Last month I broke down my first attempt at the freeze frame look. This month I did more freeze frame style animation, but with a very different look ““ watercolour.
As I mentioned in the previous breakdown, shot selection for this kind of look is very important. This month all of the selected shots were better suited for the look I had in mind, because the type was placed over the talent, rather than to the left or right. Watch Movie |
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Layer Breakdown
The original shot.
The edit (created in Avid) was imported into Photoshop Extended, where each freeze frame was deep etched, the background cloned then duplicated, with a Watercolor filter applied. The deep etched character, cloned background and watercolour background were all placed in a Layer Set, ready for import into After Effects.
The cloned background. Cloning out the character or at least the edge of the character was important for a clean composite of the deep etched character back over the shot. Here it was easy to remove the character completely.
The cloned base was converted to a Smart Object in Photoshop, allowing the use of Smart Filters (filters that you can modify after they have been applied). Keeping the filters live is important if you may want to come back and make changes later.
The basis of the look was created using free watercolour stills sourced online.
These stills were combined with the cloned background using After Effects Blend Modes.
Next, After Effects Curves effect was used for colour grading.
The composited background was then combined with the Photoshop watercolor version using a soft feathered mask.
Digital Juice Motion Designers Toolkit 6 provided realistic watercolour style animated elements.
The watercolour splats were used as mattes for the background composite…
…and added on top using After Effects Blend Modes.
The last 6 frames of each shot before the freeze frame were rotoscoped using After Effects CS5 Rotobrush. This allows the watercolour transition to start slightly before the freeze frame, for a smoother transition. After Effects masks were used to clean up the fingers.
The deep etched character from Photoshop was combined with watercolour layers. These get heavier towards the end of the clip, making the character appear to be “mixing in” with the canvas.
Red Giant Software’s Key Correct effect “Matte Feather EZ” was used for a more natural composite of the foreground into the background. Get a 10% discount on Key Correct by using “motionworks10″ at checkout.
The title (Avenir Heavy) was combined with Digital Juice splats, filled with white and masked to certain areas of the type.
The type comp was then used as a matt for watercolour background.
In the final composite, the text was treated with After Effects Texturize effect, with Curves and Magic Bullet Mojo for the final colour grade. Get a 10% discount on Mojo by using “motionworks10″ at checkout.
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23 Responses to this post
January 29, 2011 at 9:42 pm |
looks great John
January 30, 2011 at 8:04 am |
Thanks Tim, I appreciate your feedback. Best, John.
January 29, 2011 at 11:10 pm |
Very good look John, i ´m wondering how many hours did you spent in the final piece.
January 30, 2011 at 8:06 am |
Thanks Joel, I had about 4 days on this one. These kinds of layouts are very fiddly!
January 30, 2011 at 6:08 am |
Amazing as usual John! Thats why you’re an icon in this business!
All of them are pretty much perfect.
You’re definitely the one person I’m looking up to!
Keep going, John, you’re doing so much for us others in this business.
/Charlie
January 30, 2011 at 8:13 am |
Thanks Charlie, I would have liked to have more time on this and perhaps created my own watercolour effects. I appreciate your feedback. Best wishes, John.
January 30, 2011 at 7:33 am |
sweeet! kinda like sherlock holmes end titles.
whats the song?
January 30, 2011 at 8:16 am |
Thanks Jin, I had actually forgotten about the Sherlock Holmes titles! That would have been a good reference! The song is a production piece sourced by Cameron, the editor of the spot.
January 30, 2011 at 9:41 am |
is there any chance to get the song somehow?
January 30, 2011 at 8:14 am |
Very cool, like the use of MDTK gives me a few ideas, thanks for sharing.
January 30, 2011 at 10:08 am |
Another great tutorial and a nice technique. You obviously liked it so much that you redesigned your webpage header with that technique.
Can i ask, did you also do the On Demand ads where each letter of On Demand has a texture or shape applied to it? ie the latest one with hair on one letter and the pin-pression for the N? If so a tute on that would be great. Cheers.
January 30, 2011 at 11:39 am |
Hi Troy, those spots were created by my team mate Brett. I was involved as assistant creative and I modelled the Psycho House, the Spaceship A and the Spy Recorder M. We’ll be doing a full breakdown
Best, John.
January 30, 2011 at 11:05 am |
Pretty sick John, very nice work man:)
January 31, 2011 at 9:20 pm |
Excellent work and really nice to see a breakdown of the steps you took. I often forget I can use Photoshop to create more sophisticated graphic effects that I can easily achieve directly in After Effects – must write that on my forehead or something!
Keep up the good work John – really appreciate all your posts.
January 31, 2011 at 9:49 pm |
when you discuss the treatment to the footage, what is meant by “deep etched” ?
January 31, 2011 at 9:59 pm |
Deep etch means to cut the image out of it’s background.
February 2, 2011 at 11:41 am |
Great work as always John! I always like to see the promos on foxtel, always something a little different and challenging!
February 21, 2011 at 10:33 am |
Very nice breakdown.
Cool that you did a lot of the treatment in Photoshop Extended instead of AE.
The Rotoscoping was a really nice touch.
I learn something every-time I watch your tutorials.
March 2, 2011 at 2:31 pm |
Great insight + work.
March 17, 2011 at 5:16 pm |
what collection,nice post.
March 20, 2011 at 6:58 am |
Nice work John, you spare no effort!
Good design too… keeping the same angle/placement for the font along with each movie trailer’s textured BG.
Really like the water technique on “The Last Airbender.”
Thanks for your insights, very helpful.
Laurel
March 23, 2011 at 2:16 am |
.Very good!…can you do a video tuturial?
November 27, 2012 at 11:53 am |
Wonderful work John, as usual a benchmark. Well done.
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