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It took 2,500 photos and 4 days to shoot, followed by about 8 days of photoshopping & grading.
by AlexMuir 9y ago
It took 2,500 photos and 4 days to shoot, followed by about 8 days of photoshopping & grading.
- Stratoscope 9y agoReally nice work! How did you do the shots where the cassette tape and the engine parts are moving around in the air?
- AlexMuir 9y agoString. Coat hangers. Bits of wire. Sticks as fishing rods. We tried various ways and in the end I mainly used some conductive cotton thread that I bought from Adafruit ages ago. It was strong enough to take a lot of weight, but nice and thin too. For the heavy stuff I just had to hold it and then photoshop my legs and arms out.
- Stratoscope 9y agoThat is really great - I never would have guessed how you did it. > photoshop my legs and arms out This reminds me of the first time I saw Forrest Gump. For some reason I didn't know who Gary Sinise was, and all through the movie I thought the actor playing Lt. Dan actually was a double amputee. And in the flashback scene that showed him walking, I marveled at how they were able to fit him with artificial legs that let him walk so naturally! http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-10/entertainment/ca-14048_1_gary-sinise http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-10/entertainment/ca-1404...
- tome 9y ago> And in the flashback scene that showed him walking, I marveled at how they were able to fit him with artificial legs that let him walk so naturally! They filmed that scene first then chopped off his legs and filmed the bits that came "before".
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- igravious 9y agoAbsolutely superb. The patience involved, that's what I can't get over about stop-motion animation – the ability to see the big picture while you're inching along frame by frame. Incredible job, it really is. May as well put this here because it popped into my mind while watching your piece. You know, if we do move as a society from the internal combustion engine to the electric drive train something of great beauty, mechanical logic, and engineering prowess will have been lost. Sort of humbling to think that these may only exist in the museums and enthusiast workshops of tomorrow. Kind of like steam engines today, see here: http://www.isvrally.com/ http://www.isvrally.com/ for a local example – “Innishannon Steam & Vintage Rally”
- jacquesm 9y agoBeautiful! Are you planning on rebuilding it? Another shoot? Is there a reason you don't mark the parts original location or is that simply because you intend to replace them?
- AlexMuir 9y agoThe honest truth: This whole car is headed for the scrapyard at the end because it's not worth the extra time ($$$ per hour) while we film to mark parts, directions, alignments etc. I mark things when there's time. We're also modeling the whole thing in 3D and I'm sure the guys doing that will be mixing the bolts and fixings up. I'm kind of interested in how well it runs after this reckless teardown and rebuild.
- rl3 9y ago>We're also modeling the whole thing in 3D ... Can you elaborate on the process for this? I'm curious what software you're using, how many modelers you have, and if you're using 3D scanning equipment. Modeling everything by hand has to be unimaginably laborious. Incredible work by the way, you've already sold me as a customer. :)
- AlexMuir 9y agoWe're making it all by hand because it needs to be relatively low poly for the app and website :) I'll write about the process when we've figured it out completely. I'd say we are about 70% done on the modeling. Rigging and animating is a whole other animal. This was the state of the engine a few days ago - all internals are done. https://twitter.com/howacarworks/status/895417122385481728 https://twitter.com/howacarworks/status/895417122385481728
- rl3 9y agoVery nice. In that case, I suppose the most utility 3D scans would have is as references to enable a faster low-poly modeling workflow. Then again, scanning would likely incur a non-trivial time cost—one that can't outweigh the very benefits the process affords.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoYou could've cut filming time in half or doubled it if you had chosen a different engine.
- jacquesm 9y agoThat would have required picking a different car to start with.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoFord v10 would have about the same amount of stuff per cylinder but 2.5x as many cylinders. SOHC I4 from a "manual everything" economy car with 1st gen EFI would probably be about the lowest part count without getting into flathead territory.
- jacquesm 9y ago2 stroke Wartburg or Trabant.
- edpichler 9y agoYou owns the course or you just did the stop-motion?
- rosbrith 9y agoI love the style, which to me was reminiscent of a demoscene production. It put me in mind of this one from a few years back: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=50105 http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=50105
- userbinator 9y agoGood to see I'm not the only one who thought it was very demoscene-ish. In fact if you were to say the first 30 seconds or so were CGI, I'd probably be convinced.
- jonahx 9y agoAlex, beautiful work. What kind equipment does one need to do stop-motion pictures? How did you learn about the process?
- AlexMuir 9y agoJust a DSLR really - the camera guy for this used a Panasonic GH5. It's more photography than video. But a couple of lights that you can position for a subject like this make a huge difference.