Film Riot

Film Riot is a YouTube channel that deals with all aspects of filmmaking. If you have not checked them out you seriously should. I have watched hours and hours of their videos and to be honest feel like I have learned more about filmmaking from this YouTube channel than many of my film classes over my four years here.

The videos feature Ryan Connolly, the host, with appearance from his team as they tackle various aspects of professional filmmaking as simply as they can. The videos include the final result of what they tackle, and then through hosted explanation, they explain how they did what they did. They are quite thorough and easy to follow and learn. They also have some DIY videos for making cheap filmmaking gear on a budget. They have a store where they sell a variety of different assets, make gear recommendations, sell merchandise, and more. They are a fantastic and useful channel and I highly recommend you sift through it, you will definitely learn a lot.

Film Riot:

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Putting yourself in a scene, and Rotoscoping

One of our new projects for class is to insert ourselves into a movie scene using green screening. This effect was something that was actually done on my favorite YouTube Show about filmmaking: Film Riot.

Film Riot is an awesome show that teaches you "the effects and techniques that go into some of your favorite Hollywood films." So everything from pre-pro to production and post production, they cover most everything that it takes to become a filmmaker. And from time to time, they teach you how to how to do some cool VFX using After Effects. One in particular is how to insert yourself into the scene of a film, or in their case the trailer for the first Avengers movie. Its a really fun tutorial, and the technique is almost exactly what we talked about in class, which covered lighting, placement, and motion. If you need another reference for how to do this effect, this is definitely worth watching!

Also, earlier this week, I found a really great article that talks about the history of Rotoscoping. IT goes from when the technique was first invented in 1915 by Max Fleischer when he created Out of The Inkwell to what we use it for now. I love using this technique to make lightsabers and other fun laser sci fi-based effects. If you want to check out the article follow this link here: https://www.rocketstock.com/blog/rotoscoping-from-early-animation-to-blockbuster-vfx/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=Rotoscoping:-From-Early-Animation-to-Blockbuster-VFX&utm_campaign=09-2015-facebook-posts

Welcome to Film Riot

Ever wonder how movies did all their fancy After Effects effects? Of course you did! We all do, and that's what Film Riot's here for! Created by a group of film makers who love what they do, Film Riot teaches viewers how to do a wide arrange of things that the pros do. From pre-production to post, Film Riot encourages people to learn all the techniques.

Along with step-by-step tutorials in After Effects, Film Riot also has great Do It Yourself videos, to help you make the best cheap gear you can get. Film Riot can show you the ways of making cheap light stands, shoulder mounts, sliders, and more! While I haven't used all the DIY gear, I have used the slider, and I must say it is great! For less than $20, the DIY slider flows beautifully, and was a great tool to work with in many shoots.

Don't feel like learning, but feel like making instead? Great! Film Riots encourages viewers to not only watch their videos, but to go out and shoot their own films. Offering weekly video challenges, Film Riot wants you to go and make stuff! It makes sense when you think about it, the best way to learn the techniques they teach is to go out and actually do it!

So that's Film Riot! If you're interested in becoming a film-maker, or just want to learn more cool techniques, I highly recommend checking these guys out.

Cool Effects

So at the beginning of the semester we did a little audio visualizer animation that was based on the levels of the bass and treble.  Here is an example of an audio visualizer that is much more complicated than that:




Thats pretty cool.  But this is way cooler.



This is a tutorial that shows how to have a frozen in time effect.  This effect can have varying levels of difficulty.  You need to make a way to have a camera do identical motions.  This can be very difficult but there are many ways to do it.  The tutorial has a specific device that does this.  Next you take multiple shots with the camera going in the same motion with just the actors in different places.  Then you simply mask over the shots to combine them in After Effects.  If you don't need to add any 3D elements that are not in the original shots then you are done.  If you do then you need to go into 3D programs and add them.  I get lost at that point but from this tutorial I could make a cool freeze frame that would look pretty cool.

Film Riot

Film riot has a lot of cool ideas for easy ways to do special effects.  Here is one about how to put bullet holes in the dirt, alls you need is a green box, dirt and a air compressor:






Here's a way to make fake rain too:




Film riot has a ton of cool ideas.  You should check them out.

Cowboys and Aliens Effect

This video is from the Youtube channel "Film Riot." I definitely recommend that everybody check them out because they have bunch of videos that are helpful to film makers. Everything from useful tips on how to shoot, special effects, and film recaps. The video that I have posted is particularly relevant to Motion Graphics because it is a tutorial on creating special effects in After Effects. In order to create the HUD for the wrist gun they simply made a few designs in Photoshop, transferred them over to After Effects and then moved the designs in z space. As you can see the final product looks very impressive with not much work involved. It also looks as if they turned down the opacity and gave it a blue glow to make it look as if it is a light display. If you are interested in doing this kind of an effect, they have made there designs available for free so you can grab them right offline.