Just a quick 24 thing I made. I hope you like.
24 / Jack Bauer Sketch
Very good Mr Pie. The split screen effects worked well, which I think was your main point of this wasn't it? The background effects were pretty smart too.
I won't lie to you though, the acting wasn't great. Although your accents were pretty convincing as far as I could tell. Some of the dramatic moments were missed though.
Good first try though. Well done.
Thanks Leevs - The initial point was to test a method of matching the CG backgrounds up with the handheld footage of the actors. That didn't work as well as I wanted so I will try again at some point.
Quote: Leevil @ October 25 2010, 12:13 AM BSTSome of the dramatic moments were missed though.
What do you mean?
Quote: Leevil @ October 25 2010, 12:13 AM BSTGood first try though. Well done.
Thanks! This acting malarky is not as easy as it looks. I thought the acting was fine, I'm more annoyed by the room echo.
Hi Mate.
It came out alright. Well done mate. 
Sorry, Kerry, I wasn't 'blown away' by this one. I appreciate you were testing out a new technique but compositing human actors with a cartoon background doesn't really fit the material you were sending up.
The script deviation was a bit of a blunder too I thought - having him drinking from a carton of orange juice would have been so much funnier than having him sat on the toilet.
Still, as you say, your biggest problem was the sound . Being as you gave yourself the option of being able to shoot anywhere, you really ought to have recorded in a room with better acoustics. You want a smallish room with as few hard surfaces as possible. No hardwood floors and as much baffling as you can manage. Throw duvets over all the furniture and close the curtains. So long as you're using a decent mic in the first place, it'll make the world of difference.
Some good points - I thought the guy on the left delivered a nice performance and the splitscreen was effective.
Quote: ShoePie @ October 25 2010, 10:53 AM BSTThanks Leevs - The initial point was to test a method of matching the CG backgrounds up with the handheld footage of the actors. That didn't work as well as I wanted so I will try again at some point.
What do you mean?
Thanks! This acting malarky is not as easy as it looks. I thought the acting was fine, I'm more annoyed by the room echo.
I thought the sound was due to my laptop speakers.
What I meant was after you say "That was the sound of the nuclear explosion" I don't think you sold it enough. But in this case I don't think it's a big deal. It's all still a great effort and I think you're acting will come with time. You far better than most I've seen.
I hate doing my own VO for my animations. I feel reet awkward and unconvincing.
Thanks David. One thing I learned after two reshoots was that to do this CG background matching with green screen you need a wide angle shot, so the room had to be as big as I could find. I take your point though and that shouldn't be an excuse. Will be trying to pick up some mics I can put closer to the action next time.
I preferred the safer toilet gag (My Brother came up with that one) as I was concerened people just wouldn't get the reason he had the Orange juice. Although I do think the Orange mix-up is funny.
Woohoo! The guy on the left is me! My Bro. did good, he didn't really have a lot to work with script wise and it was his first time.
P.S. I'm starting Brian Park pt II this week.
Quote: Leevil @ October 25 2010, 12:05 PM BSTWhat I meant was after you say "That was the sound of the nuclear explosion" I don't think you sold it enough. But in this case I don't think it's a big deal.
...
I hate doing my own VO for my animations. I feel reet awkward and unconvincing.
Ah I see! We were going for a Leslie Nielson confused/idiot character... Although I removed the second half of the sketch which really confirmed his Idiocy so perhaps that now isn't clear. Doh!!
Yeah, I find doing any kind of infront of camera or voice work a complete nightmare.
Quote: ShoePie @ October 25 2010, 2:18 PM BSTThanks David. One thing I learned after two reshoots was that to do this CG background matching with green screen you need a wide angle shot, so the room had to be as big as I could find. I take your point though and that shouldn't be an excuse. Will be trying to pick up some mics I can put closer to the action next time.
I preferred the safer toilet gag (My Brother came up with that one) as I was concerened people just wouldn't get the reason he had the Orange juice. Although I do think the Orange mix-up is funny.
Woohoo! The guy on the left is me! My Bro. did good, he didn't really have a lot to work with script wise and it was his first time.
P.S. I'm starting Brian Park pt II this week.
Why did the room need to be big? So long as you're green screening surely you can reduce the size of the actor in the edit to give yourself more background space to play with? That's something I've seen done before.
I knew that was you on the left, I was just kidding by not name-checking you! And I really think you did a good job there.
Looking forward to Brian Part II, my man.
Quote: David Bussell @ October 25 2010, 2:25 PM BSTI knew that was you on the left, I was just kidding by not name-checking you! And I really think you did a good job there.
Haha, I did wonder 
Although it's been a while I don't think I've changed that much!
Re: the big room. With a fixed tripod shot I could have shrunk the actor, I did this on the X-Wing sketch. But I couldn't work out how to do it with hand-held footage. I think I was frustratingly close. In the end the only solution I could figure out was to get the final actor composition in the viewfinder.
Quote: ShoePie @ October 25 2010, 2:51 PM BSTHaha, I did wonder
Re: the big room. With a fixed tripod shot I could have shrunk the actor, I did this on the X-Wing sketch. But I couldn't work out how to do it with hand-held footage. I think I was frustratingly close. In the end the only solution I could figure out was to get the final actor composition in the viewfinder.
Need to duplicate the movement with a virtual camera. So everything moves together. MoTracking. It's pretty easy just set up reference points on you Green screen so you can track them.
Quote: Gavin @ October 25 2010, 3:08 PM BSTNeed to duplicate the movement with a virtual camera. So everything moves together. MoTracking. It's pretty easy just set up reference points on you Green screen so you can track them.
Yeah, that's the way to go. At least from what I've seen on set. Little runners sticking little tape X's up all over the place - it's the future of film!
Quote: Gavin @ October 25 2010, 3:08 PM BSTNeed to duplicate the movement with a virtual camera. So everything moves together. MoTracking. It's pretty easy just set up reference points on you Green screen so you can track them.
Yeah that's what I did
I had about 10 reference points on my green screen and it was still a bit shaky. Perhaps a heavier home-made steadicam will fix that. It's all trial and error.
The other advantage of having a wide angle is you can fit lots of these X's on screen at once. When you go in for the close-ups and you only have a couple of the X's visible the tracking starts to go wonky. That's the mistake I made in the first reshoot.
Quote: Leevil @ October 25 2010, 12:13 AM BSTVery good Mr Pie. The split screen effects worked well, which I think was your main point of this wasn't it? The background effects were pretty smart too.
I won't lie to you though, the acting wasn't great. Although your accents were pretty convincing as far as I could tell. Some of the dramatic moments were missed though.
Good first try though. Well done.
have you tried using afx? you can match the camera movements, if you put some markers on your green screen (white tape or something) After Effects can work out the camera movement and you can apply it to you background.
oops didn't read the last comment. ignore me
Quote: Swansonite @ October 25 2010, 4:47 PM BSThave you tried using afx? you can match the camera movements, if you put some markers on your green screen (white tape or something) After Effects can work out the camera movement and you can apply it to you background.
I've never used After Effects and I didn't know it could do that! Is there no end to it's ability?! I'm using PFHoe Pro (Although this video is not a fair advertisement for the quality of the software!).
after effects is the don!
yeah I used it at uni to do the same thing, it's been a while.