Base jumper Subterminallyill posted on his Vimeo page a very impressive, immersive (seemingly a helmet mounted GoPro) slow motion footage of his last jump off a cliff, which as it happens didn’t go well at all. As the seconds slowly pass by, the moment almost feels like a soft, skimming interaction. But as soon as the actual speed is revealed, it shows a brutal, violent accident happening in a split second.
Cliff Strike 11/24/2013 from Subterminallyill on Vimeo.
Here is a list of articles published by fxguide, giving fascinating insights into the tools used by the film industry in terms of rendering.
(Brace yourselves for the massive tag list hereafter.)
This 5mn video is an attempt by Anthony Cerniello at showing the aging process of a person in a timelapse manner. I’d recommend watching the video before reading anything about how it was done.
Danielle from Anthony Cerniello on Vimeo.
Here comes the spoiler: according to this article, it was created from photos of the subject and her family relatives who shared most face similarities. The photos were then animated and morphed together. Like the article points out, the animation still falls within the uncanny valley, but pause at any time and all you see is an real face.
I was delighted to discover the last Disney short film, Paperman, which was released to the public a few days ago. Almost completely in black and white, with a hint of red, this animation a small gem of directing.
If I may try myself at a analyzing the image, notice how the light is used to support the story.
The guy is lit according to his mood: a strong but soft rim light when he is happy, a dim and dull ambient light at work, a strong and harsh side light when the moment is intense. Notice for example how his face has soft shadows at the office, but strong shadows right before he runs. Notice too how the paper planes pull him from the shadow back into the light.
The woman is lit depending on how unreachable she gets: the more difficult she is to reach, the less lit she is. As she gets in her train, she is surrounded by shadow. Similarly, when she is seen from the window, the whole building is bright, drawing attention to her, but the room is still dark as she is unreachable. As the paper planes get closer, she gets more and more light. When she passes the door, she gets back in the shadow.
Of course when they reach each other and finally meet, they both are in the light.
In this very short video, Iñigo Quilez of Pixar explains in layman’s terms how they used mathematics to create the moss in the CG film Brave.
After mentioning it during lunch, I realized I never posted this here: Embrace Life is the name of a brilliant short, written and directed by director Daniel Cox and produced by Sarah Alexander, for a British safety campaign back in 2010. Far from the usual shocking images, it chooses to convey its message through a metaphor and yet manages to deeply move the audience. The film uses slow motion, which was made possible by shooting with a Phantom HD camera.
“I wanted to create a visual metaphor addressing how a single decision in a person’s day can greatly influence both their own and their loved ones’ lives. Choosing to film the story inside the family living room represents the feelings many people equate with their own car, in that it represents a level of safety and protection from the ‘outer’ world. So to create the emotion of this dramatic moment, I wanted to tell the story using slow motion to allow the audience the time to be drawn into the film’s world and to let them connect with and project their own feelings onto the scenario playing out before them. I wanted to give the audience the time to breathe, to absorb our message and using slow motion was the right technique to allow this to happen.” (Daniel Cox)
Unfortunately I have never found a HD version of it.
Following up on yesterday‘s video, here is another take on Endeavour’s journey across the streets of Los Angeles.