Trying to deliver a certain type of video for client

T

ToTheBack

Active member
Hello,

Recently I was asked to make a 2 minute video for a web software company and as a reference for what they wanted, they sent me this link for a similar type of video they want:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uSFW22RTrZw

I was referred to the company by a relative due to previous video work but I haven't really dealt with stop motion or animation of this type before. My belief is that they would do a timelapse of each drawing and then use Adobe After Effects to edit in the animations and swoop around though I don't have access to that program at the moment. I will be trying to find an illustrator who can do those types of drawings but what tips do you guys have for making a video of that kind? Types of cameras to use, lighting, programs to use for editing, the whole shebang.

Thanks!
 
I strongly suspect there was a lot of "cheating" :) going on in that video, as the hand was in a suspiciously low number of different poses. They probably used finished drawings, some sort of dynamic masks to slowly reveal them (over a 'blank' page underneath), then moved still pics of the hand over top of that to give the impression the hand was drawing. At least, that's how I'd have done it - fiddly, sure, but a lot less work than true stop motion.
 
So you think they basically just took pictures of finished pictures and took a still picture of a drawing hand and composited it in there?
 
Yes, pretty sure that's how they did the hand. For the drawn pictures, it's also possible they started with stills of the finished pictures, then used a graphics program to erase a bit at a time, saving the resulting image each time, then combined the series of images into moving video and played it in reverse - that would give more options for "drawing" any complicated lines, but would take longer than the dynamic mask I mentioned above.
 
What type of programs do you feel would be needed to get the effect? And what kind of people should I get to help with this besides the illustrator?
 
You need to talk to your post-production team. Certainly After Effects can do dynamic masks to gradually reveal a drawing, but so can some NLEs, e.g. Sony Vegas. Ditto with compositing.

Do a test, e.g. a one second shot of a hand "drawing" a simple shape. That will quickly tell you how difficult or easy shots will be.
 
I'd agree with Clang. I haven't done any of these myself, but an artist friend of mine looked it up... they seem to have been popularized by the RSA Animate series of animated lectures. To get more info on making them yourself, try googling "RSA Animate" or "How to make RSA Animate". From what I've read, seems the best way to do it is to use frame-by-frame animation for the hand, using several still images (for different positions/angles) with the background alpha'd out, and gradually unmasking an already-completed drawing on the layer underneath it. Again, haven't done it myself, but seems like that should work. Good luck.
 
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