The Last Act 2 - VFX Breakdown
Before I start on this one, I’d just like to point out that this WAS about 6 years ago, I was VERY inexperienced, and I KNOW it’s crap….
(When I started looking at the footage for this one earlier this week, I started really regretting saying that I’d do something on it - it looks absolutely awful…. Ah well - I did promise!)
I’m not sure if the quicktimes/avis will play in a browser in this format - I’ll re-do them over the weekend again. Edit: I’ve got the animatic rendered now, so if you thought you might be able to help out there, thanks for the thought!
What’s the film?
The Last Act 2
Who made it?
Again, James Hamer-Morton directed/produced it, under the name “James Productions” (the co-director/co-producer was also called James).
What’s it about?
It’s a teen-slasher-horror film, with a supernatural twist… (it’s been about 4 years since I watched it… the content is a little hazy!)
What VFX was there in the film?
There was only one shot that I worked on, and that was the bullet-time shot. The shot was set on an empty theatre stage, so there was quite a bit of room around where the action was taking place. I wasn’t on set when they shot it (but, considering my lack of experience at the time, I’d imagine I’d have probably done it the same way…)
The action that was taking place was one person stabbing another. James got the actors to run the action multiple times, while he had the camera in a different position each time. When I got the footage, it was 19 stills (one from each position) with the actors in (in approximately(!) the same positions)
Quicktime of original frames with actors in here (3.45Mb)
Yes, I know it’s interlaced - at the time, I’m not even sure I knew what interlacing was! (although more on that next week)
From each position, they also had a shot of just the background:
Quicktime here (3.77Mb)
I then modelled the stage in 3D Studio Max, and set up a camera path that went through the same points that the different shots were taken from. I used this to simulate the actual motion that I wanted the camera to take.
You can take a look at the rendered animatic here (2.2Mb)
Once I had that, I figured out at what point along the path each still that I had was, and, from that, I figured out how many interpolations I had to do, and where from.
Between each shot (both background and foreground), I set up a morph (I really can’t remember which software I was using at the time). Then, using a spreadsheet, I figured out where the final frames where going to come from - I’d usually find that I needed 2 or 3 frames between each original shot, and very rarely would I actually be able to use the original shot itself). From this, I ended up with two smoothly-moving sequences:
Foreground quicktime can be found here (1.54Mb) - in this one, I didn’t even try to get the background working.
Background quicktime can be found here (1.42Mb)
Then, I roto’d the people from the foreground sequence over the top of the background sequence. What did I use for this? Photoshop. (why, oh why?) to be honest, when I found the original files for this shot, I was surprised that I did it this way… Maybe I’d not come across any proper comping tool by that stage… Anyway, however I should have done it, I actually did it frame by frame in Photoshop….
That left me with this (1.53Mb)
Not wonderful, by any means. In fact, I’d go so far as to call it craply awful. However, for me, it was a start into the world of Visual Effects.
What did you learn from this film?
Ummm… lots? I don’t remember it well enough to be able to recall how my attitude was different before and after.
More than anything, I think I realised how painstaking a process visual effects could be. I remember getting sick of both morphing and roto (and it wasn’t even that long!)
October 13th, 2005 at 21:03
Cool Comp! Do you normally use Max for 3d, or do you use Maya or some other package? I’ve found a combination of Photoshop, Max and Shake to be useful. I’ve done a little looking around, and I can’t find a z-depth shader for Max. Any suggestions? I’m currently working at a tv station, and i’ve written a script for a 30 minute a week series, and i’m thinking of using 3dmax for digital sets, so I’m researching this heavily(digital sets, lighting, camera matching, camera tracking, etc). Any suggestions for this too?
October 14th, 2005 at 11:17
At the time, I was using Max, although it was all quite new to me back then.
For the past 5 years or so, I’ve been using Maya pretty much exclusively for 3D.
I am, however, much more of a 2D person, so I’m afraid I can’t help you with your search for a z-depth shader.
As for doing digital sets, why? What benefit would doing digital sets give you over live-action sets? If this is a funded show, then complete digital sets would probably work out a lot more expensive than doing them live-action. What benefits would digital sets give you that careful planning with live-action sets wouldn’t? Would would justify the extra cost of doing digital sets?
If things can be done practically, I’m all for doing them that way, to be honest…
October 15th, 2005 at 8:52
Hey! Thanks for the suggestions! I know it’s easy to breeze by people that have questions, especially when you have a busy schedule, so thanks a million. I’m a complete newbie to the 2d world; i’ve mostly been involved with 3d, so I hope any future questions I might ask won’t annoy you:)
I’m finding more value in having digital sets than practical in this show, because of what the script calls for(that and i’ve found some guys willing to work cheap). I can totally see your what you’re saying about practical vs. effects(in most cases). For this specific case/situation, I’m thinking digital environments would be the way to go. Really, I think there’ll be a mix of practical and effects work, but probably leaning more towards the digital side of things.
So out of curiosity, what made you switch from Max to Maya? I’ve been “Maxing” for about two years now, sort of off and on, and i’m thinking of switching over to Maya as it seems to be the more popular do-it-all package in the vfx houses. It also seems to be a tad more intuitive to me than Max (on the modeling side, anyway). Any thoughts? Hope all is well in the UK! Take care, and thanks again. It always helps to have more than one head looking at something.
October 24th, 2005 at 17:17
Maya just seemed so much more intuitive to me…. I’ve always been quite technical, so I found the node-based system hugely easier to understand. Also, in the film industry, Maya is used far more than Max.
Good luck with your project - are you going to be posting the results anywhere on the web? I’d love to keep an eye on how it’s all going…
October 26th, 2005 at 21:18
Thanks! Yes, i’m finding myself busy, but I am thinking of throwing a primitive site up to chart the progress. Probably mostly test shots. I’ll let you know as soon as I get the site up. Boy is this gonna be a big project!
March 14th, 2007 at 13:31
[…] You may remember a breakdown I posted last year…. It was a particularly rough and crappy attempt at a time-slice shot. It’s finally time to do this again, but properly. […]