The video is very well-done. It must have taken forever to get all those eye-blinks drawn in. They even follow the head movements perfectly.
I was thinking of doing a similar spoof with "face-computing" - using eye-tracking and facial movements to replace the mouse. Since there is already software that can track your eye movements and position the cursor to where you were looking on the screen, I thought it would be funny to carry things a step further, adding left eye-blink for left mouse-button, two left-blinks to double-click, wiggle nose for mouse-wheel, etc. In the animation, I would be on one side of the screen, dead-panning the narration while my face would be going through hilarious rapid contortions. On the other side of the screen, the resulting computer input would be shown - button-clicking, cut, paste, delete, moving icons around, etc. I ended up realizing it would be too much work to produce. |
After Effects has movement tracking built-in. I can replace the side of a building in a shaky camera shot even if it's changing perspective. Locking the movement of added CGI to existing footage is getting very easy now.
And when you do tracking, you can redirect the output of the tracking data into the position, rotation, and size of any other layer or object. I suggest looking at FreddieW's videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew Some good ones: His Behind-the-Scenes channel is here: http://www.youtube.com/freddiew2 This is a guy doing this stuff out of his garage in a weekend. The best website I've seen for learning After Effects is VideoCopilot.net. If you watch Fringe, the opening title sequence is by that guy (Andrew Kramer) who has also done a ton of other TV effects. His basic training is what I suggest. |
Neat! Maybe someday I'll be able to afford After Effects.
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You can download it from Adobe and play with it for 30 days.
I would suggest watching some of the tutorials at VideoCopilot.net and see what you think. The 10 part Basic Training is absolutely the way to go to initially learn it, but it's a bit boring as just something to watch, so I'd watch the bigger tutorials and see if the program looks like something you might fall in love with first. It is really astounding how much information is available for free at his website, and then the plugins, clip audio, clip explosions, etc. they offer are top-notch. He has explosions, dust clouds, puffs of smoke, blood splatter all shot in front of green screen and fully keyed so you can use it for anything. You might be surprised to know that After Effects has a bit of scripting built into it allowing you to not only add random effects to any layer, but scale that effect or tie that effect to the effect of another layer. The tutorial that blew my mind was adding a moving object to a shaky camera shot and it looks great. First, he stabilized the video, then he cut and paste the tracking data out of the video stabilization into a "tracking object". Now, the video was shaky again, but he had an object that moves and rotates to match the footage, giving you a key point you can then tie anything to. After Effects turns tilting and panning a camera from the ground up to a mound of dirt and adding a castle to it into a 10 minute task. |
Thanks. Those were cool.
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Thanks for all the info, Morgan.
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One more... ;)
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That was good.
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Well, half of the upcoming features has been implemented for some time. The background lighting has a multitude of options.. not sure if one could call it automatic, as it does require one to make choices. Still...
What's coming soon: * Automatic lights. There will soon be a greatly expanded interface for customizing the background colors. * New realistic fish behavior, including schooling, chasing, and pecking at corals. PS to Jim.. you need to update the linked page and move item one to the what's new part |
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I'd be happier with just a starfish (like the old one) and a moray eel (even if it doesn't move) in the cave.
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Hmmm, that may not be a bad idea. I hadn't really considered a partly-animated Moray Eel, which just hangs out in the cave. Might be doable.
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Thank you for your consideration. On my second introductry SCUBA dive in Hawaii, I had a one on one experience with my instructor and she allowed me to take down a camera. I will never forget being close enough to a Moray eel (4 feet) to take a picture of it with just his head sticking out of a cave.
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The only one that I saw that has one in is DiveVisions by Atlantis 3D. So yes I agree Jim can and should do it.
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Definitely do-able, but probably wont get done. If we were to wager and put odds on it today, I would put it at a 1000 to 1 underdog over the next year. :) I'm very pessimistic that we see any improvements to MA3 ever again.
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God I hope your wrong. I love how the tank and fish look now. But it's not done. I would hate to see it stop now. We have been waiting 10 years for this too happen. I can wait a little more. :)
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As long as the Moray Eel is selectable, like the Starfish, what's the harm?
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I'm in for a dollar too!! Don't want to take too big an advantage of Pat. :D
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