First off, to everyone who made it to Drive, thanks for coming.  We thoroughly enjoy the chance to visit with and learn from you.

Sometimes in these visits, we’ll get asked a question along the lines of “How did you make that?”  Since it’s difficult to answer that question succinctly, I’ll often respond with something useless like “Magic!”, which I imagine is really irritating.  Sorry about that.

But that’s one of the reasons we have this blog– to continue these conversations throughout the year and get into those details.

I had the privilege of working on the center screen content for the opener to this year’s Drive.  It was easily the most gargantuan project I’ve worked on in my time at North Point, and it couldn’t have been pulled off with out a ton of help from Andy Wadell, Matt Gibson, and Brad Bretz, who were a huge help in pre-production and the execution of the side-screen content.  I may ask them to post something about the green screen shoot, since that’s not my area of expertise.  Anyways, here’s a small peek at what it took to execute the orchestral section of the opener.

(Note: For the time being we cannot post video of the actual performance, since we don’t yet have internet distribution rights on the music.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully that will be resolved.)

Obviously, before any footage was shot, composited, or animated, we planned extensively.  We made storyboards, test sequences, and sometimes just doodled:

While Andy and Matt were shooting our instrumentalists, I started work on creating the stage, which took form as something like a bandstand, since the orchestra needed to fit into a three-level-tall grid.  It was modeled in Cinema4D and exported as a single still image.

The stage was brought into After Effects, and it was time to begin compositing.  Now, I’m not sure how obvious this was live, but the eventual 49-piece orchestra was actually only made up of 7 unique individuals.  Andy and Matt shot them from different angles, wearing different clothes, with hair up and down, etc.  Even so, making sure our orchestra didn’t look like some sort of clone army was a bit of a challenge.  Luckily, we were going for a mostly silhouetted look (with highlights being the primary details), so the identical faces weren’t a huge problem.  I should also note that the string and percussion players were legitimately playing the music you heard.  That’s not something you can fake and get away with.

Easily the most tedious part of the whole process–in fact, the entire opener– was getting all of the instrumentalists timed to the final music track exactly.  I’m not sure how many of you have ever worked with audio in After Effects, but let me assure you, it’s not the place for precision audio editing.  Fortunately, Andy worked up a sync system later on in the process that really helped streamline the rest of our work.

To create the illusion of depth, each successive row was increased in brightness and blur, as though they were disappearing in a haze of bright light.  Each player’s color correction had to be animated individually as the center lights expanded and intensified.

The lights themselves were a product of Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plugin (link).  If you’re not familiar with Optical Flares or Video Copilot, I encourage you to check it out.  They make some of our favorite plug-ins and scripts, ranging from free to not-that-expensive.  My Optical Flares layers were controlled by regular-old After Effects light layers, which allowed me to easily animate the intensity of each individual light.

On top of it all, I used a plug-in called Magic Bullet Looks to adjust the overall color and give it that bronze “epic” feel.  The most important addition was a diffusion layer, which gave all of the brightest points a realistic glow.

For the climax, it was as simple as cranking up the lights even further and animating a curves adjustment layer (the red and green channels specifically) to transition the bronze into a bright gold.  Because we all know that gold beats bronze.

When it was all said and done, this section of the opener (roughly 1 minute and 45 seconds) took 22 hours to render.  When you have 49 keyed 1080p video files playing simultaneously (not to mention layers and layers of color correction and plug-ins), it’s going to take some time to digest.  So make sure you anticipate your render times when working on large projects.

Check back in soon and we’ll walk through Part 2…

You may have already seen this video floating around twitter via @AndyStanley.  This is one of the many stories our team gets to be a part of week in and week out.  Gretchen’s particularly was one of the most inspiring things we’ve ever seen around here.  It’s hard not to get teared up on this one.  Our team is blessed to be a small part of God’s BIG story in every person who walks through our doors at North Point Ministries.Click here to view the embedded video.

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You may have already seen this video floating around twitter via @AndyStanley.  This is one of the many stories our team gets to be a part of week in and week out.  Gretchen’s particularly was one of the most inspiring things we’ve ever seen around here.  It’s hard not to get teared up on this one.  Our team is blessed to be a small part of God’s BIG story in every person who walks through our doors at North Point Ministries.Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://insidenorthpoint.org/media/2010/08/19/gretchens-baptism/feed/ http://insidenorthpoint.org/media/2010/06/04/vimeo-timelapse-finds/ http://insidenorthpoint.org/media/2010/06/04/vimeo-timelapse-finds/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:00:50 +0000 Matt http://insidenorthpoint.org/media/?p=3731 Here is an amazing timelapse video of the Iceland volcano using Canon 5d mkII.  Video by Sean Stiegemeier

Click here to view the embedded video. 

Here’s how he created this video using a motorized dolly by www.dynamicperception.com (not available yet).  Incredible shots with this thing. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a video our team did to promote our COLLEGE MINISTRY’S summer meetings called “SUMMER GATHERING.”  The first thing we think about for a promotion like this is “College Humor.” Creatively, that usually means getting to right people in the room who think in that mindset.  Plus our Producer Dave Blakeslee found an amazing professional V.O. guy TOM LIST whose wife is actually on staff here.  Adam Dukes (contractor) rewrote this original concept that Career Builder created a year ago.  This video had run through our office many times and it has just the right humor that some may find dumb but is perfect for College kids.  The repetition in the original commercial is BRILLIANT!!!  You know a commercial is good when you quote lines from it like “HEY DUMMY!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO. Let’s start with the last video played.
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE OPENER
For copyright purposes we can’t put the TobyMac song we played (and the singer coming out of the ceiling.) Some things you just have to be there for!
We will try to get the graphics up for the song a bit later.
Click here to view the embedded video.

TITLE PACKAGES for all sessions.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE-BYEs for all sessions
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.

MINUTE TO WIN IT intro.
We copied the show but had to start from scratch on ALL the graphics.
Click here to view the embedded video.

SUNDAY’S COMING
Click here to view the embedded video.

FUN THEORY
Click here to view the embedded video.

TWITTER TRACKER (intro)
Click here to view the embedded video.

DRIVE LOGO (loop)
Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.
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ORIGINAL CLIP (purchased from iStockVideo)
 
FINAL PRODUCT
 
Different Levels of Animation
 
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AfterFX SCREENS

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CREATING LANDSCAPE 
Original image felt very flat to me.  So i wanted to add some depth/scenery.  Remember your Old Artbeats Nature footage- it’s still useful for compositing & makes things better.

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COLOR TREATMENT
CREATING A QUICK SUNSET.  Place this Color Solid above ALL layers and blend it down.  I chose “Color Burn”, but whatever works best in your situation.


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ADJUSTMENT LAYER - Add Contrast
Place Adjustment Layer above ALL layers, Add LEVELS to it.  Jack the contrast and you’ll be amazing at what was once flat quickly becomes DYNAMIC!
   
Before & After LEVELS
 
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LIGHTING
Add a Light to your 3D Camera.  Helps create a Vignette Effect, and can really do some cool things as foreground objects fly by.
Make sure your layers have 3D turned on, or the light will not show up.
 
Before & After Lighting (Subtle but Nicer)
 
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FOREGROUND OBJECTS
Adding Foreground layers really makes your 3D camera move become dynamic because of the different speed it moves as compared with background.  Also has a nice effect when you have your camera DOF turn on.
 
Use Blending Modes as Needed

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ADDING MORE LAYERS (Realism)
I purchased pre-made birds in iStockVideo.  You can also create your own birds.  Sometimes it’s just worth the $25 to save you the time.
CreativeCow Bird Tutorial

Multiply Layer or key out white. I multiplied layer and slowed down footage for effect.

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LENS FLARE
Creating a realistic sun.  AfterFX Lens Flare can suffice, but I really wanted the sun to feel as realistic as possible.  We purchased an amazing plug-in from Video Copilot called OPTICAL FLARES.  This plug is incredible!  So many options and Flare FX.  This won’t be last time we use this.  You know all those Star Trek lens flares… this can create those as well.

 
I masked out tree trunk and put it above FLARE layer as to not completely blow out tree.

Before & After
   
Keyframe your Brightness to create your sunrise.
 
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WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUES IN AFTERFX or FCP?

Earlier this month, I was given the task of creating a new promo for this year’s MarriedLife Live Christmas event.  Last year’s promo was both simple and effective, so we wanted to build on that foundation with a fresh coat of paint.  Charged with merely adding “more pizazz” (I believe that was the phrase), I thought this was a good opportunity to experiment some.  (Note: This is not always a good idea.  It can be time-consuming and has a 46.5% chance of ending in tears.  It’s better to experiment in your free time and apply later.  I got lucky this time.)

Creating the Scene

I’ve dabbled a little in 3D modeling in the past, mostly with the headache/opportunity known as Blender (a free, open-source 3D program).  Most of my work, however, was based more in typography than actual objects or scenes.  But after searching around the internet for some Christmas motion graphics inspiration, I thought I would try my hand at modeling a three-dimensional cartoon-style forest.

After about an hour in Cinema4D, I had something that may have resembled a few trees, but was probably more akin to some clusters of green Hershey’s Kisses.  Still, it was an okay proof-of-concept– even if it’s not the greatest looking thing in the world, it’s good to reach a point where you know that, if you keep pushing it forward, it’ll eventually get there.

The models ended up being the easiest part of the project.  Other little details– like camera rigging, lighting, and especially texture work – proved to be a bit more difficult.  I spent probably more time than I should have trying to perfect the texture for the fallen snow, trying to find that right balance between smoothness, bumpiness, and reflectivity.  I also played around with actually modeling the clumps of snow on the trees themselves, and it could have looked great . . . after a few weeks of work.

Making the Scene…Magical?

My renders out of Cinema4D were actually pretty bland.  Fortunately that was part of the plan.  Cinema4D and After Effects work really well together, and it saves hours if you leave tasks like color correction, effects, and particle systems to After Effects.  When you render out of Cinema, you can also tell it to create an AE comp, complete with camera and lighting data.  From there, I was able to create falling snow with Particular within After Effects that actually reacted to my Cinema4D camera.  Thanks to a new feature of Particular 2, the individual particles can be shaded by your After Effects lights (which in this case, again, were originally generated by Cinema4D).  This little trick added a lot of realism and depth to the falling snow, if even only for a couple of seconds.  All of the other little finishing touches– the sky, the stars, the glow, the general color of the scene, and the text– were all done in After Effects.

Bringing it Together

The team did a great job of giving me feedback early on in the process.  This was essential since each Cinema4D scene took anywhere from 1 to 4 hours to render, even at the most basic settings.  The last part of the project was spent in Final Cut, just like any other project, making sure the timing, the music, and the flow of the story all felt right– not to mention the actual information presented by the video…which can change at any moment, including the last one.

I would be remiss not to mention the good folks at Real Fake Buildings.  They did an amazing job throughout this process.  A huge thanks as well to the North American Mission Board for allowing us the use of their studio space.

Of course, there are MANY more great people involved in the pre-production and post-production of this massively detailed project, but for now, here is just one aspect of our process: the evolution of a video set.