I saw this the other day on Youtube and was amazed. Gives me hope that if you plan out your shots properly you can really do a lot with a little and still have it look incredible

Wou unbelievable! that was heavy work… how many days did they edit this movies to get the final result?
looks very nice!

greets from germany!

by the way, keep up the good work which you are doing at the moment andrew! youre the best!

Well said.

WOW an amazing short!! Its is so cool what you can do with so little and hard work and planning. Gives me hope to create my own short some day.

AMAZING WORK!!

i LOVE indie stuff! :]

in refferance to what “DORBINS” said….the Question is… HOW do u plan out those shots?
i guess u gotta be in a level that trial and error is something youre not familiar with.
i mean…they wouldnt come back to france for a reshoot :]
……….
…..
..
.

That’s crazy awesome. Good stuff!

You can get more info about this project from here:

http://http://motionographer.com/

Probably where Andrew found it, and a great inspiration resource for motion graphics and visual FX work.

Sorry we lost a few comments because we had to restore the blog. Feel free to repost.

This is.. epic. Enough said, now Andrew I demand an autograph.

really cool…

Incedible. Cool mattepaintings.

This is old… And I think this was done on a BBC budget. The guys are professionals, and this is necessary to do something like this in four days. So, not really indie stuff and available for everyone…

EXCELLENT WORK!!!

I can’t view this here at work, but I just wanted to post because I just bought “Video Streams”, “Real Clouds” and “Evolution”. All amazing and I’m just drooling over the tutorials that were provided and what I’m able to create. Looking forward to using all in our movie. So thanks Andrew!

Oh my godness….
3 people and such a result…

I loved it! And I would love to see a tutorial on this advanced stuff!

very very cool.

thanks for sharing!

“And I would love to see a tutorial on this advanced stuff!”

Good idea. Though I don’t know how much work it would be for Andrew. Don’t wanna be too selfish now . I think like any art the concepts aren’t that complicated but getting the idea on how to do it, gathering everything together and in the end making it look good. Definitley inspiring to me, being that I’m on a low to no budget and have the smallest crew.

This is from a BBC program called Timewatch I think I have the full episode I’ll upload to Stage6 or Veoh when I have the time…
Keep up the good work guys…

They make it look so simple, on a shoe string budget talking about budget end of this month I will finally be able to buy the whole dvd set from you andrew …

Everything is in the planning. Storyboarding would be incredibly important for something like this so you have a visual of what you want to acheive. From there I would breakdown everyshot and decide the best way to shoot it (green screen, different running segments etc). If you plan, storyboard and know what you want to shot before you get to a locale it makes the process much easier and may give you time to shoot some extra stuff for some experiments and nice to haves, but that is just me. The pro’s may do it differently.

this is so good, everyone is sending it around.

andrew-LOVE designer sound effects, i use it in everything i do! whats next?!

Wow! That’s insanity!
P.s Andrew, you should start selling gunpowder.

Yeah I saw that a few weeks ago. Hands down my favorite video on Youtube. They did all the compositing in AE. Wow!

I actually was thinking of this to a film I was gonna do but I didn’t thaught it would work so good so I didn’t test it and rewrote the film XD

This one was great!

But how it is possible to get a camera-movement if the camera is fixed on a tripod (the large scene with all of them running)..

So cool !

this was truly remarkable

very great work…. !

@ peter, I would use a 3d motion tracker, but you can probably do it in a 2-d tracker if you have a bg plate that is a wider shot. Then you just take all of the footage of your running dudes, and stick them to the wider shot with the tracking data, and do some minor roto, and there you go.

Awesome video Andrew! I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before.

p.s. Am I the only one who couldn’t stand Saving Private Ryan? I mean come on Tom Hanks!? The Normandy scene was cool, and that one Nazi that gets hit with the flamethrower was cool, but I think I fell asleep halfway through the damn thing. I want to see these guys make their own full length movie. The whole thing would probably cost like $1000 or something to make and be done in less than a month!

I think there is no need for a tutorial. Andrew already gave us the knowledge and the tools to create the most of this. With the Time Freeze and Set Extensions Tutorials, the After Shake Preset, Action Movie Essentials, maybe some Film Magic Pro and a lot of work and creativity you can make a video which is almost as good as the video above.
I think we need more 3D tutorials … please?

@ Peter: You can move the camera or the footage layer in AE. Just increase the scale of your video and you have some space for “camera movements”. The movement will be unnatural which you can see in the video above. You loose some quality, but if the movement is not really big and you have a lot of action and motion blur it won’t be visible. I think they shot on high definition and showed it in standard definition, so the loss of the quality was not visible at all.

That was incredible! It makes me want to go out and film at the local beach

Truly incredible work – gives me hope and so many ideas I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep for weeks! To Aharon R. Andrew K. and all those who do tutorials for us newbies, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!

Wow that was good. It’s amazing what a few talented guys and some inspiration can accomplish.

wow…that’s just…wow

I loved it. Even the wife was slightly impressed!
Note to self- must try harder.

Thanks Andrew

That has gone round on so many blogs and forums that I frequent its not funny! But still, so good!

I can’t believe ‘The Hamster’ made it on to Video Copilot, that guy gets everywhere.

Amazing Comp work and on a BBC budget and a four day shoot, pretty amazing results, just shows what you can do even outside the Hollywood machine (Even if the Soho houses more or less are these days).

@ Some Guy (lol)
“Quote” = This is old… And I think this was done on a BBC budget. The guys are professionals, and this is necessary to do something like this in four days. So, not really indie stuff and available for everyone…

Yeah, but honestly, if you forget about the price of the equipement (camera, WW2 outfits) and making the artbeats, I’m sure it’s possible to achieve the same result on a very tight budget.
That said, it’s still a lot of work… Looooong time ago I thought about doing something like this, but I wasn’t sure if I was crazy Looks like I’m normal

Thanks for quick answers. *thumbs up*

It was new to me. and who’s name is at the top of the website? jk

wow
insane compositing
4 days to shoot but really
how many days to plan each individual shot
just goes to show you cant expect to go out and shoot on a whim all the time

OMG! I love this stuffs, hopefully this will be my carrier after i graduate from college.
But i’m still in high school =D

I have the basic idea of cloning in after effects but I don’t think andrew has done a tutorial on making a whole army using one or 2 people like on that beach. I’m sure a tutorial on this would be interesting and very useful for film makers who want lots of extras but cant get them. I know for a fact you have to keep the camera absolutly still throughout the cloning process and you cant let the characters cross paths

that is simply brilliant.

it was new to me as well and I suspect to quite a few other people.

time to hire those guys for my film project. I was going to get 1,000 extras…

I thought it was awesome. It makes me want to go out and create something…..anything.

On a bit of a side-note, there is a product for 3DS Max called Automatron from the guy who made (or is making??) Lots of Robots. It basically allows you to set up and control dozens (maybe hundreds?) of models to perform various tasks (like running, etc). It is like a poor man’s version of Massive Prime (what they used for the battle scenes in LOTR and many other movies). Unless you can afford the $30,000 for Massive, it may be a helpful alternative.

http://www.lotsofrobots.com/

P.S. Keep the good stuff coming Andrew. When can we expect the next tutorial DVD?

Lol, I just saw this yesterday, was on Stu Maschwitz’s prolost blog

Yahoo Richard Hammond. aka Hamster

wow this is great

andrew show us how to do^^

greez

Lousy, you’re.. joking… right?

oh come on scott… haha.. that was kickass

OMG , that’s was wonderful !!!

I understand the basic concept of the beach scene with everybody running, but how exactly would you go about editing it. Would you have to draw a mask around every single person that is running on the beach?

Kramer,

That was amazing..blown away. The planning must have been insane.

I too, had to show my wife. Even she gave it some props.

OMG, really amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, cool vid.
How do they mix it?
I mean, like cloning, but then the footage is moving. how do u do that?

That was simple mind blowing…

Enough said…

Wow ! it’s so beautiful ! I love it !

Du très bon boulot de compositing!!!!

Bravo!!!

wouaaaa !!
c’est excellent

I’d love to see a tut of this.

come on…stop asking tutorials for every thing you see…and study harder the one we already have he’s not a money box to be shaked..

lol

thanks andy for that amazing video!

you should do a tutorial…………………

A very good result, about what we all try.

This video is great!!!!!

I love this video, it’s inspired me to try doing something similar myself. Now all I need is a high quality camera and some time

Oh yeah, thank you for all these amazing tutorial videos Andrew, they’re 100% easier to follow than all those written ones out there. I mean, I found some video tutorials in Hebrew and was able to follow them and duplicate the effects perfectly, and I only speak English :O

its just amazing, i saw this one day ago on youtube. What about a tut fot creating something like that! The running part, composite the footages adding elements and bangs, and make it look nice.

They used multiple exposures to composite which is not done often these days. It was a widely used technique back in the days before digital but it can be recreated using digital, maybe by just changing the blending modes in after effects? I don’t think they had to mask out each person frame by frame, but if they did then kudos to them. I watched the original BBC program when it aired and thought they had spent most of the budget on extras; it’s amazing what results 3 guys, a camera, maya and after effects can do..

That must be the most awesome I’ve ever seen in compositing. Talk about inspiring!

Great video. But I came up with one question: I have seen only Andrew`s tutorials, wich are probably the best and easy to underestand due to the video, but has He made any video projects, like a film or sth?

Greetings from Estonia.

Definitely looks like something Andrew would do… war theme… explosions… lots of masking… fun overall

Now that was flippin awesome.

The final result is really great. I must say I love such video showing you the backstage and post production work… It’s really cool… So andrew… when do you start your own version of Indiana Jones ? :p

Funnily enough I came onto Video Copilot to give Andrew a heads up on that Youtube clip but am the best part of a day behind!

Very clever, very well put together and basically the best bit of work I have ever seen, considering it was three men, a few uniforms and a HDV camera. Pretty sure the post went into weeks and not days.

But I think every one of us on here would love to see Andrew do a tutorial of that, perhaps broken down into several parts.

As someone else has said, Explosions. Guns. Blood. Fighting. Compositing. More explosions. Right up Mr Kramers street.

What about a whole DVD tutorial, dedicated to this one clip. I reckon it would sell like hot cakes.

But a tutorial on making a crowd out of a handful of people would be brilliant regardless.

Anyone agree?

That was neat to see someone “taking it to the next level!” I’m getting that is what this whole site is about. Andrew has shown us ALL of the tricks used in making this clip. Any regulars here should be able to point out all the techniques, if not relevent tutorials on this site that can be used to make that whole clip. Yes, you need a green screen, probably a half-decent camera, but mostly the mind, imagination is what holds us back the most. Other than 3D modeling, Andrews given all of us plenty of tools to use and create new and exciting effects. Just use the imagination, figure out what you want to do, then apply the techniques!

Since there are so many of us out there, what we should do is have a contest to see who can come up with the most original idea for a tutorial, then give our best shot at an attempt. If successful, try to simplify the process. No lightsabers and no clones. What do you say Andrew? Free TWITCH for the winner?

According to the blog for this video clip, “Bloody Omaha is finally finished after a six week edit.” So it wasn’t a very quick job, but still, the result is amazing. I’m off to find me some green cloth to use as a screen

Saw this clip over ourmedia a couple days ago, and its pretty awesome

“But a tutorial on making a crowd out of a handful of people would be brilliant regardless.” We already have a rather basic tutorial for it, called “Time Freeze”

The process is simply overlaying clips and using mattes to merge all of your clips. If your feeling ambitious, you don’t even have to make them seperate clips, just crop and slice and you should be fine.

holy sickness! awesome shoot, edit, comp etc… 4 day shoot, and 3 guys??? nuttty!!! grouse stuff…

Remember ppl, Designers are not to be understood, only LOVED! wink wink!!

Basic compwork, but it sure is an incredible result!
Proves that most small studios can do just about anything these days if they have a comp and a post-effect tool installed

wow, very cool video!!!!Thank you for sharing.

Well yes, I agree with all of the comments left so far. And yes, of course we would all love for you (andrew) to break it down into nice simple steps. But was we all know in the back of your minds this is a bit much to break down into small simple parts. Rather, it would be usefull to pull just one of the main aspects out of this video. Such as perhaps the proper technique to over lay multiple videos of the same people running up and down a beach into a single video with out the trouble of mattes over laying and causing problems.

Regaurdless, this video rocks, but not as hard as Videocopilot.com.

For everybody, who wants a tutorial about basic cloning (or “making a crowd out of a handful of people”):
http://www.indymogul.com/weekend-extra/episode/IMWE_20070810
Use a mask in After Effects instead of cropping (like in the Time Freeze Tutorial). Depending on the shot and the size of your crowd (number of clones) it will be just rectangular masks or a pretty accurate masks around your actors. Then animate the masks and you will get an army or whatever you like.
This technique is very easy, so it’s up to your fantasy and creativity. Of course there will be a lot of work animating the masks, but sometimes you have to sacrifice, to make something great.
Don’t forget to plan your shots, maybe make a storyboard, use markers for your actors and a tripod for your camera. By the way, the planing includes thoughts about shooting on location or using a greenscreen. And last but not least: think about a Difference Matte – sometimes it could save a lot of work.

PS: If Andrew knows an advanced technique to create clones/crowd, I would like to see a tutorial too.

OMG ! i’m scared to open the fridge because i might see Richard Hammond!
But seriously ,Incredible work!
For me the most important problem is good camera…:(
Andrew’s tutorials, are only that i watch with passion,the other traning dvd’s are sooooooo boooooring that i falling sleep faster then watching f1!

Sorry for my English!

P.S. I like F1 so don’t beat me F1 fans

It’s a amazing work.

BTW, where I can download this video, so I can learn it offline, thanks.

Look what I’ve just made with the help of your tutorials:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQGxGzxDxU

Yeah!!!

Something like that … I call a GOOD JOB DONE!!!
little invest … GREATH COMPOSITING … BEAUTIFUL WORK!!!

BIG HELLO TO ALL VC CREW!

Just continue…

Amazing!!! You are masters!!!

Congratulation… Beautiful work!

Hello.

this video is kind a cool stuff. I love it. What a great and really cool work. It will make me more work to get better in thinks i do. WOW! Thumbs up!

In German:

Das Video ist der Hammer. Einfach geil gemacht. Es bewegt mich dazu, noch mehr zu arbeiten um auch soetwas geiles umsetzen zu können. WOW! Daumen hoch!

Greeting,

MasterQuin
from Germany

this is awesome. i like it.

holy crap that is amazing work!!!!

Who would’ve thought!

Motivador e inspirador, Kramer!

Muy buena la página de MotionGraphics, ya la estoy revisando.

Saludos, y de nuevo Felicidades por tu sitio web.

just so you gys know, its not andrews work

I attempted something similar with creating a crowd of people. I green screened about six people in front of a green screen yelling and throwing there arms into the air, looped the footage, then used trap code particular to create the large crowd, where each particle was a copy of the keyed footage.

Check out the large crowd shot in our 300 parody:
http://www.lcp.org/video.html

Thanks for all the inspiration Andrew!

Here’s the tutorial that taught me the effect:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k4az_tuto-after-effects-make-a-crowd_tech

Just a quick question regarding the video:

For the wide shots of the beach, did they have to mask every guy frame by frame or they used an easier technique???

BEST VIDEO ever seen ! just great! I mean 3 people and such a result !

@Walkerrx7: That was frickin funny! The bringing cousins line at the end floored me. Well done.

Did anyone see Cloverfield? I personally loved it, but understand how it could be an annoyance to others. Andrew if you read this, how difficult would it be compositing on shaky-cam footage like that or would it be shot semi stablized and have more shake added in after to enhance the handi-cam effect. Or is there an advantage to compositing on shaky footage (ie your compositing doesn’t have to be spot on because of all the shakin going on.) Just some thoughts based on seeing this posted war video and seeing cloverfield the other night.

Hiii..
How the effects with the soldiers multiplied on the beach was made??
I suppose with the difference of image..But it’s too precise..There a combination of technics that it’s better to use?
Because I have tried something like that but the result it’s not really good..
help..

Amazing job!!!!!!! I am happy to know that there really is a way to work a huge-budget-looking film into my tiny-budget scenario. This was so cool to watch…..

Hey Lthrboots, recognize your name from the Digital Juice forums. Welcome to after effects heaven.

Woooooooooooow, this is off the hook.

Wow, absolutely incrediblea and inspirational !

THIS is AWESOME! thanks for passing along.

Truly amazing. That was all done in AE? Except for the digital models….right? Any other videos like this?

ANDREW I CAN’T WAIT FOR TWITCH, please have it released soon my credit card awaits!!!!!

Wow.. I Loved It It Is Perfect =]

the final looks like pearl harbor. so amazing

yyeeeeeeessssssssssss amazing!!! THAT WAS GREAT! I saw it a little late.. XD

this is awsome.
It’s very cool to see that we can do almost good as ‘saving private ryan’ with a low budget!

Unbelievable

Whoa, that’s amazing! A complete D-day scene with like 5 people?