Here is a fancy breakdown for the shot I did on the recent 80s episode of Fringe. It had some interesting challenges such as the perspective of the original plate and the desired high-rise angle. I decided to replace the ledge and warp some of the balcony set such as the doorway to better match the angle.
I think it turned out pretty good given the time constraints. Now I may not win an Oscar but hey... It does have a Heli-pad!
About a year and half ago, I was given the opportunity to work with J.J. Abrams to create the intro graphics for the Fox show Fringe which I mentioned on the blog.
Now this season, the producers wanted to flash-back to 1985 for one episode and asked if I would be interested in recreating a title sequence to match the era. I thought to my self, "Radical!"
They wanted to include science concepts that would have seemed cutting-edge at the time, such as "Personal Computing" and "Stealth Technology", and it was my job was to make it look like Atari!
I did some youtube research and began building the retro sequence in After Effects. It was a very fun project that included some strange challenges as well. The way video was produced at the time was quite different and I didn't want to do anything that seemed too modern.
One thing that I tried to avoid was using Easy-Ease keyframes to keep the animation more mechanical. I also used a font that implied "High-Tech" called CyFy. The text overlays were also stylized to match the Chyron process used to composite text on video.
Hat's off to Charles for creating the 1980 version of the music too.
Watch original title sequence, followed by the 1985 version:
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Now those seasoned folks, please feel free to share you stories of actually using the technology from the 1980s...
In this tutorial we will be creating a progressive shatter effect using the Pixel Poly plug-in and some simple expressions. This 20 minute tutorial is an expansion to the 3D Ball Dispersion technique for offsetting animated layers, to achieve a unique burn-away look.
PS, the handy SEQUENCER script can be downloaded with the project.
I'm finishing up some work on my 3D ledge presentation and more ideas came to mind (after watching The 5th Element) and I wanted to include some tips for possibly creating a futuristic scene as well. We're going to have a busy couple of weeks ahead including the Shatter tutorial coming out on Monday and this 3D Ledge soon after. Stay tuned and have your multi-pass ready!
In this special behind the scenes episode of the Blog Show, we will take you through setting up the shot for an upcoming tutorial. The technique allows you to create a 3D camera from a single 2D track!
We also discuss the benefits of temporary post production so you can reshoot before the set is taken down.
ALL DESIGN TOOLS
