Kramer tutorial on city destruction

StephansBilderwelt

Andrew just uploaded a new tutorial. Thought there are some nice technics. Like to try some things in HF

http://youtu.be/ZiXdcziloG8

Triem23

As always, Kramer does solid work. Nothing in this tutorial that isn't doable in Hitfilm, although, of course, in Hitfilm one would have to use Mocha for the camera solve--but, look at Axel's energy ball part 2 tutorial where he covers using mocha to track objects after a camera solve, and that will show ya how to set up the planes for the foreground building matte. Although, frankly, it's a cubic solid. Just roto it. Or planar track in mocha and export the mask.

A couple of other things in this I might approach differently in Hitfilm than AE. I'd probably be more likely to use some particle sims for smoke, for example, but, yeah--as always, good ides.

Looks like the hardest part might be sourcing the elements.

StephansBilderwelt

@Triem23 I have played around a little with HF and the tutorial. I did like the part where he used different masks at the building to create a 3D effect. But I could not really copy what he showed. 

The camera solve worked quite good the second time. Also I used the bonfire plugin for the fire inside the building and the particle smoke, looked very nice and solid. 

StormyKnight

StephansBilderwelt - Thanks for posting this tutorial. Very helpful!

Triem23 - "Looks like the hardest part might be sourcing the elements."

That was my first thought too. Then I searched for demolition pictures. The trick is finding either low cost royalty free or completely free photos. With the way Andrew doctored up the wreckage element with feathering you could get away with quite a lot.

I did the same technique of creating smaller images within an image to get a 3D planet type look in a video a while back. You could see the inside of the planet which looked like a massive cavern. I didn't think of feathering as much as what Andrew did but I think I'm going to give it another go soon.

StephansBilderwelt

The elements came with the tutorial, you can download them. 

StormyKnight

Oh, I snagged those. But they're limited somewhat if you want variety. Until I got Action Essentials 2 I was using the same four explosions over and over and stretched and distorted them as much as I could to make them look different. The illusion fooled my friends but I was tired of the same thing. And as the adage goes- variety is the spice of life.  <see? lol

StephansBilderwelt

I do like spice  

Triem23

Add in Digital Juice's explosions and Videoblocks explosions with Action Essentials ant the fact that Hitfilm's Particle Sim can make great explosions and I'll blow up the **** spice! 

StephansBilderwelt

))

StormyKnight

Triem23 - You'll have to get to Kessel first!

MichaelJames

hmm too bad its not using their buildings models.  Any ideas on doing this with their models?

Triem23

The exact techniques would work with the building models, provided you're comping the models in 2D mode so you can mask them. I mean when you really break down this tutorial, it's just hanging some graphics on 3D planes and blending. 

StephansBilderwelt

Looks like the NSA is hacking this forum....no problem if you like to change the header, but would be nice to let the author know in front.

StormyKnight

StephansBilderwelt - Yeah, I can see the title popping up in a Google search on some terrorist group. lol

Triem23

@StephansBilderwelt the admins have been a bit aggressive lately on changing thread titles. On one hand "Kramer Tutorial..." is a better, more accurate title than "Nice idea," but on the other hand I can see why notifying an author of the change would be nice. 

@StormyKnight Kessel? Try Arrakis, Dune, desert planet. 

StormyKnight

Triem23 - Okay- but can you make it in less than 12 parsecs?

(yeah- I know, parsecs are a unit of astronomical length equal to 3.26 light-years but I didn't write the line originally. lol)

Triem23

Hell, with Space Folding the Guild can get me there in five microns, if you permit me to mux Dune and BSG in a single post. 

Stargazer54

I have always hated the whole "made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs."   On the face of it, there couldn't be a more unscientific way to describe  trip time.  But after low so many years, I think I may be starting to come around.

How can a unit measure of immense distance mean anything about trip time? 

But if you are warping space itself or 'folding', as Triem has pointed out ala Dune,  or creating a worm hole to reduce an otherwise trip of 200 parsecs to 12, only then would it be a quicker trip, and in which case, you win the race.   However the power requirements would be way beyond that of a mere Millennium Falcon or Federation starship.  

Unless . . . . . . . you had the spice!

 

(on another note:  So glad Mr. Ford is still with us.)

 

StormyKnight

Here's the spice........and sci-fi based to boot! The scene is reminiscent of Blade Runner- speaking of Harrison Ford.

Now, (to mix in another series) I'm going to starburst out of here in half an arn.

Triem23

Remember in New Hope that Han mentions not rushing hyperdrive calculations to not jump through the heart of a star--it's possible in Star Wars that much hyperdrive travel follows established "space lanes," in which case Han could literally mean he takes a shorter, more dangerous route through regions of space with higher matter density/black holes, etc... 

Or we can agree Star Wars isn'tscience fiction--it's sword and sorcery fantasy with technology.  

Dplester brought this up in private message, but it's good to note here:

Videoblocks has earned a bad reputation from people who didn't read the terms of service carefully. If you sign up for their seven-day trial they will ask for a credit card number. If you don't cancel your account in seven days, you are automatically subscribed. This is clearly listed on the website when you sign up. 

Every complaint about Videoblocks goes like this: I signed up for the free trial and got billed a month later. To which the response is: You should have cancelled your subscription in seven days like the website (that you obviously didn't read, idiot) told you to. 

Videoblocks isn't a scam. There's just a lot of people complaining because they didn't read the terms of service to begin with and got surprised for their inattention. 

It's not great either. The footage quality is mostly only ok. I started my subscription when they were just moving from monthly to yearly. I got an early adopter rate of $39.99/year. Since a single Artbeats clip starts at $25, Videoblocks has been a good value for me, but the service isn't worth more than $99/year. If you can find that rate, browse some clips and see if they have things you'd use. If it's currently the $79.99/month subscription, don't pay that much. 

StormyKnight

I tried VideoBlocks' free trial but I was one of the smart ones and canceled on day six. T23 is right, the vid quality is only okay. I eventually bought some discs from FootageFirm. HD and beautiful shots of NYC. They have all kinds of stuff.  hhttp://www.footagefirm.com/ttp://www.footagefirm.com/

Oh shoot- FootageFirm has merged with VideoBlocks! When did that happen? I was wondering why I wasn't receiving any more awesome offers through email from FootageFirm.

heh-heh: Coming soon: another Andrew Kramer tutorial on how to destroy an active forum thread.

Triem23

Yeah, but that requires Videocopilot's "Digressions 2.0" plug-in which is $79.99. However it is bundled with "Joke Generator: Pop Culture."

StephansBilderwelt

Hm, I think they have to change the title again.....

Anyway nice tutorial Kramer

Videoblock? Sun is out now, birds flighting around, spring is knocking at the front door. Maybe I step outside and take the camera with me and do some home made footage for the archive. 

Triem23

Videoblocks does accept user submissions. Email them and request submission guidelines. A couple of years ago they'd pretty much take anything. They basically pay a flat fee per clip for usage rights. 

Slider, jib or dolly footage probably appreciated. Videoblocks has a crapton of static footage, boring pans, and timelapse. 

StephansBilderwelt

I used to sell some of my pictures back in the days. But this is a lot of work, for very little money. So the videos are just for my own use or for my YT channel and I even give them out for free if someone would like to use them.

Triem23

I actually have some stuff I intend to sell, but there would be a lot of hours sorting the footage, so, as always, it's about the time.