Need help

[laurence]

Hi!
I'm working on a music vid' and I need "a leap effect"
I'm quite certain to have read on this board that someone had already made this kind of stuff
Sam leaps into Captain Archer for example: how can I make the leap-effect on the Captain? software? effects? etc
Kind of tutorial ?
Thanks in advance

[Sam's Crow]

Kirok made a leap-in sound effect a while ago, but I clicked on the link just now and it said that the file had been deleted.

[alsplacebartender]

Go to Ziggy's Sounds page here on the website - all sorts of effects in there.

[laurence]

Thanks, Brian, but I'm looking for a "video" leap effect
Just like that but with a tuto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQgWWFvyC4Y

[angvav]

I know you can make animated gif's in photoshop.

Is this sort of what your after?

[laurence]

I don't have photoshop

[feldon30]

It's going to be extremely tough to do a music video without Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, PaintShop or some other graphics tool to do your graphics.

The leap effect in A Leap to Di For was created with a combination of different Adobe After Effects filters including a starburst effect and several lightning sources. Note that AE is a $1,000+ product with a steep learning curve.

The leap effects I have done in the past, I have hand-drawn both the lightning and the white filling in. Since I did those, I have really played around with the coloring. Finally, with the availability of Mirror Image on DVD, I was able to get a clean plate of the leap spiderweb effect. I spent several hours doing digital cleanup and color correction. So my point is, I would love to try my hand at a proper leap effect if someone has a project they want me to help with.

[jassian]

Originally Posted by feldon30

The leap effects I have done in the past, I have hand-drawn both the lightning and the white filling in. Since I did those, I have really played around with the coloring. Finally, with the availability of Mirror Image on DVD, I was able to get a clean plate of the leap spiderweb effect. I spent several hours doing digital cleanup and color correction. So my point is, I would love to try my hand at a proper leap effect if someone has a project they want me to help with.

Actually I have one! I did Mirror Image for my showreel, but obviously couldn't do a leap effect in the end, just a fade to white.. I dont have the original footage so I can't undo the fade to white, but I think we could work it in.
Are you serious about doing it?

[feldon30]

If you've got either two stills to leap between, or some footage, sure. Would this be internet resolution (320 x 240 or 400 x 300 or whatever), or DVD resolution?

[jassian]

I'll better get you a better resolution. 720 x 576 (anamorphic) wide screen. Hows that?
I can just chuck the bit of the scene I need animated on my server for you to download
What formats can you read?

[angvav]

May I ask what software you use for special effects jassian?

Final Cut? Pinnacle?

A friend of mine has Pinnacle. It cost him heaps to!

He can't have final cut cause he hasn't got mac.

We are thinking of starting a wedding video business! So I'm curious as what to use for special effects.

[jassian]

See, I don't do my own special effects except easy things. Mainly because I don't have time to practise a lot.

Mods? Am I allowed to mention brand name preferences?

I use Final Cut and Avid at uni and at home
something called magix movie edit pro, which is really very good with just a few limitations which prevent it from being a professional tool.

I'm aspiring to eventually get my own copy of final cut and after effects (a more specialized effects program). Not sure what sound program I want maybe protools but Nuendo is nice too for my needs.

[feldon30]

Sure you can mention preferred software as long as it's not an ad.

Wow, ProTools sounds like overkill, but I guess it depends on how many tracks you are going to be shuffling.

I'm still just getting into Final Cut. I love the titling available.

[jassian]

I love drag and dropping customized effects in final cut, just wish you wouldn't have to render every slightly more complex change over and over. I got my eyes on a camera that records straight to card in native FCP format.. well at least I'd like to get in one day, some day

I think why I'd like protools is because it seems to be tv industry standard in Australia and possibly in many other places too, plus for foley projects you need a loooooooooooooot of tracks And a friend of mine really loved it.

[laurence]

Is your project in progress, Jassian and Feldon?

The music vid' is about a virtual season of Quantum Leap
I've made a gif animation with 15 frames, essentially to make myself an idea, it's here
http://www.scottbakuladrawings.fr/first.html

Hours of work, not satisfying but interesting to make. I made the same thing with the lightnings and it was dreadful, same thing with the glowing blue.

The music vid' will be made with 5 sequences.... so, I think playing with only one and for the other...
Thanks for your response and your help, especially the gif idea: didn't know how to make one

[jassian]

Well done Laurence, It took me a moment to realize the switch in show!! I'm curious to see the rest.

the thing I asked feldon to help with was something I did at uni.. it's pretty bad actually. The shortened version can be found under http://www.jessieneumann.com
past the entry image to video it's agents day showreel 2008

[laurence]

What are you saying?
It's not bad at all, Jassian
The leap effect will be at the end of your project, right?
I'd like to see the result once made

[feldon30]

It will get posted when I get it done. Now I've got to put the thumbscrews to myself to do it although it should be a fun project.

When I do, I'll take note of how many frames of animation it was and how long it took me to create the animation.

[jassian]

No pressure, any attempt would be cool, but there's nothing to be lost here.
'Tis just for fun.

Thanks Laurence, well, I still find it pretty bad compared to what I (hopefully) can do.

Where in your video will you need a leap effect? (although I have a guess )

[laurence]

It's better but far from perfect
http://www.scottbakuladrawings.fr/le...20attempt.html

Well, keep working on it!

[jassian]

FOR YOUR FIRST VIDEO, YOU'RE ALMOST THERE, WITH THE LEAP, YOU NEED TO ADD ANOTHER TYPE OF TRANSITION. Sorry caps lock too lazy to re-type

You probably used a 'dissolve' to mix the leap effect and archer.
try something like "maximum" or 'screen' - may be called different on your software.
Something which lets the brighter colors override the darker ones, this way archer will glow and then return to normal more imressively

if you look close you can see your leap came from another piece of footage, but it'll be really close to perfect. Should spiff up your second video leap as well.
Actually I may have another idea that could work as well, change the luminace of the archer shot to very bright, then overlay the two shots and crossdissolve. Will make the whole image turn from very bright to normal. In combination with the leap effect of course.

Like here, it's very short but maybe you can see it:
http://jassian.com/5LOC/light%20effect.mp4

I'm just waiting for feldon to have the time to do the effect, but there's no rush. Although I have two shortfilms I have to finish editing and my cgi person will probably not be able to continue. So that's a bit sad as I really need cgi for the first one.

[feldon30]

Sorry, will get on the ball with it. You need other CGI done, or just the leap?

[jassian]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Sorry, will get on the ball with it. You need other CGI done, or just the leap?

Just the leap for that one. If you feel so inclined, please leap me in too,
at the start of it... I'll give you file of you need it.
Again no rush.. except for me being curious what it'll look like
it's so kind of you to do this in the first place

Are you interested in doing more cgi?

[feldon30]

Thought folks might be interested in an update to this thread.

Using the footage Jessian provided, and about 2 weeks work learning Adobe After Effects, I've been able to produce a Quantum Leap effect. The sound is a bit loud so make sure to turn down your speakers. The change in quality is due to using two different video sources. Again this was mostly a demo of what could be done and, for Jessian, I believe it was an acting exercise.

http://www.feldoncentral.com/jessian/

Jessian has suggested asked me to post a tutorial on how I did it and will start working on that.

Everything was built in After Effects except the "filling in with white" and the "spiderweb effect". The spiderweb effect is off the end of Mirror Image. I captured it off the DVD and spent a couple of hours doing dust and scratch removal and color correction. The filling in with white is 32 frames of hand-painted animation in Photoshop. I tried many different ways to simulate this in After Effects and just didn't find a solution, so I went back to hand-painting.

I ended up not hand-drawing lightning. Instead I made a rather ingenious use (if I may say so) of particle effects, mesh warp effect, and masking to get the desired effect. I do still want to try to experiment with lightning effects, but none of the plugins I've seen really look the way I've wanted.

Actually what I'd *really* like to do is to create the next generation Quantum Leap effect. I know when I started doing Quantum Leap effects 15 years ago (has it been that long?) I did everything hand-painted in Photoshop. I did a hologram effect walking through a table. I did the imaging chamber door. And I did several leap effects. I wanted everything to look *exactly* like the show.

But here we are 15 years later. There's high definition. There are better special effects possible. I've thought of ideas of evolving the leap effect. A camera panning around and blending from motion, to time stopping (high speed camera, time remapping), to motion again as you actually witness the leapee being replaced by the leaper.

The original effect blowing out to white was a convenience that allowed them to butt any two leaps back-to-back. Creating a leap effect that works within a scene, instead of being a bookend type effect, could be very interesting.

I'm sure I will get swamped with leap requests. I don't know how many I will get to, but if you want to make a request, please reply to this thread with a large (720 x 480) photo/snapshot. I can't promise anything, but I'm really hoping to do more "full body" or "torso and up" shots. Just doing Jessian's face actually made it trickier to make it look right since the leap effect takes up so much of the screen.

[laurence]

It's very well done, Feldon !!! WOW!
A tuto would be great
I had to dig up this music vid project to show you what I had in mind