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View Full Version : Mattepainting - Timelapse (Your help guys)

apeman
05-29-2008, 10:54 AM
Hi,

there has been a bit of a downturn at work lately and I've been tasked with working on personal/proactive projects while we wait for a huge project to arrive next month.

The concept is to start with an environment that changes rapidly over time (Think of the evolution of the landscape in 'Time Machine' - though perhaps over a shorter period - or 'Day After Tomorrow')

Where does one start? Do a mattepainting per frame and work like that, then run a whole series in sequence?

I seldom employ 3d at all in my mattepainting but would terragen/vue be worthwhile in making this project?

Any help and I'd be grateful...
Ed
nickmarshallvfx
05-29-2008, 01:54 PM
Ive never done anything like this, but i would say that mattepainting each key frame would be a good start. The difficulty then is trying to find a nice creative way to blend between them. Talking to the guys in the UK who worked on a cool Guiness commercial, they were faced with the same problem when they had to show a time lapse of millions of years of evolution in reverse:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=guiness&sitesearch=#sitesearch=&q=guinness

The way they tackled the problem was to film bread being baked in the oven, and using the cool way that it expands and raises as a base for the way the landscape would change and grow.
Ive no idea how they made the jump from baking bread to the landscapes that you see in the final ad, but i guess what im trying to say is that there is no set way for doing an effect like this, i think you just need to make the most of your skills and work out a cool way to visually show what you need to. There are always different ways to do things.

Good luck with it, look forward to seeing the results..

Nick
apeman
05-30-2008, 08:26 AM
baked bread! cool, thanks for your input. I'll start slow and then see if I can tackle a long-term evolution of landscape. Maybe just do a day cycle first.
nickmarshallvfx
05-30-2008, 11:31 AM
Yea definitely, i think something like that is major overkill for your average time-lapse effect. I think you just need to find an interesting way to have the key frames morph from one to the other because just crossfading between them will probably not look that great. Maybe a 2d morph would work?

Nick
swedishnitro
06-08-2008, 09:49 PM
I'd be interested to see what you do - I am doing a time lapse project next year and it would be great to see how you did it.
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