Archive for the ‘After Effects’ Category
After Effects: trying to create fake depth of field
soon I’ll be doing a series of vodcasts / short personal video presentations.
thinking this task through and trying to gather inspiration I stumbled upon this short interview with Ralph Hauwert by Lee Brimelow.
this is actually what I really want.
a crystal clear video of the presenter and a background so far away/blurred that your attention is 100% at the presenter. so I found a nice naturally lit location, almost always available for filming and tried doing 2 different test-presentations.
on this first test-presentation, I’ve placed the presenter in the middle of the room, placed myself at the end of the room, and then zoomed in on the presenter to boost the depth of field effect:
and on this second test-presentation, I’ve placed the presenter and myself at the end of the room to see, if it made any difference on the depth of field effect:
shortly, I get a depth of field effect on both my vodcasts, but not at all the same smooth style as the one on Lee Brimelows interview. of course, Lee’s interview is filmed with a EOS 7D with Canon 50mm 1.4 while my vodcast is filmed with a Canon Legria HFS100, and I’m not at all sure these are capable of doing the same kind of footage/film.
but still I hoped for a much better result.
without success I’ve tried creating not the same, but a similar effect using the spot focus effect by Jerzy Drozda Jr, but this does not at all work with a vodcast like the one I’m creating:
I could try making a mask precisely masking the person presenting and then blurring the rest, but as these vodcasts could last for minutes and the presenter is very unlikely to not change position from time to time I fear a LOT of work succeeding with this technique..
so this brings me to these final questions:
1) is the setup of film correct if the task is to create a good depth of field.. I mean how should I place myself and the presenter in the room to get the best depth of field effect?
2) and if the setup actually is correct, can I in any way easily get that beautiful depth of field using any effect in After Effects?
thanks
After Effects: creating a viral film
yes, that’s right.
I’ve tried creating my own viral film.
so what makes a viral film viral?
well, in my opinion, it has to be something that you either hate or love, find funny or tragic, or something that in some way affect you.
something that affects you so much, that you want to share it with someone.
the theme for my viral film.
for my viral film, I’ve chosen the theme young vs old.
you all know when someone old corrects someone young by telling him, how easy it is to be a kid nowadays.
or by telling that being a kid in the old days was no fun at all.
sentences like:
“When I was a kid, we had 14 meters of snow each night!” and “In my days, I was lucky if I even got anything to eat on my birthday!” are both very recognizable :O)
so my theme kind of reverts this.
my theme shows how kids had fun in the old days. and by choosing some very poor examples of fun, it adds a sarcastic, funny angle to the old vs young debate.
hopefully this funny angle is so funny, that people want to share this film with friends or family, making the film a viral film.
filming and locations
the film was filmed on march 2010 with a Canon Legria HFS100.
I tried filming is so old environments as possible, and besides from seeing the tip of a car for a few seconds, I think everything actually looks very realistic and oldish.
by the way, let’s actually call the car a deliberate mistake, film geeks love stuff like this 
everything is edited and masked in After Effects, and I used Fast Blur and Posterize Time effects.
the signs between each film is made by Dorthe Lange Bjerg, thanks!
the video is actually quite large – 1280 x 720 pixel – so it looks kinda alright in fullscreen too.
watch the film on vimeo for full options if you please.
and remember, if you like this film very much, post it on facebook, tweet about it or pass it on to your friends and family. thanks.
After Effects: Catwalk TV ad demo for BON’A PARTE
twice a year or more, I edit catwalk video for BON’A PARTE.
the main work is to color correct the video and make small videos of each set of clothes.
having done this in january, I decided to make a small TV ad-like demo:
I wanted to use only existing material, and I wanted to set it up template based, so it would be fairly easy to reproduce next time catwalk video was shot.
here’s what I ended up with:
related post:
TV ad demo for Fleur in After Effects:
After Effects: creating a demo TV ad for Fleur Bodywear / using a 24 mm camera
a couple of times each year I set up a DVD for Fleur, showing all the nice, new lingerie the make.
and having for a long time wanted to work a bit with cameras in 3D space in After Effects, I decided to make a demo TV ad from the slides of the DVD.
check out the Fleur TV ad demo set up as an Flash Video file here (1024 x 576 px).
or check out the Fleur TV ad demo set up on Vimeo here.
hope you like it.
credits:
the DVD for Fleur. (no sound)
music from Soundsnap.
Per Andersen from Komo for guidance and inspiration.
showcase: Xmas 2009, invitation and greeting
did shocking little christmas-stuff this year, only
the traditional invitation to “årets julefrokost” for IB&Co
and
this christmas greeting for SYD ENERGI
to see christmas stuff made in the years before this, please check out these links:
christmassy TV ad made for Miss O in Holstebro
showcase: Xmas stuff, invitations and greetings made in Flash
merry christmas, everyone :O)
ActionScript 3.0: how to control panning of a SoundTransform Object / laid back jazz video
having seen a video by Morten Andreasen, I was inspired to do some similar stuff.
so I came up with this short, interactive music video of me playing a jazz-piece, enjoy.
the cool thing is absolutely that either the lead or the rhythm guitar can be muted, so if you find the muddy rhythm guitar the more interesting instrument, just unplug that bluesy lead!
the workflow:
the music was recorded in Garageband, the different video-tracks edited in After Effects and dubbed to the Garageband-track, and finally a FLV (Flash Video) file from After Effects was setup in Flash making the whole thing interactive. the nice track is originally by Muris Varajic .. by the way, it took me like forever to learn those crazy jazz rhythm chords
for actionscripters:
the track is exported in stereo from Garageband with the rhythm guitar in one side and the lead guitar in the other side.
so when choosing one instrument in the video, what is actually is done is telling the SoundTransform Object that controls the panning of the NetStream what music to play. does it have to play full pan left, full pan right or no panning (balanced center between right and left).
the ActionScript (the panning bit):
if(e.currentTarget.name == "rhythm"){
videoVolumeTransform.pan = Math.round(-1);
} else if(e.currentTarget.name == "lead"){
videoVolumeTransform.pan = Math.round(1);
} else if(e.currentTarget.name == "duo"){
videoVolumeTransform.pan = Math.round(0);
} else {
//
}
stream.soundTransform = videoVolumeTransform;
}
other blogposts on music or video:
check out the video for Hawkeye and Hoe band
check out the acoustic variation on Map of your mind by Muse
check out this post on how to use ASCuePoints in ActionScript 3.0
check out this post on how to add a fullscreen option to your FLV’s
check out this post on how to loop an FLV using the FLVPlayBack component
credits:
Morten Andreasen and this video:
Muris Varajic from guitarmasterclass
ActionScript 3.0: how to add a fullscreen option to an FLV
with the internet connection speed quickly increasing, the option to play a video fullscreen becomes more and more important, as better videos deserve to be enjoyed in larger scales. but how to add that fullscreen option, if you set up your own Flash project?
first of all, check out this video, that can be watched in fullscreen
a simple button activates/deactivates the fullscreen state.
heres the ActionScript for the entire Flash:
import flash.display.StageDisplayState;
var _paused:Boolean = false;
play_mc.buttonMode = true;
fullscreen_mc.buttonMode = true;
play_mc.gotoAndStop(2);
fullscreen_mc.stop();
fullscreen_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fullscreenOrNot);
play_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, pauseOrPlay);
videoplayer.autoRewind = true;
videoplayer.addEventListener(VideoEvent.AUTO_REWOUND, playAgain);
function playAgain(e:Event):void {
trace("starting over");
videoplayer.play();
}
function pauseOrPlay(e:MouseEvent):void {
if(_paused){
videoplayer.play();
play_mc.gotoAndStop(2);
_paused = false;
} else {
videoplayer.pause();
play_mc.gotoAndStop(1);
_paused = true;
}
}
function fullscreenOrNot(e:MouseEvent):void {
if (stage.displayState == StageDisplayState.NORMAL) {
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN;
} else {
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.NORMAL;
}
}
besides setting your project up in ActionScript 3.0 you also need to add these parameters to your HTML, to allow the embedded Flash to go fullscreen:
allowFullScreen="true"
if unsure where to put this, check out the source for the linked example listed first in this post.
the Flash is embedded in HTML using SWFObject.
the video in this post was created in After Effects.
ActionScript 3.0: looping an .flv with the FLVPlayback component
long ago I did this large article on how to use .flv’s in Flash.
back then I wrote, that when placing an instance of the FLVPlayback component on Stage, instancenaming it myFLVPlayer and using this code:
function playAgain(e:Event):void {
trace("starting over");
myFLVPlayer.play();
}
would make the FLVPlayback component loop the .flv.
actually this can be achieved like this too:
myFLVPlayer.autoRewind = true;
myFLVPlayer.addEventListener(VideoEvent.AUTO_REWOUND, playAgain);
function playAgain(e:Event):void {
trace("starting over");
myFLVPlayer.play();
}
the difference?
check out an .flv that loops here
the intro in the video is created in After Effects.
enjoy 
ActionScript driven animation to QuickTime and After Effects
from Flash CS3 it’s possible to export ActionScript driven animations to Quicktime.. this is very useful as Quicktime is the faster renderer and can handle those complex animations that Flash Player cannot.
so, inspired by Lee Brimelow, I made some ActionScript driven animation, exported it to QuickTime, imported it into After Effects, added some effects, made a simple piece of music in GarageBand and animated the QuickTime files in After Effects to the music.
then exported a Flash Video File and used Flash to show the animation that Flash couldn’t handle without the possibility to export the animation to QuickTime.
crazy workflow!
and actually the Flash Video File ended up as a rather crazy video art piece stuff thingy too.
check out the final video here
remember to turn up those speakers!
Map of your head by Muse, an acoustic variation
here’s a variation on the song Map of your head by Muse.
the variation is played by Simon Grevsen on a classic Kimbara.
the video is shot with a cheap Panasonic SDR-S10 camera, edited in Premiere, given an extra dimension in After Effects and finally set up with ActionScript 3.0 in Flash.
this project was set up with help from Esben Hindhede. thanks.