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.
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You asked for it over and over, so we decided to finally give it to you. That’s right folks, I’m talking about After Effects CS4 project files! We are now accepting them and invite you to begin submitting some immediately! Just be sure to specify CS4 in the version drop down 
.
Oh…one more thing (for those of you hoping for the “one more thing” bomb at the most recent Apple keynote), in addition to opening up to CS4 projects, we have also decided to do one better.
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I am at the point in my career where it seems imperative that I can implement 3D elements into my projects for clients, whether I create them myself or not. 3D can be intimidating, and being at the same point you are probably at… I am sharing the anxiety with you. Keep in mind while reading this article that I am by no means a 3D artist. I know some very minute 3D principles and design techniques, but perhaps we can share the journey, and learn from each other, or at least from what I have learned myself, in the past few months.
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Today is the first day for sales in the project file competition. We had an astonishing 86 entries, and all can be seen here.
As you all know, the 2nd half of the competition will run from today (June 8th) until 11:59pm EST, July 8th. Soon after, the totals will be tallied up and the winners will be announced. Remember that only sales aquired between now and July 8 2099 count towards the competition standings. Sales made before June 8th will not be accounted for. This allows all 86 files, the same equal playing field to start from.
So good luck everyone, the entries are all brilliant, this is set to be our best competition ever! Regardless of the fact that it’s our first competition ever.
Great job everyone!
The iPhone is revolutionizing how we live our everyday lives. From finding our way around town, to the jobs we are employed at, there is an iPhone app for just about anything. Then I actually got thinking, “I wonder what kind of apps there are so far, geared towards cinematography and production work?” I have scoured the web and found a bunch of apps that are going to make your life a little bit easier when you get to your location and get ready to shoot.
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As you all know, we are running a collection competition across all marketplaces. Entering is super simple. Choose a theme for your collection and name it appropriately. Then go through the marketplaces, and bookmark up to 30 files that match your collection’s theme. Once you feel your collection is as good as it can be, copy the link to the collection and paste it into the comments of this post: Win $3,500 To Spend On The Ultimate Graphic Design Setup
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Just a quick reminder that the first half of the project file competition is coming to an end soon. The submission half will be officially closed on June 7 2009 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time. I will be reviewing up until the last minute so make sure to submit any and all submissions before that time!
Following that time, all submissions will be recorded, and the following 30 days will be for sales. Whichever file gets the most sales will win the grand prize and as I said earlier, there are two runner up prizes for 2nd and 3rd place!
For more details on prizes, and rules please check out the original post here: $2,000 Project File Competition
Good luck everyone!
Personally I think that the whole “updating your status” part of Twitter is ridiculous. There, I said it. I don’t care what you are eating for dinner, or if someone is being annoying in the movie theatre. Keep it to yourself. The thing that keeps me addicted to Twitter is the people that tweet the cool stuff: The behind the scenes of Terminator Salvation, The VFX breakdown of Fast and Furious 4, the new tutorial that Aharon Rabinowitz just put onto Red Giant TV. Those are the reasons why I use Twitter, and these are the people that you should be following.
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Hello everyone, I just wanted to announce that we have updated the watermark file on the author upload page. You can download the new set here: Video Watermarks
The main difference with these new ones is the way they are set up. Originally the watermark was a large vector file, and we left it to you, the author, to decide how small to size it down to, what opacity to make it, and placement. Now that we have decided to standardize the process we are providing three pre-built, transparant PNG files that will aid in not only watermarking, but also the whole preview process overall.
First, I’ll explain them. As I said they are transparant PNG files. These files are all the size of an average resolution, with the watermark already scaled, and the opacity lowered. The graphic file will now fully fit the standard preview resolutions. And by doing this we have also made the process of preview creation really simple. You first select the PNG that matches the resolution of your file and import it into After Effects or your program of choice. Create a new composition that matches the size of the PNG graphic ( If you’re using After Effects, drag the watermark layer into the new composition button ). Then import your file, and place it below the watermark layer, scale it down to get everything within the composition and then export your FLV.
The watermark comes in three sizes:
- 960×540 for 1980p files
- 640×360 for 720p files
- 720×480 for Standard Definition files
You can grab all three in the one ZIP. Hopefully this should help standardize the watermarking process and prevent any future rejections due to files incorrectly watermarked.
If you have any questions feel free to write directly, or post on the forum.
Thanks!
Well, it took me about a week, but I finally finished watching the over ten hours of material included with Hollywood Camera Work’s new release: Visual Effects For Directors. This release is years in the making, and it couldn’t be more polished off in my opinion. From the script to all of the models, screen captures and finished shots, it is really one of the most professional training DVDs I have ever watched.
Visual Effects For Directors is geared towards the average user or student that knows a little bit about the world of matchmoving and compositing, or someone who is very good with basic camera work, and exposes that viewer to the huge realm of which is a visual effects supervisor’s playground. The title has a large focus on matchmoving and setting up shots for easy compositing, because that is a massive amount of what a VFX supervisor’s job is.
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