The Vampire from Beyond the Crypt

Lets shoot this !@#$er!

2006-08-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

At last I have finished another scene for The Vampire from Beyond the Crypt! Scene 7. I really should have finished this scene long ago, but Vampire seems to be turning into the project that never ends. Last night I knew that I needed to finish the last shot, I had been putting it off quite a while, first there was a family reunion that killed about three days of productivity, after returning from that I found 2 new books I had ordered had arrived, “Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide” and “The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook” and got sidetracked reading them (for the record I can highly recommend both to independent film makers.) It was getting later in the day and I knew I should shoot the shot, but my brother Greg came over and we chatted over wine, after he left I really regretted drinking the wine because I was getting tired and just wanted to go to bed but I had put the shot off long enough. To combat my drowsiness I went out and bought some caffeinated beverages, I really should have just made a pot of coffee but for some reason I hate making coffee at night.

I had mostly set the shot up the day before, I was about to try a new technique, it was where you looked the camera into a mirror so you could get an close angle where the camera could not get to, however when I was looking at a test frame I realized that the mirror was creating a ghosting, this is because the reflective surface was separated by a plane of glass and the glass was creating a semitransparent double, this would not do! So I had to re-frame the shot, I hate doing that, setting up shots is the part of animation I like the least, what I wouldn't do for a DP. The shot was just about the hardest shot I've done in the movie, I don't think I really realized this until I started, but I had to deal with getting up, hair movement, arms swinging, making a clay dress look like a cloth dress and a mopey walk; now that's a tall order! To my surprise the shot turned out rather well, I was convinced that it would be good enough to keep but somewhat sub par, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I guess that uncertainty and fear is part of the reason I love animation, it's not steady or safe, you can mess up and have to completely redo it, but you won't know until you finish the shot, and it's the thrill of that suspense that I really love.

Quirks of the iDshot

2006-06-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

No camera that costs $160 and can shoot stop motion at 1280x720 with live video out can be without problems and short falling, and the iDshot certainly has it's fair share. In my last entry I basically said why I can never go back to shooting at web cam resolution, in this entry I'll go over why I not fully satisfied with it and want to upgrade to a Nikon D50, and how I work around these problems while I can't afford to do so.

One of the seemingly great things about this camera when I first bought it was that it included a 730mb memory card, I don't think most cameras include cards this size, and 730mb is sure a nice start for free. However, it is a proprietary card (to the best of my knowledge it's like a miniDVD RW) and only is available in the 730mb size. Once you start shooting in full resolution tiffs thats only 10.5 seconds of 24fps animation, this becomes rather problematic. If you want to animate a shot over ten seconds long there are two options: first you can just shoot in jpg, its a compromise in quality but it will get you by, or you can transfer the pictures and wipe the card mid shot. Only do the later if your camera is connected to the computer at all times during the shot and is rock solid. To do this you need to turn the nob on the top to connect the camera to the computer, load the pictures to your PC. There is some kind of weird problem when you turn the nob back to picture taking mode, you will need to disconnect the camera from the fire wire card for the camera to acknowledge that it's back in shooting mode. Do this at the computer end, not where the fire wire goes into the camera, that way you won't bump the camera. For some reason, after you put the camera in transfer mode and back again the manual functions are turned off. To turn them back on you will need to push the button, and push on the opposite side of the camrea so that it counteracts the push and the camera is not bumped. That turns of the focus and white balance, but for some reason that exposure and shutter speed need to be turned on again, I have no idea why.

The next quirk is a weird issue with the aperture and zoom. I think there may have been a few topics about this on SMA.com. The more you zoom in the less you can open the aperture. For example if you are fully zoomed out the aperture can be set to 2.4, but if you are fully zoomed in the most it can be opened is 4.4. This is not so bad if you want to shoot at that aperture, however this directly affects the brightness of the viewfinder, so even though you can expose the hero frames longer you're frame grabbing image will be very dark. The way I handle this is to just not zoom in as much as possible. Zooming is not ideal because zoomed in images have less depth then zoomed out images. Besides, if you are shooting at full resolution you can use digital zoom anyway.

Perhaps the worst design flaw of the iDshot was the proprietary optical memory disk, rather then using some standard format they created what is basically a built in CD burner. The problem with this is that it is the only camera I have ever used that can overheat due to extensive use. I first encountered this problem when shooting Attack of the Evil Robotic Turkey [From Outer Space]. We where shooting a scene and had a light directly over the camera, this did not help the heating level of the camera one bit and we soon saw a temperature icon pop up on the screen, if this happens TURN THE CAMERA OFF. Don't do anything else, no picture transfers or anything. I recall some stories of people burning out the camera due to overheating, I have not had any problems because I turn it off if there is a problem. Keep in mind that every time you take a picture you create heat. If you are a very fast animator you will kill this camera. Pace yourself while shooting, for the good the the camera. Once you finish the shot and have the pictures on your computer turn the camera off and give a break, let it cool down.

As if overheating and burning out the camera weren't bad enough, the hotter the camera is, the more electronic noise (sometimes called rainbow dots by confused iDshot users). If you animated a shot that has rainbow dots in them you notice it starts out with none and they slowly fade in, this is seeing the effects of the rising heat of the camera. I've only just discovered this, or put one and one together. As far as I can tell there is less noise at faster shutter speeds, the noise becomes very noticeable at 1/4 sec and slower shutter speeds. If there are only a few dots here and there you can paint them out by had. I have used CompositeLab Pro (and VisionLab Studios when I upgraded) to create another layer of the video, mask out everything but the dot and a small space around it and apply a gaussian blur that lightens the dot. I'm sure After Effects users can do something equivalent fix. The noise has almost no effect on very light areas on the frame, if the dots get very bad you can gaussian blur the whole image and create another video layer that has anything that need to be in focus in it. The best solution to avoid this kind of work is to not shoot a 1/4 sec exposures or longer and keep the camera cool.

I know a few people have been asking about getting an iDshot, I beleave the only place that you can buy them new was selling them for around $400 last I checked and this camera is NOT worth $400, it is worth under $200, if you want one I would try and see if anyone on SMA.com wants to sell there iDshot, I'm sure there are quite a few that hardly used it and it's just sitting collecting dust.

Watch the Fresh Element Intro and lots on the iDshot

2006-06-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

You can see the Fresh Element web intro which is what I have been working on for the longest time here

For those of you that frequent StopMotionAnimation.com you might remember the iDshot craze in the spring of 2005. The craze that drove everyone and there mother to buy one, or even two of the cameras, it ended when B&H Photo ran out.

You would think that this large quantity of iDshot owners would create large quantity's of animation so that they could justify the $160 or whatever they spend on the camera. However, to the best of my knowledge I am the only person who actually uses it to animate. Upon finishing the Fresh Element Records web intro (my fourth iDshot project) Lio was wondering how it was working for me. In this post I'll try to over the different work flows I have used and the advantages it has over web cameras. If you like posts with this kind of technical info could you please comment on them, I try to spend a lot of time making stuff like this interesting and it's sad when the only people that comment are my friends, most of which with never make an animation without my involvement.

I've shot Attack of the Evil Robotic Turkey [From Outer Space] which had about 3.5 minutes of 15 fps animation (1.5 minutes got cut from the final version, I had a web cam aimed at the rear LCD for frame grabbing, I would like to apologizes for the stupidness of this movie as well.) I then shot about 1 minute of the Vampire From Beyond the Crypt (23.98fps, webcam LCD frame gabbing, the project is not finished so I won't show it.) Later Marc wanted me to write a review of the animateability of Stikfas so I made a 30 second film called The Arena (15fps shot blind.) I then got the Fresh Element job which was 36 seconds (24fps, frame grabbing with a capture card, shot blind on dolly shots.) Thats 5.5 minutes of stop motion, that should qualify me to write about it.

The workflow on this camera can be a bit wonky and hard to get used to, but once you do you can take advantage of its high resolution tiff files. Unlike most cameras, the iDshot has a stop motion mode built into it, however you should not use this, I have heard that it is buggy and crashes, also you can shoot at a max resolution of 640x480, if you shoot at this resolution you are shooting yourself in the foot because that resolution comes in handy in post. You'll need to set everything to full manual and get the camera taking the picture you want it to be taking. Because the camera's view finder does not quite show the picture the camera really takes you'll need to transfer the test photo's to your computer, so keep your computer close enough to the camera to have the firewire cable attached to at all times, it just makes things easer. If you are using USB, stop what you are doing, go out and buy a firewire card, the iDshot has so many problems with USB and is so slow that it is not worth using the USB. Once you get the right exposure, aperture, white balance, and focus you will need to set up you're frame grabber. I've done it three ways.

When I first started out I just aimed my web camera into the viewfinder and used that. The picture quality is not that great but you can get an idea of the movement, no fine details however. If you already have a webcam and don't have a capture card this is the cheep solution. You do need to remember take a shot with the frame grabber, then use the remote to take the hero shot with the camera. When I shot The Arena I just shot blind because it's much faster and you don't have to worry about taking two pictures. You would not want to do important animation like that.

When I got the Fresh Element gig I bought a capture card so I could output the picture on the viewfinder to my computer. However you can't use Anasazi with the capture card, so the only other free choice is Monkey Jam, the problem with Monkey Jam is it does not play back in real time (only frame flipping which is OK) and does not have onion skinning, which is handy. The viewfinders output is a bit better then looking in the real viewfinder because the frame cuts off the image so somethings there will be something that you think is out of frame that isn't.

Once you've animated the shot you have to download it to the computer. If you shot in tiff format (which I usually do) you will have to convert it to a tiff format that the rest of your programs can read in Sanyo File Manager. I usually use VisionLab Studio to convert the image stream into a resized movie file adding any digital zooms or pans with the extra resolution.

The primary advantage of the iDshot is that you can shoot at the lower spectrum of high definition (1280x720, cameras max resolution is 1360x1024) in Tiff format. When you are using the max resolution tiffs you can only get 10.5 seconds of animation, however I rarely have 10 second long shots, I sometimes worry that it might by my ADD being manifested in my animation, but no one has complained yet. The great thing about the extra resolution is that you can reframe the shot if something comes up that you did notice when you set up the shot, you can also add digital pan and zooms, which can make shots a lot livelier. Because of the complications of dolly shots and panning in stop motion this can be advantages to tripod shooters. A very interesting thing I discovered you can use the extra resolution for is if you used a dolly rig to pull or push the camera away from the set you can use a digital zoom to create Hitchcock's Vertigo effect (I did this in the Fresh Element web intro.) If I'm not planning on shooting in high def I usually shoot at 1024x768 and downsize to 640x480, the extra resolution is just to useful not to have at your disposal in post. If you don't want the extra resolution you may as well use a web camera.

watch the Hitchcock zoom here

OK, thats enough about the iDshot for one post. Maybe next time I'll go over the querks of it and how I work around them.

I've been busy

2006-05-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of activity. I have just finished up my first free lance animation job tonight and will be posting it online once the client pays in full. It has some of my best animation to date. That has been the reason for the lull in my online activity. Some of you may recall my quadruped criticism thread I started on a few forums, well that is closely tied in with this animation.

Dolly crane thing

2006-04-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

While this technological terror may be no match for the Force it is very nifty. It is not quite as solid as it could be and in my tests it seemed a bit closer to a very steady, steady cam rather then a dolly cam. The arm is so I can point the camera in the direction it is panning without it seeing the dolly so I can get some nice zoom shots, I’d like to do some, but we will see.

This Tomb will be your GRAVE!

2006-03-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

So what does the smallest most minimalist set look like on screen? Quite photogenic I’d say. Full screen this picture so you can see all the little details.

Also be sure to check out Hell Screen, a awesome looking stop motion work in progress.

Spring Cleaning

2006-03-03T23:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve done a bit of spring cleaning of late, the old Bar set has been put aside and I have done a major clean up on my animation room and have now got the second set and green screen in place.

The old mess:

The now clean room:

Also be sure to check out my first piece of fan art ever, it of Zemi, from Liz Greenfield's comic Stuff Sucks.

The anticipation, it builds.

2006-02-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

In simple terms Chris has finished a little more than one eighth of the movie by completing Scene I. It doesn't seem like that long ago. Of course there is a lot more to be done than merely animating the rest, but we're moving. The movie's getting along. It looks good. It has ambience. The voice actors seem quite well fitted to their parts.

It's coming along. It's taken on a life of its own and it's got inertia.

Wrapped Scene 1

2006-02-21T03:23:00.000-08:00

Well I finished Scene 1 today, well, except a 13 sec flashback that takes place on a different set. Scene 1 is the only scene that uses the bar set so I will be putting it aside and making the set that will be used in scenes 5 and 7 next. Hopefully I'll finish that before this week is out. For those that care I have captured 1,532 frames so far (1min:10sec:20frames). Which I think is a few hundred more frames then my last claymation, Trinket.

Cleanup

2006-02-16T22:46:00.000-08:00

For some odd reson my puppets back sides never look as good as their fronts, so if I show the backs I have to do quite a bit of clean up.

Once more, with feeling.

2006-02-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

I was quite pleased with the outcome of this Saturday's session of voice acting. I don't have too much to add, but I believe Chris neglected to mention that we spent a good long while setting up lighting equipment before we actually started. The two hours of video we captured may not be the most exciting thing in the world, but at least it's well lit. Eh?

I'm actually pleased that he took the time to set up the lighting, though. There is a certain attention to detail that Chris pays to things that most people wouldn't even consider. He's reached a level where half the time I don't have any real idea what the point is, but I believe that it's actually something important and that even if it's minor it will make our finishing product look professional.

I was exceptionally pleased with Trinket, and what we have done of Vampire is already putting that to shame. Our voice actors have captured their parts perfectly, and the animation is a quality I didn't really think that I'd ever see in something I was involved with. I enjoyed sitting in the attic that is our 'voice acting studio' and helping to direct the voice actors to their goals, and filling in for the vampire's parts. It's nice to have a little hand in the creative process. I didn't really spend a terrible amount of time on the script, but it's already becoming one of the biggest things I've had a part in creating.

And quite enjoyable.

Just think of miniguns!

2006-02-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

On of the hardest parts of making animated movies is getting everyone else together for voice acting. Its right up in difficulty with lighting, if only everything was as easy and the animation itself, I just don’t know how those live action no budget film makers do it. But this Saturday I managed to get all the actors and Ben the sound guy for the whole day and we had a blast finishing off the bulk of the voice acting.

For those of you who are interested I’ll tell you a bit about our setup. In my computer I have 1/4 inch input and output on my soundcard, much better then 1/8 inch cords. Now we take a high quality shielded 1/4 inch cord and send it from a sound board into my computer. Two microphones are connected to the board and we just add a touch of a vintage feel to the sound. It really adds a rich quality to the sound. Over the mics we draped a frilly table cloth and a batman mask to filter out the pop and they worked quite well. I did not want the mics to pick up the hum of my computer so the mics were positioned going one direction from the board and the computer going another, we then put a piece of foam board between them for safety. The audio quality we got was outstanding, or at least I though so.

After the previous voice session that we had had last year I was having second thoughts on the actor who was doing the hunters part, however while we were recording a dialogue between his character and the vampire he’s voice gained a new gravelly quality that he had never used before and it was just the rugged edge I wanted in the voice. This of course meant redoing all his parts but the sound was wonderful. However when he was acting against Emily’s damsel in distress he lost the quality and was having difficulty getting it back, then Ben the sound guy said, “Think of miniguns Brian!” And it worked, he got his voice right back and I was very pleased with the final outcome.

I also managed to get two hours of the voice acting on video so that may appear as a special feature in the distant future.

The stand of the GODS!

2006-01-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

Today I received my very first piece of professional movie making equipment, a Century Stand, or C-Stand for shot. Let me tell you this is about the greatest stand you could ever use. You can adjust it between 55 and 117 inches, that’s 9 feet, 9 inches tall! Plus is has a 40 inch arm that can be moved about and that’s what you mount stuff on. They are so much easer to move around then my other light stands, which weren’t actually stands, they were ladders. The arm makes it so much more versatile then traditional light stands and makes lighting much faster. I got this for about $85 on ebay and the cheapest I can find C-Stands of this size retail is $175! Rock, rock on!

When in doubt black it out

2006-01-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

A little bit ago someone mentioned a bit of advice from the Sin City commentary that they thought I might find interesting, it was when in doubt, black it out. This, of course, refers to just having characters on black rather then creating a virtual set to replace that lovely green backdrop. I found this very interesting as I had just thought of the same thing after watching The Iron Giant (which I recommend). There is a particular scene where Hogarth is being interrogated in the barn and one bright light turns on and everything but the table, Hogarth, and Mansfield disappear.

The thing that jumped out at me is that I have a similar scene in Vampire, but in my head I had this nice little room planned out for it. If you’ve been following my progress you’ll know I’m at a bit of a standstill due to problems getting voice actors my sound guy together at the same time. Now I wanted finish the bar scene first because the set is complete and I have most of the dialogue recorded, however the other set, the little room, is used in two scenes, one of which only has one line which I do have recorded. I did not really want to build it because I would have to spend money on materials to build the set and right now I a bit short on cash, some people say that in stop motion you can build all your sets out of random junk that is laying in your garage, and while this is true you don’t have the stylistic freedom that you have when your willing to spend a bit of money. And in my film I want to create my own alternate reality and have complete control over this world and have complete control of look and scale. Using real objects means people will think of it as something that takes place in the real world, and I don’t want people to think of my puppets as living puppets, I want them to see characters in my imagination interacting with a world that is in my imagination. That’s why I like windows and doors in my sets, because if the camera peeps out of the constriction of the set and you see a glimpse of outside world it really sells the whole thing. I want people to imagine that they can go through doorways and walk down hallways and they won’t run into studio walls. But sometimes this causes me to forget the basic principal of less is more. If you have shots the sell the world, why can’t others hide the world? Mixing these things up should make the film visually interesting. So in the end I realized that all my set really needs are a stone table/coffin thing and a door, which when open has a really hard light pouring out of it. And that would be cheep to make; I don’t think I’d have to buy anything.

People what say words I've written.

2006-01-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

There is a difference between having a teacher read your essay or poem or whatever in front of class, and hearing someone read something that you have written and actually take it as seriously as vampire movies can be taken. Watching and listening to your ideas come alive--it's inexplicably cool.

As the writer I don't actually do very much, but watching it happen is simply amazing.

A mighty spire

2006-01-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, I’ve got some progress that looks cool in a picture. This is a spire for a miniature I’m using in the movie.

Zombies: The gift that keeps on giving

2006-01-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

I know this does not have much to do with Beyond the Crypt but this Christmas I gave a cousin of mine a clay Zombie as a Christmas present. I should have posted this around Christmas time but I was at my Grandparents house when I made the Zombie and was not using my camera to take the picture, so there was a bit of delay in getting the files in my hands. The character is not an original character, but is based on my cousin’s Zombie he made for a storyboarding class in the Art Institute of Portland. Unfortunately I did not have my lights when I took the photo so the lighting is less the ideal.

I gave film look a try

2006-01-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Well this week has not been good for my movie, Monday I was planning a voice acting session and all the actors would have been able to come in. However I could not get a hold of the sound guy so I had to cancel the session at the last minute. That got me looking through a Musicians Friend catalog for sound boards; some of the smaller models looked tasty until I saw the price of the mics. I swear the hardest part about making movies is getting people together.

A few days later I was looking at new presets for Effects and Composite Labs and I saw a film look plug-in. Now I’m not really sure what my stance on film look is, but I decided to give it a try. I am not satisfied using plug-ins out of the box, if I’m going for film look I don’t just want the picture to look like film, I want the whole frame to scream film, none of those half hearted attempts! I used The Wrong Trousers and The Magic Portal as reference, I’m pretty sure Trousers was shot on 35mm and I know The Magic Portal was shot on 16mm.

After I modified the film look preset to my liking I made the edges of the frame faded, but one thing I noticed from both references was that the sides were not symmetrical in there fading. So I made the right side a larger fade and on the left I made a smaller fade with an un-faded line down it. After I did this I made a black border that blurred into the frame that was also un-symmetrical. Now these effects take a hell of a time to render in 720 line high-def (about 10 min per sec of animation). All effects were made in CompositeLabs Pro (and the DV line cannot do all the grading effects I did). So my first question is, does it look like film? And secondly does it look better? Is it really worth all the trouble? (you may need to fullsize them to get the full effect)

Before:

After:

Rise of the Frankenstein Light

2006-01-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

On of the problems with my par cans and desk lamps is that they cannot be focused. Also the replacement cost of a 200W par 46 lamp is $20 and I can’t get them locally. So I decided to do a little operation on one of my cans and a 250W shop lamp (I can get replacement bulbs for that lamp at about $5-6 locally).

I ripped out the wire screen in the par can and added a reflector from the shop lamp.

I used the shop lights electronics attached to a dissected music stand so I could move the lamp back and forth to create a focusable beam.

And this is the full view. I plan on replacing the ties with wire because I think they will melt with prolonged use.

Review of EffectsLab Pro

2005-12-31T15:52:00.000-08:00

Before I review this software I would like to remind everyone that fancy special effects don’t make bad movies better and if you are using a free NLE (non-liner editor) like Windows Movie Maker 2 or something money spent on a good NLE like Adobe Premiere would be a far better use for your money. I would also like to state that I firmly believe that the best effect should not be obtrusive. They should blend into the movie and look just like the footage it self. Overall people should not wonder how the effect was achieved while watching the film, they should be wondering how the film is going to end.

So starts the review:

Price brake down
EffectsLab DV - $ 111.78
EffectsLab Pro - $ 154.78

These prices do not have discounts from older upgrading programs so if you do own some other FXhome software theses prices will be reduced.

Stock footage:
When EffectsLab Preview came out many people complained because it was more difficult to learn then Alam (FXhome’s older effects software), and because initially they could not use the stock footage plug-ins that had been made for the older program. With the final release of EffectsLab came an input image stream option had been added so you could just use the raw images that are in the older Alam plug-ins if you so desire to use those effects, you can also use avi and QuickTime stock footage. The interface for handling stock footage works just about the same as Alam, for those that did not have the older software here is an explanation: You have four animate-able corners on the given effect, you can, if you so choose just move the explosion (or whatever) where you want it and let it play out in that place, however if the footage is moving you can use the four corners to move squish and do whatever you jolly well like. Once you have finished animating the effect on the footage you then apply masks where needed.

Masking:
For example if an explosion in on a truck that goes under a bridge and the camera is a birds eye view it will need to disappear as it moves under. On the older Alam software you only could use a basic square as a mask and when I used it to add rain to my film Trinket I had at some shots with over 20 separate masks! On the new software you now have a freehand tool that will give you hundreds of points if you so desire. Masks can be applied to all the effects in EL.

Neon Lights:
Neon lights are basically the old light saber effects; however they are much more versatile then the old Alam light sabers. They have two modes, freehand and 4 point. Freehand allows you to make just about any shape you could want, I find this particularly useful in creating sweet lasers, I used this in my film Robot Turkey. The 4 point lights have additional attributes allowing you to adjust the hilt and tip to your satisfaction.

Optics:
The optics is the thing I have played the least with in EL, and lets you to create sun flares and lots of nice little sparkles. It allows you to combined glowing lights to rays and flares and with a little time can give shiny results.

Gun flash:
No longer is gun flash effects locked onto a 2 dimensional plane, EL’s new flash effect can be rotated in every direction. When you first create a flash you have a basic glow which you can reshape to your needs using the controls. By adding textures you can create far more realistic looking flashes and add as many side ejections as you deem necessary. You can also use it to create glow for engines in space craft, combined with the partial generation this could be very convincing.

Particles:
Perhaps my favorite effect in EL is the particle generation. You can create: fog, smoke, snow, rain, heat haze and more with this tool. Particles can be generated from a point or a box. You control the size, velocity, animated transparency, color, size, texture, and how much gravity will affect them. To get the desired effect you tend to have to fiddle with it quite a bit, but the freedom of not being locked to stock footage is very helpful

Grading:
Every kind of effect can be graded using built in tools so it will match the footage you are adding it to. Contrast can be adjusted, blur can be added.

Presets:
One of the most useful additions to this software is the presets, if you plane to use an effect over and over again you can turn it into a preset which you can find in a drop down menu under the type of effect it is. You can also download presents made by other FXhome users and upload your own. All presets available are moderated and ranked so that the available downloads have had some quality control.

Here is an image I created, I took a clay puppet on a black background, and applied a harsh black and white preset. Then I made a copy of the footage and mask out everything but the vest and did some color grading on it. I then applied some heavy rain which I made with the particle generator.

Here is a dream filter someone uploaded at FXhome.

Why would any one need the Pro line?

Is the Pro version worth the $40 extra? I guess that depends on what you need. If you just need some light sabers, lasers, and a few gun blasts on DV resolution then I would say pro is not for you. However if your footage is high definition and you need some advanced grading effects, particle displacements, and might I add the very nifty looking but for the most part impractical gleam tool. Pro line is for you. If you need effects that either line can create it is much easer to use then Photoshop or other tools made for messing with still images and I would recommend checking out the demo and reading through the manual. Don’t buy it without trying it, that’s why there is a demo, I personally feel like it is worth the money I spent on it.

Hopefuly in a few days I'll get a review up on CompositeLabs Pro

Swordplay

2005-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well just the other day I received a lesson in stage swordplay where I was walked through the basic attacks and parries. I’m sure I forgot most of them however my favorite method of learning is to do and then to read how it’s done. Later I will get a hold of some diagrams explaining what I have done and they will make far more sense having gone through many of them myself.

Hopefully I’ll also be able to round up everyone for a holiday voice acting session as all my actors should be done with Christmas plays or back from collage. I’ll try to bring a camera to the session so I can upload some nice pictures.

Some of you who have read my blog at Animate Clay will recall the last post was a plea for help as I was unable to afford Effects and Composite Labs Pro, which I need as my movie is being shot in glories high definition. However things have changed for the better and I now own both of these excellent programs and I may write a review on them later once I have a better understanding of them.

Tales from the Crypt, a short history.

2005-12-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well I've finally done it. I've broken down and created a blog for the world to see. Or perhaps it's more of a plog as I will be logging the production of my current stop motion film, “The Vampire from Beyond the Crypt”. If you have never read my makeshift blog over at the www.animateclay.com forums then I advise you visit here to get caught up on the whole of my activities. But if you do not have the time I will do my best to give a brief overview for the start to my present situation.

It all started around Christmas time last year, on the 14 of December. Brian, Hugh, and I had finished our stop motion monstrosity “Attack of the LEGOs: Revenge of the Order of Darkness”. About a year before that, on December of 2003 my good friend and writer Robert had come up with an idea for a movie that we very much wanted to make, but did not dare trust ourselves with the project. But upon finishing the LEGO stop motion with my other friends the idea occurred to me that we could do Robert’s idea with clay. I did not realize how bad I was at stop motion at the time but the idea of a stop motion movie seemed much safer then making a live action, just because I had done it before, finished the project and knew the ropes.

So it was decided that I would do a test and make a short clay-mation film. If this project turned out to be crap I would abandon stop motion and pursue a career in computer programming or something all together less stupid then stop motion. However Trinket was quite the success, people who owned stores told us (Robert and I) how much they hated the woman, we won third place in a small film festival, which I think was a feat in itself as Trinket had almost no plot, and we ranked #1 in the FXHome cinema for about 20 days. After finishing we began to look into making our dream project, which we planned to be somewhere between 20 and 30 minuets. However I did not want to jump into a project of that size just after a test that only had a 1 minuet and 25 seconds of animation. That was a rather big leap. I was kicking around the idea of a short vampire film at the time. I really wanted to push my lighting and I felt that a film with a vampire setting could give lots of room for experimentation. So I made the very first concept bust of the vampire who would become the villain of our little tale.

As you can see it is far closer to Bela Lugosi then to today’s chicks with pointy teeth in tight leather. We feel that vampires have a very dignified yet comic air surrounding them and could never take a film about them seriously.