How to get the matrix still / slo mo and pan 3d effect?

R

Reflex Films

Active member
I am noticing alot of docs and action flicks lately using this effect.

I think it was fist done in the matrix

- basically the action goes to still (or very very slow motion ) and the camera pans and rotates around the action (usually 1 or 2 characters in foreground) - the pan can be anything from 30 degress to 180 - maybe even 360 is possible.

The background moves in prallax and the forground characters SEEM to roate in 3D as well - but surely this MUST be a morph effect.

The effect given makes it look as if you are moving in 3d throughout the frame.

A doco i saw last night - a british one on pulling off the perfect bank robbery used this effect alot.

Any one out there got any hints?
 
I did some googleing but that seems to dig up lots of bullet time in 3d apps like maya etc where you have the luxury of moving a camera around a scene in near zero real time.

In my investigations of bullet time they all seem to go for multiple cameras shooting a scene to create frames that give the 3d rotation effect.

looking at the low budget option :

Can it be done in post with 1 camera ,
a morph of the foreground item to deliver apaprent rotation in 3d
a panned and blurred background to create parallax (probably a photo of the same scene taken from a camera VERY close to the HVX)

and some clever keying and masking.

Sound like i'm roughly on the right track ? or is there a plug in of some sort of plug in that can take alot of the leg work out of this? (i couldnt find anything specific on the FXhome site)
 
Reflex Films said:
I is there a plug in of some sort of plug in that can take a lot of the leg work out of this?
Click to expand...

The plug-in is called "buying a half dozen still cameras and putting them
on a circular rig around your actors". :)

Seriously, you could fake a little of this effect by slipping foreground
and background etc, which might be a nice moment, but the cool aspect
of Tim Macmillan's effect comes from doing it for real. At this point in time,
people have seen this effect so often that they've become rather sophisticated
at detecting a fake.

...but you can fake some pretty cool shots if they only last a second or two.

Les
 
Last edited:
That editor has got talent - no doubt about it!

Seems to be able to seperate / key out foreground and back ground at will- where most crew would need a green or blue screen.



From that point on the matrix effect (via morph and parallax) is a mere formality. Definitely no multi cam rig used.

Did the matrix effect look faked to anyone here? looked pretty good to me.
No cliche there -to my eye any way - it just looks fresh and original.

and if you check out the guys sound work on the video - its brilliant too!
 
Reflex Films said:
That editor has got talent - no doubt about it!
Click to expand...

Yeah, awesome clip....cool that you can download a good-quality h264 version.
Thanks for pointing us to this excellent work, Reflex.

Reflex Films said:
Seems to be able to seperate / key out foreground and back ground at will- where most crew would need a green or blue screen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it seems pretty clear that they rotoscoped the surfer very carefully.
That makes it easy to do the multiple images of him.

Reflex Films said:
From that point on the matrix effect (via morph and parallax) is a mere formality. Definitely no multi cam rig used.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a real "matrix effect", i.e. classic time-slicing. It's a brilliant
way to fake the effect using just two cameras and some 2.5D comping.
The first camera view is around 40sec. The second camera view is around 42sec.
They probably shot the scene without the surfer to get a clean plate for the sweep.
After they roto'd the surfer, my guess is that they morphed between the two
cameras, as you say.

Reflex Films said:
Did the matrix effect look faked to anyone here? looked pretty good to me.
No cliche there -to my eye any way - it just looks fresh and original.
Click to expand...

When you watch the clip, it doesn't look faked, but when you slow it down,
it doesn't look 3D. It looks 2.5D. The trick is to make the fake look real.:)

BTW, another nice fake bullet-time effect is at 1:50. Here they took a nice
slow-mo, and faked camera moves (zoom & pan) in post. That makes it seem
that time has stopped while the camera is moving around. Nice work!

From 2:19 - 2:22, it looks like the same two-camera setup as 0:40-0:42,
although this time they added a nice distortion trail. Looks like some hand-drawn
image that was used to control pixel shift.

At 2:36, it looks like a one-camera shot in slo-mo, carefully roto'd against
a normal-speed background, with the whole comp subjected to the fake
camera moves also used at 1:50. Great example of saving money on the
shoot and making the magic happen in post.

Another cool effect is at 4:36, where they suddenly add a foreground layer
of specular particles (water droplets). Then the real background is defocused
and panned away, while the fake 3D droplets can be easily "matrixed".

10:54 is nice multiple images plus two takes--awesome. Notice that the
lens flares are doubled.

Effect at 11:18 is the same as at 4:36.


Whew! Excellent work!!! Brilliant fakery! Just goes to show you don't
need a Matrix budget to do killer fx.

Back to work...
<
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top