I finally learned ...

[Cereval]

... how to do muzzle flashes. :o

3916943958050933966

No big feat I know. But I'd been pretty lazy about teaching myself. As trivial as it may seem though, I'm going to put it to good use in Deadscapes II ... :evil:

[Danny]

i think the flash was a bit too big in the outdoors area, maybe you should have taken the sunlight into account, btu hey mroe power to ya for learnin' how :thumbsup:

as for the bllod splatter, noooiiyce!:cool:

[MinionZombie]

Must be the contrast on my monitor, but I couldn't make out the outdoor one, but the indoor one was cool, well played Clerk. :):cool:

[Cereval]

i think the flash was a bit too big in the outdoors area, maybe you should have taken the sunlight into account, btu hey mroe power to ya for learnin' how :thumbsup:

The above is after a solid 10 minutes of learning ... I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. ;)

[DjfunkmasterG]

Doing Muzzle flash is easy it takes 30 minutes of learning 60 minutes of doing.

[PJoseph]

those are pretty cool. Did you build those elements yourself? There are few ones online that are free light based full rez files (you just screen composite them and they work pretty well).

There's also a guy, for about $60, sells a whole library of flashes, explosions, blood hits, walls hits - you can mix and match and they are royalty free. I found them to be quick and easy as well. Sometimes having to build them for different angles can be a pain. These are actually keyable gun flares.

pJ

[DjfunkmasterG]

Cereval, work on your flashes a bit. They don't really jive with your color correction, and look a little too digital and phony.

Are you using after effects? if so google After Effects muzzle flash tutorial. There are some great ones out there.

[Cereval]

those are pretty cool. Did you build those elements yourself? There are few ones online that are free light based full rez files (you just screen composite them and they work pretty well).

There's also a guy, for about $60, sells a whole library of flashes, explosions, blood hits, walls hits - you can mix and match and they are royalty free. I found them to be quick and easy as well. Sometimes having to build them for different angles can be a pain. These are actually keyable gun flares.

pJ

I found some free resources online - stock elements and such. Do you have a a link for this particular guy?


Cereval, work on your flashes a bit. They don't really jive with your color correction, and look a little too digital and phony.

Thankee-sai, but I wasn't so much looking for critique, as I assumed you might give. As mentioned this was a random rendering I did after a few minutes of playing with it. No color correction, no tweaking. Just sharing the discovery is all.

[Dawg]

I've found of course that muzzle flashes and explosions get 'drowned' out in heavy background lighted scenes/ outdoor daytime sky scenes.

They work the best in dark places and one good thing I saw in a video once was this guy firing a 'machinegun' and someone off camera used a flashlight to light up his face at a certain rate, so when the muzzle flashes were placed in there post-filming, it really appeared he was firing a real weapon.

Cereval, I used a program from England that cost $100 and you could download user-created plug-in effects to use with it. I have the older version and it was called: Alam DV.

You could even make your own effects.

My question is this: Since digitial blood sucks balls, can one film a real 'simulated' blood splatter against green screen to use in shots?

And... how can you simulate the revolving (blurred) blades of a helicopter to add in layers upon your composite shot?

:dead: Dawg

[Cereval]

Cereval, I used a program from England that cost $100 and you could download user-created plug-in effects to use with it. I have the older version and it was called: Alam DV.

You could even make your own effects.

My question is this: Since digitial blood sucks balls, can one film a real 'simulated' blood splatter against green screen to use in shots?

And... how can you simulate the revolving (blurred) blades of a helicopter to add in layers upon your composite shot?

:dead: Dawg

You told me about Alam DV back in the day! I think I even tried it out. I'm probably going to explore the gamut of stuff out there but I'm likely to stick with something Adobe since I'm grounded in Premiere.

As for the green screen thing, we see this technique constantly. Compositing and such is really awesome when done right. Having never done it myself, I'd guess that you'd have to crunch down on the proper angles and distance to make sure it layers right. Same with simulating helicopter blades, although laying in blades might be less intensive. If you pull any of these off - share the wealth and let us know! :)

[Dawg]

You told me about Alam DV back in the day! I think I even tried it out. I'm probably going to explore the gamut of stuff out there but I'm likely to stick with something Adobe since I'm grounded in Premiere.

As for the green screen thing, we see this technique constantly. Compositing and such is really awesome when done right. Having never done it myself, I'd guess that you'd have to crunch down on the proper angles and distance to make sure it layers right. Same with simulating helicopter blades, although laying in blades might be less intensive. If you pull any of these off - share the wealth and let us know! :)

Will do! I wanted to make a page on my site about my experiences in making movies and how I went about it, but never got around to do it yet.

Man, I used Adobe Premiere Pro on the last film, but it kept crashing all the time and didn't feel I should pay $150 for a f**king upgrade to fix the bugs that they made in the first place.

I have Sony Vegas right now, but haven't really tried it yet.

:dead: Dawg

[EvilBread]

The first blood composite that springs to mind in a film is from Shaun of the Dead in which they did it for when Shaun pushes the zombie in his back garden onto the washing line pole.

[Cereval]

Will do! I wanted to make a page on my site about my experiences in making movies and how I went about it, but never got around to do it yet.

Man, I used Adobe Premiere Pro on the last film, but it kept crashing all the time and didn't feel I should pay $150 for a f**king upgrade to fix the bugs that they made in the first place.

I have Sony Vegas right now, but haven't really tried it yet.

:dead: Dawg

Keep us posted if you ever get it up and running.

I recently got Adobe Premiere Pro but might need some time before I get used to it ... I'm very comfortable and attached to 6.0 as I've been using it for half a decade now. The same thing goes for Vegas with me, it'll take some time before I use anything permanently besides Premiere.

[EvilBread]

I have used Premier Pro 1.5 and 2.0 for over a year now (can't wait for CS3) and find it overall far superior than 6.0 and 6.5 (But then it should be since its Pro :P )

My only gripe with it however is that you can't rubberband the audio as easilly as you could in 6.5 which is a bit annoying.

[Cereval]

I have used Premier Pro 1.5 and 2.0 for over a year now (can't wait for CS3) and find it overall far superior than 6.0 and 6.5 (But then it should be since its Pro :P )

My only gripe with it however is that you can't rubberband the audio as easilly as you could in 6.5 which is a bit annoying.

That's what I noticed right away! In fact, that kinda turned me off from using it right of the bat. I like a lot of the other features though. It is a helluva lot more efficient than 6.0 - I especially like the integrated DVD burning function. Do you know how to switch the workspace to A/B editing? That kinda bugged me too ... I like seeing the juxtaposition of my A and B tracks with the transitions.

I just got it and haven't played around with it that much yet, so forgive me if this was a stupid question.

[EvilBread]

Premier Pro doesn't do A/B editing I believe , but their single track workspace works just as well after a while. :S

Although having a quick look on the internet now it might be available in the effects controls tab. :)

[PJoseph]

Dawg,

Regarding shooting blood against green screens and compositing it in - yes. There are already several companies that provide royalty free blood splatters that already come keyable right into whatever software you use. They are high resolution and you can resize them, move them around, color correct them - whatever you need. They are not bad. I've used them for gags on TV shows. Just do a search and you'll find them.

pJ

[Cereval]

Premier Pro doesn't do A/B editing I believe , but their single track workspace works just as well after a while. :S

Although having a quick look on the internet now it might be available in the effects controls tab. :)

That kinda sucks for me ... but I'll look into the effects tab idea - thanks. For some reason it really bothers me that I can't do A/B, but I'll probably end up adapting in the end if I can't find a solution.

[Danny]

Dawg,

Regarding shooting blood against green screens and compositing it in - yes. There are already several companies that provide royalty free blood splatters that already come keyable right into whatever software you use. They are high resolution and you can resize them, move them around, color correct them - whatever you need. They are not bad. I've used them for gags on TV shows. Just do a search and you'll find them.

pJ


but do you prefer that quick adn simple way or the good old exploding blood pack method?

[PJoseph]

Hellsing,

That's a great question. I would love to do as much pratical effects as possible - blowing up live hits is always good because the actor can react to them and you have some damage that you don't have to recreate digitally. However, you don't have much control and sometimes you don't have the time to set and rig.

It's good to use some live effects and then mix in some composited effects later and you can really make it look sweet. I first used the digital blood hits on Hollywood Vigilante (it's posted somewhere below) and as you can see, it looks pretty phony. The biggest reason is that I didn't factor in the residual mess that would be left behind (and I've worked with squibs before, so I should have known better) - hence I tried to cut out sooner, but it wasn't really great. Overall, the effect was well designed, but my execution was pretty lame - it was the first time I had used it and I was experimenting.

Now, on the Stunt Awards gag (also posted below), I had a little Kill Bill joke I directed with Zoe Bell. I hadn't actually thought about adding the blood splatter while shooting it - it was only AFTER I cut the piece that I thought "hey, a blood splatter would be funny and sell the whole Kill Bill idea", so we added that. It was two parts - one part the blood squirt which then resolved to another effect which was the blood smear on the camera lens. Once I color corrected it, added the sound effect, it was good. In that case, doing something live would have been difficult. Now, of course, I'm aware that it's supposed to be a joke and not really going for realism, so it can look a little phony. BUT, it was still a good little gag and helped the joke.

So, if I'm planning on adding something digitally, here is what I took away from those two experiences.

1.) Having as much as you can live and practical is good. You don't need a ton - even pulling a piece of shirt out with just a small amount of gore beneath will work.

2.) Then I can add a nice composited blood splatter which can help sell the gag further.

3.) I also learned that having a library of those effects at your fingertips can only enhance your work while editing, because if you want to fuss with the shot a bit, then you can add more, make them bigger, smaller, redder...the possibilities are endless. I now have a ton of guns, explosions, fires, blood hits, rockets - all sorts of nifty little gizmos I can use that I've already paid for and are royalty free.

Dems my thoughts.

pJ

[Danny]

hmm good points i think id still prefer blood packs, though they have the porblem of igf you screw it up you need a new shirt say if they get shot in the chest a new blood pck set up adn a retake which could tkae about 45 minutes on average for what may be a 3 second shot of a bullet wound.


ive taken a look at these things before, found a few royalty free ones myself but never actually tried to implement em, is there any good tutorials for this anywere you might have found?

[PJoseph]

Hellsing,

There is where I bought a bunch of stuff that I thought worked really well. (I not only bought the Action Essentials, I bought Riot Gear for broadcast style graphics that I can use for lower third ID's, title cards - all usefull stuff for my work).

Anyway, this link will take you to a sample clip as well as a tutorial that plays in your browser.

http://www.videocopilot.net/action.html

Trust me, these things are EASY to use. Literally drag on the layer above your video and they key in perfectly. Then you can resize, reframe, color correct, whatever you need. Works in all the major software (I use FCP HD).

pJ

[Danny]

damn!, thats going to favourites, nice find!

[PJoseph]

Andrew Kramer has a bunch of really good titles in his library. All sorts of elements and tutorials. For the money, I think it's a very good deal.

pJ