This video is brought to you by Audioblocks
What up, you guys!
It’s Yannick from cinecom.net and welcome to Copy Cat Friday!
It’s a series where we recreate effects from movies and music videos.
And today we are recreating the new music video from Drake and Travis Scott,
Sicko Mode!
Nice one, Yannick, you’re gonna do a great job next week!
I have no idea what Lorenzo is doing, though…
Now, things are getting weird around here!
[Cinecom’s intro music]
Hey guys, It's my last day in Belgium today.
In a few hours I'm heading off to Iceland.
So, I'm probably leaving half way this video.
Anyways, I'll be back in ten days, but in the meanwhile Yannick and Lorenzo
are gonna keep making awesome videos for you.
As for today we're obviously having a look at Sicko Mode from Travis Scot and Drake.
It's jam packed with dozens of video effects so we just had to recreate them!
There are even so many incredible effects in there that we decided to make two parts.
But for now, let's start with recreating the set!
[Badass rap music]
The music video Sicko Mode is packed with a ton of great effects,
So, that’s why we’re going to do this in two parts.
First up we’re going to build a set that looks kind of similar to what they have.
It’s raining outside for the next few days, so that’s why we have have to do it inside,
But that’s ok because we’ve got a nice studio!
Let’s do this.
[Music fades back in]
So, here we have it, it almost looks exactly the same as in the clip, isn’t it?
Except for the Berlingo, maybe, but that doesn’t matter.
We’ve got something that looks similar.
Let’s see how we can create those 3 effects right now.
The very first thing that you have to pay attention to
is that you have something that lays in the foreground.
We’ve got this spray can right here and this box,
for the rest, nothing is important, only these two things,
because we’re going to use them to track our shot later on.
You could also work with tracking marks, etc., but then you have to remove them.
So the easiest thing is to work with stuff that may be visible in the shot.
That whole zoom motion is done by creating multiple pictures.
That is what yannick is doing right now.
You wanna start off way in the distance, zooming in onto your subject,
and look for a point on your display that you can align with something in your set.
We have this box and this can over there which we are going to use as tracking marks.
But we can also use that to align our camera to.
And that way we are sure that that specific part right here
it’s always in the middle of our frame.
Then just move up a little bit, Yannick is doing that on the skateboard,
because it’s just easier for him.
And then you wanna zoom out slowly each time,
which is kind of the same as the famous Hitchcock zoom or the dolly zoom effect.
But we’re actually going to zoom a lot more than usual.
So, you really wanna zoom in as much as you can in the beginning
and once you come close to your set, zoom out as much as you possibly can.
Now, before we start I’d first like to thank Audioblocks for sponsoring us today.
Audioblocks is an amazing library where you can find music and sound effects.
The cool thing is that you only have to pay a single price per year,
and with that you can download unlimited clips from their growing library.
So that means you can try out different sound effects and music clips,
before you are going to finish up your video.
And you can use that for either personal and commercial projects.
So, definitely make sure to check it out.
You can do so by clicking the first link in the description below.
What makes the effect so sick
is that we can see Travis not changing with the perspective.
So, that means Travis sits in a different layer.
And that’s why we’re going to set up the green screen.
So, let’s do that!
It’s gonna be very important that your green screen shot
is going to match with the background.
That’s why I will always recommend
to setup your green screen in the same environment.
For example, if you’re shooting outside, then
also setup your green screen over there.
As for here we’ve got a big tungsten lighting in the back,
which is why I will also have the same lighting here
coming out behind the green screen
and that way we’re getting that same nice backlight.
Also, we’ve got a magenta light there in the back as well,
so, that’s why we also have that coming back right here,
so that we have the subject with a little bit of magenta here on the back.
As of the legs, we did have a little bit of trouble,
because the legs or the feet of yannick were too dark,
and we would see a bit of green in his feet.
And so we are adding a tiny light here, the Aputure M9.
A small LED light to lift up the shadows right here
and so the keying will go a lot easier.
So we've got photo sequence and a greenscreen shot.
Let's fire up After Effects!
The first thing we're gonna do is import the photo sequence.
I've got all my photos in JPEG files,
so by right clicking in your Project Panel and choosing Import: File,
I can navigate to my photos and select all of them.
Before you click Import, make sure to enable ‘Import JPEG sequence’
and then hit Import.
We can now go ahead and drag the JPEG sequence into a new composition.
After Effects will see this as one normal clip now.
The zooming effect goes back and forward,
that's why we're going to hit control or command D with the clip selected
to make a duplication.
Then right click on that duplication, go to Time and choose Time Reverse layer.
Move the clip up to the right and by holding down Shift,
you can make it snap to the clip below.
Then select both of the clips, duplicate it again and move them to the side.
Keep doing this for as long as you want the effect to take.
When you're done, select everything, right click and choose Pre-compose
to group all of those layers together.
This is already your background, nothing more has to happen with that.
But since there's a big movement, we're gonna have to track it.
So with the pre-comp selected, open up the Tracker window.
If you can't find it, you can always locate it form the window menu on top.
In here, enable Position and Rotation.
Which gives you two tracking points that we are going to place over the box
and the spray can.
The middle square defines the point and the outer, the searching area.
Then simply click on Analyze Forward and let After Effects do its thing.
But do pay attention while the tracker is running,
there’s a chance that the tracker goes wild,
and you're gonna have to pause and adjust where needed.
When you're done, go to the menu on top, select Layer, New, Null Object.
This Null Object doesn't do anything, but we can use it to store the tracking data in.
So, form the tracker window, I’m going to click on Edit Target
and make sure that the Null Object in there is selected.
You can then go ahead and press Apply,
and from the box that appears you click OK.
Then comes the next part, which is your greenscreen shot.
Import that into the composition and with it selected, click on the Pen tool form your toolbox.
This allows you to draw a rough mask inside of the greenscreen.
You wanna get rid of the surrounding.
Next, go into your Effects Library and search for the key light effect.
Apply that to the clip and head over to the Effects Controls.
From here we can use the color picker to select and remove the green.
You can then further tweak the keying from the key light options.
When you're done, reposition and scale the clip
to the spot you want your subject to stand.
To keep it in that exact same place,
we're gonna use the pick-whip tool from the layer options.
Simply drag it to the Null Object.
This way the clip is gonna stick to the tracking data and keep it on the same spot.
Depending on your floor, you might wanna create a reflection too.
To do that, simply duplicate your green screen clip, right click on the one below,
then go to Transform and choose Flip Vertical.
Move the clip down under the feet of your normal shot.
Then hit the T button on your keyboard to bring up the opacity.
Decrease that according to your situation.
Finally set the blending mode to Multiply, then add a Gaussian blur effect to it
and increase the blurriness again according to what looks natural.
As a final touch I’m going to select all the layers in my composition
right click and choose pre-compose to group them all together.
On this pre-comp I’m going to add the Warp Stabilizer effect.
Just let After Effects do its thing and once it’s done set the smoothness to 1%,
And by doing this your whole zooming thing will go a lot smoother.
[Music]
And that is the whole process of the zooming effect.
Now, we honestly did not figure out exactly how they did it.
Looking at the music video,
it seems like they added a piece of the floor to where he stood.
Anyways we couldn't find any behind the scenes,
there was one Instagram photo
which clearly gave away that it was a green screen.
But other than that,
I think that the way we did it is a way that you could mimic the effect pretty easy.
Anyways, let's continue because there’re two more effects we wanna recreate!
Apart of where Drake is making these turns where he holds his fingers like this,
that is also shot in front of the green screen,
so we’re just doing it in the same setup right here.
Very important is now that you’re going to shoot this from a tripod.
You can either let the camera run, if you like so,
or take pictures like they’ve probably done.
It’s also in that stop-motion feeling.
Every time that Lorenzo is going to hold up his hand
we’re going to make sure that his hand
is going to align with something on your screen.
And that every time that he makes a turn we’re going to make sure that his finger
again aligns with that same marking on your display.
We're gonna use the same background,
so you can already put that into your composition.
All of the rest is very easy, you can even do this inside Premiere Pro.
Like before, import your JPEG sequence and put it to the top of your composition.
Mask on the inside of the green screen, apply the key light effect to it
and remove the green.
Then duplicate that layer, move it up to the side,
duplicate it again, move it, etcetera.
This way, the clip is looping for as long as you want.
Finally, since this is a medium shot of Lorenzo, you wanna scale up the background a bit.
We're gonna add a Gaussian blur effect to it as well
and increase the blurriness for a natural depth of field.
[Music]
And that's it!
I know, I’m going fast, right?
But that is because I need to catch a flight in about 4 hours, so…
I’m gonna leave, take care, guys, see you all in ten days.
Yannick!
Could you explain the last effect?
I'm taking the camera with me, though.
-Did he just took the camera?
-Don’t worry, we got a spare one.
What else did he took?
Jordy!?
The slanted effect is pretty easy and it mostly consists of practical effects.
First, you take some shoes and attach them to the ground.
If you don’t wanna break your floor, use a wooden platform like we did.
Next are the objects.
You have two different kind of objects you can use.
The first ones are the objects you can roll, you can just push them across the floor.
And objects that don’t roll, you can just tape some fishing wire to it
and drag them across the floor.
And that way you don’t have to remove the fishing wire in post.
And finally, the camera.
Just put it on a tripod, and the rest is for post production.
You can do this in Premiere Pro as it's again super easy.
But let me show how it's done in After Effects.
You have your clip in the timeline.
With it selected, hit the R key on your keyboard,
which opens the Rotation property.
Then look for the point where you start slanting,
and here you enable Animation for the rotation.
Go further in time and rotate the clip to make it follow your movement.
Finally right click on the first keyframe, Keyframe Assistant, Easy Ease Out.
For the last keyframe do the same but now choose Easy Ease In.
This will make the animation start and stop smooth.
As you're seeing a border because of the rotation,
you have to scale up the clip a little bit.
[Music]
And that was it, guys, I hope you liked it.
What does Jordy usually say, ‘Keep Cool’?
-Stay Creative!
-Stay Creative, guys!
-So, it’s 5 o’clock and we’re going home, except Lorenzo.
We taped him to this pallet.
-See you tomorrow, Lorenzo!
-Guys, guys!
-Yannick, the door is over there, hahaha!
Okay, for real now, we’re just testing something.
See if it works.