Let’s create the best bullet time effect possible with Insta360 One X
Hey guys, it’s GabaVR!
I’m a 360 content creator and photographer publishing 360 contents and tutorials on YouTube.
I have many creative techniques I’ve already shared with you on my channel,
and for sure, many more videos are coming up.
This time I show you everything about bullet time effect,
talking about shooting and editing manually for the best quality.
So let’s jump into it.
In one of my previous videos I've already featured bullet time effect using the string, called Swing Line.
But this time I will show you an in depth workflow using the dedicated bullet time handle.
First let’s see the basics.
As you can see, this is a slow motion effect,
so your 360 camera must have to shoot at least 60 frames per second in 4K.
That’s why I say that now in late 2019 Insta360 One X is the best tool for this.
On the other hand you have to move your camera on a certain orbit around you
To do this, you can use a string or a handle like this.
The advantage of the string is that it’s totally invisible, but it’s harder to use.
It’s getting shorter and shorter as the camera is turning around,
so we can only record 2 or 3 turns at one time (at least that’s how I can I do it).
Maybe we can spin it in another way, but every time I tried I had such an experience.
So the advantage of the handle is that we can record really long videos
even during walking, riding a bike or doing further activities.
In the meantime it’s a more visible that we have something in hand
but of course it’s quite hard to give any meaning of this raised hand, too.
But after all, it’s a cool effect, and I think it can bring interesting camera angles into our travel videos,
especially during shooting B-rolls.
So let’s take a closer look to the technique.
We have to grab the handle and start spinning the camera with a constant speed.
I don’t like to make it really fast; I prefer to turn it in a lower speed.
This way I can minimise the risk of motion blur and artifacts around the stitch line.
And to get the best quality possible I don’t go lower than 4K.
Although Insta360 One X can shoot at 100 fps in 3K, I think the resolution is a little bit low.
So I prefer 4k at 50 or 60 fps.
I don’t shoot in the automatic bullet time mode so I can control and set up everything during post production.
And what are these settings I can apply?
First I can play around with speed, creating faster and slower periods.
Or I can modify distance.
Of course it depends on the length of the selfie stick during shooting,
but I can also modify the field of view later.
So I can create a closer look, focusing on the talent or I can show more of the environment during traveling.
And of course besides putting our talent in the middle of the frame, I can pan in any other direction.
So as you can see we get access to more professional settings during editing
than using the automatic bullet time mode on smartphone.
And even more we can make further adjustments to correct the footage.
As you can see, even stabilization and stitching are perfect,
sometimes the horizon line is a little bit twisted.
But working in Premiere we can fix it, too.
But let’s see an instance step by step.
First I put my video on the timeline.
It’s really important that the sequence must be half the framerate of the framerate of the video.
It means that when I shoot in 50 fps my sequence will be set to 25 fps.
That’s how I can create the slow-mo effect.
So the first step is settings up speed. It will be 50 percent.
A half speed 50 fps video on a 25 fps timeline will be perfect for slow-mo.
Then I open the Effects panel and type in VR.
I use the older version of GoPro plugins, and I pick up the ones called VR Horizon and the VR Reframe.
I will apply GoPro VR Reframe mostly to set up directions and the field of view,
and the VR Horizon to fix the horizon from keyframe to keyframe, if needed.
The order is very important
as the VR Horizon plugin will affect the flat video before it turns into the overcapture look.
So the horizon correction must be done with the flat panoramic video.
Setting up a bullet time video key-frames are very important
and mostly I play around with 3 parameters.
On VR Horizon plugin I click on the stop watch on Pitch and Roll
while on VR Reframe I modify Yaw.
It’s actually the orientation of the 360 video, so they could call it Pan, too.
To set up the middle point perfectly I use guidelines, turning on Safe Margins under the preview window.
This way I can always see perfectly what is in the middle.
And I start editing.
There are two different ways to run through the footage.
First I can set up all the middle points and then I go from keyframe to keyframe correcting the horizon.
Or I can set up everything step by step.
It depends on how you like it, but both workflow leads to the same result.
And it’s only my taste, but I like to zoom out a little bit.
Basically it’s 50, but I like to go around 60, so I can see more of the environment.
And maybe the whole scene seems even smoother this way.
So that’s how I can create a really nice and smooth bullet time video.
I think it’s a great effect we can use in travel videos, shooting some really interesting B-rolls on the road.
And as I shoot in 4K it’s even a higher resolution than the automatic Bullet Time video in the Insta360 mobile app.
So I hope you like this short tutorial, and if you do, please thumbs up!
And for further 360 contents and tutorials, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
See you next time!