New Music Video- Robust "El Foto Grande"

[seejay1031]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVs6rV3PHFw&feature=channel_page

This is the video I just finished. Thanks to Mark Christianson, Andrew Kramer, Aron Rabinowitz and Stu Maschwitz. The training books, dvds and websites of these guys taught me everything.

[mjdorris]

looks great sir! only complaint i have is the animated part where he becomes a little cartoony looks a little like you just threw a plug in on it and moved on.

other than that i liked it a lot!

[triplej96]

Thought it looked good too!

[seejay1031]

Thanks for the thoughts... about the "cartoon effect" - not a plugin, based on a tutorial by Aron Rabinowitz, you actually export individual frames to illustrator and then process the different layers. I guess nothing will look like a cartoon without being hand drawn and roto'd at some level.

[mjdorris]

that's probably true! ToonIt! does a decent job but nothing looks quite like the roto.

Anyway, I really don't mean to take away from the video. Some of the 3d camera work was really quite good, literally gave me a sensation of moving.

[MikeWilkinson]

I thought it worked well with the music, and was original. Good integration for editing one scene into another.

[Matt Grunau]

Thanks for the thoughts... about the "cartoon effect" - not a plugin, based on a tutorial by Aron Rabinowitz, you actually export individual frames to illustrator and then process the different layers. I guess nothing will look like a cartoon without being hand drawn and roto'd at some level.

One of the things that makes a cartoon effect look like video is the cadence of higher frame rates. Slow it down via posterize time to 18, and allow it to "stutter" or look just a little choppy, and it will help sell the effect.

There was a Photoshop action I found long ago which I really put the tweaks on which gives what is in my opinion the most accurate cell shaded look out there. All I ever really though was missing was some nice hard and defined ink lines, the kind Arron's tutorial provides nicely. I can run a piece of your footage through and see what it will look like, if you but provide me with 3 or 4 seconds worth of frames. Then you can use the same frames and do Aron's toon look for the ink lines only and combine them.

I'll upload a few stills or piece of video with the effect I am referring to if you would like to see it.

[seejay1031]

One of the things that makes a cartoon effect look like video is the cadence of higher frame rates. Slow it down via posterize time to 18, and allow it to "stutter" or look just a little choppy, and it will help sell the effect.

There was a Photoshop action I found long ago which I really put the tweaks on which gives what is in my opinion the most accurate cell shaded look out there. All I ever really though was missing was some nice hard and defined ink lines, the kind Arron's tutorial provides nicely. I can run a piece of your footage through and see what it will look like, if you but provide me with 3 or 4 seconds worth of frames. Then you can use the same frames and do Aron's toon look for the ink lines only and combine them.

I'll upload a few stills or piece of video with the effect I am referring to if you would like to see it.
Matt- your right! The cadence probably is the thing that really needs to change to sell the effect. To do it right, the frame rate change should probably have been implemented before any of the "cartoonification".
This is very valuable information for my next shot at this effect. As for this one, I spent way to much time on it as is, and I have deleted all source files (the video was a way for me to learn AE, I was a beginner when I started; had many hiccups along the way).
If would love to learn more about the photoshop action you've tweaked... do you have a clip handy that you've used it on?

[cheezweezl]

sapphire color halftone filter is a cool alternative to standard posterize. combine that with an outline sketch filter and you have a nice cartoon look that isn't too generic.