A video for Post-Production / Motion Graphics nerds to enjoy

This very well produced and very topical video is making the rounds today. I saw it via Twitterer beerad who is one of the co-creators. It certainly took someone some time and effort and as a post-production nerd who gets most of the references in the video I thank them for it! Motion graphics people will probably enjoy it most of all. NSFW.

How the BBC made one of those amazing plant growing shots

For those that aren’t on Twitter I wanted to post this amazing video that shows how the BBC series Life was able to achieve an amazing plant growing shots for the episode “Plants.” It involves multiple time-lapse tracking shots in the wild as well as the same shots recreated on blue-screen in the studio. All shot with a DSLR and brought together in the all-powerful After Effects. You can see the power of the re-tweet at work via Twitter with this link. I finally saw it this morning on its 3rd re-tweet.

Automagic part 2: mocha for Final Cut

I am not a VFX artist. I think that if I could plug a data pipe straight into my brain and download an entire profession right into the gray matter ala The Matrix it might be some level of visual effects expertise. It’s amazing what you can do with affordable desktop software but even something as accessible as Adobe After Effects can take a whole career to master. It’s also amazing at the level of quality that one can achieve with all of the other desktop applications that are out in the world today. I received a copy of Imagineer Systems’ mocha for Final Cut a while back but I hadn’t had the time or the need to really use it. But at a recent automotive shoot for The Garage Blog we were looking at footage and someone commented that we should have put our own logo license plate on the cars before we drove them (never mind the fact that such a license plate doesn’t exist). Idea! I can do that in post and mocha for Final Cut will be the perfect tool.

Feature Reminder: Content Aware Scaling in Photoshop CS4

Every now and then it’s nice to have a reminder of a cool new feature in a recent software update. That’s what I want to do with this reminder of content aware scaling that was added in Photoshop CS4. The other day I had been struggling for a little while trying to scale down an image to fit in the corner of the video screen while still maintaining a good focus on the subject, a car. I tried all of the usual ways of removing the car, adding it to another layer, blending the background and all sort of things. None of them produced an acceptable transformation. Just about the time the client walked in I had ventured under Photoshop’s Edit menu and there it was, a feature I had used in the past but completely forgotten about content aware scaling:

Science of the Movies premieres tonight on Science Channel

If you’re a movie fan then tune in to the Science Channel tonight or (more likely) set your DVRs accordingly as tonight premieres the show Science of the Movies.

What is the show about? From the Science Channel website:

Science Channel invites you on a geektastic journey to the cinematic intersection of art and science in the all-new “Science of the Movies”, Tuesdays at 9 PM (ET/PT).

Appealing to the movie junkie in us all, the new series explores the remarkable - yet rarely celebrated - scientific world that exists behind the screen, spotlighting the visionary artists, entrepreneurial spirit, innovative technology and remarkable techniques responsible for creating unforgettable, edge-of-your-seat moments in blockbuster films.

In tonight’s episode titled Spider Man Motion Control we get “Host Nar Williams explores the motion-control technology behind cloning and the famous “Spidey-sense” shot from “Spider-Man”; Nar rides a CG elephant created by the creature special-effects team behind “300”; Nar embarks on a chase scene using wireless camera mounts.” There’s a complete episode guide over on the Science Channel website. Man I hope it’s not too cheesy.

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