Lightsaber Competition

Aw, heck. Okay, here's what's going on: Media Cleaner is doing a slight stretch of the footage -- I've minimized it, but I haven't been able to get rid of it, so uploading a different version isn't going to be worthwhile, and I definitely feel bad asking the folks at dvGarage to do it anyway. As far as the matte bars go -- that's how the footage was shot and was intended to be shown. Thus, all my garbage matting in the original version was set up for the matte bars to be there. I would have had to essentially start over on the shot to get it done without the bars (and that's without bringing up the fact that a portion of the floor is visible anyway.

The sad fact is that I don't have any more time to dedicate to this project for you guys. I'm absolutely swamped right now, so you're going to have to make do. Sorry about that -- you can't say I didn't try!

 

Hey, don't forget Commotion. )

 

I think it's fair to say that having to rotoscope that footage WITH the lightsabres showing is a heck of a lot harder than putting the lightsabres in afterwards. So, with that in mind, this clip IS THE FOOTAGE WE ARE GOING TO USE for this competition.

If anyone doesn't want to participate now this is understandable, but you all now have a great clip, with a background in place, it shouldn't be to much work to rotoscope in the blades, even if it does mean starting over.

If anyone is having trouble finding webspace for their clips, just PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Once again, good luck folks, and get (re)rotoscoping

EDIT: DarkLord, the clips I put up are still there, but they are longer than the clip Rive has supplied, so your hard drive certainly isn't going to be able to cope with them. (plus they're pretty nasty in comparison)

 

Thanks Daft

And yeah, this is the FINAL clip, sorry to switch things around, but people didnt like the other one too much. So, like Daft said, if you dont want to re-roto, there isnt anything we can do to stop you, but I really hope you guys can do this

Unfortunately, I'm going to be gone from Thursday at 3PM, until Sunday on a ski weekend. So, I'm going to allow Daft to take the incoming messages during my leave and I'll catch up on Monday with everything.

Thanks again guys

 

Well, I'm done. Took a couple hours to roto the cores, mostly because I was being a little more careful than I needed to be. The glows where done in two hours max, maybe like an hour or so (and I'm just guesstimating; I suck at keeping track of time). I'd have to say I'm fairly pleased. I think it's my best work.

 

I'm really quite bummed that we had to settle on the newer clip. We probably could've gotten away with not requiring the blades to be a certain color, and for goodness sake, there's more than one way to composite an image, folks! I say, if you can do sabers with whatever program you're using, the odds are *very* good you can also do compositing. Forgive me if I'm in error on this point. I also don't see the new clp bing any easier to roto; as a composited image, some of the more delicate motion-blurred frames have been made very dfficult to make out.

Sorry, just had to vent. I feel several pounds lighter now! Now when's the duedate?

 

Not nessessarily, Pahket. ALAM DV defintately cannot do any form of bluescreen compositing. Besides, we probably would have ended up with so-so compostites from some people that would have distracted from the effect, because not everyone is experienced in making a clean key. It would also have taken a large amount of time for people to do it, because it would require some manual rotoscoping or something to get a decent key. Also, if we kept the bluescreen there, it would have screwed over all of the colors, not just the blue. I think using Dave's keyed clip was the best solution (those blades were suprisingly easy to roto, with little or no reference back to the original bluescreen clip).

 

Fair warning guys: the uncompressed bluescreen clip will be taken down from dvGarage's website tonight, so if you haven't already grabbed it, now's the time.

 

I d/led the darn thing, but it's in Stuffit.

Does anyone know how to uncomress Stufitt files without having Stuffit?

 

I don't know. I would just download Stuffit (I found it by searching for it at downloads.com).

 

Yep. You need Stuffit Expander from Aladdin Systems. Grab it Here.

 

There IS another direct link to just a mov file...

And this'll be my last post till Sunday, so if you guys could have the clips done by Wednesday of next week, that would be great (Not gettin a ton of feedback from everyone who is participating about the new clip, so I'll give everyone a little bit more time unless we can get the clips earlier )

 

Mines done....again....

Who do I send the link to?

-Melvil

 

So, when is the new deadline? My computer is still dead (found out it was the motherboard; I'm ordering a new one + plus processor) and I still need some time. Once I get my computer up and running again, I'm going to need someone to send me the new clip (preemptive "thanks" to whoever ends up doing that).

Damn this p100 is so slooooooow.... (my typing is lagging)

 

You can PM me the link if you like.

I'll be putting them all onto a page as soon as they are done. If any of you have a problem with finding somewhere to host the files, just email them to david@nutleys.com (assuming they are under about 5MB )

 

I downloaded the file from DVgarage, but stuffit is telling me that the file is currupt or invalid. Anyone else getting this?

Thanks.
[EDIT: Never mind. Just re-downloaded. All is well.]

 

So, when is the new deadline?

Check *DMaul*'s post above.

 

I'm officially dropping out of this.

Melvil is doing Axogon anyway, so there's no need for me to do it.

 

Personaly, I think it would be a good idea to see results under the same program, but different user, but oh well.

 

I'm officially dropping out of this.

Cheers Eagle, I'm really glad I spent all that time making the footage into a TGA sequence and uploading it for you now! Good job I've got nothing else to do though.

 

Daft,

Any chance you could make the footage into a animated GIF, if so, I'd have a go at rotocoping in PSP.

 

I can only create an animated gif with 256 colours. It looks pretty nasty, and I wouldn't fancy your chances of even seeing the sabre, let alone folowing the blade to rotoscope it.

If there are any other formats that may help you I will send them through. Paintshop Pro is one of the versions I would like to have a good example of

 

I'll look into it, and get back to you shortly.

Michael

Edit: Would the colour problem be the same if you did it as single gif files, I realise that this woudl mean a lot of files.

I think, I'll need to check this out, but I animation shop also supports AVI's

 

Daft, I'm sorry you spent that time doing the wrong sequence.

I might still do it.

EDIT: I just realized the saber stuff I did for my bluscreen tutorial works for this video as well, so I'm rendering the video now!

 

My film is done (Daft should find it fimly supplanted in his server).

Who is still left to do their shot?