15 Killer Tilt-Shift Videos

Tilt shift photography is a huge trend lately it seems, and it is not slowing down.  What I find so captivating about it, is the fact that the video and the picture is almost manipulating your mind, and forcing you to think that the subjects you are looking at are in fact miniatures.  While there are specific lenses made to create a very narrow depth of field, you can produce this effect in programs like After Effects, Photoshop, and even iMovie if you wanted to.  This is probably the reason tilt shift videos have gained so much steam in the last few months.

Creating the effect on a still photograph is actually pretty simple, just blur the top and bottom of your photograph, and keep your subject framed in the middle and very sharp focus.  Of course, that is a very rough way of going about it, but it gets even harder when you implement this technique into video.  There are a few ways to go about it, but the way to really nail it is to get the timing of your timelapse just perfect, so that your video actually looks like stop motion instead of just a really fast timelapse.  Usually the video isn’t actually video at all, but full framed photographs taken every four to eight frames, then brought into an application as an image sequence.  Then you can make your colors more vibrant, adjust your timing, add pans and tilts, and your blurs to create the polished look.  Below are some of the best and my favorite tilt-shift videos I have found on the net.

http://www.vimeo.com/4542265

Tilt Shift Istanbul from Barış Gürsel

http://www.vimeo.com/4223691

Ferries in the Quay from Peter Saul

http://www.vimeo.com/4223691

A Bunch of Hot Air from niles compau

http://www.vimeo.com/4815813

Scenes from a rooftop from Paul Johannessen

http://www.vimeo.com/3209208

Fire (Jimmy Edgar Remix)-Codebreaker Feat. Kathy Diamond from Erik West

http://www.vimeo.com/4946315

gottardo nord from fb1 visuals on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/2274272

Golden Gate, Miniaturized from Andrew Curtis

http://www.vimeo.com/3757120

Herring Run, 2009 from Carrotkid

http://www.vimeo.com/4916840

Small Life in Dresden from Christoph Schaarschmidt

http://www.vimeo.com/3712054

Images Of Karijini National Park from Michael Fletcher

http://www.vimeo.com/4791453

miniature city 2 – featuring vividblaze - from mockmoon

http://www.vimeo.com/2317118

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit

http://www.vimeo.com/2482776

Helpless from Keith Loutit

http://www.vimeo.com/1789964

Bathtub II from Keith Loutit

http://www.vimeo.com/3548220

Mardi Gras from Keith Loutit

Expect a quick tutorial from me in the coming weeks on how to simplify this process and manipulate your footage in After Effects to get a tilt shift look like these examples. This can be a very cool piece to include in a reel, but can also look like a joke when done wrong. So make sure you understand the fundamentals of what tilt shift is supposed to look like before you take your footage into After Effects and just add a could random blurs with masks, there’s an artistic side to it as well.  Check out Smashing Magazine’s article on tilt shift, and at the bottom you can find a large list of resources to study up on the ins and outs of this ever popular effect.