For beginners and experts alike, author Ian David Aronson covers all aspects of digital video filmmaking, from the details of timecode and aspect ratio, to framing, lighting, and sound recording, to editing, special effects creation, and distribution in his new book DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish. Below is a section of chapter 13, which covers animation and effects techniques.
Chapter 13: Artistically Using Still Images
Any film, video, or animation project is essentially just a series of stills. Each
frame is a discrete still image, slightly different than the last. When quickly
displayed one after the other, these stills appear to form an image that moves
(as mentioned in Chapter 2, this is called persistence of vision).
Understanding the way still images function on screen gives you both
tremendous control and creative freedom. Some of the first artists to take
advantage of this were cartoonists. Pioneers of the animated form, such
as Chuck Jones of Bugs Bunny fame, created still images on clear cells of
acetate and then layered them one on top of another to create animations
that functioned more or less like frames of film or video. In fact, many of
Jones’s techniques, including keyframes (which provide the foundation of
all motion graphic programs in use today) and in between frames (which
provide the basis for tweening, or intelligently filling in frames between keyframes,
in animation programs like Macromedia Flash) are directly relevant
to composite techniques in DV filmmaking. Especially when you’re working
with still images.
frame is a discrete still image, slightly different than the last. When quickly
displayed one after the other, these stills appear to form an image that moves
(as mentioned in Chapter 2, this is called persistence of vision).
Understanding the way still images function on screen gives you both
tremendous control and creative freedom. Some of the first artists to take
advantage of this were cartoonists. Pioneers of the animated form, such
as Chuck Jones of Bugs Bunny fame, created still images on clear cells of
acetate and then layered them one on top of another to create animations
that functioned more or less like frames of film or video. In fact, many of
Jones’s techniques, including keyframes (which provide the foundation of
all motion graphic programs in use today) and in between frames (which
provide the basis for tweening, or intelligently filling in frames between keyframes,
in animation programs like Macromedia Flash) are directly relevant
to composite techniques in DV filmmaking. Especially when you’re working
with still images.
Including stills in your video doesn’t mean you have to create a slide show or
something that looks like a PowerPoint presentation. This chapter explores
ways to creatively incorporate stills into your work by animating a still
image to simulate zooms and camera movements. Using your digital editing
system, you can not only simplify the process of animating still images,
but you can create smoother motion with precise control beyond what you
could achieve with a camera and tripod.
something that looks like a PowerPoint presentation. This chapter explores
ways to creatively incorporate stills into your work by animating a still
image to simulate zooms and camera movements. Using your digital editing
system, you can not only simplify the process of animating still images,
but you can create smoother motion with precise control beyond what you
could achieve with a camera and tripod.
NOTE:
[There’s a great documentary, Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens-A
Life In Animation, that explores Chuck Jones’s work as a director at Warner
Brothers, and the techniques he and other animators used to bring Daffy Duck
and Elmer Fudd to life. It’s fun to watch if you’re into animation techniques, or
even if you just want to see clips of his cartoons. If an operatic “kill the rabbit,”
brings back memories, this documentary is worth watching.]
[There’s a great documentary, Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens-A
Life In Animation, that explores Chuck Jones’s work as a director at Warner
Brothers, and the techniques he and other animators used to bring Daffy Duck
and Elmer Fudd to life. It’s fun to watch if you’re into animation techniques, or
even if you just want to see clips of his cartoons. If an operatic “kill the rabbit,”
brings back memories, this documentary is worth watching.]
Animating Still Photos to Simulate Camera Movements
I once worked as assistant editor on a PBS documentary directed by the
extremely accomplished filmmaker, Bill Jersey. People from around the
world were constantly visiting his office, where he would regale them with
stories of his adventures behind the camera. He was equally talkative during
production. After one very long and careful combination of pans, tilts, and
zooms across the length of a very large head and shoulders portrait on the
wall of a mansion, he joked that Ken Burns would have been able to make
an entire film from just that shot. He was not belittling Ken Burns, but was
making a reference to a style of filmmaking that Burns uses extensively in
his work.
I once worked as assistant editor on a PBS documentary directed by the
extremely accomplished filmmaker, Bill Jersey. People from around the
world were constantly visiting his office, where he would regale them with
stories of his adventures behind the camera. He was equally talkative during
production. After one very long and careful combination of pans, tilts, and
zooms across the length of a very large head and shoulders portrait on the
wall of a mansion, he joked that Ken Burns would have been able to make
an entire film from just that shot. He was not belittling Ken Burns, but was
making a reference to a style of filmmaking that Burns uses extensively in
his work.
In his epic series on the Civil War, Burns relied on still images and dramatic
readings of soldiers’ letters to tell his story. To keep the audience’s attention
and develop a visual style beyond a slide show, Burns carefully moved the
camera up and down the length of the photos, zooming in on details and
faces to heighten the emotion of each shot.
readings of soldiers’ letters to tell his story. To keep the audience’s attention
and develop a visual style beyond a slide show, Burns carefully moved the
camera up and down the length of the photos, zooming in on details and
faces to heighten the emotion of each shot.
If you’ve ever tried to shoot stills, you know this is no easy task. To record
a clean image, the plane of the camera lens must be identical to the plane
of the photo-if the camera is slightly angled, the image will keystone and
one edge will look shorter than the others. Smooth camera movements and
zooms on still images are also very difficult. Shooting a still so it takes up
a full frame of film or video requires a very tight zoom, which makes the
slightest camera bobble especially noticeable to the audience. Even with the
best equipment in the hands of a very talented cinematographer, pans and
tilts can cause a camera to jerk, which is the last thing you want on screen.
To avoid these problems in the pre-digital era, filmmakers placed photos
on animation stands and shot them with expensive motion control cameras
that automated each movement. (In fact, controlling these moves was one of
the first uses of computers in filmmaking, long before computers were used
to edit.) The results were fantastically smooth but frighteningly expensive.
Fortunately, like so many other aspects of film production, digital tech-
nology now makes it possible to get really good results without spending
big bucks.
a clean image, the plane of the camera lens must be identical to the plane
of the photo-if the camera is slightly angled, the image will keystone and
one edge will look shorter than the others. Smooth camera movements and
zooms on still images are also very difficult. Shooting a still so it takes up
a full frame of film or video requires a very tight zoom, which makes the
slightest camera bobble especially noticeable to the audience. Even with the
best equipment in the hands of a very talented cinematographer, pans and
tilts can cause a camera to jerk, which is the last thing you want on screen.
To avoid these problems in the pre-digital era, filmmakers placed photos
on animation stands and shot them with expensive motion control cameras
that automated each movement. (In fact, controlling these moves was one of
the first uses of computers in filmmaking, long before computers were used
to edit.) The results were fantastically smooth but frighteningly expensive.
Fortunately, like so many other aspects of film production, digital tech-
nology now makes it possible to get really good results without spending
big bucks.
Digital editing software today ships with motion-control features that
you can employ to move an image through a frame of video, dynamically
changing its position on screen. You can even simulate complicated pans
and tilts that would be exceptionally difficult-if not impossible-to create
with a camera on a tripod. Using keyframes, motion paths, and the
scale controls in Final Cut Pro or After Effects, you can create exactly the
movement you want.
you can employ to move an image through a frame of video, dynamically
changing its position on screen. You can even simulate complicated pans
and tilts that would be exceptionally difficult-if not impossible-to create
with a camera on a tripod. Using keyframes, motion paths, and the
scale controls in Final Cut Pro or After Effects, you can create exactly the
movement you want.
NOTE:
[Burns is by no means the first director to use still images in a film, it’s a timehonored
technique that’s been in use for years. The 1957 documentary City
of Gold, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, uses still images to
tell the story of the Klondike gold rush. The 1962 science fiction film La Jetà©e,
directed by Chris Marker and mentioned in the sidebar “The Kitchen Conqueror
and the Power of Still Images,” doesn’t use a single moving image-just an eerie
selection of black-and-white stills and an excellent sound design. At the same
time, Burns has made still images and camera movements his trademark, to the
point that the controls for panning and zooming on a photo in Apple’s iMovie are
called “The Ken Burns Effect.”]
[Burns is by no means the first director to use still images in a film, it’s a timehonored
technique that’s been in use for years. The 1957 documentary City
of Gold, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, uses still images to
tell the story of the Klondike gold rush. The 1962 science fiction film La Jetà©e,
directed by Chris Marker and mentioned in the sidebar “The Kitchen Conqueror
and the Power of Still Images,” doesn’t use a single moving image-just an eerie
selection of black-and-white stills and an excellent sound design. At the same
time, Burns has made still images and camera movements his trademark, to the
point that the controls for panning and zooming on a photo in Apple’s iMovie are
called “The Ken Burns Effect.”]
Simulating a zoom
You can easily simulate a zoom in Final Cut Pro or After Effects by changing
the scale settings of a still image. In Chapter 12, we used the scale settings
to resize an entire clip. In this exercise, we use keyframes in combination
with scale settings, so that the image gets larger over time and fills more of
the frame, to simulate a zoom.
To read the entire chapter or to buy the book visit www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvfilmmaking/chapter/index.html
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