My blog
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"FIN." - Rotoscoping, it's all in the wrists..
Saturday, Oct 17, 2009 3:00AM / Standard Entry
The end shot of this piece has requires that our main character stops walking and at that moment, he see's himself walk into frame. The main character faces himself and then an action ensues. This would be a very easy thing to accomplish if the final shot was locked off on a tripod but because this piece is shot on a steadicam, the final shot actually is a slow drifting shot, that being because it is virtually impossible for the steadicam to stay completely motionless. so what this means is I have to do several things in order to compile this last shot. The first being that i would have to do an initial stabilization of the final approach. I then have to go in a rotoscope the second main character. Once that is done, I have to go back to the final shot and track a portion of the frame to get the spatial data. Once I have done this, I have to pin the rotoscoped figure to that data to give the illusion of both characters being shot at the same time. This in effect will match the camera moves with the second character thus creating the effect that both where shot simultaneously.
Tracking video can be touch and go especially depending on which software I use. For the initial track, I used the built in affter effects tracker to do a two point track tracking the position and the rotation. This would stabalize it enough to allow me to do a rotoscoping. Then I used mocha to go back and motion track a portion of the scene so that i could pin the second character to match the slight drifting of the camera. But below is some shots of roto heaven.
Below is a little timelapse of a portion of the roto. I don't know why I bother to document this process, I guess I do it just to remind myself what a pain in the ass it is and just how I can actually do something really difficult if I just put my mind to it.
FYI the project is done but I am going to wait a bit before I put it up for viewing, the project has to screen first and a few feathers have to be unruffled. Plus I have yet to post on the motion tracking of the background for inserting the morphing trippy graphic smorgasbord... or not. FUN STUFF!
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It Was A Lyrical Myrical Of Spherial Proportions
Friday, Sep 4, 2009 12:26AM / Standard Entry
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Heavy Machinery vs. Tight Alley
Thursday, Jul 23, 2009 12:12AM / Standard Entry
Robots in disguise
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Solar Eclipse
Wednesday, Jul 22, 2009 1:09PM / Standard Entry
I knew there was going to be a solar eclipse today but I didn't expect it to be a clear day here, that and I didn't expect to really care. I woke up early this morning to an email telling me that a (really) well paid 6 month job that was supposed to happen was no longer happening. I had been banking on this job to get me through the rest of the year and was finally thinking to myself, "no more struggling! Fuck the global economic crisis!". But alas :(
So then...I realized the eclipse was happening and I stepped outside horribly equipped to capture the event. Sorry but my lumix fx-180, even though it is a great little digital camera, just wasn't cut out for it. None the less I hit the street with a cannibalized pair of sunglass lenses hoping they would work as an impromptu neutral density filter. I quickly realized it wasn't going to happen. I remembered back in my college days, myself and friends had been sitting outside eating lunch whilst a partial solar eclipse was occurring. One of my friends had poured his pepsi into a bowl and we were watching the eclipse from the reflection. I immediately began looking for dark puddles of water and dark tinted windows to capture reflections from. The resulting images are very interesting, a bit spooky even. To tell the truth, they look like shots of the moon at night.
Anyways I believe I started this post with some intent of painting a moral to things. At the end of this all, I felt a little better and realized in the scale of things, we are all small and sometimes our problems are just not as shitty as they might seem. If we stop to think about how much our lives suck, then we could really miss the spectacle s of the enormous universe around us ie. giant moon passing in front of even more giant sun all at the edge of a galaxy that is a mere spec of sand in a beach larger than anything describable.
Hope someone enjoys the pics... solar eclipses rock! Next one in T minus 100 years and counting!
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Y4 The Death Loop Trailer
Saturday, May 16, 2009 7:07PM / Standard Entry
Here it is! The trailer is done and director Elissa Rosati is shopping it in Cannes. MAKE ME RICH! Below is the poster designed by Ben Robinson and of course the trailer. ENJOY :)
If you can't see it, it could be cuz you need to update to flash 10
Trailer Title: Y4 The Death Loop
Starring:
Director: Elissa Rosati
Producer/Sound Designer: Ben Robinson
Assistant Director: Billy Lau
Director of Post Production: mrvix
Director of Photography: Ross Clarkson
Man: Darren E. Scott
Harpy/Wife: Emilie Guillot
Doctor: Peter Jordan
Burly Man: Simon Yin
Burly Man: Eric Ng
Burly Man: Samuel Yau
Butoh: Tommy Tse
Butoh: Andrew Ng
Butoh: Jean Luc BonefacinoY4 is also being done in conjunction with Focus On Film which was assisting production with it's Apprentice Program, a program which allows the kids enrolled to assist and learn the ropes on a real film set. A special thanks to all of them for their excellent work and tireless efforts :)
Stats
- Occupation: Animation / Special Effects , Director
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 24,678
