Kevin MacDonald

Topic: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

The title to this thread is probably kind of misleading because I have already shot it but i need help putting it all together on the computer.  The video itself is just a Lego mini figure walking a long a brick wall with a green screen in the background.  I shot the scene with my digital camera and no stop-motion software.  Basically, all i have is a bunch of JPEGs sitting on my hard drive and I don't know how to turn it into a movie.  Here are the problems I have.

-I have a slow computer and the pictures that i took are all fairly high quality so i need to compress them somehow before i can do anything with them without freezing my computer, anyone have any idea on the best way to do this?

-I don't have any stop motion related software on my computer and I don't want to spend much money (None if possible) on the production of this movie so if someone could recommend some decent freeware that i can run on my old computer that would be much appreciated.

-I lit the set for the movie with a couple of desk lights but i forgot to turn the flash of on my camera so all of my pictures are probably way to  bright and i think I'm going to have some light flicker problems, anyway to correct this?

-I put a green-screen in the background of my set so that i could maybe do some kind of chroma-keying effect (I know it's not going to be the greatest but I wanted to see if i could do it anyway.)  and i don't know how to do this.

I know that i should have put more effort into the shooting process and that a lot of the problems i created can't be fixed in post-production but I'm just trying to get used to the whole brick filming process and any help with the problems listed above would be very much appreciated.

Hazzat

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Ok, let's see if I can help...

-I have a slow computer and the pictures that i took are all fairly high quality so i need to compress them somehow before i can do anything with them without freezing my computer, anyone have any idea on the best way to do this?

Pass.

-I don't have any stop motion related software on my computer and I don't want to spend much money (None if possible) on the production of this movie so if someone could recommend some decent freeware that i can run on my old computer that would be much appreciated.

Try MonkeyJam or Anasazi SMA.

-I lit the set for the movie with a couple of desk lights but i forgot to turn the flash of on my camera so all of my pictures are probably way to  bright and i think I'm going to have some light flicker problems, anyway to correct this?

Not now. Just turn off the flash in future.

-I put a green-screen in the background of my set so that i could maybe do some kind of chroma-keying effect (I know it's not going to be the greatest but I wanted to see if i could do it anyway.)  and i don't know how to do this.

There's a program called Wax (sorry, can't find a link) that can help you do this, but it won't turn out very well if you left your flash on.

wink Hope that helps.

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Thanks a lot Hazzat.  Anyone else have any feedback?

Night Owl

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

If you want to put all your frames into a sequence, your best bet is VirtualDub. There is a freeware chromakeying software out there called MasterKey, though I don't know if it's still available. I wouldn't try chromakeying until later on though.

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Thanks for the advice, I've tried everything but my computer is too slow and the picture quality is too high (2.8MB each) for me to be able to make anything work.  Does anyone know any programs that can lower the picture quality for a bunch of pictures?

BertL

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

You can do that in VirtualDub as well! big_smile

While you're putting all your frames into a sequence (as Night Owl explained), you can so-called "Filters". One of them is called "Resize". Select that one, and change "New Size" to 640x480 pixels. If you get any lower than that, it would look crappy when viewed in fullscreen. However if you're just planning to release some test videos to YouTube, don't be afraid to downsize it to 320x240 pixels.

As for compression, it is wise to use uncompressed footage until you're done with editing, adding audio etcetera. However if you're short on space and just have to compress (which is a pity), try using a losless compression, or if that's not an option, good compression with a good quality/filesize ratio, and with the quality settings as high as possible. Also make sure that if you compress it, the compression is compatible with whatever editing software you use.

Oh, and welcome to the forums! big_smile

Last edited by BertL (2008-09-06 23:34:16)

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Thanks for the welcome BertL.  I downloaded VirtualDub and I've been messing around with it for a while and i can't figure out how to import my pictures.  I just checked on the website and I found no answers.  Could someone please explain to me how to do this?

Oops, never mind i just found a guide on some website.

Last edited by Kevin MacDonald (2008-09-07 21:21:17)

BertL

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Well...

Oh, wait. Nevermind. big_smile

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TheNoodle26

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

For chroma-keying, Cinegobs Keyer is supposed to be solid. I haven't actually done any work with it myself, but I know of at least one member who swears by it. Oh, and it's free, which always helps. Welcome to BIM, by the way. smile

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Sonic

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

If you DO have money, the ultimate program you can get would be Sony Vegas.

The basic version is $70 - $80, and it works great. If you can get money, get Vegas.

Vegas solves all your probelms.

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Gospelnut

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

If you have windows xp or higher you should have windows movie maker, if you do, just go to tools-properties-and set the picture duration to .125, import all your pics, click and drag them onto the timeline and presto! you are filming in 15fps

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TheNoodle26

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Gospelnut wrote:

set the picture duration to .125, import all your pics, click and drag them onto the timeline and presto! you are filming in 15fps

Um... no, that's 8fps. The duration for 15fps would have to be 0.067, which is impossible with WMM. Points for effort, though. smile

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Brain Wave

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

TheNoodle26 wrote:
Gospelnut wrote:

set the picture duration to .125, import all your pics, click and drag them onto the timeline and presto! you are filming in 15fps

Um... no, that's 8fps. The duration for 15fps would have to be 0.067, which is impossible with WMM. Points for effort, though. smile

But you can do 16FPS in WMM, just speed it up double. Anyways I use Monkeyjam I advise that program.

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Hazzat

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Dropping frames in to WMM is... Well... I hate to say this... Very n00bish. Time to change your ways, mate.

EDIT: That was to Gospelnut.

Last edited by Hazzat (2008-09-12 16:14:17)

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

What about compression.  I've heard some things about it and I'm not really sure what it is.  Could someone please explain to me the benefits of compression and how i could use it in my movie?

Hazzat

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Compression makes the file size of your movie smaller so that you can upload it quicker. However, it also lowers the quality of your movie.

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

But can't i just do that by shrinking the dimensions?

Hazzat

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Yes, I'm pretty sure you can...

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Well, I did the chroma keying with Wax 2.0 and it turned out much better than I anticipated.  The only problem is that there are little bits of green around the studs that appear to be in contact with the green screen.  Is there anyway I can fix this or am I stuck with it.

randomparrot

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

What colour we're the studs originally?

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Max Butcher

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

You may just be stuck with it I'm afraid. Green-screen tends to do that alot.

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Si665

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Lighting the green screen correctly helps a lot, have you set of lights for the set and then had some lighting the green screen to ensure that you have an evenly lit green screen.

The green halo you get with your studs it due to the fact that they are are in contact with the green screen. Anything that is directly next to the green screen causes a little shadow to fall onto the green screen surface, thus making that green a little darker compared to the rest of the screen. When you come to key out the green screen colour, that shaded green screen doesn't key out as well.

If you have a good editing program, you can use chroma blur and this softens the halo you get to lessen the effect.

I have done lots of green screen in my current film, some have worked beautifully others not so well, but it has been a great experiment and I have learnt a lot doing it.

I never do test clips, I just try stuff out within my films, if it works great, if not then I ditch the clip and start again and work out another way to get the effect I want.

As I am relatively new to all this 'lark' I could spend ages trying stuff out with test clips, but I have so little time to animate films, I just try stuff out in my films. Otherwise I'd never get round to animating a film.

Last edited by Si665 (2008-09-18 16:21:55)

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Kevin MacDonald

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Thanks a lot everybody for you help and support, I really appreciate it.

The video is done! You can watch it at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7PYFIp7zU

Please rate it and leave some feedback.

Thanks again everybody, I know it's not the greatest but it turned out a lot better that I thought it would.

Last edited by Kevin MacDonald (2008-09-25 22:26:48)

Sonic

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Good job making it, but it was REALLY short. It didn't have a plot at all. Unless it is a test or something.

Good job with the greenscreen.

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Man_Van

Re: Please help me with my first real brickfilming attempt!

Sonic wrote:

Good job making it, but it was REALLY short. It didn't have a plot at all. Unless it is a test or something.

Good job with the greenscreen.

Sorry to sound condescending, but do you think something that short would have a plot?  It was a test, and a pretty decent one if I might say so myself.  I think you know what you can fix, so I won't tell you again.  Good job.