Need help on a fast zoom effect..

[longboarduk]

Hi,

I wasn't really sure on which forum this should go in, so I hope this is ok..

I am looking to make a small section of a film currently being produced, where I will be going P.O.V up the middle of a river. I want to make it look like a boat is slowly travelling up it.

The shot will look like it's slowly moving along with the current, then will sort of, fast-zoom up to a different point of the river. So it will be slow, then quickly fast forward (still seeing the river) then slowly again at a different point, then fast forwards again.

I hope someone can under stand what I mean..

Could someone please tell me a way I might be able to get this effect? I have tried just moving it along normally, then changing the speed on Final Cut, but it has the buzz lines and just doesn't look that good.. I want those lines that make it look like it's zooming down cleanly..

Cheers, and any help would be very appreciated!!

 

[PaulGriffith]

"Buzz Lines"?

Time Remapping in After effects is a great way to speed and slow down back and forth several times inside the same clip. Using easy ease keyframes and stretching the arc out on them helps it go slowly.

When you say "zoom," I'm guessing you aren't talking about physically zooming the lens on your camera but seeing your footage go down the river? Or are you trying to make a zoom on a stationary camera look like it's going downriver? If it's the latter, a zoom will never look like the camera is physically moving. Scaling it up digitally will be the closest you get, but unless you're shooting 1080p or 2k and releasing in SD you won't be able to do much before it's too pixelated.

 

[longboarduk]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, it's sort of time remapping while moving the camera.. so basically camera moves then fast forwards..

Oh and the buzz lines, I mean it looks like an old TV effect.

 

[PaulGriffith]

Ok yeah, use Time Remapping in AE. It's a lot more sophisticated than the time stretch tools in standard NLE's and will look better.

If you don't have AE and don't want to buy it/learn it (it takes a while to get good), you should be able to hire this shot out for not too much.

If you don't have AE and are on a budget, you can download a 30 day full0featured Demo for free. Spend enough time at videocopilot.net doing their free tutorials and you'll nail this shot no problem.