Hey guys, Yannick here for Cinecom.net and welcome back to Copycat Friday
and today we are recreating our favorite magical editor
Zach King
And oh boy, his latest effect is quite insane.
On his Instagram he often posts awesome editing magic.
From playing football with himself to turning a cleaning mop into a dog.
It's quite insane the tricks he pulls off.
But to be honest his latest trick really takes the cake.
Or better yet
takes the watermelon.
In his latest video you can see Zach selling watermelons.
He starts with half a melon
but with some magic and a mirror he transforms the half melon into a whole one.
then he cuts it and starts over again.
Well, this destroyed my brain along with Jordy's brain
and Lorenzo's brain.
So, it took three guys to figure out this effect, and we're still not a hundred percent sure.
What we think he did was using a 3D watermelon.
Now in his shots he was probably holding a green object with tracking marks.
This way he could easily remove the object in his hand
and use the tracking marks of that object to parent the 3d watermelon to.
But the green object would also help with the Interaction
because now it looks like he's actually holding something and his hands don't float around.
Now, why do we think this?
Well, here you can see his hand slide over the watermelon
so you can already guess it isn't really there.
And the next clue is right here,
where you can see the watermelon texture shift a little.
Another reason why we think he used 3D
is that the watermelon spins around when he moves it.
It's almost impossible to match the motion of his hands and a still frame watermelon while it also rotates.
But with a 3D melon you can do whatever you want.
And one other thing used are extra shots of the mirror to help him mask out stuff in that mirror.
Now, what do you guys think?
Did we get it right or do you have another idea how he made it?
We love to hear what you think.
So let us know in the comments below.
Now, for the actual tutorial we decided to do it in a simpler way.
We're not skilled in 3D yet, so we are going to recreate it in our own Cinecom way.
Hit the montage!
♪ ♪
Alright no VFX, only some clever tricks and Adobe Premiere Pro,
but that's for later.
Let's first have a look at the table that we've created and you've just seen that we've drilled this hole into the table
and we're gonna use that to put in a ball
and we actually have two balls
because we're gonna need to cut one in half and that's also why we have bought these foam balls
because they're much easier to cut in half while retaining its same shape.
So that whole ball can go into the hole.
So you can put it in there and we're gonna use two half ball to start with
and do our clever acting with and everything will be shot from a camera on a tripod.
Super important.
The camera is rolling, your talent is good to go.
This is what that person has to do:
Just hold the half ball like this in your hands,
walk towards the table
drop the half ball and then take over
the entire ball out of the hole.
It's that simple.
Now, there are a few things that you do need to pay attention to
and first of all is the pattern on the ball itself.
You want to make sure that these two match up.
So as you stick that ball into the hole try to make sure that it matches as good as possible
with the half ball that you're holding
So that is the first thing that you need to pay attention to.
The second thing is the way that you drop that half ball.
What you don't want to do is open up your hands like this.
No, no, no!
You want to make sure that your hands stay at the exact same place
So drop it like that without opening up your hands.
A good trick is to make sure your two thumbs are against each other
and that way you kind of have a sense of a distance between your two hands.
So you just drop it like that
and then take over the whole ball into the hole.
The camera is still rolling on the tripod
You don't want to touch that as we're preparing for the next scene
and that is putting a cloth over your table.
Don't touch it!
Don't stamp it or anything
because that table also has to stay at the exact same spot
or otherwise you're gonna have to start all over again.
So once you got your cloth on the table, whichever color you want,
you can put a mirror on top of that table.
Bu-dum!
We're gonna shoot the reflection right now.
So your talent has to lay that half ball onto the mirror like this.
But we have to make sure that that half ball sits in the exact same position
as your previous whole ball in the hole.
So that's why I've created these templates right here
Which I can use to determine the position of this half ball on the mirror.
Once that sits in place we can remove that
and we can kind of make a stain on to the mirror with your finger
to somehow have an idea where we need to put it.
And now we know where it should be and your extra can play out the reflection.
When you're taking out to the entire ball out of the mirror,
we should see empty hands in the reflection.
So when you're going to play out the reflection with the half ball on here
you want to keep your hands still let someone else take out the half ball out of your hands and
and then play out the movement further.
That's all we need.
No, wait one more shot
we need to take and that is simply holding the whole ball in your hands
like this
Make sure the pattern again matches with your previous shots
and that's everything we're gonna need.
This is probably for some masking or clever editing tricks.
I don't know, that's for Yannick.
Hey Yannick, catch!
Thank ... thank you Jordy.
But before I start with our post-production I would first like to talk about our sponsor Storyblocks video.
It's an online video library
that keeps on expanding.
You can find a wide variety of stock clips in Full HD and 4K resolution.
But besides the huge library they also have their collections
which bundles multiple stock clips into a certain theme.
Like these video conference backgrounds
which will make you the coolest guy in the meeting.
Or maybe you are working on a horror short movie
then this Halloween collection is perfect for you.
But besides the awesome easy collections
you also have transitions, overlays, aerials, green screen shots, slow-motion shots
and so much more.
But of course, we can't forget After Effects templates.
They have a huge offer of super easy to customize templates ready to be downloaded by you.
The only thing you need to do is pay one single price per year
and you can start downloading an unlimited amounts of assets.
So go to the first link in the description below.
Now, for post-production
and the first thing we need is a shot of your actor and the ball.
This we can place on track number three.
Now look for an empty mirror part and drag that to track number one.
The next thing we need is going to be a part of the mirror shot where your actor lays the ball onto the mirror.
This clip you can place on track number two.
Okay,
let's combine these three!
First, disable the second and the third layer and on the clip from track number one
draw a detailed mask around the table.
Now copy and delete that mask and paste it to your actor clip on track number three.
But
you have to invert the mask.
Then enable the top two clips again and select the clip on track number two
The one where your actor puts the ball onto the mirror.
Match the timing of this clip with the top clip and draw a small mask around the reflection of your actors arm
only showing this small part of the clip.
What you now can do is move this around to really match the position of your actor.
However, we also need the reflection where your actor is holding nothing in his hands
while moving away from the mirror.
Look for the point in your timeline where your actor pulls the ball out of the mirror.
Here, you can place the new reflection clip and also draw the same mask on it
as the other reflection clip.
Then we are also going to blend these two reflections.
Select the cut between the two Clips and right click on it.
Apply the default transition and make this transition shorter.
Now you normally have something like this right here
and as you can see, we need to animate the mask on the actors clip so that it follows along with his arms.
Try to make this as detailed as possible around his arms and hands
then when he reaches the ball open up the mask
so it also surrounds the ball.
When the actor then moves up with the ball let your mask follow along.
Giving you something like this:
Okay, we are getting there!
Next up, hiding the falling ball.
Duplicate the actor clip and look for an empty part between your actor and table.
Here, you can add a frame hold.
Now adjust the mask from this duplicate clip
so it covers the empty part next to the table.
You probably need to disable the invert option of the mask
and also animate it so you don't cover your actor.
Then let's go to the last part, bringing the ball back.
Take your shot of the old ball and place it on track number 5.
Let it start just on the moment when your actor drops the half ball.
Now, position and scale it so that it matches perfectly with the original ball.
This means also masking it to a half ball.
Then duplicate the actor clip to the top and mask out his hands.
Animate this for the entire length of the clip.
Next, take the ball and animate it so that it follows the hands perfectly.
Now, this is of course easier with After Effects and the tracking function
but you can also do it manually in Premiere Pro.
Then the last thing you can do is extend the mask once you are on the mirror.
Here, you will slowly overlap the reflection creating an entire ball.
And that's it!
Time
for a
Yannicks
Fun
Fact
FOUNTAAAAAAAAIIIN!
We did a lot of masking today and masking is a form of
Rotoscoping
but
where did this technique come from?
Well, Rotoscoping began way back in 1915.
Thanks to an animator named Max Fleischer.
He wanted to change the world of animation
so he invented a technique where you trace over a live action sequence frame by frame
to give the cartoon a realistic and fluid movement.
With this technique he gave us Betty Boop and Popeye
but also laid the groundwork for computer animation and modern VFX
because today we use Rotoscoping to remove unwanted objects or composite shots together.
So thank you so much Max Fleischer for this awesome technique!
And that was it for today guys!
Thank you so much for watching!
Thank you Storyblocks Video for the support!
And like always
Stay creative!
[Yannick singing]
Thank you Jordy
but before I start with post-production I would first like to talk about our spons ... sponsor
[Jordy screaming from the bottom of his heart]