Does this look too fake?

[brainmuffin]

this is a test for an fx shot. I'm going to add in some lasers, explosions and smoke, etc. But I'm wondering how convincing this looks, before I continue. It's basically just animated photo- manipulation...

 

 

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1qub6/sitebui.../bostonufo4.mov

 

Several things I notice:

 

The boats don't move. I'm planning on cutting one or two out and putting them on seperate layers, and adding some rocking. Also I've thought about putting a small flag on the boat in the foreground, so that there's one more element of movement in the foreground.

 

There's something going on with the buildings when the ufo is onscreen. It's got to do with the motion blur, when the motion blur is off, it doesn't do it, but it definitely looks fake then.

 

I've also thought about cropping a bit, so that I can pan around a little, and add some camera jitter.

 

What do you think?

[NancyGormezano]

Some things that break the illusion for me: the clouds move too fast for the amount of time we're viewing, the ufo doesn't appear to change size when it moves behind the building & the blur/ufo are too bright against the background - needs to blend more, be less crisp.

 

Maybe the lasers, smoke, etc would distract from the above - and yes the foreground is too static.

[oakchas]

get rid of the people at the bottom of the shot.. one is captured mid step. The UFO has too much glow... and doesn't change size when going into distance. I am one of those bib overall wearin' country bumpkin hayseeds thats been abducted by one o dose things and I'm tellin you fer true...

 

or not...

 

But it's fun anyway!

[brainmuffin]

I did some tests. I zoomed the camera in quite a bit, so that I can scan the skyline. No more people walking in the foreground, no more boats. I shrunk the ufo a bit, and made it come closer to the camera . I'm having problems with the camera, though. I'm playing around with a aim at constraint, and some jitter, to try to make it look hand held. I'll see if I can get a good shot to upload tomorrow.

[nf1nk]

one thing that helps for fake UFO shots (used to be a hobby, but I only did stills) is to be well out of focus and shake that camera. also it helps to have the camera crooked so we have no vertical or horizontile lines. On more thing for fake UFOs never photograph or film them in a way where you can get a sense of scale. Remeber smaller is more realistic, also zoom in and out... motion sickness is a good thing.

[Eric2575]

You need to talk to Vern. He says a UFO is parked in his back yard. If you ask nicely, he might let you take pics

[Dhar]

The UFO's glow....well....just doesn't seem convincing. It looks like it's been tacked on. What if you try it without the glow? Or, better yet, lower the glow intensity when the UFO has the sky in the background.

[robcat2075]

I realize it's from another dimension, but it seems to be doing cartoon anticipations in its moves and moving too fast.

 

Also, the orientation never changes... it never tilts or banks.

[Blackjack_Davie]

Aside from the cloud background moving too quickly, I think it's too light for the buildings. maybe lighten the buildings up as the sky looks like dawn but the buildings kinda look predawn. I used to work overnight shifts in manhattan and brooklyn so I got to experience alot of sunrises from my ambulance window. and yes New York does sleep between the hours of 4am and 5am. You could play 3 piriod of hockey in the center of timesquare it's so dead.

 

but definaly lighten the buildings, and blur the edges of them more.

[Eric2575]

I'm sure you've applied some changes, could we see another post?

[HeadlessBill]

Someone else working on a UFO scene, eh?

 

Are you doing everything entirely in A:M? Or are you doing some compositing in another program, like After Effects? I just turned in this in my Motion Graphics class. It needs a ton of work still, but the teacher thought it was fine and I was being too much of a perfectionist.

 

Considering what you're doing, I think compositing would probably be much easier.

 

FYI, the UFO wasn't done in A:M. I would have loved to use A:M, but I needed something that would render faster on my Mac. I still didn't get all the frames I needed rendered, though.