Slow Motion Fight Scenes

I've been browsing Vimeo, looking for some nice methods of doing slow motion fight scenes. It seems there are three different methods.

1. Film at a frame rate and then do magic on Twixor. Having looked at some of the speeds out there is seems I would need to film at about 2000fps to achieve the look I want. My camera shoots at 50fps. This does allow to slow the speed by half, and maybe with the use of Final Cut Pro, half it again without it looking to jittery but I will have to experiment with this.

2. Take photos to hold for several frames. Really not sure if this is the look I am aiming for, but again experimentation is key.

3. Take still images and map it to a 3D and add a digital camera move.  Almost certainly not.

Tests will ideally follow, to experiment with the first two methods. Though having read about the method for the third film, which was really clever, but over complicated for the look I want to achieve. I'd like to be able to get into the green screen studio before the pitch date to see how some of this will work. Unfortunately, it seems it is pretty much fully booked for the next two weeks, so that may be optimistic. 

Another Day Another Project

This week we received a new assignment brief. Effectively it boils down to us producing a competition entry for one of the design awards on D&AD or YCN. Most of these are motion graphic/advertising briefs which isn't really the direction I wanted to go towards as my showreel needs to be catered for the VFX industry. Because of this I decided I needed a cool way to get VFX into an advertisement. The first example of this that springs to mind, is the Star Wars/Currys adverts.

I love these adverts, and using blockbuster film style VFX, combined with humour to make a brand seem cool really appealed to me. The brief that would allow me to produce something like this was the one for Heinz Salad Cream. This requires a quirky advertisement to make Heinz Salad Cream appeal to the 18-29 year olds. What I wanted out of this brief, was to be able to produce something with a fight sequence, green screen/compositing and matte painting.

When considering the things that appealed to 18-29 year olds, my mind instantly went to computer games, night clubs and fashion. The latter two seemed to lack the possibility for VFX so computer games became the obvious choice.

After looking at some trailers for popular computer games, I decided I really like the slow motion fight scenes in the Assassins Creed trailers.

This gave me the idea of an Assassins Creed style advertisement, starting with a lone hooded figure standing atop of a tall build looking over the city (matte painting). It's a typical Assassin Creed style landscape, hot and exotic city surrounded by mountains. He hears a scream and leaps down to the streets below to find a woman being mugged by several men. A close up fight sequence ensues combining slow motion and bursts of speed. Instead of a knife, he's using a squirty bottle of salad cream to take out the attackers.There's no blood, only salad cream across faces and on the screen. When the attackers are all flat out on the ground he turns to the woman holding her sandwich protectively to her. He offers her the salad cream and she smiles.

Heinz Salad Cream - Your Secret Weapon.

And At Last...

I have finally finished my list of adjustments, and completed my final edit. My project is now complete! I have also put together some shot breakdowns, unfortunately I have run out of space on vimeo and will not be able to upload them until next week (I will hand them in with my project however so no worries there). There is however space for one very low resolution copy of my final edit. Enjoy!

This project is by far the best piece of work I have ever produced, and allowed me to push my skill set to the maximum. Shots have been put together in Photoshop, After Effects and Maya, allowing me to work in both 2D and 3D. 

I'd like to thank everyone who helped out in this project. Particularly Christopher Hansford, my actor, and  Finlay Duncan who was very helpful in the green screen studio and has a great critical eye. The tutors at my university and the guys on CG Coach provided excellent feedback which helped me take my work to a new level.

I'm very pleased that I managed to complete everything on my list a day ahead of schedule, even if I did venture away from initial work schedule due to reshoots, and the detailed feedback from CG Coach. The only two shots which I wish I could work on more are the close up of the face and the magic blast shots. I'm happy with the VFX work, I just wish I would have been able to get a reshoot as the footage was not quite as I wanted it. The expression on the face of my actor in the flying shot is too relaxed, and in the magic blast shot there are a few issues with blurring and grain. Also I felt that because all the other shots around it are moving, a static shot was a jolt to the flow. A reshoot would allow me to perhaps frame it closer and add a camera move. However, this is most likely the best work I have produced to date and so I am very happy with what I have managed to do. Fingers crossed for a good grade. Bring on the next project! :) 

Development: Before and After

With one day left to go, and only a few finishing touches let to make, I thought it would be interesting to look back over my project and really see how far it has come. This is the most elaborate piece of work I have ever attempted and I am really pleased with my development on a technical and artistic level.

A Homage To Harry Potter

As the film is a major inspiration and influence to my project, my text choice is a homage to the movies.

Flying Shot Breakdown

This is how the magic is performed!

Feedback + Updates

So it's the final week and I have a list as long as your arm of alterations I want to make before the hand in date. It may be a little optimistic but I hope to get them all done.

Shot 1, 2+3 - Colour grade match: the skies are different colours they all need to match up.
Shot 01 - Fix ripple sizes: too large,
            - castle perspective and sharpness stands out.
Shot 02 - Sharpen facial feature, add lightning, soften rain on lens.
            - Reshoots not possible due to the busy schedule of the green screen studio.
Shot 03 - Direct rain more towards the lens, add flapping noise, animate character more/more movement.
Shot 04 - Matte painting lacks focus and needs refining.
Shot 05 - Not finished.
Shot 06 - Possible lighting issues.
Shot 07 - Add shadow behind the door, something is alive back there.
             - Darken corridor add wand contact light on wall.
Shot 10 - Not finished.

I'm going to have to prioritise and focus my time on the hero shots, and work through the list.