in concert with the foreground motion. Tracking software is relatively accessible for match moving footage. The live action foregrounds and stylized backgrounds feel too far removed for me to fully invest in the unreality of it, perhaps a CC later down the pipeline will get them into the same "Space" for me. They also don't cast shadows on the floor at all which feels weird.

The edges of the composite seem a bit hard and could be softened slightly as well (or perhaps it needs some light wrap from the background around the edges to bring them together).

Can't wait to see how this comes together.
Click to expand...


Thanks Knightly.

I am short on cash right now.

I have

Video Co-Pilot
A Science Fiction Effects Pack from Tapetube, which includes laser fire and explosions.
Background Generator from NewBlueFX.com
NASA HD Outer Space video of star systems and Space on DVD

Just to name 4 packs on my wish list when I get money together later to enhance the effects in the rough cut over the next few months.

Thank you for the suggestions.
 
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Sony Vegas Pro 8.

I'm debating whether or not to get Magic Bullet for Vegas Pro because I'm leaning towards getting someone to help me out with color correction and they may have their own software. This is a production that is critical to get everything as perfect as possible because we want to make a great presentation at NATPE.

I know we are not using material with a pre-existing fan base to build wquity with investors, but this is made like classical science fiction with a story with social value where there is tension between humans and AI machines as humans fear the machines are taking their jobs away and the coming of The Singularity on the planet, Delta Four. Unlike Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Terminator, the machines are individual thinkers and there will be humans and cyborgs with other AI machines on both Ares and Artemism sides of a civil war for the rights of AI machines on this planet in IC3. The difference is Ares gets stronger with carnage, so he wants the cyborgs on his side to wipe out all living things. Artemis is being represented from her pre-Greek civilization roots as the goddess of the Amazons who is an infinite source of life giving energy. So, her side is looking for peace between humans and machines.
 
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