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In honor of DIY Movie Making Month, I’ve been digging through the archives to de-blog some special-effects-related oldies-but-goodies from months past. Click on in!
Action effects:
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During the time that we were brainstorming ideas internally for DIY Movie Making month, a link to this video gem got circulated. It brought back so many memories of the beginnings of HBO and this amazing opening sequence. I’ve always had a special soft spot in my heart for miniatures and model-making of all sorts. And this opening was sort of a model-maker’s paradise, as this making-of video will attest. Who knew that the flying H-B-O where physical models? [Thanks, Lish Dorset!]
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March is a time when spring is dawning and we (at least those of us in colder climates) can’t wait to bust out of our cabins and break the fever of breathing our own exhaust all winter long. Spring offers newfound possibilities for making things, for being creative. Combine the desire to get out and circulate, with the itch to create, the fact that it’s also the month of the Academy Awards and the world focusing its attention on movie making, and… well… we thought it was as good a time as any to launch DIY Movie Making Month here at MAKE.
There are so many incredible tools now available to consumers with even the most modest budgets to create shockingly sophisticated videos, from viral YouTube prank vids to animation/claymation/stopmotion wonders to satisfying sci-fi fan films to serious low-budget feature fare that give Hollywood a run for its money. Over the coming month, we’ll be rounding up site content on various aspects of DIY movie production, recommending tools for movie making, talking to some of our favorite no-budget/low-budget filmmakers, showing you some of our video-making process here at Maker Media, and more.
And, we’d love to get you in on the action. If you have a cinematic masterpiece you’d like us to see, or have used some technique of animation, stop-motion, claymation, digital compositing, etc. that you’d like to share with us, please email me (gareth@makezine.com) or post to the Comments below. And please share some of your favorite no-budget wonders and movie making-related how-tos.
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On this episode of Backyard FX, on Indy Mogul, as they continue to audition new hosts, Dave Knop shows how to create a super low-cost radial dolly.
How to make a Radial Dolly : Backyard FX
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Anybody have any guesses how this was done? Neurosonics Live on Vimeo by Will clark, JFB, and Beardyman. Just a little warning, there’s a little bit of swearing at the very end of the video. [Thanks, Jamie!]
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The positive response to my recent anamorphic Pac-Man post led me to dig up this oldie-but-goodie from Boing Boing. This “UP” signage is only one of several anamorphic signs from The Eureka Tower Carpark in Melbourne, Australia. The anamorphic projections, designed by Axel Peemöller, only read properly when viewed from the correct angle.
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I love this DIY camera dolly track, built from a $15 “Ivar” Ikea shelving “side unit.”
A few days ago, I found out that the Ivar “wooden ladder” was perfect to use it as rails for my cinema dolly! I can now make some nice sequence shots with this 18€ (USD$15) accessory from Ikea.
[Thanks, Tim Tate!]
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Announced at this year’s CES, Flir’s Scout gives consumers true thermographic vision — imaging based not on light but on heat. Flir is marketing the Scout to consumers but it’s hard to see Joe Sixpack wanting to drop $3K (MSRP) on one. Which is not to say it doesn’t have its obvious uses — for instance, a hunter could use it to follow a blood trail at dusk, or a homeowner could pinpoint heat leaks.
Built around Flir’s leading edge thermal night vision technology, Scout gives outdoor enthusiasts the power to see people, animals, and their surroundings clearly in total darkness, as well as through smoke, dust, and light fog. Scout uses a thermal camera to make video images from heat, not light, and displays this video on its built?in LCD eyepiece.
In addition to providing improved visibility in almost every conceivable environmental condition, Scout enables hikers, campers, and hunters to keep track of other people in their party, find and track animals, and navigate safely and accurately even in total darkness.
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The Vuzix Wrap 920AR is the sort of high-end consumer gadget that would end up serving as merely a head-mounted display and its AR component would fall by the wayside. But imagine its full potential in the hands of an expert hacker…
Wrap 920AR eyewear [consists of] a stereo camera pair that “looks” into the world, bringing mixed and augmented reality content to life. With the new Wrap 920AR, users can view the real-world environment and computer-generated imagery seamlessly mixed together; allowing video game characters to jump out of the TV and come to life in your living room, or magazines and books with animated links back to the web in real time.The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space. Selected as a 2010 CES Innovations Award winner and a semifinalist for the “Last Gadget Standing” competition, the Wrap 920AR will be the highlight of Vuzix’ display at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show.
Here are the specs:
• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99
More:
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Tho Bui writes:
I’ve been toying with homemade steadicams lately. The gimbal joint usually gives people a fit. The roundness of the acorn nut fits into the indentation of the opposite screw/nut and freely rotates.
More:
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