How are these things done? What do I have to learn?

Beeboop

Active member
I found this guy's reel and I believe that it's amazing. What do I have to learn to do them? I'll list some of the things that I think are easy to learn first.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoTH1Iseaec

Time
3 and 4 seconds, I'm assuming he is just filming at 120fps

10 seconds, no idea

11 seconds, no idea

22 seconds, 120fps again i'm assuming

31 seconds

1:52

2:05 clouds still moving

2:20
 
Watch and learn all of these tutorials and you will be a master of effects. They are excellent. They show how to make effects from beginning to end with no steps missing in a very short period of time. These are the best tutorials on any subject I've seen. - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

 
Different techniques are used in that video - it's a VFX reel. Most of them are actually rather simple and just use what is called compositing. For example, at 2:05 they just added clouds to a still - it will probably take 15-20 minutes to complete the shot. Perhaps some matte painting was involved. The link above to Videocopilot.net is a very good place to start learning compositing with AE.

Some other thechniques could be used in this video - for example, 0:11 could be done traditional way - green screen + harnesses and as you can see at 1:40 that's exactly what was done perhaps even without green screen. Harnesses are routinely removed later most likely with a planar tracker like Mocha. But 0:11 (and other VFX in that video) can be done differently like using what is called 'match moving'
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_moving
which involves combining of computer graphics with live footage. It may work both ways - inserting 3D imagery into live action (a lot in your video was done this way) and replacing 3D models with live objects. The latter can be especially spectacular - see for example, this breakdown of several "Deadpool" scenes - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C8D_o8bOeOc

At 1:52 they most likely shattered a 3D model of a tortilla and composited into a clean plate shot separately. I've done things like this many times - looks great bit it's really easy. You will also need some specialized software - After Effects is probably the first step and it's rather powerful. But you may want to look at specialized trackers like Mocha I mentioned before. Also Boujou, PFtrack. As far as compositing Nuke (with its companion software MARI) is probably the most popular in Hollywood; Fusion (BMD) is a free and very powerful compositing tool integrated nicely with Resolve 12.5.
 
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