Low budget Bullet-time effect

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ole_jorgen

New member
I have always wanted to shoot cool scenes like the bullet-time effects in the matrix, where they place a bunch of cameras around a motive.(you all know what im talking about)

Anyway. Im not rich, and i dont have a huge crew around me. So renting a proffessional rig is definetely out of the question.

I have seen people build rigs with many digital SLRs and it has been giving some really nice results.

I have also seen more amature projects that also has given good results, with a more different aproach like this:
http://www.nccinema.ch/efx15.html



I am more interested in the 50-100 cameras way of doing it. But as you know, digital cameras isnt exactly cheap with the quantity i need.

But i have looked around and found som really interesting articles:

http://photography.qj.net/tags/cvs/682

http://s89078276.onlinehome.us/10dollarcam/10dollarcam.html

This might be a way of making your own system out of supercheap cameras.
What are yout views on this. Could this be a way to do this ?
 
Thats really interesting, but i think the most effective low budget method is getting the actor to post the same way multiple times...unles you can get a few cams together
 
The most beliveable and professional way is with many cameras.

But even if you could afford this hacked one-time camerathing(50 cams=500$ plus maybe 2-300 extra for other stuff). it would be alot of work rigging it up, and transfering the data to a computer. So i agree on you there.

The reason why im not interested in the single camera method, is that it only does that. You cant for an example catch a fire, or external objects. So its not that true to the nature of bullet-time(cant remember the real name for the multible camera technique)
 
How about using the Alamm DV software? I think it may have changed names and versions. I played with it on the old version and it did have some cool effects, like muzzle flashes, etc. Google for the software.

Here's the Link! Found it!

http://fxhome.com/effectslab/
 
the stop motion circle thing is likely easier done by having a circular blue/green screen and having the actor/s "freeze" while you circle around them on circular track, or with a well executed steadicam move. then you do the same timed camera move in the real environment minus the actor/s then just composite the two together. as with any composite, careful attention to lighting and scale are important. really as long as you keep the lense settings on the cmaera the same and the path of camera movement in the real environment is around the point where the actor WOULD have been (the same as it was when actually filming the actor against the blue/green screen). it will look pretty good. they just need to hold still while you circle. or even move in "slow mo" as you circle. ..plus you can overcrank when you shoot or ramp down or up or whatever.. idea accrossed i think. an easy wau to transition into the effects shot is by shooting the effetcs shot a little tighter, and doing a sort of snap zoom or time warp type zoom in which you morph/dissolve/cut..whatever from the wider shot of the same action .. into the effetcs shot. a striaght cut works just fine as well. of course if they are in the air you would likely use wires or a pedestal to "hang" them there during the camera move. if they are on the ground in a position retainable by themselves, you can just do it on location. anyway... fun stuff.
 
keep in mind the matrix boys found the stop-motion photography necessary to make the bullet time segs so annoying they ended up creating new 3d mapping software and id all of the fancy stuff in CG for the second and third movie (with terrible results I might ad).

Once upon a time I found a video of some stuff the Matrix crew had done with the bullet time rig during a party. it was basically just circle shots of people jumping up and down - especially girls with long hair flying everywhere. What was interesting about the videos tho was that they were unedited so you could see the real setup: a whole wack of Canon EOS cameras set on top of green pillars of different heights that go off in sequence. looks very expensive and very cost-inefficient.

My friend Florian Maier in Germany has done some really interesting stuff based on the same still camera principle and added high-speed photography and morphing programs. He calls it "Frozen Reality". You can find some of the stuff here:

http://www.frozen-reality.de/english/

he even went up with the "vomit comet" to shoot water in a weightless environment.
 
You may also trying "Magic Bullet" by Serious Magic. If you have friends who make indie movies, someone may have this software and can help you with this effect. I've seen it used very effectively where the bullet is actually followed through a car penetrate through a mail box then through the opening of trees to the final victim. An impressive shot.
 
Well its not a perticular shot im after. just the equipment to freezing time. But now that i have found out that the digital "single use" cameras has been pulled out from sale cuz people have been hacking them(they are seposed to be recycled after use) Then its really pointless. But even so, thanks for all of the ideas and info. I will definetely take them with me.:) Its great that people are creative and find others ways to mimic freeze time with costefficient methods.
 
I guess this magic bullet thing you are talking about, doesnt have anything with Red Giant software. So what is it actually? some kind of userfriendly compositing app to implement matrix lookalike bullets flying in the air? if so, it sounds cool. Got any links?
 
ole_jorgen said:
I guess this magic bullet thing you are talking about, doesnt have anything with Red Giant software. So what is it actually? some kind of userfriendly compositing app to implement matrix lookalike bullets flying in the air? if so, it sounds cool. Got any links?
Click to expand...

Magic Bullet is the Red Giant software for colour correction. That's the only Magic Bullet and you can't really do anything like this with it.

"bullet time" - a technique where camera movements are done in such a way that it looks like time stands still (bullet time as in freezing a bullet in mid air).

the technique had it's bigges commercial impact in the first Matrix movie - especially the scenes where Carrie-Anne Moss jumps up for a kick and the camera spins around her and where Keany Reeves leans back and the bullets fly over him.

You can also see the same effect in the "Freak On A Leash" video by Korn and many many other movies.

The technique most often utilizes a large number of still cameras set to fire in rapid sequence around a subject. then the images are stitched together to make a video clip. Very expensive and very over used.

For more info you can read this excellent article on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time


"Bullet Time" er for oevrig et haaploest navn som ikke sier noe som helst om teknikken. Jeg tror det har noe med amerikanernes forkjaerlighet for vaapen aa gjoere at alt heter noe med "bullet" eller "gun"
 
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One other option for making this effect is to create a rig that spins your camera around in a very fast motion. I'm not sure how realistic it is to actually create something like this in any useable sense but some kids actually did it with some pretty impressive results:

http://ryanw.michaelfrisk.com/pwr/project_white_rabbit.html

Keep in mind that the probability of your camera being flung long distances through the air and landing in devestating fashion against a wall or on the street is highly likely (not to mention getting snagged in the rig or the whole rig falling down on your head etc etc etc) but it's an interesting and more feasible project.
 
morten said:
Magic Bullet is the Red Giant software for colour correction. That's the only Magic Bullet and you can't really do anything like this with it.

"bullet time" - a technique where camera movements are done in such a way that it looks like time stands still (bullet time as in freezing a bullet in mid air).

the technique had it's bigges commercial impact in the first Matrix movie - especially the scenes where Carrie-Anne Moss jumps up for a kick and the camera spins around her and where Keany Reeves leans back and the bullets fly over him.

You can also see the same effect in the "Freak On A Leash" video by Korn and many many other movies.

The technique most often utilizes a large number of still cameras set to fire in rapid sequence around a subject. then the images are stitched together to make a video clip. Very expensive and very over used.

For more info you can read this excellent article on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time


"Bullet Time" er for oevrig et haaploest navn som ikke sier noe som helst om teknikken. Jeg tror det har noe med amerikanernes forkjaerlighet for vaapen aa gjoere at alt heter noe med "bullet" eller "gun"
Click to expand...

I know what RedGiantSoftwares "Magic bullet" is. I have used that plugin before.

But i just thought he was talking about something else that "serious magic" had made. Something with the same name.
 
Use one camera (the DVX for example) and have the actor hold his position as you dolly around him; then use indivual fraems and piece them together.

Should work in theory right ?
 
The "project white rabbit" was by far as i have seen, the best solution for a single camera. The tests they made looks really good. What i didnt like though, was that the camera had to stay very high up in the air(The framing then i guess). But it might be possible to make a bit different consept were the camcorder goes around a track in a circular wall.(sounds complicated to make?)

Man i love it when kids goes around and do these things. This proberly didnt cost very much to set up. And still looks almost like the real thing
 
http://arez.vestlan.com/BT-consept.jpg

Here is drawing i just made to show you what i mean.
Its based on the same consept of white rabbit, only that it doesn hover around your head. It goes on a track in a circular motion like a dolly, only ten times faster, and its alot smaller too. and the track is about 1-1,5 meter above the ground.

If you can make something like this that has enough amount of velocity(for an example what to use as engine) and if it is smoot, solid enough and also the motion blur is controlled on the camcorder, the results after my opinion just has to be almost as good as the real thing.

The biggest problem is to get the right speed of this thing. What to be? electrical/fuel/nuclear:P The size, weight etc.. Are you an engineer, then please tell me if this is possible to make in your backyard
 
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