Semi OT: 3D animation from 2D photo

Jim H wrote on 6/24/2008, 10:53 PM

This is a "light" tutorial edited in vegas using Bluff Titler to create a 3D looking animation from a simple photograph.
You've seen these before:

http://www.vimeo.com/12292513D from 2D[/link]

Edit:
Hmmm, LinkCreator failed first time. Here's the link, sorry:

http://www.vimeo.com/12292513D from 2D[/link]

Comments

Grazie wrote on 6/24/2008, 11:59 PM

Loved seeing the people dancing in the BUILDINGS on cue. How DID they get themselves involved? Must have been 200 people?

Grazie

PS: That was done in Bluff? Amazing!!

AlanC wrote on 6/25/2008, 1:38 AM

Jim, I'm just testing your link in LinkCreator

http://www.vimeo.com/2622853D from 2D[/link]

Strange?. It obviously worked o.k. then.

Edit #2: But I don't think that link had anything to do with 3D from 2D.

Grazie wrote on 6/25/2008, 2:27 AM

Nah! It must be? Or is Jim calling our "Bluff" - apologies, it WAS Alan's pun!!!

Grazie

Chienworks wrote on 6/25/2008, 4:04 AM

Jim must have been using an older version of the link creator that uses the angle brackets instead of square brackets.

AlanC wrote on 6/25/2008, 4:19 AM

Thanks Kelly,

You're probably right. I haven't had time to analyse it, although I'm sure he has used the current version previously.

Alan

Jim H wrote on 6/25/2008, 8:31 AM

I failed too. I gave the wrong link for one thing! Here's the real link to my video:

http://www.vimeo.com/12292513D from 2D[/link]

I do love those improv guys though.
Alan, I was using an old version v 0.8? I found v1

Sorry.

AlanC wrote on 6/25/2008, 8:49 AM

Jim, I was just about to give you the update.

I'll post it anyway for others http://www.myhax0r.net/LinkCreator.zipEasy LinkCreator 1.0[/link]

Alan

Edit: Jim, That sure is swell. You made it look so easy!

StormMarc wrote on 6/25/2008, 10:09 AM

Photoshop and Vegas could do the same thing right? Or is there something special about the Bluff titler for this purpose?

Thanks, Marc

Jim H wrote on 6/25/2008, 10:58 AM

Marc, You could well do this with PS and Vegas using 3D Motion tracking by placing each element in its own track and making them children of the track where you perform the motion. Though I have little to no experience with vegas 3D motion and find it much easier to use the Bluff interface where all elements are in the same space. My son is in the process of making a graduation video for hire and has done a scene similar in vegas but if he zooms in the photo gets pixalated - unlike zooming in using pan/crop. Not sure how to get around that.

StormMarc wrote on 6/25/2008, 11:55 AM

Thanks Jim,

Is the Bluff titler a plug-in for Vegas or a stand alone?

Jim H wrote on 6/25/2008, 12:34 PM

Stand alone. It renders high quality uncompress AVI with transparancey which are easily brought in to vegas. It renders at resolutions up to 1920x1080.

http://www.outerspace-software.com/blufftitler.htmlBluff[/link]

YesMaestro wrote on 6/25/2008, 12:47 PM

They make it look easy, but they don't show you how to fill in the areas in the background when you cut each person out so it looks natural.

Paul

Jim H wrote on 6/25/2008, 1:34 PM

Paul, Yes they [ I ] left a lot out assuming a proficiency with photo manipulation tools and Bluff Titler... hence it's a tutorial "light." But I think it gives you the basic understanding on how it's done. Like a map will tell you how to get somewhere but it assumes you know how to drive a car. :)

To remove the overlapping boys and fill in the holes in the background I used a lot of cloning and I imported a soccer ball from a different photo and added some motion blur. Happy to elaborate on any other specifics.

Jim

CorTed wrote on 6/25/2008, 2:34 PM

JIm,
I think you did a fine job on your cloning.
How did you create a brand new (shooting) leg for the last player getting ready to kick the ball. It looked to me that it was completely covered by the guy in front of him.
Great job!
I'm gonna have to play with this technique a bit.

Ted

Jim H wrote on 6/25/2008, 5:09 PM

Thanks Ted,

I created the shooters 2nd leg using the one visible leg and flipping it and rotating it a bit. Then finished the foot by hand. I figured most people's attention would be focused on the faces and wouldn't notice the feet... which tend to "slide" sideways on the grass. I also tipped the background in 3D space to increase the 3d illusion of the ground.

Jim

Grazie wrote on 6/25/2008, 10:49 PM

Thanks Jim for the tutorial. Excellent!

I'm coming away with 2 realisations:

1] Your "To remove the overlapping boys and fill in the holes in the background . . " answered my immediate amazement. Thanks!

and 2 . . .

2] Wouldn't it be good to get layers into Vegas as tracks? - This goes to a discussion we had about 10 days back?

Jim, great work!

Grazie

ps: Yes, the impro guys were good too!

StormMarc wrote on 6/26/2008, 10:07 AM

I've been playing with the Blufftitler demo and this is an impressive little program for the price. Are you guys happy with the output quality?

Jim H wrote on 6/26/2008, 1:38 PM

Marc,

Bluff's last incarnation (BTW, I have not paid for an update yet - all free) added software rendering with antialaising and full HD. I'm not a super video-techie, but it sure looks good to me. What you see in the realtime preview is GPU rendered and may look jaggy, but if you look at the soccerball animation in the intro to my video above (open the HD file), you'll see it's quite good even after I re-rendered the uncompressed AVI to that crumby wmv.

Jim

StormMarc wrote on 6/26/2008, 1:59 PM

Thanks Jim. Any idea if they plan to support PSD files in the future?

Jim H wrote on 6/26/2008, 2:55 PM

Marc, you may want to email Michiel - he's the brains behind Bluff and is very responsive in every way possible. Just yesterday he added an embedded Vimeo feature to his gallery a day after I suggested it - he's crazy responsive and loves feedback.

info@outerspace-software."REMOVE-THIS"com

jmeredith wrote on 6/26/2008, 3:59 PM

Another tutorial on the same subject if anyone is interested (from Digital Juice)

Cutting Class: Moving Pictures

auggybendoggy wrote on 6/26/2008, 5:15 PM

seems like theres a bit more work than mentioned like adding parts to subjects that areent in the image due to one leg over another. So one would probably have to clone to finish the cut out sections to complete the subject(s).

seesm like too much work if youre a one man show. Just masking out all the subjects is good enough to pull from the background then clone the background to pull the subjects out and it's a much faster process.

Aug

Aug

Radio Guy wrote on 6/26/2008, 6:35 PM

I recently saw a piece on history channel that used that look and wondered how I could achieve this and low and behold right here iin the forums is a how to tutorial.....Thanks to you Jim H you laid it all out in fine fashion.

Thanks very much.

Jim H wrote on 6/26/2008, 9:08 PM

Extreme example of this technique!

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