HVX green screen bank commercial

WOW! BRavo! (Scrappy again is standing and trying to whistle but can't) This was f-----g fantastic! Absolutely worthy of a national spot. You should sell this to panasonic for promotional advertising. It really makes a difference when one knows what one's doing with a camera. Was this honestly done with an hvx? (This isn't another one of those creepy pranks, where in a week you'll tell us it was actually done with a cinalta) I really needed to see this. A lot of the footage I've seen recently on the boards have not been any better than my DVX100a which I regrettably sold. Congratulations
 
Scrappy said:
WOW! BRavo!Was this honestly done with an hvx? (This isn't another one of those creepy pranks, where in a week you'll tell us it was actually done with a cinalta) I really needed to see this. A lot of the footage I've seen recently on the boards have not been any better than my DVX100a which I regrettably sold. Congratulations
Click to expand...

Thanks Scrappy. Yes, this is pure HVX, I'll post a behind the scene still when I get access to them. But you know, a year ago, we would have rented a CineAlta for this kind of thing... now, I own the camera I bring to set.

I do agree this sort of thing is what I wanted to see right out of the gate from Panasonic in terms of marketing and promotion of the camera. It would have raised my comfort level going into the purchase a bit...

Regards,

Jim Arthurs
 
Absolutely fabulous looking stuff.... You definitely would have had to rent something a year ago.. and man it does a man's heart good to look over and see it at arms length ready at any moment... I wouldn't even have thought it was shot with my beloved HVX... but again this is in an expert craftsmans hands... Obviously a real pro...


I remember you mentioning your tracking software that you purchased before.. What was it called? How easy is it for editors to figure out...? I have some green screen stuff I want to do and tracking shots have been something I've avoided in the past.... and man your footage is inspirational...


Please post more and thanks for sharing.. Was great to see the before rough cut...

CONGRATS.... I bet that HVX is getting paid off quite nicely..
 
jIM: MY deep respects....You made a wonderful and very PRO job...If possible I want to know how much cost to you the commercial production?

D
 
Jim, let me ask you this to see if I understand correctly -- was this completely a solo effort? One man doing the design, lighting, shooting, compositing, editing, all post, etc?
 
Barry_Green said:
Jim, let me ask you this to see if I understand correctly -- was this completely a solo effort? One man doing the design, lighting, shooting, compositing, editing, all post, etc?
Click to expand...

Many talented people involved, of course... ...The spot was one of three produced by Windstar Studios in Colorado Springs. They handled the producing, set building and prop work. Sound design was by City Tracks, also of here.

Of course there was a grip crew, makeup, etc.

I did the lighting, the directing (more by default than by design), editing, all the motion tracking, CGI design and execution, and compositing.

And I brought the camera to the party. :)

Jim Arthurs
 
Awesome!

Budget? :0

also, how did you integrate the 3d when you had no tracking markers on the greenscreen?

sorry if you've answered these.
 
I just showed that to a friend who bought the HVX because I convinced him that was the way to go. He is non-tech and has only been shooting DV on tape with his HVX. He about passed out. I told him P2 cards....
a computer that can edit DVCPRO HD....a person who knows how to light and shoot greenscreen...a competent CGI person.....a editor who knows how to do compositing......thats all you need!!
Oh yeah!! Great ideas that can be realistically pulled off!!
 
Jim:

I was absolutely floored by the footage.

It's amazing what the HVX can do when a master is behind the camera.

Absolutely the best HVX stuff I've seen... if there were HVX oscars I'd be nominating your stuff.

I notice you're still using Lightwave for 3D.

Have you considered using Maya or 3D Max? Not to knock LIghtwave, which obviously seems to do the job....
 
Great work. I wish the little old lady would have worn something less see through. Did her clothing change the green or make it a little harder to key out?

-Kevin
 
Thanks again! I'm a bit stunned by the responses. I've been a jack of all trades for so long it just seems natural to do as much yourself as you can.

Let me address some more questions...

Budget... this was a regional spot, of course, and my chunk of the spot's budget was more than the client would have liked to spend, and less than I wanted. Still, a fantastic date rate for the work period, that's for sure.

Lots of people and fx houses are still using Lightwave, though I'm the first to admit even the new upcoming version seems long in the tooth. Learning a new 3D program well takes time. I'm boning up on Luxology's Modo and hope that in a year it's got animation integrated into the amazing modeling, texturing and rendering features it has.

Tracking points need not be big honkin' markers... even skuff marks on the floor work well. I had no difficulties with any of the shots in regards to tracking. All five sequences solved out in the day after the shoot. Integrating Vue for the Hawaii shot was the trickiest thing in the spot... the fences are Lightwave and the water/trees are Vue. Vue renders SLOW. Oversized and scaled down it still aliases a bit. After that painful lesson, I just used stills from Vue in the backgrounds.

Most of the shots were full wide on the lens with a bit of barrel distortion, and I do a undistort grading of the footage to get nice rectilinear images before I track. I picked up the Century .6 recently and will post some interesting examples where I tracked even that.

The little old ladies dress was transparent, but she had lots of clothes under it. No particular issues, though I forgot it had glitter on it, and couldn't figure out why I was getting a strange shimmering until I remembered that fact.

Regards,

Jim Arthurs
 
Jim!

Jim!

Mr. Jim. This is Gary from DATA inc. !! :) !!

AWESOME NICE JOB!! I love the spot! its SPOT ON! lol The tests up here with (P and K) look so clean! their individual hairs! are keyed with one button!! AMazing!

HVX - is the BOMB! You think RED Camera will replace it SOMEDAY?

As far as Camera Tracking, It must be SO much easier with a good Camera. Our little $FREE.95 Dv-cam up here is bad even when you scale it down!!

AWESOME work! I Love it! I'll See you on DATAs upcoming shoot, wont I?

Gary Tussey
Animator
gary@datausa.com


p.s. to EVERYONE!

www.alaron-nuclear.com
I did this WEB-INTRO last year - Story board to final.flv - in under 50 hours for budgetary reasons. As always, I would have liked to pollish it more but alas, we must let the little things go, as in golf.
 
Last edited:
Hey Gary! I'll do you one better as I'm stopping by DATA in the afternoon.

Great job on the intro!

Will the Red replace the HVX? I kind of think of the HVX as the warm-up camera for the Red. :)

Talk soon,

Jim Arthurs
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top