Here's a fun shoot I'd love to share!
I shot this in October while on a film set, for more info on how I shot it, goto the portfolio image - I put a whole write up there!
I wanted to share this image for a few reasons, first to document how hard it was to figure out the propellers in hopes that it'll save at least one person tears of frustration and hours of testing, and secondly to discuss composite work and all the fun stuff that goes along with it.
Full disclosure I usually shoot on location and don't do comp work, this was really fun, I probably made so many mistakes, but hey I'm learning.
**How I made those propellers!**
After multiple failed options I talked to my good friend Lewis Moorhead - he's on here somewhere, definitely on youtube (flewdesigns) and he pointed me in a much better direction. I had been trying originally to simply blur the props all together. This wasn't working. I had to make individual layers for each prop, then "remove" the props from the plane (lots of reconstruction surgery - but the bonus was we'd have spinning blur overlaid so it'd hide some sins...) then blur each propellor separate. I used a path blur and used 2 half circle blurs, one at the base of the prop, a small half circle and the one at the top, the larger circle. Bear in mind the actual "circle" of the props, you want to make sure they look natural, this'll take some trial and error. I then created a yellow ring, and matched it with the propellers yellow tips, then masked off small areas, to give the impression of motion. I also added more propellers, using actual reference pics from flying propellers in the air. To make the additional propellers I drew a crude propeller by hand then used the same blur technique. Just make sure you draw highlights and shadows in the same direction as your existing propellers.The hardest part was making sure the spin matched, so I wrote notes as I processed blur (I had the time - the image was shrunk down but still a whopping 12,000px image.
Composite work has definitely opened up a really cool avenue for me, before I was limited by local area, the streets of a small town Ontario town don't have a ton to offer and the nearest city is 2hrs away. I usually shoot cars, and have not had great success doing comp work with them, until I twigged a very important detail. Angles and depth must match. Your eye instantly sees if theres something off. Thats the real magic of composite work is the tricking the mind to figure out whats different. I see so many talented comp shooters, they all have a really good eye to see what works with angles and what doesn't. I how I can shoot a car shot in the new year, and comp it into a scene, flawlessly. I'd love to hear some seasoned feedback to things to watch for, and tricks that'll make the learning curve a little less.. steep!
Ash
