STEWART COPELAND

...how to create .gifs!

Shades of 2001!!

Excellent progress, Chris. You'll be ready to log on to the information superhighway in no time.

Love the new avatar, btw.

Thanks! I'm gonna brag on it a little bit, because it represents a great deal more work than may meet the eye.

This is one of the few shots of our mini-epic that i wasn't able to operate the camera for since i'm in it (I'm crouched near my car's rear bumper). Our leading lady Ashley Carpenter suspended the camera as high as she could above her head and ran behind Jim as he made a beeline for the car.

We shot the final battle sequence on a couple of different days. But on neither day were all the actors able to make it out to the location. For this shot, Jim had to run as though he was dodging lightning bolts being shot at him by bad guy Kester Kent. But not only was there no lightning, but no bad guy either! I was very proud of his physical acting that day.

I knew i needed to insert Kester into the shot, so i shot him separately. I don't have access to any greenscreen, so i just shot him in his backyard. I also don't have any fancy programs that allow for splicing footage together (although my new video editor may have some functionality i'm not up to speed on yet), so i had to cut him out of each frame i wanted to use in Photoshop and also use the same program to insert the cut images into the actual shot. I'm talking hand placing a figure that is supposed to be standing in the same place into footage shot handheld and on the run. If the camera had been locked down it would have been much easier to place him properly, but the shot wouldn't have worked.

I can't say how many hours were involved in the postproduction process, because i didn't keep count. Suffice to say if i had known... well, i still woulda done it anyway. The jerky camera ending up helping me out a great deal, because i was able to place Kester to the far left of the frame, which cut down considerably on the actual number of images i had to edit to get the sequence to work. If you slo-mo through the entire shot, it becomes apparent that my hand placement is off. But played at normal speed, it doesn't stand out at all. It kinda sucks that i spent so much time creating an effect which would have been so easy to just execute in reality (had everybody been there), but it was fun to see if i could pull it off.

By comparison, the lightning was a cakewalk, since all i had to do was draw it on a transparent layer and copy and paste in the frames i wanted, with a "moving" lens flare added to give the illusion of motion.

Nift! What program did you use to create this masterpiece?

(Note you can also find programs that'll take a snippet of a DVD or something and turn 'em into animated .gifs...)

[quote="jedsoon"]The jerky camera ending up helping me out a great deal, because i was able to place Kester to the far left of the frame, which cut down considerably on the actual number of images i had to edit to get the sequence to work. [/quote]

As I was looking at it, I was thinking this exact thing. Plus it's helpful that he's so far away. Nice work, Chris. Had you not mentioned the missing guy, I don't think I would have even noticed.

-- although wait -- You physically inserted another character into a film, but you only now figured out how to make a gif?

It was actually shot on a VHS-C, but my computer's slow processing of the footage actually gave it a bit of a filmlike grain. First processed on Ulead video editor, but my old comp broke down before i'd finished, so it was finished using Adobe Premiere Effects. All the drawing, erasing, cutting and pasting were done in an old version of Photoshop.

2001 was the last major overhaul i'd had on my comp prior to replacing it. As far as i know, i didn't have a program that would create a gif since that time, plus i really haven't done a lot of uploading since around then anyway. It was only last September when i pulled my head out of my *$$ after i finished the movie and realized how easy it was to put stuff on the internet these days and how many new toys i had to play with after my comp upgrade. So i guess it's been a slow, gradual learning process. I just learn what i need to when i need to i guess.

Next on the list: juggling razor blades! After that it's something challenging like walking and chewing gum

jedsoon, by the way, good work!