Sounds very encouraging, like they know how to make the most of your work and help you to help them! That's the way I would go, with a couple of tracking shots so it doesn't ALL look like Ken Burns, but most of the dynamation shots leaving the move until after the critter's comped in where possible.
I've been in situations where I was assured of certain things that would make my task more do-able and in the rush it didn't happen that way - I'm certain you, and anyone else who's done freelance, would know all about that! And I was still expected to deliver, despite the conditions being totally different, and probably a week sooner and with a few extras thrown in at no extra cost. And if I didn't I was the villain. So it's hard now to feel confident that things will work out as promised unless I've worked with the people before. You've taken a leap of faith, and so far it looks like it will work out. Let's hope it's a big success and you can build on it for future projects. Establishing a working relationship with producers who "get" what you do is like gold!
Sinbad The Fifth Voyage
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Most Complex Dynamation Scene To Shoot First!
Discussion started by Ron Cole , on 29 October 07:24 PM
If given the choice, I probably would have chosen to shoot one of the easier Dynamation sequences first. After retooling the shooting schedule, the first thing to be shot will be a character that will be the most difficult to match into frame and will definitely be the most difficult to animate!
What makes this character the hardest (as seen in the poster) is the fact that she has six arms and needs to do direct hand to hand combat with our hero Sinbad. Many of the shots will have camera moves, which means half the work is just matching the camera move from the live action shoot to my stop motion stage. YIKES!
On the one hand, I'm really nervous about getting this right but, I've waited many years to shoot something like this so, I'm also chomping at the bit to dive into animating it.
What's kind of revolutionary about the way the live action will get shot is that, although I'm 3,000 miles away in New York, I'll be there live on set in California via Skype. The plan is to have me 'there' to approve set-ups that will be used for the Dynamation.
Up to this point, how this film and the animation will look has been totally theoretical (aside from 5 test shots) but very soon the results will become a known reality. It's make or break time!
What makes this character the hardest (as seen in the poster) is the fact that she has six arms and needs to do direct hand to hand combat with our hero Sinbad. Many of the shots will have camera moves, which means half the work is just matching the camera move from the live action shoot to my stop motion stage. YIKES!
On the one hand, I'm really nervous about getting this right but, I've waited many years to shoot something like this so, I'm also chomping at the bit to dive into animating it.
What's kind of revolutionary about the way the live action will get shot is that, although I'm 3,000 miles away in New York, I'll be there live on set in California via Skype. The plan is to have me 'there' to approve set-ups that will be used for the Dynamation.
Up to this point, how this film and the animation will look has been totally theoretical (aside from 5 test shots) but very soon the results will become a known reality. It's make or break time!
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@Nick - They've been shooting high res shots a bit wider so that camera moves can be added later in post per my request. So camera moves are not the concern they would have been otherwise.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 21:50
So, it sounds like they've shot most of it now, without you seeing the camera angles or having any direct input before it's shot? Let's hope the DoP has some sense of what's involved in inserting a creature - whether cgi or stopmo, it's much the same from his point of view.
There's a lot of animating with the 6-armed chick, but I've seen your attention to details - like a flick of the ear or a tail swing on top of head,body, and limbs in motion - so I think you'll pull it off. The part that would scare me is duplicating the camera moves. But it's good that the time for actually getting into the animation is so close now!
There's a lot of animating with the 6-armed chick, but I've seen your attention to details - like a flick of the ear or a tail swing on top of head,body, and limbs in motion - so I think you'll pull it off. The part that would scare me is duplicating the camera moves. But it's good that the time for actually getting into the animation is so close now!
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 21:43
Oh that stinks Ron, so you couldn't see anything at all? At least now your production crew knows to fix that problem for the next shoot. Does the DP have any animation skills at all?
Monday, 01 November 2010 20:57
FAIL! It ended up not working because there was a problem with trying to use the wireless internet with all the other equipment in the studio. :( It's really not that big of a deal but, it would have been nice... oh well.
Monday, 01 November 2010 17:37
Good luck! Let us know how it went! Will it be a 16 hour day for you?
Monday, 01 November 2010 15:31
Today's the day! At the moment, I'm just waiting to hear about the Skype hook-up for today's shoot. It may be a bit odd and I have no idea what this will really be like. It will be inconvenient to have to babysit my computer just to be on-call just in case they need to speak to me. Plus there's a 3 hour difference between the shoot location and my shop so, it will be a much later day for me than for them.
I'll let you all know how it went tomorrow!
I'll let you all know how it went tomorrow!
Monday, 01 November 2010 09:16
Marc S. - I'd BETTER be able to pull it off! :)
Marc H. - I'd have to say MOST of the shots I shoot take more than one day to shoot. In most cases I have had to deal with things about the set or the lighting that has changed overnight. That's one of the reasons I swear by shooting with florescent lights, they are the most consistent light source from one day to the next.
I used to take a lot of written notes at the end of a day of shooting so that I'd be sure to remember exactly what I was doing the next day. But over the years, I've learned to just trust that I always do remember and now that we've got frame grabbing software, I CAN'T forget. :)
Marc H. - I'd have to say MOST of the shots I shoot take more than one day to shoot. In most cases I have had to deal with things about the set or the lighting that has changed overnight. That's one of the reasons I swear by shooting with florescent lights, they are the most consistent light source from one day to the next.
I used to take a lot of written notes at the end of a day of shooting so that I'd be sure to remember exactly what I was doing the next day. But over the years, I've learned to just trust that I always do remember and now that we've got frame grabbing software, I CAN'T forget. :)
Saturday, 30 October 2010 07:56
better make sure you pick a day where you have absolutely no other plans to do it on!
Are you the sort who can leave a shot, go to bed or something, and come back to it later? or do you get each shot done in a single session?
Are you the sort who can leave a shot, go to bed or something, and come back to it later? or do you get each shot done in a single session?
Saturday, 30 October 2010 06:15
Hey Ron, that's great you are able to help direct the live action aspects. It might help ease your mind once you see how things are progressing and how it's all set up.
Although it's a complex scene, I'm willing to bet you can pull it off. The time is right for this sort of technology to merge with stop motion!
Although it's a complex scene, I'm willing to bet you can pull it off. The time is right for this sort of technology to merge with stop motion!
Friday, 29 October 2010 21:42