United3dArtists Archive

Greetings, trueSpace friends!

I've been busy the past several months on a quirky, sci-fi mockumentary film called "Hickory Never Bleeds".

Though it predominately consists of interviews whereby the colorful small-town residents talk about their theories on the monster problem (creature origins, what should be done, etc.), there are a few special effects shots.

Camera data was exported from SynthEyes into trueSpace 6.6 where CG elements were rendered, then composited over the footage in After Effects. The most obvious are a couple of explosion shots, with more subtle elements elsewhere. The brief closeup creature shots were done with a full-sized practical.

Hoping to premiere it locally next month, submit to a couple of nearby festivals, and eventually get some DVDs pressed (along with checking into what internet/streaming options are available.) We'll see.

Thank you guys for checking it out!

Great concept! Must see.

I have to get a friend to look at that. He is like Emil from the target practice behind the scenes video.

Great Job Frank!

Reminds me of the Norwegian movie Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren). Similar idea only with trolls, and some pretty good CGI shots if I may add.

Cool project! Looking forward to seeing more.

Great to see trueSpace being used in the Movies!
I have seen other works of yours Frank and they always have that backwoods charm. Let us know when it is completed,
I'd love to see the whole Movie.

Thank you all for checking it out, and for the feedback!

Wow... the next great cult flick.... looks really good Frank.

v3rd3 wrote:Wow... the next great cult flick.... looks really good Frank.

Thank you, sir!

This is pretty cool! I like the whole.. documentary/news interview feel to it. Those films are very cool. Makes things more believable!

Thank you, Draise!

i hope i will see it

Frank,
That was quite good, reminds me of the Blair Witch Project.
Good work.

Thank you all!

Once I'm done with screenings, I'm hoping to look into some form of online streaming.

Hey hey hey! I know it's been a little bit, but I thought I'd post this clip from my film.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AapXdFSAw8"


Notes:
- This is the only sequence in the movie shot on Super8 film (the rest was shot on a Canon 7D and t2i, with a couple of bits captured on VHS, for effect.)
- In the last shot, trueSpace was used to render the camera-matched explosion plate.

Hope you enjoy it!

Looks really good and interesting Frank. I love mock-u-mentarys. So glad you are staying from a lot of that hand held shaky footage....

Thanks, seppgirty!

I do employ a lot of hand-held shots, but try to avoid the jittery-for-the-sake-of-it approach.

Frank,
I see you used the very old technique of subliminal messages and pictures to lure unsuspecting viewer to like your film EVEN MORE!!!

Hence the hot blonde at :42 seconds....

Explain yourself!

p.s. if it was your wife...........................you lucky dog.....................I'm high talin' out of here....

Steinie wrote:Frank,
I see you used the very old technique of subliminal messages and pictures to lure unsuspecting viewer to like your film EVEN MORE!!!

Hence the hot blonde at :42 seconds....

Explain yourself!

p.s. if it was your wife...........................you lucky dog.....................I'm high talin' out of here....

HA HA HA! Good eye, sir! And thank you! That is indeed my wife, Janna.

Wow, that was reallly good. I thought at first : wow, they had explosives. Then.. I saw you did it in TS and thought.. wow, how did they do that!?

Did you use Clinton's motion tracker? Or did you track it frame by frame? Very good composite.

I like the style of it, very nice. Funny too!

Draise wrote:Wow, that was reallly good. I thought at first : wow, they had explosives. Then.. I saw you did it in TS and thought.. wow, how did they do that!?

Did you use Clinton's motion tracker? Or did you track it frame by frame? Very good composite.

I like the style of it, very nice. Funny too!

Thanks! I used SynthEyes to track the footage, then exported to a trueSpace Python (.py) script. I used those trackers to place the 2D explosion plane (textured with an AVI of the explosion clip) in the correct spot.
The muzzle flash/smoke at the beginning was tracked by hand, since it's only a few frames and the camera was moving quickly.

I did a bit of ground lighting beneath the explosion in After Effects, where I composited the clips together.

HOWEVER... if you'd like to do practical "explosion" (or at least dirt hits) in-camera, without CG, here's a cheap way to do it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5JefabKhgY"

(Note: The sound's not the best, and I was mainly having fun with the video... but the compressed air thing really is useful for film stuff!)

That's cool!

I did something similar as a kid. I had an bunch of "Army men", plastic soldiers, trucks, tanks, equipment, etc. and I'd set up battles in the yard. Their combat was simulated with slingshots, BB guns, firecrackers, garden hose, and ... aquarium tubes connected to a bicycle pump!

Finis wrote:That's cool!

I did something similar as a kid. I had an bunch of "Army men", plastic soldiers, trucks, tanks, equipment, etc. and I'd set up battles in the yard. Their combat was simulated with slingshots, BB guns, firecrackers, garden hose, and ... aquarium tubes connected to a bicycle pump!

AHHHHHHHHHHH! The good ol' days!