"After Effects" test clips.

[Glowing_Amraam]

Hey guys.

 

After effects is really awesome, i must say.

 

I've played around a little and made these very short tests. Might give you an idea of how my next movies will look, depending on how much i can actually learn. :)

 

3 small tests can be downloaded here:

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/22140679/tests.zip.html

 

Test 1: Replaced sky and added more heat-blur.

 

Test 2: Animated Heat blur as the jet is moving, plus enhanced glow and colors.

 

Test 3: Realistic color-tone and sky replacement, plus very soft heat shimmer coming off the runway.

 

Cheers :)

 

*EDIT* I added a small "tutorial" on page 2 on how to create movies, for those that are interested.

[SuperKungFu]

very cool, looking forward to it.

[p_o_d_2_2]

Looking good :)

[fretwear]

Awesome! :)

[jonnyB3]

Have you ever seen that Super Flanker video using fs2004? That has good after effect, effects in it such as heat blur and burning feul smoke.

[Glowing_Amraam]

Yes i know, the maker of that movie gave me some tips :)

[Aeroscout]

Wow, that was excelent. I especially liked the last one, with the shimmer on the runway. looked really realistic.

[Storm.i]

I hate them.... they are too short ;)

 

Excellent work!

[JonTex]

Hey Amraam,

I feel so tarded calling you a missle, would you happen to know where i could download free plug in's for Vegas 6.0. Or could you point me in the right direction as far as editing movies? I just need to know if the secret to making the breath taking footage that you aquire is from lots of creative thinking in the editing room ... or did you download some plug ins from a good website? If its creative thinking then say no more I wouldnt want you to give up your secrets for me .... I will have to think outside the box a bit more but Im having a hard time finding plug ins for vegas.

thanx in advance.

 

Tex:D

 

Edit: Oh BTW nice work your doing there.

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

I know **** about making movies, but here's my 2 cents worth of opinion.

 

Test 1: Replaced sky and added more heat-blur.

Liked the sky, but thought there was too much heat-blur - IMHO it rather over cooked the pudding.

 

Test 2: Animated Heat blur as the jet is moving, plus enhanced glow and colors.

Nice, I can imagine that style of camera shot in one of your movies.

 

Test 3: Realistic color-tone and sky replacement, plus very soft heat shimmer coming off the runway.

Also nice, subtle hot day feel.

[Glowing_Amraam]

Hey Amraam,

I feel so tarded calling you a missle, would you happen to know where i could download free plug in's for Vegas 6.0. Or could you point me in the right direction as far as editing movies? I just need to know if the secret to making the breath taking footage that you aquire is from lots of creative thinking in the editing room ... or did you download some plug ins from a good website? If its creative thinking then say no more I wouldnt want you to give up your secrets for me .... I will have to think outside the box a bit more but Im having a hard time finding plug ins for vegas.

thanx in advance.

 

Tex:D

 

Edit: Oh BTW nice work your doing there.

 

Actually, the only plugin i've ever used in "Vegas" is the one called "Vegas quake". It's a "shake" plugin, to create some shaking in your footage. My most recent release, "speed 2 teaser", you can see this in action in many of the shots.

 

Besides that plugin, everything i've created in the past has been created with what's included in Vegas 6.0. :)

[Glowing_Amraam]

Oh and the "secret" to movie making? Well...

 

First of all....

 

Think about "what kind of movie do i want to create?".

 

Next, find a good music track (or more) and imagine scenes while listening to it. Just picture something in your head as you're listening to the music.

 

Once you've found something you like, fire up lockon while fraps is loaded (i actually recommend fraps over the in-game .AVI tool if your pc is strong enough).

 

Start LOMAC.

 

Go in the mission editor.

 

Now start making SCENES for the movie. Don't make "missions", as this will NOT be shown in the movie anyway, no matter what you're making.

 

You should build your movie up by creating scenes. Sometimes, i just go random and create the end parts first. But it really doesn't matter what order you make the scenes, as the final result of the movie will be put together in the editing software.

 

So, let's make a simple example here. Let's make a "dogfight" movie, with a beginning - middle - and end.

 

You want a nice intro for the movie with slow scenes and nice music.

 

Time of day should be early dawn, or at sunset (optional, of course). Find a suitable airfield and create lots of jets parked around, some jets flying overhead at low alt (for this, just create 1 waypoint for them, so that when your other jest on the ground are taxiing, these jets will fly overhead at, hopefully, the right time. This just adds "immersion" and makes you think the world is "alive").

Also create some trucks moving around here and there. Don't overdo it though, just make sure that they are there in your scene when recording.

 

This will basically be AI jets, so just hit "FLY", and go into the game and just start recording from good angles, using ZOOM quite often. Just think about how this stuff is shown in the real world, either in movies, or how you've seen it on the discovery channel. Where are the cameras placed?

Are they shaking? Are they zoomed in? Are they far away? Are they BENEATH the jets? Are they attached to the jets? Maybe there are helicopters flying high above filming down? Just use your imagination and make the shots look as convincing as possible.

 

And also, for fraps, slow the game down once (ALT-A slows down - CTRL-A speeds up - SHIFT-A returns to normal speed)

 

Fiddle around with the angles and capture as many clips as you can, but make sure you use variation in your clips so we dont see the same thing over and over. This will just bore the viewer.

 

And another important thing, use SMOOTH mouse panning. And let me just say this now, for very slow moving jets taxiing, avoid at all costs to try to follow them with the mouse. Even I have trouble panning when things move so slow. So to avoid this, find the jet you want to "pan after" using F2. Next, when you've found the jet, hit CTRL-F11 to unlock the camera in time and space so you can now move it wherever the heck you want.

 

Find a good spot somewhere a little far away from the jet, place the camera VERY close to the ground. For this to work, you have to make sure that "CameraTerrainRestriction = true" is set to "CameraTerrainRestriction = false". You can find this little line in the "server.lua" file located here:

 

"..Ubisoft\Eagle Dynamics\Lock On\Config\View".

 

Now hit CTRL-F3 and the view should now work as the default Flyby-view for your selected jet.

 

Ok, let's move on.

 

Record some take offs, some flying and so on. If there is time and the music fits, you can also show the same thing for the enemy jets.

 

Now let's move on. Let's go for the dogfight scenes.

 

Let me use my last dogfight movie "SPEED" as an example.

After the text "let the fight begin", you see the jets pass by each other REALLY close and fast. Now, how do you achieve this?

 

Simple.

In the mission editor, select your time of day, season and weather.

 

Next, place your jets somewhere on the map, maybe not TOO high, as you want to capture the feeling of "speed" and movement, and this is very difficult to achieve at very high altitudes.

 

Create your flight (yes, you have to be one of the jets in this case, at least that's what i recommend).

 

Doesn't matter what jet you're flying, this is up to you. Create your wingmen as well.

 

Now, to get a shot like i had in "SPEED", make the speed of your flight around 900-1000 or so. Create your enemy jets as well, but place them flying DIRECTLY at you, same alt, and VERY close to your flight. This basically means that when the mission starts, you'll either fly into them crashing, or, if you're lucky (as i was :P ) the jets will fly between you, or right next to you.

Also, make your own jet IMMORTAL!!

 

Now.... why the hell would you do this?

 

Well, this is how it works really. You want to entertain your viewers. And for this, using realistic tactics and BWR fighting, and maybe a couple of quick and boring sidewinders kills at close range just wont cut it. Players see this kind of stuff 24/7 in-game. Why show them something they're already used to seeing?

You're making a MOVIE now. Not a lesson in dogfighting.

 

But hey, this is just how i see it. Unless you're making a historical and accurate (realistic) movie, this is how you should do it.

 

Ok, i mentioned that YOU were supposed to be one of the jets. Well, this is kinda optional, but the reason why i want to participate in my own dogfights is because i can do stuff that the AI never does.

 

When you're DIRECTLY behind an enemy jet, dont just fire the missle at it as soon as you get lock. No no, dont do that. Do some crazy manouvers as you're following it. Try maybe to miss with your guns at purpose. Roll your jet and such. He turns right, you do a roll to the left, and stop the roll when you're alligned with his jet, and THEN you start making your turn.

 

And try to roll with your jet at times when firing the sidewinders. It just kinda looks cool seeing your jet do this from the external view.. ;)

 

Now, do these dogfight scenes a couple of times, maybe randomize the number of jets, what weapons you're using and so on and so on.

 

Remember to save these tracks (oh right, for gods sake, before starting any of these dogfights, you HAVE TO HIT CTRL-R, and NOT push the FLY button!)

 

Ok, name your track whatever you want.

 

Next, hit "edit track" or something like that from the pulldown menu in the mission editor.

 

Now, remove the ugly bar at the bottom by pressing "Y" twice. Also, in the options menu, make sure you have turned OFF "subtitles". It kinda ruins the immersion if you see the text "maximum G" pop up now and then.

 

And since your jets will literally pass eachother within the first 2 seconds of the track, slow time down 3 times or so BEFORE YOU UNPAUSE.

 

Now, hit CTRL-F11 and move your camera RIGHT between all the jets, either looking at the enemy jets, or your own jets.

 

Zoom in a little (pretty optional here imo). Now, fire up fraps, and UNPAUSE.

 

Things will move VEEERY slow now, but thats a good thing. You wont miss a single frame at these speeds. :P

 

And after you successfully captured this shot, move on. Unpause EVERY time you're looking for a different shot. Now from here on out, all you need to do is slow the game down 1 time. So, hit SHIFT-A to return the game to normal speed, and now press ALT-A. Your only worries from here on out is coming up with good angles and zooms to make the shots look appealing.

 

Do this a few times and just use your imagination for different scenes. Use real movies as reference as well.

 

----

 

Ok, the dogfight part is over. Now the ending.

Depending on the music, you have to somehow find a way to make the ending of your movie fit the music theme and mood.

 

So if the music is slow, or sad, show lots of burning wrecks on the ground, maybe some damaged jets returning to base. Maybe the weather has changed, and also time of day? Is it raining now?

Just play around with some ideas.

 

There really is no easy way to explain how you should end your movie, but just end it in a way you think is suitable.

 

---

 

Ok there you have it. You've just created a dogfight movie. Of course, this "movie" is just tons of clips in your FRAPS folder.

 

If you're using VEGAS to edit your movie, import every fraps footage into vegas.

Oh and i strongly recommend you use REAL jet sounds. The in-game sounds are so weak that they will kill the immersion by 80% or more. Players already know how the game sounds. So you want to give them something new and fresh in the sound department.

 

I am fortunate enough to have gathered hundreds and hundreds of sound files over the years, either from other games, airshow movies found on the net, or recordings from different movies.

 

But, as you may have noticed, in my last "speed 2 teaser", i didnt include any sound at ALL. This is because the music really fitted better without any sound. Plus, its nice to make a movie now and then that really doesn't have any sound at all, but this really depends on the type of movie that you're making.

 

Now for Vegas editing, things are a little more complicated.

 

But in general: Play around with contrast, and make the colors a little darker.

For shots that are "dead still in the air" (as in the CTRL-F11 views), if you're camera is just standing still in mid air, add some movement to it using "crop/pan". Also add blur to the shots that are very fast paced, such as when jets fly by your camera really close as you're panning after them. This adds realism and the feeling of speed.

 

---

 

Well, i really hope this gives you some insight in how i make my movies. :)

There are plenty of others methods to make movies, but this is just a simple example really.

 

So play around with ideas, camera angles, music, sounds, anything. When it all comes together, it might be pretty good.

 

Good luck!

[Witchking]

wow...the sky and the blur itself makes a wicked difference. :) Looks amazing GA!! keep rockin! :D

[graywo1fg]

WOW GA that info.... great :D

[Maximum Bob]

Hey Amraam

 

Is there any chance you could upload the clips to another site or email them to me? I can't get them through rapidshare as it doesn't like my router :(

[Glowing_Amraam]

Yeah, i'll send'em to your e-mail. I still have you on MSN as well i think. :)

[porky]

Quick question for you GA, those 3 tests are WMV, but am I right in thinking AE doesn't export WMV...?

 

Anyway, really nice work. Can see that adding a lot of realism to your future movies.

[zaelu]

Great read GA. Can I ask you how you add blur (motion blur and out of focus or focus change effect) in Vegas? I always thought you are using a plugin for Blur :) .

[JonTex]

Thanx for the help GA. Ill be revamping my old episodes with this information in mind. So I will start work on Episodes 1 and 2 again since my website is designed and ready to go. The only thing left is to clear a few legal issues and its set to go online. Then Ill revamp Episodes 1,2 and then start work on 3. I may need pilots so help is appreciated. Ill be sure to credit ya GA for the help.:D

 

Again thanx

Tex

[hitman]

Im bookmarking this one...Soon I will be doin some tight stuff...HOPEFULLY. If my cd doesnt break in the mail.

[sp0nge]

thats very nice.

 

ive got after effects but ive got no idea where to start in it! :(

[Maximum Bob]

Looking nice. Looks like your making the jump from Vegas to After Effects pretty smoothly :thumbup:

 

The heat blur effects look a lot better than the Lockon stock effect, and the runway shimmer is a nice touch. The sky replacements look awesome though... I guess the next step is to work out how to replace the sky on moving shots :D

 

Maximum Bob

[Glowing_Amraam]

I guess the next step is to work out how to replace the sky on moving shots :D

 

Maximum Bob

 

Already figured out ;) :

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/23688511/effects.zip.html

 

Example i just made...

[Maximum Bob]

Already figured out ;) :

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/23688511/effects.zip.html

 

Example i just made...

 

He he, didn't take long :D

[Glowing_Amraam]

Just used a mask and edited out the blue sky, didn't you?

 

Color key ;)