STEEL SKIES time-lapse movie (8500 still photos)

M

Mythopolis

New member
STEEL SKIES, my movie entry in the online Film2Music Cinematic CD contest, was created entirely from images shot with digital still cameras - the discontinued Minolta A1 and A2. Please check out my movie page and vote for the piece if you like it.

http://cinematiccd.com/votesteelskies/

The page contains the STEEL SKIES movie, voting (if you want) and links to other entries. Comments welcome. Thanks for any support you can lend.

Tony
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MOVIES & MUSIC @ http://www.Mythopolis.com
YOUTUBE page @ http://YouTube.com/chasingecho
 
Lovely work. Some beautiful and chilling scenes. Thank you. For me, the overall impact would have been more powerful without the mandala/geometric sequences at the end. Somehow those manipulations took away from the organic feel informing your thematic concerns. I would like to see a re-visioning of your ending, although if you are done with it I'd just say Bravo and leave it at that. Visually the whole work was stunning.

best of luck and distribution,
thomas
 
egproductions said:
That looks like a grueling amount of work. nice job
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EGPRODUCTIONS - Thanks... ya too much time spent!

thomasart said:
For me, the overall impact would have been more powerful without the mandala/geometric sequences at the end.
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THOMASART - I wish I would have been able to post this sample before I was finished to get your comments, but that's the final edit going into the contest. I'm not sure what else I would replace them with though, maybe more shots similar to the "city over mountains" shot??? Any thoughts?

Thanks for checking it out and responding!

tk
 
Movement in the time-lapse sequences

Movement in the time-lapse sequences

watson said:
could you explain your set up a bit? how did you do the moving time laspe shoots? thanks.
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ANDREW - Thanks for checking it out. True movement of time-lapse shots can be done with computerized tracking or heads or even some mechanical Lego toys from what I understand. However, I prefer to travel light, so...

I'm doing my "panning" in post with After Effects. Usually a simple scan over the image but I do sometimes laboriously cut out a background and foreground and place them in 3D space and do a post camera move to create the illusion of an actual dolly or truck. Here's a better example of using still photos in 3D space in AE:

http://www.mythopolis.com/movies/scarypromo.mov

Things are more animated, but everything in there started off as a still image or sequence of stills.

Also, here's an old FAQ I created that should give you more details with visual examples. Let me know if there's some needed info missing.

tk
 
Hey Tony,

I showed my partner your time-lapse film and she enjoyed it very much. I really loved the slatted shadows in the barn. I've played a bit with sped-up shadow movement, but that was really sweet motion. I watched a few videos in the competition--your entry was far and away the best. Good luck.

After my second viewing. . . Maybe the symmetrical patterns needed to be introduced earlier and subtly woven into the fabric of the whole. . . ? In the sequel to this piece I imagine the final shots being a glacier melting and flooding the skyline that took over the mountains. Damn, now you have to spend a few weeks in Alaska. ~~~:o) (And more overgrown ruins and crumbling infrastructure and shadows please.)

I've tagged your site and look forward to upcoming projects. Keep us posted.

Thomas
 
Beautiful beautiful work my friend! My favorite shots were the clouds in the very middle of the piece, and those yellow flowers blooming... that was just sensational.

You need to drop by my DLSR timelapse thread on this forum and share some tips and techniques.

I voted for your movie. Best of luck!
 
Man, that was very sharp. Very nice work.
There was a couple of times that I forgot I was even watching timelapse, I just became engrossed in what you had going on there.

I loved, loved the pull out of the old barn. That section had to be the best in my opinion. Don't ask me why.

There were a couple of places that I noticed a bit of choppy-ness in the frames, but all in all, it was quite an experience to watch. Great Work!

Jason
 
By the way, do you have a high-def or any kind of better copy of this available for us to download? Youtube quality just blows.
 
RE: Thomasart, Nik, Ramjet1979, Tom + Link to better quality MP4

RE: Thomasart, Nik, Ramjet1979, Tom + Link to better quality MP4

http://www.mythopolis.com/movies/Steel-Skies

thomasart said:
I showed my partner your time-lapse film and she enjoyed it very much. I really loved the slatted shadows in the barn. I've played a bit with sped-up shadow movement, but that was really sweet motion.
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THOMASART - Thanks for spreading the word! The barn shot is actually 3 separate shots composited into one in 3D space in After Effects. If I had my way and the budget and time, I'd do every shot using that effect.

thomasart said:
After my second viewing. . . Maybe the symmetrical patterns needed to be introduced earlier and subtly woven into the fabric of the whole. . . ? In the sequel to this piece I imagine the final shots being a glacier melting and flooding the skyline that took over the mountains.
Click to expand...

Wow, we're on the same track! I had envisioned a flooding scene, but couldn't conceive of how to accomplish it in a timely manner... or really, how I was going to pull it off. Just the other day I was thinking of glaciers melting in time-lapse... Hmm...

thomasart said:
I've tagged your site and look forward to upcoming projects. Keep us posted.
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Awesome! Using things are pretty slow at Mythopolis, but the next couple of months I should be adding quite a bit. Entire raw stock of time-lapse and some of the older montages.

Nik Nerburn said:
Incredibly well done. It almost seems like you took a direct concept from Baraka or Koyaanisqatsi, but nonetheless, the entire thing was beautiful. I just wish I could see a high-res version of it
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NIK - Thanks! Ya, someone on another thread had pointed out some striking similarities between the intro of STEEL SKIES and BARAKA. Completely unintentional but I suppose the intro itself is quite generic, starting with Earth and revealing more elements along the way. I haven't seen the Fricke films in years, but I'm sure there was an influence. I remember really digging them. I've just order them all off Amazon and expect to be quite humbled by them!

Hope to screen HD sometime next year at festivals - with any luck. Check below on this post for another better quality link.

Ramjet1979 said:
I loved, loved the pull out of the old barn. That section had to be the best in my opinion. Don't ask me why.
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RAMJET - The barn seems to be a favorite. As mentioned above - 3 layers and more three dimensional.

Ramjet1979 said:
There were a couple of places that I noticed a bit of choppy-ness in the frames, but all in all, it was quite an experience to watch. Great Work!
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Thanks for you wonderful comments! Ya, there are a few missing frames... one on a sunset near the end that kills me. Some of the other choppiness might be a result of compression. It appears to shutter on certain keyframes. Gotta work on better compression. Check below for better version online...

Tom Lowe said:
Beautiful beautiful work my friend! My favorite shots were the clouds in the very middle of the piece, and those yellow flowers blooming... that was just sensational.

You need to drop by my DLSR timelapse thread on this forum and share some tips and techniques.

I voted for your movie. Best of luck!
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TOM - Thanks for the vote and the kind words. I will try and head over to the DSLR sometime this weekend and post or jump in.

Tom Lowe said:
By the way, do you have a high-def or any kind of better copy of this available for us to download? Youtube quality just blows.
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Ya, YouTube is a trip. People are going gaga over a single time-lapse of cloud shot but STEEL SKIES is crawling along unnoticed. It's tough out there! I do have a slightly better option on Mythopolis here:

http://www.mythopolis.com/movies/Steel-Skies

MP4 480x270... Better quality... That's all I can do right now. I'm really hoping to get a screening at a festival or two in HD next year. That would be cool.... I'll definitely keep you all posted.

tk
 
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