film project questions

[themaxxer]

hi all

I was asked to do some special effects in a film.

to decide if I am able to do that I have some questions.

here are some screenshots from the storyboard.


1. I have to make a reflection from a missile on the helmet.
how do I get the effect believable? do I need camera tracking? can I make everething in post? are there any details to regard, especially for the filmcrew? I never made something like that, is it possible for me at all?

2. the same thing on a rear view mirror...

3. somebody who shoots with a machinegun.
the filmmaker wants to see the bullets and the bullet holes in the ground. what do I need to work well? do I have to track something? what chance do I have to make it with max? what plugins do I need to do that?

a lot of questions but I don't want to overextend me. especially because the producer has no money!!! oh, what period would you guess to finish that?

thanks in advance...

best regards
themaxxer

[joconnell]

1. ideally you'd try and track the helmet - it'd actually be easier to replace the entire visor on the helmet than to make a reflection element to put over it since you'd have to make a helmet model the exact same as the live action and track it flawlessly for the reflections to move the same way. Put on a series of little stickers on the helmet as reference points. Make a model of the helmet as closely as you can and try to put in vertices in the mdel that match up with your reference stickers. If the shot works the way the storyboard looks, you'd need to do a camera track first and then do an object track for the helmet - doable but not easy.

2. This looks like it'd be shot from a camera mount so you could nearly treat it as a locked off shot and fudge it in 2d using a render of a 3d missile.

3. Track the shot and bend a plane so that it locks on to the ground using the nulls the 3d tracker gives you. You can use particle flow to generate sparks and little explosions. Alternatively get some stock elements from something like artbeats and stick them on in 2d.


Personally I'd suggest not doing this at all - if it's a no money project you possibly won't get treated seriously and it's going to cost you the money to buy a copy of syntheyes. It also depends heavily on the quality of the footage you get - if you can't track the footage it could take weeks, if you can track the footage easily I'd say a few days of 3d after the tracking.

[joconnell]

Actually I'd try and do everything in 2d here and try not to track any 3d stuff - you'll have a better chance of getting the helmet tracked quickly if you fudge it in after effects or combustion and it'll get done quicker. You might need to make yourself some elements in 2d but I think you'd get a quicker result - especially for a freebie. Also you can work quicker in 2d and get feedback from the director to figure out what he wants.

[Morbid Angel]

1 - helmet track. Then use geometry to place a glass, and reflect cg missle in it, or project a missle flying onto the visor (more control this way) missle can be eather cg or comp if you have a live element. Render just the missle and the matte for it and comp it using that matte to blend with existing reflections in the helmets visor.

2 - same thing.

3 - depends if its a moving camera, (better lock off easier to control) you will need to have particles splatter around. eather particle flow, or some kind of fluid sim, could be aura or fume, but thats too dangerous road since its a tricky thing.

ps I agree with joconnell

[panthon]

I have had really bad experiences with people who want u to work for free in some -if not all- of the effects in their "next best thing" shortfilm. They start a little scared of you, but when u start working and accepting their silly changes, there's no way back. They quickly forget u are investing your personal time and not getting any money and start demanding and demanding. You start thinking they dont really know what they want, so they use u to test things. If u accept to change 100 things and refuse to change 1, they will remember that one and critisize u in your back. I´ve seen it with many people, in many projects, in many countries.
My personal advice is; make your own short film and u will have the chance to test all these things u must be impatient to try. Shooting from the VFX perspective will give u many advantages over most of the directors, who usually know nothing bout postproduction and have no intention to learn.

Plus, if they need this kind of -complicated- effects to support the story and haven't thought about the cost of them, project is not likely to end up well.

[joconnell]

Absolutely - anything done for free is never appreicated and it'll end up being a huge pain in the ass. If you're going to do it then set a strict time limit on it - say for example allow a week and don't do any more.

[themaxxer]

guys, thank you a lot for your comments.

I will meet the director today and now I've got some input.

maybe I will ask a lot more...

best regards
themaxxer

[MarioRothenbuehler]

hei manuel... sieht nach nem geilen projekt aus !

/.mario'

[schroeder]

There's a good number of free muzzle-flashes & stock footage here:

http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm

Might help!