Slow motion effect

[NeptuneImaging]

Usually the slow motion can be done with two methods: The first one being done in post...just clone the images. The second would be to stretch the frame's time...

[hrgiger]

I've done it using the classic scene editor. Just use the scale keys(for all items in the drop down). Select the frame range you want and then use the bottom box as a multiplier. I find usually 3 to 4 works pretty well.

[Kvaalen]

The best way IMO is in post. If you have one of the extra DFX modules (I think #2), you have the time stretch tool which sounds like it is exactly what you want.

If what you want is everything to freeze and still have motion blur and not have the camera motion blur (ala Matrix) there is my TimeFreezer tool you can get here:

http://mapage.noos.fr/samuelLK/Plugins/Plugins.html#TimeFreezer

But that doesn't sound to me like what you want since since you probably still want the car to be moving... but I thought it would be worth mentioning. :)

[NeptuneImaging]

Yeah, Kvaalen has it down. Post is the best way; you can simply take the same frame image (i.e.: frame 50) and clone it to slow down time, but also slow down the other frames. If you have seen The One (jet li film), you can do things like slow down rain drops and have the people fight at full speed. (the slow rain requires you to render separate passes....)

[alephnull]

i agree with the graph editing stretch method of resetting your keys to just make more frames because even if you take it into post you'll have a lot more to work with in terms of actual rendered images with the necessary details to maintain a smooth looking sequence. similarly, you can just go to your "layout" button -> options -> frames per second, set it at a higher rate (say 300 instead of 30) and enter a new end frame (x10 in this instance) on the timeline. all your keyframes should automatically shift so you can just render out a frame sequence with all the new 'tweens' you need. note that you may have problems if you use an avi or mov output as the player probably won't know that you've packed nine (or whatever) new frames for every one so finish a frame sequence off in post so you don't skip anything. beautiful smooth slow motion (i've done this with motion blur on mosquito wings, motion designer and other stuff and it looks really nice compared to crossfading transparent/temporally offset layers of slowed down sequences in post). it just takes x times as long ! fun to try though.

[gerardo]

All depends of how much you want to slow down the animation; if Frame Blendig can't help, unless you have a plug like RealViz Retimer or something like that, I think is more advisable to do it through Scene Editor, changing FPS or even using MotionMixer.



Gerardo

[Stiderotte]

Thanks everyone!
I tried the post method and found it to be a little jerky. I will try the scene editor method and see what I get...
Francois

[hrgiger]

Exactly. I had the same experience. I like using the classic scene editor because you can get nice smooth motions with all the frames you need.

[sundialsvc4]

I think you're going to need to plan to do this in the render. You can do only a very limited amount of slowdown in post-production before the "illusion of motion" begins to break down. Post-production filters have no way to know what is foreground and what is background, what is near and what is far.

[gerardo]

This is right, however plug-ins like RealViz Retimer, distributes a series of vectors along the image, to each vector corresponds it a portion of the image and the application generates intermediate frames through Estimation & Warping between frames, what is almost equivalent to an intelligent morph. :)



Gerardo

[zenigeva]

one of my animation teachers had to do a shot in slow motion, and his approach was to actually animate the shot in slow motion, rather than just scaling keys or doing it in post.
i think part of the reason was that there wasnt a way to caricature what slow motion looks like by just animating in regular time... that is to say that there is a lot mre follow through and such on body parts or jiggle that you normally wouldnt animate. this way you could take those ideas and push them a little to make things look more 'slow-motioney'.. hope that made any sense

[cgeveryday]

Don't know if anyone has said this yet, but Relativity does this superbly! And because it has finally been included with lightwave, we will all be able to do it in 9. WhoooHooo.

[griffdrc]

i would use the scale keys and then adjust the animation if need be... the slow motion in "the one" was shot at a faster speed so that when the played it back at 24 fps it looked slower... the did not use frame bending that i know of... frame bending is faster but scaleing the keys should look nicer imho... good luck...

[uncon]

the slow motion in "the one" was shot at a faster speed so that when the played it back at 24 fps it looked slower... the did not use frame bending that i know of... frame bending is faster but scaleing the keys should look nicer imho... good luck...

You can actually do this in lightwave. Once you have your animation the way you want it, change your frames per second (under the Preferences panel) to something higher, say from 30 to 120fps. if you render it off as an image sequence you will have all the in-between frames you might need when you slow it down.

This will also allow you to tweak the motion at your desiered speed and then scale it back down again (just make sure fractional key frames are on).

[DMack]

Another method that could work really well is to bake the car using Point Oven Pro (really intended for deformation but obviously works fine for translative motion). With the playback plugin I think (check before you purchase) you can envelop the time of MDD playback. This would give you TOTAL control and leave you with a silky smooth playback AND require no compositing/separation etc. That's the way I'd probably go. (You could even play in reverse!) Check out the features to make sure it'll do what you want.


POP $99 (and No, I don't work for the coder!)

[Caine607]

This is well a pretty late post, but couldn't you use motion mixer? I mean create the animation in realtime, and then usemotion mixer to change the timing without having to even open up graph editor. Wouldn't this be a quick effective way of changing the timing?

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