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VIDEO COPILOT BLOG News, Updates, Projects Files & Tips |
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Posted at 12:06 pm on January 26th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
Video Copilot finally helped kill off William Shatner! Sort of. Love him or hate him, TV personality Captain Kirk was just exploded for a Priceline commercial and I couldn’t help but notice the explosion looked somewhat familiar.
Turns out his gruesome demise was enhanced with a clip from our very own Action Essentials 2 pack! I sometimes see some of our products used commercially which is exciting but when they kill off William Shatner… that’s worth talking about!
Now if you want to see Sam Loya being killed check out this Video and this one!
Posted at 11:33 am on January 25th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
Watch as Sam & Tino take-off in this new short video for an upcoming tutorial that will be landing soon!
Posted at 9:47 pm on January 22nd, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
This will be the last “update” before the official release date & launch cycle for our upcoming Plug-in Element 3D. Over the past couple of months, I let my excitement and ambition overshadow the time requirements for building such a powerful plug-in and I had to hold off on releasing it. Not just a couple of weeks but a couple of months which is not characteristic of myself or my company.
This community is a big part of why I get to go to work and develop such fun and interesting projects so I apologize for not keeping everyone better informed. I definitely learned a lot about building software of this magnitude and will be much better prepared in the future.
We recently overcame an unexpected but important rendering milestone and we are now polishing the remaining features.
My hope is that when you see the amount of work and careful planning that went into this plug-in, you will understand where that time went and realize our vision together.
The above examples were created inside of Element and I can honestly say that this is only a small part of what this plug-in can do.
I really want to give a time estimate but that always gets me into trouble!
So until then, let me finish-up and launch this baby!
Humbly yours,
Andrew Kramer
Video Copilot
Posted at 1:32 am on January 20th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
There’s someone on the wing, some……thing! Actually it’s a new VFX test I’ve always wanted to do involving an airplane interior. So yesterday we shot this plate of Sam & Tino on the greenscreen with a slow dolly movement. But, while enjoying the in-fight entertainment, they see something outside. Don’t worry it’s not snakes, but I’ll be posting the final shot next week with some tips and a breakdown. See ya then!
Posted at 10:36 am on January 16th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
Get Down!! In this exciting new tutorial, we will build a super-slow motion grenade-throw entirely inside of AE with green screen footage. Learn to build a 3D nodal camera from 2D Tracking data (that is, create a camera that pans and tilts to match your footage) and simulate camera depth of field.
Be sure to watch for additional ideas on capturing moments in super-slow motion towards the end.
Posted at 6:20 pm on January 8th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
As I was working on this new tutorial that involves a flying Grenade, I realized that I could create the entire tutorial without the use of any 3D software like Cinema 4D or 3D max. So that’s exactly what I did! Now if you looking to create some live action elements for compositing, the key is to try and match the lighting of your original shot. If you watch our recent video Shell Shocked, the sun is coming from the top left side of the frame, so I tried to match the look on the green-screen. This same principle applies in 3D animation if you want to composite that futuristic grenade too and I’ll be sure to include some tips for those interested in the 3D workflow! No matter which way you use, do your best to match the lighting and you can use After Effects to blend right in. Stay tuned for the action packed tutorial!
Posted at 6:42 pm on January 4th, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
Here is a side by side comparison of the original footage and the final output for our recent VFX short: Shell Shocked. By viewing the original, it may help those interested, see how I planned the shots for the final FX. The sound may be slightly out of sync due to layering in AE so please watch the original if you haven’t already.
When it started to get dark, you’ll notice the color temperature was shifting badly as the sun disappeared. To fix this, I was able to use Curves and Hue/Saturation to bring the tones back to match the previous shots. I’ll try to put together a basic overview of my color process, (which is not that complex) along with the main FX tutorial of the Grenade flying.
If anyone wants to try and practice color correcting, you can download the clip and start playing around!
Posted at 7:00 pm on January 2nd, 2012 by Andrew Kramer
In the spirit of kicking things off with a BANG, here is Sam Loya in our latest adventure, SHELL SHOCKED! As you might expect, we will be creating a few tutorials based on this video so you should probably check it out!
We shot this with a Canon 5D and an 85mm lens, I also want to thank my friend Eric for letting us film at this location!
PS, the back-story is Sam was doing something else and then he did this.
Posted at 10:40 am on December 13th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
In this mystical new tutorial we will be compositing some stock footage elements and custom made particle effects to build a powerful wizardly blast. We will also use the ripple effect to distort the background around the explosion.
This tutorial uses a clip from Action Essentials 2 & Optical Flares but as a bonus, I have decided to release 120MBs of custom made smoke effects absolutely free.
This custom collection has over 25 HD (1080p) elements of particle smoke effects you can’t get anywhere but Video Copilot!
Download Stock Footage now because we Love You! (54MBs Zipped)
Posted at 12:49 am on November 29th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Back in March of 2009, I started filming a trailer/promo for Action Essentials to show off the new elements. Fun idea, Red camera, fake guns, so we started shooting as fast as we could but sadly, we didn’t have enough time to finish before the product launch. So it was left behind in the dust.
Now it almost feels vintage but there was a clip that somewhat relevant to the recent Machine Gun tutorial so I decided to release the unfinished scene for whatever it’s worth. (Gun still has orange tip… NICE!)
Posted at 12:32 pm on November 28th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
In this tutorial we will create a particle system for emitting specific particles based on a surface type. For example, when the emitter is on the ground we see dirt chunks and when it touches the water we see water splashes. This technique is easy to setup and can be used for motion graphics situations that require dynamic particles types that would be difficult to hand-animate.
The project files contains the expressions and some sample footage to start understanding the concept. For high-resolution footage elements, please check out Action Essentials 2 from our products page!
Side Note: If you use multiple elements from Action Essentials 2, you can create more random effects, like this.
Posted at 10:33 am on November 21st, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
In this exciting new tutorial we will cover a complete workflow from 3Ds Max to After Effects for this exciting shot from our Demon Cam iPhone promo. A fast-45 minutes includes tips for fracturing geometry with Rayfire and creating the shatter simulation, then compositing a Z-pass in After Effects with DOF and Optical Flares.
Posted at 10:53 pm on October 31st, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
As I slowly emerge from the intense world of development, exciting things happening across the board. Our upcoming plug-in Element 3D, continues to render impressive images from within After Effects, like the one above. Things are definitely getting sweeter everyday.
Posted at 11:23 pm on October 16th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
In this tutorial we will go beyond basic keying techniques with new tips to help preserve small details like dirt and reflections. This tutorial covers several topics including a brand new method for green spill suppression, compositing with 32bpc, adding reactive lighting, camera shake, color correction and more!
Watch Tutorial (22 minutes)
Watch Behind the Scene Video
Posted at 4:08 pm on October 7th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
It’s true, I’ve been holding out on you and it’s killing me too!! I decided to develop a few (and by “few” I mean awesome) additional features for Element 3D that were not originally planned but are well worth it. Like this 3D shading effect that adds real depth to each object. I want this plug-in to go BEYOND your expectations as it has already surpassed mine.
The above image was created entirely with Element 3D (screenshot), taking advantage of the impressive render speeds and powerful shading engine. This is an robust system that mimics many attributes of a true Global Illumination render engine at a fraction of the time.
I’m pleased to tell you that the graphics card requirements have NOT changed from our original expectations so even decent cards from the last couple of years will work great. We recommend at least a 512 MB of vRam using an Nvidia or ATI graphics cards but a 1GB card will allow greater flexibility.
Thank you for your patience and please stay tuned for official updates and in-depth demonstrations of new features. Believe me, there are some big surprises ahead… I can’t tell you everything YET. Even though I really want to…
Posted at 12:53 pm on September 21st, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Posted at 12:14 pm on September 19th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
I’ve been experimenting with some advanced chroma keying methods to specifically deal with reflections and subtle details like this car plate.
Often times we use keylight to get rid of everything that is green but in some cases we want to keep some of the reflections to make a shot more realistic. Some of these tips are quite noteworthy because the footage being used is from a Canon 5D which can be particularly noisy due to compression artifacts. Pulling a good key is already challenging enough but leaving in small details without flicker is even more problematic. I think I have figured out a few good methods and we even filmed another behind the scenes video to show how we setup the shots. Look for the video and tutorial soon.
Posted at 8:54 am on September 15th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Looks like we are having another free stock footage day that includes 15 new HD (720p) particle clips and a quick tutorial with some compositing tips & ideas. For tips on creating your own footage check out Flour Fusion show. Sweet Deal!!
FREE Particle Stock Footage:
Download Stock Footage (162 MBs)
Footage is in h.264 compressed MP4 files. Usage License. Enjoy!
Posted at 6:32 pm on September 13th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
After the Flour Fusion experiment I began testing the footage in some of my after effects projects and found them to be quite useful and interesting. So later this week, I’ve decided to post some Free HD clips for everyone to try.
This comp was created using some snow images placed in 3D space. Then the snow particles were comped over the entire screen in 2D. I’m sure with a little more work the particles could be in 3D space as well by making multiple copies. You could even use particular to create some additional 3D particles to really sell the depth… so many ideas. How will you use the clips?
Posted at 12:44 pm on September 7th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Creating particles in After Effects is awesome! We have all used Particular and Particle world but why not combine those particles with some real ones! Sometimes you need to create elements that are so complex and organic that you are better off taking out the camera and making a mess.
In this example we use a little bit of flour to mix things up!