This exercise, I am going to show you how to create a “Motion Map Background”. This will basically be taking some still imagery to create a background in motion such as in this case, the only actual video footage in here is the two guys on the blue screen. All of the activities see on the ground and the atmosphere and the noise. Those are all made up from still images.
So, started with a blue screen shot, in one of our other projects, where we are rather scoop in a blue screen. This is the blue screen footage from the shot and they are then composite it into after effects. I started with taking the just the still images itself and building on top of it. Now, let me hide some layers here and build it from the ground up. and get rid of those and those.
So, I just took a frame from some movie footage that I shot laws in Manhattan years ago. This was actually shot from Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. So, I kind of feel little special about this movies. So, this was in shot from the Observation Deck and I just have a still image that is what I grab from it.
But I wanted to bring this background in a motion. It is like what was moving in the city. Especially, when you are looking down right everything, while you got a lot of vehicles moving down here. And when you are up that high, sometimes a little fog, there is a little atmosphere.
So, I just kind of made some things moved and I started by extracting different cars and trucks and zoom in on it here. I can show you. I took a truck out here, from up here and put it back here so I can move it and again, anything that you have as a separate layer, you can move on a time line.
So, I took that and I went down all the street and I added in cars and trucks and move them around. Just kind of put them in different positions. I got a bus up there, got a cab here, so I just kind of went in and I started cutting and pasting and putting in different cars. And I got a few things that we can move.
Then I went in and created this kind of a sky walking plank that these guys will be walking across. And I took just a shot from the blue screen movie and I was able to extract there path. I just wanted to make sure I was on the right angle. That is how I created this plank that they are going to on and then, put this cable rails in there as well.
So, all these elements are actually used with the exception of those guys and the rest of this is all used in the after effects movie. So, let us open that up and I would be able to show these elements here such as the bus. Here you can see it, it has a motion path. Let me zoom in on it a bit here.
(Demo)
So, we can see that in motion. Let us go to like half resolution and give it a little bit of ram preview here.
(Demo)
And we are able to see that it just move slowly here.
(Demo)
And there is another truck up here that is slowly moving. In that said half resolution, so you cannot see as much in where we zoom in quite a bit. I have done that with several cars of course, I did not move every single car and there are probably could have done that where I have moved. A lot of things I did not want to make it too distracting. I just wanted to give it some life in the background. So, I got these trucks and there is a car that races up here and stops, and takes off.
Now, I took a photo shop layer and I just slowly move it from left to right. It is a cloud layer and it is just a cloud plug in from photo shop and I blurred it a bit, and that I just move it from side to side a little bit and keep that blend in mode, except for screen.
So, it is just a nice light little bit of atmosphere that is slowly goes by and I have also got this noise movie, which will be showing you on one of the later chapters. But it is just a series of noise that is set to overlay in a screen blended mode of multiply and that just gives a little bit of noise against all of these static imagery back here.
And of course, our blue screen guys up here and I have used key light to extract them from the blue. And of course the front rails are in front of them. So, that is how all layered.
In the final piece is big like this, and you can see everything. I want you to keep your eye on this cab, right here. What happens to him.
(Demo)
He kind of spins and goes out of control there so, it jags a little bit because it is really huge movie. So, he does not want it 360 and then keeps going. That is kind of like that cabs I every in New York and so.
(Demo)
Anyway, that is how I composed it this piece and put that whole still image background into motion and made a motion map.
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