[Prometheus]

Hi , I'm in my last year of highschool and we have to make this documentary about "Paris" (we are going there for a week) Now I tought I'd be fun if we made interviews and put em on a movie , so that the teacher gets like ... impressed But I'd like to ask you guys who know how to manipulate films with LOW COST software (I mean not 10000$) I mean , this is what I wanne do :


-A blue screen : I film a person who stands against a blue wall or something (as a background) and then with my computer I'd like to add an animation to that background (like you see on MTV etc...)

-Animated intro:How can I make a title like "Made by ... Project Paris ..." appear ?

-cast crew:I mean this , how do I make like this scroll thing that shows like all the names of the people who worked on the movie etc ...(like at the end of a movie)


If you know any of these three , or anything else I could use to make it look more fancy ,PLEASE TELL ME

Hope you can help me

~Prometheus~

[Brain]

The last two are the easiest. They're usually default little things on even the basic movie programs. Bluescreening is a little tougher without spending the dollars. The program I use is Ulead VideoStudio SE, which is the usual homeuser bodgey software which I got with my Quickcam, and I've been able to do 2 basic flicks (Jedi Brain and Nuttin' Scares Me, both on my website). Bluescreening is possible, it's just tough, with VideoStudio at least. It's a process of taking a frame, editing it, and putting it back in and compiling. Both of the above movies took about a day to do, so really, if you're gonna use basic software, ya gonna need patience and time.

Hmm... unsure if I really had a point to all that. It's late. I'll read over this later and see if it still makes sense. @;-p

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Brain
http://brain.gamekey.com/

[Prometheus]

Ok man , that's great advice allready , now if anyone else knows an "easy" way to do bluescreening please tell me , thanks

btw , how do I do a basic thing like when the movie starts and stuff showing a photoshop image , I know it sounds easy , but the way I do it now is sucky So if you know a fast and easy way please tell me

But plz , bluescreen help needed


Thanks allready

[Prometheus]

Oh I have a question , that I could really use , and u see it alot on TV , and I bet it's easy to do , Let's suppose You see me (reporter) in close up , and then when I say for example something about "Le Louvre" (something famous in Paris) I'd like to make a picture appear in the top right or whatever , of that thing I'm talkin about.
Is that doable ?

Please help me ,

Thanks


btw:Nottin' Scares me rocks man , I love the way you punch that guy =)

[Spydur]

Where I work, we painted a wall blue. Tou may not have a wall you can paint, but you could also try painting large pieces of foam core.
We film against the wall and then bring the project into Adobe Premiere. You can then adjust the settings to "knockout" areas that share the same color. While Premiere usually does a good job, you may have to go through the files and do some manual clean up. Also, try to use good lighting if using the blue screen idea.

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Let's face it, comedy is a dead art form. Now tragedy, ha ha ha, that's funny!

[Delucubus]

Ok, like spydur said, I have used Adobe Premiere. However, I think it is expensive (i wouldn't know I have nice friends). If you were to get a copy of that program you could easily do all the things you want.

I really don't think there is an EASY way to do the blue screen. You're going to have to use a film editing program. And these things take time. I did a film almost exactly like yours but about Vietnam when i was a senior in High School. But lucky for me my friend had a digital camera, adobe premiere, and a few other goodies. We still had to sit down and figure out how to get them all to work together. But after about a month of on and off work our little movie turned out pretty good.

[Ben Barker]

Those are usually done in a high end 3D program. The big companies use derivations of Softimage, Marionette, etc. Usually these programs fall into the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" category. Some movie studios use Maya, and fewer still use Lightwave or 3D Studio. Most are an ecletic mix of whatever works best.

Titles of 3D programs include (in order of highend to low end, sort of ):
Houdini
Maya
3D Studio
Lightwave
Truespace
Cinema 4D
Bryce
etc.

Nobody get pissed, heh, most good 3D programs are about the same. There are tons of 3D programs, but most good ones will run you around $2000 bucks at least, or $1000 if you are a college student. The price just goes up from there, unfortunately, and the hardware it takes to use the higher end software can get pretty expensive as well.
It's a whole new can of worms, in other words

[Paqmann]

well to make it simple.. if you want an even decent bluescreen, ur gonna have to pay a lot of money.
Premiere .... even premiere, which is probably more money than you have, is nowhere close to the best.

Good luck man...

-matt

[shardik]

about the image appearing over your head:
yes its definitely doable... in after effects(and im sure most or all video programs) at least i know of... you just take the image that u were gonna put up there and make it invisible until you are ready for it and then boost it to 100% opacity... and then when u want it to disappear again bring it back down to 0%... afteraffects is a really easy program to use for this kind of stuff

[A.Buttle]

Paqmann is right, even though keying in Premiere sucks, nor is it that expensive. Especially if you're student.

The Production Bundle of Adobe After Effects, though, can do a good job of chromakey, but because of the way lower end formats compress color information, to get a good key you need to tape the thing in BetaSP at least. And that is more than 5 digits. You also need to set up good lights ($), have the equipment ($), and pay some one to do it in post ($). The systems that big TV station use for things like the weather that key out the blue in realtime are ridiculously expensive.

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I'll just wait until you go to sleep tonight... then I'll cut you in half and count the rings.

Joe Dillingham
[email protected]
Three Times A Day

[This message has been edited by A.Buttle (edited December 09, 2000).]

[Prometheus]

Thanks for all the help guys , really helped me alot , and about the cost of adobe premier , well it doesn't cost me a thing , they have it at the college of my brother on the computers , and I can work on it there during the holidays , I guess I'm pretty lucky But I want to thank ou 10000 times cause I searched for tutorials for premier and after effect , and when I'm done with that , and am able to put that in the movie , it'll look great So thanks , and thanks again

[Brain]

Thanks for the kind words on Nuttin' Scares Me, and good luck with your flick. @:-)

[Guy]

just like to add something... i thought they used green screens now. i know my school has a big bright green one, but maybe blue is used for one thing and green is for something else.. i dunno, just thought id bring it up

[Brain]

Yeah, they use green screens aswell. Not only is it personal preference, but if for example the actor is wearing a blue jumper for the piece, a green screen makes things easier so you're not overlapping the jumper.

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Brain
http://brain.gamekey.com/