Last year we spoke to Jack Tunnicliffe at Java Post in Regina, Western Canada and he gave us some insights into producing the Canadian TV series InSecurity. The show’s FX-heavy visuals rely heavily on a couple of Red Giant stalwarts, Magic Bullet Colorista II and Red Giant Warp, but Jack’s go-to tool for greenscreen finishing and fine tuning is Key Correct.

Above is an example of a sequence from InSecurity where Key Correct really made a difference. Here, Jack tells us why.

“Every time I do a green screen – and I do a lot – I use Key Correct. During production of InSecurity we have to put a city background in for many episodes moving around the boss’s office. It all has to be tracked with Mocha and then keyed. I use Key Correct for all of this and it’s made it a really good-looking show.

“Key Correct really comes into play when the lighting on the green screen isn’t ideal and you have to start massaging the keys.  Key Correct gives you the tools to deal with noise in the alpha, filling holes that happen in the foreground because an actor is wearing a blue or green item like a neck tie for instance.  A situation like this might require time consuming roto work to recover the tie but the alpha cleaner filter fills in the hole automatically with one selection and you’re done.

“I want everything to be photo-realistic so people don’t know it’s a greenscreen. The Spill Suppressor is awesome for taking the green or blue casts out of the foreground without harming the original image. Some keyers have suppression that erodes or deteriorates the original foreground. And we’ll use Light Wrap, which is built into Key Correct, as the final element in the keying process that helps make keys or composites realistic by blending the edge of the foreground a little with the pixels of the background image making the composite more photo-realistic.”

We’ve discussed using Key Correct on InSecurity, a Canadian prime-time TV show. But Jack told us that Java Post uses Key Correct in most of their commercial productions, making every keying job really stand out – or not, if you get my drift.

Beats Antique, out of Oakland CA, are not your average experimental world fusion and electronic music group. If there were such a thing. They have described their music as an electro, xfunctional, acoustic, hip-hop, melodramatic, down tempo-freakness, world, gypsy, funk, vulcan, get down off your butt, sound. I’m serious – check out their interview with KVRX 91.7FM Austin:

The trio got together in 2007 in San Francisco to combine the artistic talents of David Satori (guitar, sax, viola, and percussion), Sidecar Tommy Cappel (keys, toy piano, drums, and percussion), and Zoë Jakes (belly dancer, composer, and arranger). All three are from a performance arts background and have a very visual approach to music.

Their latest music video, ‘Revival’, was directed by Ivan Landau who was also responsible for post production and VFX. Using both Magic Bullet Suite and Trapcode Software, Ivan’s video is an intricately woven visual tapestry that is a masterful example of how the two software tools can work in unison.

Landau has said it was ‘amazing, watching ‘Revival’ materialize from subconscious to screen’, so we asked him to tell us a bit more about this enthralling piece of work.

How did the video come about?

“Revival” started as a little dream.  It was a basic story of an epic journey to restore life to a world in decay.  It was a world made of snow and paper cutouts.  It was abstract, beautiful and weird.  I thought of Beats Antique and Leighton Kelly immediately.  Zoe Jakes, David Satori and Tommy Cappel of Beats Antique are artists that I have watched for many years.  I always admired their visual style and amazing live show.  They are a band who put equal emphasis on the visual as well as the musical aspects of their performance.  I approached them with the idea and they were immediately on board.

You talk about the project being a collaborative dream, were you familiar with Leighton Kelly’s work before?

This really was a collaborative dream.  Leighton Kelly is one of my favorite artists.  He captures profound emotion with subtle strokes.  I have known him for several years and, after perusing through his blog (http://dayone2012.tumblr.com/), I was totally inspired to collaborate with him.  The initial dream I had actually had Leighton’s illustrations in it.  I was a little nervous that if Leighton couldn’t do the drawings then the video couldn’t happen.  There was a lot trust between everyone making this video (namely Beats Antique, Leighton Kelly and Austin Rhodes, my cinematographer).  Everyone contributed.  It was a surprisingly smooth collaboration considering we were very rarely all in the same place.  The band was on tour for most of the project and, with the exception of our initial brainstorming session, Leighton was in India and Bali with a sketchpad, a small scanner and sporadic internet access.

How long did Revival take to produce, concept to completion?

The entire production, from subconscious to completion probably took about four months.  It’s hard to gauge exactly how much time was spent in actual production and post because I was usually working on it after hours, weekends and while other jobs were rendering.  At some point, for reasons beyond rationale, I decided I would just do all the post production myself.  I had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted it to look like and when I started experimenting with the shots I just couldn’t stop.

What was your favorite part, or particular sequence of the production?

My favorite parts of the video are the illustrated snowscapes and the dance sequence.  The illustrated environments were rewarding for me because it was like recreating the dream I had, except better.  Once Leighton started handing off his illustrations with these little details like spats and bow ties on the deer, I knew we were on to something.  The final dance sequence was amazing to work on because it was a total experiment.  Zoe designed the costumes and choreographed the sequence for the three main dancers (herself, Kami Liddle and Auberon Shull).  We basically could just hit record and they would nail it on queue.  I experimented with a lot of different looks for that sequence (macro photography and lazers!) and decided that stop-motion paper was the most appropriate.  I wanted it to look a little rough and out of control, beautiful and tactile.  Austin and I spent some long nights crumpling paper.

What do you like about using Trapcode?

I’m blown away by what people are doing with Trapcode.  I easily impress myself when I just make a little snow or floating dust particles with Particular or throw some Shine on some otherwise drab elements.  I had experimented with using organic elements for the snow, and while there is some of that in there, it never looked exactly like i wanted it to.  Particular is so dialable you can always get the look you want.  plus, how else could you make thousands of little fish explode from someone’s head? (that didn’t make the cut).

Do you have a favorite aspect to using Magic Bullet Suite?

I really do love Looks.  It almost feels like cheating.  It provides such good baselines that can be endlessly dialed.  I’ve actually learned a lot about color by inspecting and tweaking the Looks settings.

Were any of the Red Giant tutorials helpful?

I used to be a bit of a tutorial junky.  I’m getting better, usually not more than one a week at this point.  I’m basically self-taught so online tutorials have helped me tremendously.  I can’t even count how many of Aharon’s tutorials I’ve watched.  I’ve probably watched all the Red Giant tutorials.  I love how some of the Red Giant tutorials include the projects files.  Being your own teacher can form some bad or at least inefficient habits, so opening up clean project files has enlightened me to some better techniques.

We love the intricate blend of Leighton Kelly’s work and if you’re familiar with the band you should spot some of their signature imagery used in Revival.

Ivan Landau is well known and admired for his work as VFX Editor on feature films such as Sin City, Aeon Flux, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Blade Runner (Final Cut version). And we’re hoping ‘Revival’ is just this start of him turning his talents to music videos.

Links:

• Beats Antique http://beatsantique.com/
• www.facebook.com/beatsantiquefans
• Ivan Landau http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1010291/
• Leighton Kelly http://dayone2012.tumblr.com/

When Avril Lavigne launched her first perfume – ‘Black Star’ – it was praised as a sultry mix of dark fruits and dark chocolate. It was even nominated for The FiFi Awards, an annual event hosted by The Fragrance Foundation to recognize achievements in the scent industry.

From that auspicious start, the challenge for the promotions company was to create a commercial that would capture the visual essence of this unique fragrance.

Working for NY Visual Effects and Design Boutique SUSPECT, Jesse Newman created a captivating vision, using Trapcode Particular to add the final and literal sparkle. Jesse took some time out to tell us about his work and use of Trapcode.

“I’ve been fortunate to have worked on several creatively challenging and award-winning projects, including feature films (Armageddon), commercials (M&Ms, Verizon, HP), broadcast designs (Disney, SciFi, HBO) and short films (Shapeshifter, One Rat Short).

As far as workflow, the Trapcode plug-ins are regulars in my bag of tricks.  They are incredibly intuitive and powerful.  I used Form to create the interactive world of sparkling stars in the Avril Lavigne “Black Star” commercial and Particular to create elements ranging from the streaks in the Verizon FIOS logo to the bubbles following the fish in Shapeshifter.”

Jesse also told us “My true passion has always been my personal art, which gravitates toward hyper-real fantasy art.  I am currently on a year-long sabbatical to focus on an epic personal project for my daughter, depicting her as Gaea, Goddess of Earth.”

We wish him all the best with his personal work and look forward to seeing his new projects develop.

With a mantra that says “We don’t do annoying rubbish!” I knew Barbeque Design were going to be something a bit special, and they certainly don’t disappoint.

In April this year Barbecue produced a concept commercial for Toyota to introduce the new Yaris at the 81st Geneva International Motor Show. This elegant piece of motion graphics was developed using Trapcode Form, so we just had to ask Barbeque about their choice of software.

Managing Director Rüdiger Chmielus told us, “I think that from the moment I first used “Shine” I was a Trapcode follower. Especially the combination of Shine and Particular are essential for the typical “Barbecue” style. We use them on every project – even if it’s not obvious, they’re there. We definitely love this software!”

“The Yaris Project was finished under a very tight schedule and the final production took just under two weeks. We had one unit doing all the rotoscoping and tracking while another unit worked on the composites and the backgrounds.”

Based in Frankfurt and founded in 2007, postproduction and motion graphics studio Barbecue Mediendesign GmbH have produced consistently stunning concepts for brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus and Porsche, not to mention numerous television ads, main titles and trailers.

As well as using Trapcode for commercial productions, some of their experimental work is equally impressive.

Also, check out their amazing show reel:

It’s already received an honorable mention at the LA Reel Film Festival and was selected to be the opening night film at the Oakland International Film Festival 2011. And this dark and haunting film wouldn’t look out of place beside ‘The Big Sleep’ or ‘Night and the City’ and other noir classics.

Oakland filmmaker Vincent Cortez’s ‘The Hush’ follows hitman “Freddy ‘the Hush’ Burnett” on his quest for redemption as he fights to stay alive and faces the tormented ghosts of the people he has killed. With a budget $8,000 – writer, director and producer Vincent Cortez had to be ‘creative on his toes’. We asked Vincent how Magic Bullet Looks and Magic Bullet Colorista II allowed him to focus on the storytelling.

“Our workflow began with shooting directly into our Mac Pro tower, in FCP Studio 2 from a HV20 with a 35mm lens adapter (before the dawn of the VDSLR). We needed a high quality digital negative because we would be mastering our entire film’s visual style using Colorista and Looks in AE CS3. I quite literally colored every shot to create an dark, organic and gritty atmosphere that shifts as the story and characters progress. It is noir, but in a graphic novel fashion. Red Giant tools never hindered or failed me – they were quick and flexible, allowing me to be as creative as I could think and feel.”

Links:

• Mitchell Street Pictures
• The Making of ‘The Hush’

Last year, we discovered that one of our customers was using Trapcode products to help people scare their neighbors. Ghosts, zombies, and other assorted monsters were haunting houses in neighborhoods across the USA. People were seeing creepy stuff as they looked into their neighbors windows.

But have no fear… it’s all in Good Fun.

Mark Garvais creates scary and fun animations for you to project onto your windows for added Halloween festivity. The animations are available on a set of DVD’s called Hallowindow (actually, there are 4 volumes, with more on the way) and their designed to add fun for Halloween as Trick-or-treaters come to your home looking to score candy.

Mark, who is clearly a fantastic After Effects Animator, painstakingly creates each animation for maximal fun and scariness.

We asked Mark what Red Giant products are the most helpful is scaring the bejeezus out of people.

“I use Trapcode plug-ins for Hallowindow quite a bit. Particular 2 is probably the plug-in I use the most. It’s amazing for effects like fire and smoke but I’ve also used it for flocks of bats, streaks of light, atmospheric haze and leaves… the list goes on. It’s been a really reliable and indispensable tool for me. There’s also a tonne of online knowledge sharing on Particular so it’s easy to find help when your stuck, either on Red Giant People or elsewhere.

“Another great plug-in I’ve been using is Trapcode 3D Stroke. I’ve been able to create some cool lightning effects with some detailed frame-by-frame animating. It’s tedious key framing but worth it and 3D Stroke has all the control I’ll ever need.”

Well Mark… We’ll see you in hell!!!!! And by that I mean – great stuff!

By the way, Mark was kind enough to share a spooky fire preset from Hallowindow on Red Giant People. Get it while it’s hot!

Also – don’t forget that you can get Hallowindow HERE.

Boo!

Every once in a while I like to put Netflix aside and look for a good short film on Vimeo (I have a Roku box, so I can watch Vimeo on my TV). There’s a lot of great stuff there, from a lot of talented people. In fact, I recently found a film called Unemployment, that was just so wonderful, I wanted to share it with you.

The hilarious, well shot, well-acted, and well written film is co-directed and acted by Chris Crutchfield and Austin Herring, two very talented guys who who’ve done a lot of great work together over the years. Trapcode Particular and Magic Bullet Suite, which are both part of Chris’ and Austin’s filmmaking arsenal, were used in Unemployment.

From Austin: “Trapcode continues to blow my mind every time they come out with a new plug in, and its no surprise that Magic Bullet is quickly becoming THE color grading software of choice for guerrilla filmmakers like us and high end Hollywood professions too. I use those on pretty much every single project I work on.”

From Chris: “Red Giant products have been a crucial tool in my arsenal. It’s like having a Swiss army knife of plugins, where there’s always something I can manipulate or modify, with relative ease and speed, that will allow me to achieve whatever look or effect I’m going for.”

I’m not new to Chris and Austin’s work. I actually found their stuff a couple of years ago, when they were working together at IMIGpro, where they created a series of “educational” videos to explain the various facets of our industry. I never realized how little I, and the rest of Hollywood, actually knew…

Ok, maybe they’re not educational, but they’re seriously funny – and there’s a bunch more, so check ‘em out. We’re glad that our products help such talented people tell their stories.

Check out more of Chris Crutchfield’s work HERE.

Check out more of Austin’s Herring’s Work HERE.

“Stop being a wallflower – your neighborhood wants to dance.” is the spirited tagline to a 2-minute film by CA-based Micah Moss. And what started off as a muse about streaming vs. DVDs and the physical act of walking to a mailbox to drop off a DVD, has turned into beautifully simple mini-masterpiece.

‘The Latter’ was shot entirely using an iPad 2 in Highland Park, CA. and edited with Movie Looks HD. With one or two other options available on the App Store we asked Micah why he chose Red Giant’s Movie Looks HD for this engaging short.

Micah told us “”When shopping around for a coloring app, I settled on Movie Looks HD for several reasons. First of all, Red Giant (the developer) is just that – a GIANT in the world of post-production; they’ve been developing sophisticated editing / coloring tools for years for the biggest of Hollywood productions, so I knew their touch would come from years of expertise – that was a no-brainer. After testing the app, I found it to be easy and intuitive, with a couple nice little unique features to boot. You can trim the length of the clip before processing with easy-touch sliders, and (my personal favorite) you can specify what keyframe you want to use when sampling effects. Very handy (especially if you were still calibrating your exposure for the first several frames of each clip).

Micah continued “The filters are beautiful and complex, and aren’t so “one-note” as many other coloring apps; if you’re looking for a distinct visual tone above the “anything-but-subtle-current-mobile-8-MM-fad”, then Movie Looks HD will allow you to deliver on your vision. Cold tones, warm, bleached, cross-processed, diffusion – they’re all there and more, and they’re just a starting point. Once you’ve found a kindred “look” you like, you can adjust the “strength” and “brightness” of the process (again with easy-touch sliders – everything was made with the touch-screen in mind), and even select “full or half” resolution in case you want to do a smaller, quicker test on the footage. All in all, Movie Looks HD is incredibly powerful, sports a clean, minimalist interface perfect for the iPad, and is a total steal for a couple bucks.”

iPad Creative Magazine called ‘The Latter’ superb and we’d add it’s utterly charming and clever and certainly not to be missed.

Check out more of Micah’s work HERE.

‘The Latter’ has also been entered into the Original iPhone Film Festival, so we wish Micah all the best with that. If you’d like to enter your own film do check out the site, there’s about 6 weeks left for entries.

Congratulations to Tom Howe, winner of the Senser Video Competition.

Back in March UK band Senser, who have been described as Rap Rock, Industrial hip hop and even Rapcore, announced a competition to produce a video for their new single ‘2 3 Clear’.

The band made green-screen and live footage available for the track and gave the general public full creative license to do with it as they wish. After much debate and deliberation, Tom clinched the first prize with his minimal but clearly defined use of effects, amazing sense of space and depth and brilliant dynamics. And Tom was pretty excited to win.

“Magic Bullet Looks is effing ace. Since installing it, I’ve discovered a whole realm of different ways my footage could look in the time that it would normally take to find one half-decent look using a bunch of standard FCP effects crammed on top of each other — and the results are a hundred times better! Now I can create shots that look fresh out of Hollywood! Well, almost… Can’t wait to get my mittens on more Magic Bullet products!”

When Kung Fu Panda first hit cinemas in 2008 we fell in love with martial arts misfit Po the Panda and the Furious Five as they fought and defeated the evil Tai Lung. But this year the challenge for the teams at Dreamworks was how to create the second installment and build on the successes of the first film.

In Kung Fu Panda 2, not only have the characters developed, but the film itself has upped its game with more explosions, more chases and more visual excitement – all thanks to the dedicated VFX teams at Dreamworks.

Po Finds the Truth – Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

Lead After Effects animator at Dreamworks, Daniel Hashimoto and his close-knit team of AE artists have brought amazing impact to some of the film’s most memorable sequences, using Trapcode Particular and Form.

Po Finds the Truth (2) – Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

Daniel told us: “One of the film’s most dramatic sequences – “Po Finds the Truth” – pulled out all the stops. In this sequence, which involves a village on fire near the snowy woods, Form and Particular were used to create snow, embers, smoke clouds, and a highly-stylized flame effect. The customization and versatility of Particular made it a very powerful tool to have at our disposal. Our Visual Development Artists painted the stylized effects which we wanted to bring to life in the 2D sequences, but not just in 2D, but also in stereoscopic 3D.** And since Particular, Form, and Horizon all work within a 3D environment, they were ideal for the look we wanted to achieve.

Flame example Kung Fu Panda 2 courtesy of DreamWorks Animation

** Check out Episode 59 of Red Giant TV to learn about using Trapcode Software to create Steroscopic 3D effects.