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May 30, 2007
lsgl: the beacon ignites
by sven at 11:45 pm
A turning point in the story: the intergalactic distress beacon ignites!
This was a difficult shot. It took two days and (exactly) 50 compositions in AfterEffects to assemble 8 seconds of acceptable film.
There's was a lot to squeeze in:
- the basic plate -- the beacon, the cave, the Elder Things
- the blinky lights on the beacon's little horns
- the beam that shoots out of the main nozzle
- the little explosion when the beam ignites
- the aurora on the beacon's screen
- the sparking where the Captain's hand touches the screen before...
- ...and after ignition
- tinting the room with green light
- tinting the explorers and tweaking brightness to simulate depth
- the Captain's left arm had to be grafted onto a different body
- his partner has to slowly back away after the beacon turns on
(I'm posting a larger clip than usual so y'all can actually see the details.)
The beacon's beam, by the way, is based on the "lightning" effect in AfterEffects...
Lightning effects are a bit of a pet peeve for me, actually. The AfterEffects default lightning gets used in amateur films all the time -- and you can pick it out from a mile away. BUT, with adequate tinkering and layering, you can still get something that looks new and different. Just goes to show, AE has nearly unlimited power -- if you're willing to put in the effort.
posted by sven | May 30, 2007 11:45 PM | comments (1) | categories: let sleeping gods lie
Comments
oo, congrats, sven! btw, i think they're both standing there a very long time w/o reacting. but especially carl, who is actually touching it and causing a reaction.
Posted by: gl. at May 31, 2007 2:08 AM