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watch Special Effects Test, need advice/constructive criticism!

Micah Conrad

Micah Conrad

Hey all, I found this forum while trying to find a place where I could post some of my videos to get critique and advice.

Lately I have been messing around with Adobe After Effects as I want to make some short action comedy videos in the near future. Below was my first attempt with the software. ANY comments would be much appreciated. Even if you don't personally own or use the software, a simple comment on if you feel the effects looked real enough would be great.

Thanks a lot and hope to get to know some of you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1q7LzS7YPc
 
Look good man. I'd say the interactive light effect at the point where you fire the gun pointing up should be less bright. Smoke I think should be just a smudge darker but just a smudge. Other than that looks good dude :)
 
The flashes and smokes were done very well. You should practice tracking the blood on the bullet entry a bit but that's normally done in the scene anyways.

Also, did you add the sound in post, or was there sound from the gun in the video? Because it was actually really good.
 
Bit of a personal pet peeve, a revolver is usually significantly louder and more distinct than an autoloader, but that's not the scope of the experiment.

About the effects, though. The shots into the room looked functional enough, certainly passable. The shot above looked a bit off, I think leetv's right on dialing back on the brightness, just lower that layer's opacity a bit. A bit of debris/dust coming down from the whole you would have just shot into the ceiling above you would have been nice as well.

As far as the shot to the chest is concerned, it worked decently, but could use some work. Firstly it was too dark, it was nearly as dark as the lcd or the black leather chair in back. wash it out a bit with the levels effect. The track was pretty decent, but fell off a bit near the end, probably starting when you lost a tracking point. The REALLY damning part of that effect, though...No motion blur. When you're falling over, pause the video for a second. You are a white and orange blur, but the wound on your chest is perfectly clear. If the motion blur toggle is already on, then you'll need to force it a bit more (CC Force Motion Blur), perhaps even consider keyframing a directional blur if it comes to it.

Other than that, you've got a pretty solid set of effects to my eye.
 
Thanks for the feedback! Yes I actually did add the sound in post but I recorded the gun shot from an actual gun so that probably helped.
Vihtic said:
The flashes and smokes were done very well. You should practice tracking the blood on the bullet entry a bit but that's normally done in the scene anyways.

Also, did you add the sound in post, or was there sound from the gun in the video? Because it was actually really good.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the feedback!! I will definitely see how that looks next time!
leetv said:
Look good man. I'd say the interactive light effect at the point where you fire the gun pointing up should be less bright. Smoke I think should be just a smudge darker but just a smudge. Other than that looks good dude :)
Click to expand...
 
Wow awesome stuff here, thanks it all made perfect sense. I knew there was something about the bullet hole that didn't look right and now that I think about it, the color and blur was definitely the problem (and the tracking too, still have to learn all that)

Thanks a lot for the detailed advice, really helped.

Caidh Mor said:
Bit of a personal pet peeve, a revolver is usually significantly louder and more distinct than an autoloader, but that's not the scope of the experiment.

About the effects, though. The shots into the room looked functional enough, certainly passable. The shot above looked a bit off, I think leetv's right on dialing back on the brightness, just lower that layer's opacity a bit. A bit of debris/dust coming down from the whole you would have just shot into the ceiling above you would have been nice as well.

As far as the shot to the chest is concerned, it worked decently, but could use some work. Firstly it was too dark, it was nearly as dark as the lcd or the black leather chair in back. wash it out a bit with the levels effect. The track was pretty decent, but fell off a bit near the end, probably starting when you lost a tracking point. The REALLY damning part of that effect, though...No motion blur. When you're falling over, pause the video for a second. You are a white and orange blur, but the wound on your chest is perfectly clear. If the motion blur toggle is already on, then you'll need to force it a bit more (CC Force Motion Blur), perhaps even consider keyframing a directional blur if it comes to it.

Other than that, you've got a pretty solid set of effects to my eye.
Click to expand...
 
Oh and I agree with the sound of the revolver. For one the gunshot wasn't from an actual revolver, and two I have to learn more on tweaking the audio levels properly. For future projects I will most likely be matching the correct gun shots with the appropriate guns if I have access to recording them.
Caidh Mor said:
Bit of a personal pet peeve, a revolver is usually significantly louder and more distinct than an autoloader, but that's not the scope of the experiment.

About the effects, though. The shots into the room looked functional enough, certainly passable. The shot above looked a bit off, I think leetv's right on dialing back on the brightness, just lower that layer's opacity a bit. A bit of debris/dust coming down from the whole you would have just shot into the ceiling above you would have been nice as well.

As far as the shot to the chest is concerned, it worked decently, but could use some work. Firstly it was too dark, it was nearly as dark as the lcd or the black leather chair in back. wash it out a bit with the levels effect. The track was pretty decent, but fell off a bit near the end, probably starting when you lost a tracking point. The REALLY damning part of that effect, though...No motion blur. When you're falling over, pause the video for a second. You are a white and orange blur, but the wound on your chest is perfectly clear. If the motion blur toggle is already on, then you'll need to force it a bit more (CC Force Motion Blur), perhaps even consider keyframing a directional blur if it comes to it.

Other than that, you've got a pretty solid set of effects to my eye.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah I agree. Was trying to make it so the splatter would spray directly behind him but was trying to figure out how I'd do that....hopefully will figure it out soon!

P.S. Does anyone know actually a tutorial on the splatter coming from behind a person (not spraying to the side)?
Duckforceone said:
looks really good...

add a fixed blood splatter on the wall/white surface behind him, and you are golden... :D
Click to expand...
 
You could probably use some sort of stock paint splatter effect, or set up a camera and some lights and film one yourself.

If you would set up a camera a small distance away from a white board, and simulated a gore splatter effect, you could then apply a luma matte, key out the white, and composite the remains into your scene, rotoing it in as it's revealed.
 
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