A call for visual effects help for Star Wars: The Soft Drink Menace

Due to the high number of effects shots in my fanfilm, I wondered if anyone out there who wants to take a shot at rotoscoping lightsaber blades would be interested. I know I've complained in the past about people asking me to do effects for them. BUT I am not asking anyone specifically by name. This is strictly a volunteer basis. If you don't want to help, then that's cool. If you want to practice your lightsaber rotoscoping skills, then here is your chance. You will be asked to rotoscope maybe 20 seconds of footage. However, you WILL NOT add glows or composite this over footage, or even render it out. You will just sent me the After Effects file of the roto matte against a black background. It will be rendered by either myself or by Codepoett. You will be sent uncompressed DV footage of only your part of the saber battle. However, if anyone has a suggestion of how to compress it, but still be able to keep the saber dowels visiable enough to rotoscope, would be helpful. If you can, please show me a sample of your lightsaber rotoscoping skills that you have already done. Thank you.

 

If I get this right, you only want ppl to send you the black layer with the white line, so you can transfer mode it to "screen" later, huh? Depending on what method YOU will use for glows, we will need to round the tip or not.
Personally, if you just want a white line over the dowel, I could do that in AE for you but... I wanna appear in the credits! Bwahahahahhohohuhahurhuafcough...cough.. ak! 'Scuse me, I don't laugh much.

Carl

 

No, you don't even how to render the sequence. You just have to rotoscope the footage and then save the rotoscoping as an After Effects file. The extension on this file is called *****.aep It stands for After Effects Project. It's bascially like a PSD file you would make with Photoshop, except it's for After Effects. That way, you can just sent the file over and it's usually only about 1 MB in size. Much eaiser than sending over a HUGE footage file. That way, I can use that After Effects file to render out the actual glows. And NO, don't round the tips. I will take care of that. Thanks guys.

 

ahhh i wish i could help...but i do not have after effects i know how to do sabers in after effects but i do have it i could do it in alamDV if you want and export it against a blue or green backgruond

 

What do you expect the overall file size of the footage to be?

 

So count me in then, Pix' just tell me if you have any deadlines.

Carl

 

Humm, that might work Shadow-Of-The-Sith. however, would it be possible for you to render that against a black background? Also, I would need to figure out some mode of compression so that the file size isn't too large. HUMMM.

 

Whatever 20 seconds of uncompressed DV footage is, Maul316. However, you guys may know more about compression than I do, and could tell me a way to compress it, but still be able to see the blades to rotoscope them. Oh, yes, and ANYONE who helps out WILL MOST DEFINATELY be put in the credits as a rotoscope artist.

 

YES u can export over a black screen with alamDV..but the compresion part is beyond me
i know a little but not alot about file compresion with video...but i bet lord_rive does the guy who did duality he was thanked by "the formula" guys for helping get there film from like 500 megs to 211 so try to contact him if you can...

 

I'm willing to help Which version of AFX are you using?

 

Pixel, it would probably be best if it was just sent uncompressed, should come out to about about 85 meg. Depending on where the volunteer lives you could mail it to them, though on a fast connection 85 meg doesn't take long. Compression would just make it harder for the rotoscoper.

 

Coedpoet and I use After Effects 5.0. Did I mention how AWESOME explosions are?

 

Pixel when exporting the footage for the rotoscopers just use Full Resolution Sorenson3 with full settings. It will compress it fairly nicely with only a little bit of loss of color. Ive used this before to have remote people do work on projects and it works very well since you dont loose the detail just some of the color.

 

Great Shawn! I'll do that.

 

We've talked before, count me in .

 

Great, Link, thanks.

 

I can help you... I have After Effects 5.0 and not having to round tips really makes it easier.

Just some questions:

1) What did you use for a blade? Is it visible in the footage?

2) Is it necessary to add masks when actors go infront of blades?

As you say, it is a good way to practice. By the way, I have a fast connetcion so big files arent a problem.

Regards,

 

Hey Pixel, If for some reason you cant get anyone, I'll do it. I have been roto'ing with AE since version 4.0. I am using 5.5 with OSX now. You can compress it with the on2 codec, seeing how the quality CAN be lossless somewhat. You wouldn't need great quality because it will be rendered as an alpha against a transparent black ( that sounded funny) background. Even if your resoultion is only 60-70% of the original, it would still be enough to work with.

M

 

I don't think On2 is good for editing though, only for a final render. It tends to mess up the colours (I think...)

 

Count me in
Do you want the end of the sabers rounded or not? becuase i have never done a round tip saber

 

Yeah sure whatever you need in AE I am your man PM me for further details unless you already have enough people helping you

 

Man, i wish I had AE, all I hjave is Photoshop I can roto them in PS and send em to u in .psd, but obviously, that wont work cause u need em in .aef

 

To answer a few questions.

1. The tips DO NOT need to be rounded.
2. If you want to rotoscope the blades and add masks when they go behind the actors, that would be VERY helpful.
3. Don't worry about the glows. Myself and Codepoet will take care of all glows.
4. Since the footage you guys will be working with is compressed with On2, you don't have a to worry about image quality.

 

Have you tried importing On2 footage into AE?

 

*Wonders just how many people pixel plans to have rotoing his sabres and how on earth he expects to have an consistency from shot to shot*