Steadycam

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sbtamu
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Steadycam

Post by sbtamu »

A few months ago I made my 1st animation for payment. It was a tall thin guy pointing at ads for a local mom and pop garden center. I was paid close to 650 USD total for the work. Now a Local exterminator company wants me to make them a commercial.

I can do most of what they want but there is one part I do not think I can do. They want to film them going through a barn and spaying it while the mice/rats run away. That's easy to do with masking around hay and straw etc. but if I do not hold the camera perfect it will be a nightmare trying to add the mice/rats in post.

My question is, is there a way to do this cheap or do I need to just man up and do frame by frame layer translation by hand? Or should I rent a Steadycam? Would a Steadycam be a solution? How do you guys/gals Add additional animations to a existing film like this?

Thanks for any help.

Stephen.
Sorry for bad animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/sbtamu
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funksmaname
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Post by funksmaname »

i believe this is what the video tracking feature is for - it will lock your animation to a wobbly frame. In practice though i've not used it in AS, you should try and just find some wobbly footage online and experiment with it to see what you can do... you shouldn't have to manually track the animation to the shot, that would probably be impossible...

a steady cam might help reduce the wobble but you could just plan to do a series of locked shots (on a tripod) and add animation to those?
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

I have thought hard about just using a tripod but I thought that might make it look less "real" but I think that's what I will do. This isn't a Martin Scorsese film any ways. It looks like I might have to buy some better equipment if I get any more paying jobs...

The 1st thing I need to buy is HD camera. I have all the lights and rigs but I never had enough cash to buy a nice camera. Just last week we bought a real green screen and we finally took down the green table cloth that's been hanging on the wall for 3 years.
Sorry for bad animation

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funksmaname
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Post by funksmaname »

I think the hardest thing is to get some interesting angles and match the camera perspective - but experiement with wobbly camera tracking in this downtime, you might hit a cool technique you can use.
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GCharb
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Post by GCharb »

Steadycam merlin is what you need for pro jobs stability with camcorder.

Just checked and they are 850$ (have an old steadycam jr here)

No idea about renting those.

There are some prosumer camcorders that have pretty good stability options, but nothing as good as a steadycam.

As funkmyname mentioned, the tracking in ASP is not that bad from the tests I made, if not, maybe the tracking in external software like after fx, with the camera export plug-in, just a thought!
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

GCharb wrote:Steadycam merlin is what you need for pro jobs stability with camcorder.

Just checked and they are 850$ (have an old steadycam jr here)

No idea about renting those.

There are some prosumer camcorders that have pretty good stability options, but nothing as good as a steadycam.

As funkmyname mentioned, the tracking in ASP is not that bad from the tests I made, if not, maybe the tracking in external software like after fx, with the camera export plug-in, just a thought!
I have Sony Vegas 9 pro, 600 bucks, If I ask the old lady if I can buy FX I might be a single guy again (hopes) jk.

I think I have talked the guy into making the commercial a cartoon. I'll let you guys know in a few weeks.
Sorry for bad animation

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Maestral
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Post by Maestral »

Not that I would like to encourage you to loneliness ,) but perhaps watching this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCE_BzIWSqo would give you heads-up on possibilities under AE.
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slowtiger
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Post by slowtiger »

If you can't afford to rent professional equipment (and the people handling it), don't expect completely professional results. However, much can be done with "redneck rigging".

A Steadycam is just a system of levers, a pendulum with a weight, and some dampers. Try this: run through your corridor with your camera filming. Looks bad, right?
2nd try: this time hold the camera on your outstretched arm. Better, if only a bit.
3rd try: mount a tripod on your camera, but still hold it right under the camera on your outstretched arm. Should be visibly better, because the tripod acts as couterweight to the camera and keeps it orientated horizontally. Sometimes this is good enough for a short shot if you're walking, not running.
Everything else the steadycam has is just a harness for the operator so the weight lasts on his shoulders, not on his arm, and dampers everywhere.

But I'm afraid that you'll have even greater trouble to set the lighting in the barn accordingly ...
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

you can do a lot with multiple static shots and fast cuts between.

e.g. for about 2-3 secs
ELS barn
LS exterminator move to place X
CU mice at place X
ECU mice scatter as nozzle arrives
CU / tracking shot exterminator look for next place (place Y)..

If you want to get adventurous ... LS zoom to CU at place Y Select a very clear "start" and "end" framing. (e.g. "that" haybale is top left corner at start ...) Shoot twice. (if your cam has selectable "fixed rate zoom" that makes life so much easier). First shot as is; seond with chromakey-able shape(s) where to mice will be to help alignment... then three layers to composite: chromakeyed-out; animation; fill-in.

You can also use compositor to simulate Zoom and Pan - but within limits to preserve reasonable resolution. (e.g. if your cam is HD and you're shooting for SD TV, set your output format to be SD TV and use input unscaled. That way you have an input canvas that is much bigger than output and so can pan around inside the input canvas without loss of quality. Same for AS if necessary - make your output canvas as big as it needs to be so that you don't need to use the compositor to enlarge.

And / or consider a mix of movie and stills camera (stills usually are far higher resolution than movie so you can software Zoom and Pan easily). e.g. travelling matte / soft-edge key out part of the movie and use the still either in AS or in compositor as the background for the anmiated action.

oh - and a ST says -- lighting!!! shadows and light / colour quality... some mismatches can be tweaked out in a good compositor but don't rely on it to fix big probs such as shot 1 in full sun and shot 2 in full shade ..
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

Thanks every one for the tips every one.

This is for local cable access and some of the commercials on there or way worse than the last one I did.

I will be testing my camera on a tripod and walk through the house while my kids drag a white ball on a string around and see how well I can track it.

As far as lighting goes, I have everything I need. We have bought many lights and rigs for my nephews band over the past few years.

I really do need a better camera though and I see no way I can do this with the existing DVD HQ camera I am using now. Later today we will window shop for a HD camera. I am sure I can budget at least $500 for a new camera and maybe $1k if we wait a few months to buy a new camera.

I live in a very small community and most of the commercials on the local cable channel are done by people like me or even shot by the owner of the business. Most are about flee markets, garage sells, local events, high school sports shot from the bleachers, farmers selling produce, stuff like that.
Sorry for bad animation

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2ner
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Post by 2ner »

Tracking in AE is good, I've done some of that. I don't know how useful ASP tracking is. Maybe you could talk them into letting you cartoonify them and do the whole thing in ASP vector layers. Or make Jib Jab puppets of them, that's always funny.
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funksmaname
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Post by funksmaname »

ive seen tutorials on videocopilot where they steady the camera to a locked shot, then add effects (since its not moveing) then apply the movement back over the entire composit... looked great.

You might also look into this 'poor mans steadycam': http://www.baekdal.com/notes/steadycam

you could also do what 2ner suggested - look at selgins recent animations using photography for faces - i think they work great!
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

Thanks for all the tips guys, I am really looking at all these links and looking at my options.

I tried the built in video tracking in AS7 and I can not seem to get it to work. I am guessing my test video is to grainy and not enough contrast.

I also went window shopping for a HD video camera and they are not as expensive as I thought they would be. I will visit some pawn shops tomorrow and see if I can get a deal.

Thanks again every one.

Stephen
Sorry for bad animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/sbtamu
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Mikdog
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Post by Mikdog »

How many seconds is the barn shot for?

Sometimes you'll do a whole bunch of prep etc and then realize the shot is only like, 25 frames long or something, in which case you may just be able to do manual tracking to the live action instead of trying too hard to get the computer to figure it out.
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

The shot, at most, is going to be 7-10 seconds. The commercial is 15 seconds long.
Sorry for bad animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/sbtamu
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