This video is brought to you by Storyblocks Audio
Alright, we are ready for Copy Cat Friday.
-I’ll set up the studio, you do the camera.
-I’ll do the camera.
Good thinking, Yannick.
[Music]
I’m ready, Yannick!
-I’m ready, Jordy!
-Let’s do this, Yannick!
Yannick!
-Haha, Jordy, catch!
[Bomb explodes]
-Yannick!
[Cinecom's intro music]
Welcome guys, to another Copy Cat Friday.
A series where we recreate effects from famous movies and music videos.
And when looking for the effect for this week we came across Dj Khaled,
who was bringing out new songs almost every day.
But one video of Dj Khaled really caught our eye with their effects.
And I'm talking about the music video ‘Celebrate’,
which he did together with Post Malone and Travis Scott.
In this video you have this freeze frame effect,
where the camera moves through people standing still.
After analyzing the complete video, we came to the conclusion
that they were just standing really still while the camera moved around them.
Then in post production they added some elements like explosions or water droplets
for some extra depth in the shot.
And that was it for today guys.
No, I’m just kidding.
But we already explained an effect like this in our very cool tutorial
about 3D camera tracking we did a year ago.
We showed you guys how to recreate the trailer from ’13 Reasons Why’
with the floating polaroids.
So if you want to see this technique, I'll leave a link in the description below.
For today we are going to use a different technique,
one where you don't need to film.
Yeah, you heard me correctly, we aren't shooting video today.
But before we start I want to talk about something else that is really cool
and that is our sponsor Storyblocks Audio.
This is an incredible library packed with sound effects, loops and music.
You can download unlimited audio files for a single price per month or per year,
plus you can use anything for commercial work as well.
We really love their library and make use of it with almost every project.
But we are not alone, some of the biggest tv channels in the world
share the love for Storyblocks with us.
To start browsing through the library of Storyblocks Audio,
make sure to click the first link in the description below!
Okay, now let's jump into it.
The idea is to take photos of different elements in your scene.
And create the entire camera motion in post production.
By doing this, you can create a movement you normally can’t.
So if you don't have a gimbal or jib,
this is a great way to experiment with every camera movement.
And now it's time to show you how we did it.
-Since we’re working with a bomb, a real bomb…
…we’re gonna get demonetized, Yannick.
Since we’re putting up a "poofer'…
we need and Exit sign.
Just to make it safe, don’t say the word ‘bomb’.
We’re just gonna say ‘poofer’.
This is the sound recording ‘poofer’.
Okay, use that every time we say [poofer sound].
You hear?
It says poofer.
Lorenzo is thinking now ‘do I have to edit that?’.
Safety first if you’re planning to make a [poofer].
You don’t want it to explode in your eyes.
Alright, since we are going to work with an explosion,
I kinda change the background that we’re gonna work with.
So, we took out some of the gear from the racks right here
and I kinda laid down everything so that it kinda seems like
an explosion is happening,
out of this rack right here.
You see?
All happens in real time.
So, then the next thing.
Here I’m going to grab a picture of that background.
You can also take that picture with your smartphone
or, of course, your dslr.
Because it’s gonna be important to get the highest resolution possible,
so that’s why I’m gonna shoot this with my dslr.
So, just simply grab a picture of that background,
like so.
And that’s the first step.
Now comes the second step.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, and this only implies
when you’re going to work with an explosion or something,
but you wanna get your lights in here as well.
Because the explosion happens in this rack over here
I’m gonna use the Stella light right here, shine it through a CTO filter
to get some orange lighting in there.
And then I’m gonna gran my picture again.
Alright, now comes the fun part.
We’re gonna grab a picture of every object that we wanna see fly through the air.
Now, we are going to cut out each object, that is gonna be important.
And the easiest way to do that is actually to work with a green screen,
like Yannick is setting up right now.
If you don’t have a green screen, no worries,
remember we’re working on still frames, we’re grabbing pictures,
so we can also use the Mask function inside After Effects,
or Photoshop, anything to cut out the object on a single frame.
Important when you’re going to grab your pictures
is that you do that in the same location,
and that way the lighting will be the exact same way
and your pictures will match better together.
If you’re going to work with an explosion as well, like we’re gonna do,
it might also be good to a strong orange backlight in the back.
After Jordy's beautiful explanation on how to take the photos,
it’s time to start with the effect.
Of course the first thing we do before jumping into After Effects
is cutting out the objects.
As you can see we are using a green screen and Photoshop for this.
And one tip when using Photoshop
is that you have to save your pictures as Png files when they are cut out.
This will make sure that the background stays transparent.
However, there are multiple ways to do this,
like rotoscoping or just simply masking.
When you are done with cutting out the objects,
you can import them all into After Effects.
We are going to start with the background first,
so create a composition and drag the background into that new comp.
Now it's time for the most important part of the effect, the 3D camera.
Go up to the menu on top and select layer, new, and then click on the camera option.
Within the popup screen for the camera settings,
you can change the focal length of your camera.
Here under preset you can change it to 35 mm.
We are also going to enable the depth of field option,
as this will make sure our shot will have some depth
by adding blur for the parts that aren't in focus.
Now press OK and this will add your camera to your composition.
With this camera we are going to work in a 3D plane
and so all your other layers also have to be 3D.
Enable this for your background.
To have a descent view of all these 3D layers,
we are going to change the view from 1 view to 2 views.
With this option you can see the active camera view,
but also the top view of everything.
This can help you with placing the objects in the 3D space.
Start by moving the background on the Z axis and move it away from the camera.
Do this until the background fills the camera frame perfectly.
This will also be the end position of the camera,
so go to the end of your clip
and enable the animation for the position of the camera.
Take your playhead back to the beginning and move your camera on the Z axis
closer to the background.
How close you want to go, you can choose for yourself.
After you have done this, you normally should have an animation
just like this one.
Now it's time to start adding the other objects to the scene.
We are going to start with Jordy, of course,
as he is the most important part of the scene.
Drag his picture to the comp and also set it to 3D.
Now for moving the objects around in the 3D space
you always need to use the axis arrows.
This way you have the most control of their location within the 3D space.
Of course, you can also scale them, if needed.
After placing Jordy, I'm going to add all the other objects
and do exactly the same as before.
Make them 3D and place them where ever you want.
A tip that I can give you, is that you do the framing of all the objects
on the end position of the camera.
This way you can see how much room you have on the sides for placing everything.
And if you don't have enough pictures of objects
or want to use something that you cannot simply photograph,
then you can always search the internet.
That's what we did to find this explosion.
Something we just can’t photograph here in the studio.
We are going to place the explosion in the 3D space
and we are going to position it close to the background as it's happing right there.
But as you can see, the explosion has a black background,
so we need to blend it.
However, we had some trouble with that.
On Jordy's computer we couldn't find the blending modes for the explosion layer
when using the 3D camera.
But on my computer, we did have the blending modes.
So after some searching, we found out that the renderer of your composition
needs to be on Classic 3D.
To do this, you need to go to the menu on top and select Composition
and then Composition Settings.
In this pop up screen, select the 3D renderer tab
and set the renderer to Classic 3D and press OK.
Now the blending modes should be available
and you can set the explosion to Add.
Once everything is in place, is time to focus your camera.
As you are moving your camera throughout the 3D space,
you probably want it to focus on certain objects.
That's why we are going to animate the focus distance.
But before you animate it, open up the aperture
so that you create a more shallow depth of field.
Then start in the beginning of the clip
and enable the animation for the focus distance.
Of course the first focus is on the background.
Now go further in time and set the focus distance
so it still focuses on the background.
When you find it necessary you can do a focus pull to another object,
like Jordy, for instance.
This will give some more dynamic to the shot.
Also, set the iris shape to something higher than hexagon.
This will give you some smoother out of focus objects.
After you have done all of this, there is one more detail I want to add
and that's a light wrap around the objects.
If you didn't use a backlight,
this is a good way to recreate the light of the explosion,
but we are also going to use it to emphasize the backlight on the objects.
So, to do this, you need to double click on the layer
on which you want to add the light wrap.
This will bring you inside the layer panel,
where we are going to paint the light onto the object.
For this, you need the brush tool which you can find on top in the toolbar.
With the brush selected, head over to the paint panel.
If you can't find it, go to Window and search it between the options.
Once you have the panel, you can now change the color of your brush.
Choose something orange, the color of an explosion,
and set the blending mode to Color Dodge.
And the most important setting in the paint panel are the channels.
These need to be set to RGB
and will make sure that you can only paint on your objects and not around them.
Now within the brush panel you can change the brush size and hardness,
and after this you are ready to paint the light wrap.
Of course, when painting the light wrap,
try to keep in mind from where the light is coming.
If you already used a backlight, this would help you with that.
Also, try not to over do it with the light wrap,
as it can become unrealistic real quick.
But if you do it just right, you'll get this super cool effect.
[Bomb explodes]
And that was it for today, guys, this time for real.
I hope you learned something new and if you are craving for something more,
definitely don't forget to subscribe and click that bell below,
so that you get notified when we upload something cool.
Thank you so much for watching,
thank you Storyblocks Audio for the support
and, like always:
Stay Creative!