Intro Scene Test!

Alrighty! I moved on to the test for the first scene of the movie. It’s very different from the final scene in that I was trying for a flying over the city feel at the end of the first scene. Eventually, I had to use, you guessed it, a still shot as I couldn’t find a video that did what I wanted.

Like the final scene, Max is narrating in the first scene. I didn’t bother to do Max’s voice as I am pretty unhappy with what I did in the final scene. I can’t seem to get out what I hear in my head so I’m in the middle of auditioning Max’s voice.

So, I just let Billy Joel sing through the first scene, which will have Max’s voice dubbed over in the final cut.

Again, this is just a test. Enjoy!

Test Scenes Trailer!

Well, I got visitors in town and that has really kept me busy so I haven’t really done any serious work on the movie this week.

Still, I don’t wanna go too many days without thinking about the movie so I took a few minutes to build a trailer out of the various test footage scenes I’ve been working on.

Again, all of the scenes are test footage so it’s not perfect but it was never meant to be. Still, with a little imagination, you can kinda see what the movie will look like.
Enjoy!

Final Scene Test!

By far, some of the most complicated scenes for this movie will be the opening and closing scenes. They require the camera to fly over New York City and sweep in on certain points. In the opening scene the camera sweeps in over an alley and descends on Max, Gibson and Willow. In the final scene the camera flies over the city and sweeps around the Chrysler Building where our heroes are sitting on one of the famous gargoyles.

The opening scene has more obstacles so I decided to do a test for the closing scene. Doing that will help me figure out some of the more complicated parts of the opening scene.

That said, the closing scene has it’s own complications. I’ve searched to the very end of the internet trying to find any video footage taken over New York City. The only thing I can figure is that helicopters are no longer allowed to fly over the city as current footage was very rare and the ones I could find seemed to stay over the rivers and are shot toward the skyline.

In the end, I went back to what seems to have worked the best over all these tests, still images. This test footage is far from perfect but it may end up being the best I can do with the equipment I have and as I’ve said time and time again, I’m not ILM.

This test footage has it’s problems, but for the most part I’ve learned what I needed to learn. Most of this test uses still photos. The Chrysler Building is a Google 3D model that I was actually able to work with. Xam and Power Dog are still photos but like all the other tests, editing them as stills or actual video uses the same techniques so for testing purposes, a still photo is just fine.

So, here is the test footage. This is a test for the last scene of the movie but don’t worry, it won’t spoil the movie in any way. I even added some credits to give you an idea of what the final scene will look like.

Enjoy!

Willow Telekinesis Test!

Alright. I got the new blue screen backdrop today and not yesterday as I was promised, but that’s alright. As long as it got here before the weekend that was fine.

So, in order to not feel like I was wasting any time, I worked on the test footage for Willow the cat’s telekinetic powers. In the movie, there is a scene where Willow uses her powers to straighten out a crushed dumpster. I thought that would be the perfect test footage.

This test was built using nothing but still shots. In the movie, the coloration will all match and Willow will actually be moving but the rest of the test is pretty much the same editing I will need to do with live footage so still photos worked just fine.

Enjoy!

It’s funny, but with this last test I feel I have a pretty good grasp on all the video effects I will need for the movie. I’m sure as I film I will need to come up with some new things I haven’t thought of, but for now I feel I can stop working on test footage and begin prepping for the rest of the movie. All in all, I think I will be completely done with pre-production by the end of the month.

Then it’s on to production! Don’t worry. I’ll keep making weekly updates as needed until then just to keep you in the loop.

Look, Up In The Sky!

Well, my new blue screen won’t be in until Monday. I decided to stop messing around with different fabrics and instead purchase an actual blue screen. So, since I didn't want to waste the weekend, I decided to work on some more video effects for the movie.

Below is a clip of the meteor approaching Earth. The meteor, of course, is what gives Max, Gibson, Willow and Thomas their powers. Surprisingly, this effect took a couple of hours. The problem was getting the background color in the pic to fade out without fading out the dark parts of the planet. I couldn’t use a green or blue background because, well, Earth is green and blue! In this case, I had to go to the other side of the color wheel, red, for it to work. Then I had to find the right shade of red and to my surprise, it was dark red.

Anyway, here’s the video.

Xam Lightning Test!

Wow! This was so much easier than I thought!

I’ve spent the last week thinking about how I was going to rotoscope the lightning in this movie. I’ve read article after article about the various software needed and many different ways it can be done. I’m using free software (Wax 2.0) and I was on the verge of breaking down and buying software to render the lightning. Then the idea hit me, forgive me for the pun, like a bolt lightning!

The answer was really very simple. I just needed footage of a Tesla Coil in action and I could crop and screen the lightning over the video. Simple!

So, that is what I did. The video below is a still shot of Max (from the slideshow teaser trailer) with the lightning removed. Then I screened in the Tesla Coil and boom! Done!

This will be the same process for video so that is the end of messing around with this effect! Enjoy!

Xam Speed Test!

Alright, I had too much fun with this one.

Here is the first Xam speed test footage. All in all, not too bad. It’s actually pretty darn funny. So what if it’s not ILM, it works. I’m sure with a little more messing around I will improve it a little but for this purpose, it’s pretty much done.

Now I have to figure out the lightning effect. That is going to take me a while.

Willow Force Field Effect!

Alright. I finally figured out how to add color to the force field so here is a test clip of Willow using her force field powers. It’s minus the half hearted attempt to rotoscope a glowing collar. After many hours messing around and trying to make Willow’s collar glow digitally I decided to do it as a practical effect and not a visual effect, meaning I’m just going to make/buy a glowing collar. That will save me considerable time in post.

Now it’s off to start prep work on Xam’s effects of super speed and shooting lightning. That should take me well into next week.

More Test Footage!

Well, I’ve been working some more on the visual effects for the movie.

First, we have an updated T-Boom test. I was able to blend the fire effect very nicely with the test footage. The video needs shadows and smoke to help make it look more realistic but I think that effect is coming along very nicely.

The second video is the first test footage of Willow the cat using her power to create force fields. I’m trying to figure out a way to add some color to the effect and you can see the beginnings of her collar glowing (this will happen every time she uses her powers). I still have a lot to do with this effect but I thought it would be fun to post this footage anyway.

As you can see, the visual effects are taking a lot of time to figure out but I thought that would be the case. Honestly, it is going much smoother than I thought it would. Of course, I still have yet to tackle any of Xam’s powers but if that goes as nicely as the rest of the testing has I’m sure I will be able to start principle shooting as early as two months! That may sound like a long time from now but I know that time flies and it wil be here before I know it.

Fire Video Effects!

Alright, so I started working on fire effects for T-Boom. Although it is far from finished, I thought I would post it anyway. I also added some sound.

Enjoy!

Now... back to working on improving these video effects...