A little match-moving

[ZachBG]

Hello all. Just upgraded to SynthEyes 2006 and decided to fool around a bit.

 

This is definitely not final, for obvious reasons, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

 

No snide comments on the awful walk cycle, please.

frankensteinShaggy_small.mov

[nimblepix]

Love it!

[NancyGormezano]

So how come you let the kid get away so easily?

 

I thought for sure we were going to be treated to some mean tricks by the big Bad shaggy-monster.

 

Fun stuff!

[CreativeAustinYankee]

..."So how come you let the kid get away so easily?...

I don't know about that, it does look like he gets his head stepped on.

 

Looks like a pretty good start.

 

Steve P.

[robcat2075]

That's cute. Are you going to rotoscope his head back in over Shaggy?

[ZachBG]

That's cute. Are you going to rotoscope his head back in over Shaggy?

If I can, yeah. There's another 8 seconds of footage that's matchmoved, so there's more to come, but I have to figure out a "story" first.

[Mr. Jaqe]

Funny idea and good result. Noticed a slight, black line at the top of the flick.

[ZachBG]

The black line is actually from the original footage; nothing I can do about it.

 

A second or so more, and different movement for Shaggy. Still no masking yet.

GiantShaggy.mov

[strohbehn]

Looks like fun, Zach. How long did it take you to camera-match this scene, just out of curiousity? Also, would you be interested in doing some camera-match-for-pay (or trade... i.e. models, rigging, etc.) work at some point? Some contract work would help you recoup some of your costs. I don't currently have any projects in mind, but am very interested in this type of work and don't have much interest in learning yet another piece of software (not to mention shelling out $399).

[NancyGormezano]

Much funnier! I love it. Even with still letting the kid get away.

[ZachBG]

How long did it take you to camera-match this scene, just out of curiousity?

Not too long. Less than a day; probably two or three hours at most.

 

Also, would you be interested in doing some camera-match-for-pay (or trade... i.e. models, rigging, etc.) work at some point?

 

Yes, yes, o yes.

[strohbehn]

Yes, yes, o yes.

 

Great! And, out of curiosity again, what method of payment interests you most... cash, models, rigging, or etc.?

[ZachBG]

Cash, man. Cold, hard cash. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

 

hope that's OK...

[KingSalami]

that is so cool, how'd you do it?

[ZachBG]

that is so cool, how'd you do it?

I have no idea how one would do it manually. I used SynthEyes.

 

In a perfect situation, you just load a movie into SynthEyes, hit "Go," and export a Hash project. In reality it takes a bit more than that, especially for a hand-held shot like this one. You need to identify a few easy visual points in the film that you can follow throughout the scene (or at least through most of it). In this case, I chose the corner of the trash can, a point where the grass met the sidewalk, and a few light spots in the grass. After I told SynthEyes to track those points, and tweaked the tracking so the software didn't lose them, I ran the auto-tracker to add whatever points the computer could find on its own. Then I told the computer which point I wanted to be the origin, which points were on the floor, etc. and solved the camera matching. And that's basically all there is to it.

 

With smoother shots, you don't even have to do the first step of manually tracking points.

 

Then, you open the project in A:M, and animate away.

 

Unfortunately, I can't at the moment render front-projection in A:M with this project (I've got a Report in the system about it), which is why I haven't masked out my son's face or the foreground tree yet. So when I want to render it, I do an alpha pass and a shadow pass and composite them in Quicktime Pro. (I wonder if one could do it with the new Composite feature in AM? Must try that.)

 

I've attached the project file output, straight from SynthEyes, for people to play with. Note that it's 60 frames per second, since I was using interlaced video. I haven't included the movie file because it's huge. (If enough people want it, I guess I could post a compressed version...) Also note that there's one glitch--it's around frame 705 at 60fps--which I had to get rid of manually in AM. Which just goes to show that nothing is perfect.

long_library_forhash.prj.zip

[ZachBG]

And here's the latest animation. Probably the last update for a while, because if I don't get back to work on Tin Woodman Martin will kill me. Well, hurt me anyway.

 

Comments on the animation are now heartily encouraged, though there's a bunch of stuff I know I want to fix anyway.

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/GiantShaggyDown.mov (1.7 MB, ~15 seconds)

[Mr. Jaqe]

HAHA! Love the bomb hits shaggy-part, looks really nice, not perfect, but very nice. Chopper looks very good.

 

Love it!

 

(psst! I can..."take care" of Martin for you... )

 

[ChrisThom]

I like the concept a lot. My only critique would be that the bomb needs some pyro with it. What is it, a push bomb?!?

 

Also, Shaggy's still stepping on the poor kid's head.

[ZachBG]

My only critique would be that the bomb needs some pyro with it. What is it, a push bomb?!?

Oh yes, that'll be coming. I love me some particle F/X.

[KingSalami]

that is so cool and inspiring, thanks for the explanation! The helicopter is sweet.

[Darknut]

Dude! ... that's awsome

[Slipin Lizard]

Nice work, I actually appreciate that we're getting to see it as it develops, much more informative that way.

There was mention of how you do it manually. I use After Effects quite a bit, and with that program you use motion tracker to track the motion of the layer you want tracked, in this case the kid running from the library, select a point to track, track it, and then apply the motion track to the layer you want, in this case the giant shaggy. It's pretty straight forward, and the nice thing is that its all keyframed, meaning that if one part of the track is good, but another starts to drift, you can keep what's good and just re-track the part that needs fixing.

 

Looks great!

[Dearmad]

And, axiomatic as usual (in Zach's hands at least), Shaggy is funny as hell!

 

Awsome little clip- fun fun!

[robcat2075]

Hey Zach, cool shot.

 

I think we need to be clued in on the helicopter/bomb thing sooner though. Any chance of having the helicopter approach more from behind rather than from the left so it can be seen earlier?

[ZachBG]

I agree. That's what I'm working on now.

 

Er, I mean, that's what I will be working on, once my TWO shot is done, of course!

[ZachBG]

There was mention of how you do it manually. I use After Effects quite a bit, and with that program you use motion tracker to track the motion of the layer you want tracked, in this case the kid running from the library, select a point to track, track it, and then apply the motion track to the layer you want, in this case the giant shaggy. It's pretty straight forward, and the nice thing is that its all keyframed, meaning that if one part of the track is good, but another starts to drift, you can keep what's good and just re-track the part that needs fixing.

But that would only work with 2-D tracking (like when the camera is locked to a tripod), wouldn't it? Or am I missing something?

[ZachBG]

Another version. Mostly worked on the helicopter, though I reworked Shaggy's fall a little bit, too.

 

Something went weird with the shadows at the end. Don't know why.

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/GiantShaggyDown_v2.mov

[Mr. Jaqe]

The fall looks a lot better, but his left foot seems to act a bit odd, especially when it goes from straight up in the air and then falls down and his knee kinda "jumps".

 

Keep posting!

[gschumsky]

There was mention of how you do it manually. I use After Effects quite a bit, and with that program you use motion tracker to track the motion of the layer you want tracked, in this case the kid running from the library, select a point to track, track it, and then apply the motion track to the layer you want, in this case the giant shaggy. It's pretty straight forward, and the nice thing is that its all keyframed, meaning that if one part of the track is good, but another starts to drift, you can keep what's good and just re-track the part that needs fixing.

But that would only work with 2-D tracking (like when the camera is locked to a tripod), wouldn't it? Or am I missing something?

Not necessarily (though I'm no expert and I could be way wrong). There used to be a pretty cool demo with AE with a Brazilian (?) soccer team, and the camera following the action (from what I remember). Anyway, the shot was changed to have them running around carrying bags from a certain department store, and what was cool was the bags were moving in sync with their arm/hands, etc. Never figured out how it was done, but that was way back in AE3.

[ZachBG]

Another slight update. Animation-wise, I tweaked the fall a bit, but more obviously, I added PARTICLES!! They cut out toward the end because my computer was estimating 48 hours to render 2 seconds, and I didn't want to waste that time on a test render.

 

Enjoy...

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/GiantShaggyDown_v3.mov

 

(Could this perhaps be the first part of an epic? Stay tuned!)

[wombat359]

lOOKS GREAT.

There are a couple of small points, there are a couple of frames where the foot comes in front of the childs head.

When the missile hits, make him fall over slowly, it will give a better impression of his size.

But this is great work.

[ZachBG]

Hi-ho. Still haven't masked out my son's head yet, but I did re-work some of the animation... and showed more of the story.

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/longer.mov

[robcat2075]

I feel kinda bad about Shaggy getting shot in the back by a helicopter.

[NancyGormezano]

Oh yes - very well done & very believable Zach - so much so, that it had me weeping, uncontrollably, with long pitiful sobs -

 

Shooting Shaggy in the back is just so .... evil.

 

I LOVE IT!

 

[luckbat]

Keep in mind that Shaggy wouldn't hesitate to murder you in your sleep. So let's not get sentimental, here. He had it coming.

[phnxpyre]

Can't you do it straight out of A:M?

 

I thought i have seen people doing that strictly using A:M.

 

It's really cool though. i like the camera shake and the little kid running away from the "monster"

[John Bigboote]

Zach... That rocks! Looks like you are goin to town with Syntheyes, the CG looks quite at home with the live-action.

[ZachBG]

Can't you do it straight out of A:M?

 

I thought i have seen people doing that strictly using A:M.

 

Not sure what you mean... the only thing for which I didn't use A:M was the actual match-moving of the camera, which I haven't a clue how to do manually.

 

But yes, it is possible to do CG+live action directly in A:M, especially if the camera is locked down.

 

I should say that, for now, I'm not using A:M's front projection abilities, because I'm having trouble rendering with an image sequence camera rotoscope. (AMReports knows about it, but if anyone else wants to try...) Instead, I'm rendering out Shaggy and the other CG stuff alone, as well as a shadow pass, then compositing everything in Final Cut Express.

 

Zach... That rocks! Looks like you are goin to town with Syntheyes, the CG looks quite at home with the live-action.

 

Thanks! I still need to "grain it up" so it's not so pristine...

[ZachBG]

The saga continues... This has no shadows and the timing is off, but hey, it's a WIP.

yeeragh_temp.mov

[Heath_Naylor]

Zach, this is so cool, you're doing a great job!

[NancyGormezano]

Whew, just as I remember - Shaggy is invincible.

 

fun stuff.

 

1 crit - (but you're probably doing something about it anyway) - is that the hold after he gets up seems too long - perhaps he should shake his fists & head a bit before starting his frankenwalk - as if to say - "ah ha, you miserable humans! You can't stop me with your silly puffy missiles"

[Heath_Naylor]

with your silly puffy missiles

 

Are you calling his awesome missiles 'puffy'!? SHAME!

[ZachBG]

A little King-Kong action coming up. The matting is temporary, obviously.

 

Nancy, I agree about waving his fists, but I haven't animated that yet.

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/yeeargh_temp2_sor3.mov (2 MB, 23 seconds)

 

The missles are still puffy...

[nerrazzi]

This stuff's just funny! I tune in just to see what happens next...

 

I'd be hilarious if you have shaggy dodge a hail-storm of missile strikes like Jim Carrey did in The Mask!

 

Good work, man!

[nyahkitty]

Wow!

 

A:M and Syntheyes.

What a combination.

 

Compared to manually match moving by hand, this is seamless.

Good work!

[NancyGormezano]

Are you calling his awesome missiles 'puffy'!? SHAME!

 

Not me - I would be very afraid of these awesome missiles -

 

But Big Bad Scary Ol' Shaggy Boy laughs in the face of delusional humans thinking that they could somehow conquer him - Bwa ha ha ha ha....-

[ZachBG]

Here's a revision of the most recent one, with better masking... and very bad smoke... I think I'll be removing the turbulence I put in there.

 

http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/yeeargh_temp3_mp4.mov (1.8 MB)

 

Thanks to David Dustin for the fighter planes.

[arkaos]

that new yeeargh clip is AWESOME. I think the turbulence effect on the smoke should be left in, Zach. Photo-realism is not always a necessity. It looks cool and passes as a good artistic way of mixing things up. It's fantasy, anyway. Good job.