nofilmschool » effects

Get Your Canon T2i/T3i, GH3, Nikon D800, & More Looking Like Film with FilmConvert's Newest Update

Joe Marine — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:42:45 +0000

During the NAB 2013 show, FilmConvert, the film emulation color grading program/plugin that actually maps color profiles to specific film stocks, was updated with support for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, GoPro HERO3, Canon 7D, and 60D, as well as newer profiles for the Canon 5D Mark II and Mark III. Now, in the newest update, they’ve added the Panasonic GH3, Nikon D800 and D7000, in addition to the Canon T2i/T3i. Read on for more about the update, including a new ability to apply film color and contrast separately. (more…)

Film Looks the Easy Way: FilmConvert Now Supports Canon C300 and Arri Alexa, BMCC Coming Soon

Joe Marine — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:54:51 +0000

A solid color grade can very quickly take the edge off an image that looks “too digital.” If you don’t have much time to spend on said color grade, but you’d like to get a great look very easily, a film LUT that attempts to recreate some of the magic we get from Kodak and Fuji stocks could serve you well. We’ve discussed FilmConvert a bit before, but basically it’s either a standalone program or a plugin for the major Apple and Adobe products that uses the color science of the specific camera you’re using in order to precisely match the film stocks they have in their system. Now they’ve introduced another update, this time including support for the Canon C300 and the Arri Alexa. (more…)

Want Film-Like GH2 Footage? FilmConvert Now Supports GH2, More Canon Profiles, and Final Cut Pro 7

Joe Marine — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:11:16 +0000

Not too long ago we told you about a color corrector plugin/standalone software solution from Rubber Monkey that not only tries to mimic the looks of many film stocks, but does it in a way that is particular to the exact camera you’re using. Until now the only cameras that were guaranteed to work properly with FilmConvert to achieve the specific look were Canon DSLRs and RED cameras, but now they are adding support for the Panasonic GH2, as well as support for more Canon picture profiles, and a brand new plugin for Final Cut Pro 7. (more…)

9 Tutorials to Get You Started Making DVD Content in Adobe Encore

Justin Minich — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 07:04:58 +0000

We’ve written a lot on NoFilmSchool about the tutorials available for editing, visual effects, and color correction, but there’s one area of post production we haven’t really touched upon: DVD authoring. However, once you watch these tutorials from Creative Cow’s Andrew Devis, you’ll have the knowledge you need to start creating content for your DVD’s: (more…)

FilmConvert: the Best Film Stock Emulator You've Ever Seen

Joe Marine — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:11:24 +0000

We’ve said a lot about the digital versus film debate, and a lot of people have a lot of different opinions. Film still had a technological advantage over digital until really the last few years or so, and now we have digital sensors which can match or exceed film stocks with dynamic range. Either way, with digital sensors being “too clean” for some people who have loved the look of film, there is a program called FilmConvert that takes the color information of specific cameras and actually uses that to determine how a specific film stock could best be represented using that sensor. Click through for some videos of the program in action. (more…)

Want That Tilt-Shift Look on a Budget? The Lynny Lens System is a Lensbaby Alternative

Joe Marine — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:00:17 +0000

The tilt-shift effect is nothing new — if you’ve ever been a large format photography shooter you know how interesting it can look. It wasn’t until the Lensbaby line of lenses that tilt-shift really became widely used in everyday photography. DSLR video, on the other hand, brought a whole new group of users to the beautiful effects that can come from these lenses. There is an interesting project on Kickstarter right now for a tilt-shift lens called the Lynny Lens System. It’s nearing the end of its crowdfunding campaign and it’s aiming to be a cheaper alternative to Lensbaby. Check out more details as well as a sample video below. (more…)

How to Make Digital Look Like (Grainy) Film: CineGrain Review

Ryan Koo — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:39:37 +0000

Celluloid is expensive. And besides, literally nobody makes film cameras anymore. But it does have a very particular aesthetic, one chief component of which is grain. There is a grit to film that today’s digital cameras lack, and while there are plenty of plugins out there to simulate this grit, there are no substitutes for the real artifacts. The guys at CineGrain took dozens of different film stocks and painstakingly scanned them in, delivering authentic grain, dirt, headers, tails, lens flares, and flash frames on a nice branded hard drive. Film grain isn’t appropriate for every project, but if you want your video to look like grainy 35mm, 16mm, or 8mm — but can’t shoot the real thing — you’ll find CineGrain to be a handy addition to your toolbox of tricks. (more…)

CineGrain: For When You Want Your Digital Footage to Look Like (Grainy) Film

Ryan Koo — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:34:53 +0000

I like grain. Photochemical film grain, that is, not digital noise. Maybe it’s just because I’m used to seeing grain on 100 years of film-originated material, but even one of the best-looking digitally-shot films in history — The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button — added grain in post. So if you’re trying to give your digital footage an analog aesthetic by adding grain, you can do it by using any number of filters (I like Magic Bullet’s grain filter, because it includes highlight suppression options), or you can go buy a boatload of actual film scans and composite them on top of your footage, which is what the new CineGrain collection offers: (more…)

Lensbaby's New Movie Maker's Kit is Designed Specifically For, Well, Movie Makers

Ryan Koo — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:05:52 +0000

Digital cinematography often looks too clean to my eye, and I like “messing up” the images a bit (whenever appropriate). To this end, I bought a Lensbaby Composer Pro earlier this year, and, as always, my timing seems to be the opposite of impeccable: Lensbaby has just released a lens kit specifically for movie makers, aptly named the Movie Maker’s Kit. Here are the various lenses in action: (more…)

Adobe's New 'Warp Stabilizer' Effect to Fix Camera Shake and Rolling Shutter Automagically

Ryan Koo — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:35:49 +0000

Adobe has just previewed “Warp Stabilizer,” a new After Effects-bundled tool that fixes camera shake and rolling shutter artifacting with a simple drag-and-drop operation. Or so they claim; their technology sneak peek certainly makes it look like magic. While there are plenty of camera stabilization plugins on the market, this one fixes camera shake across all axes and will presumably ship with the next version of After Effects (instead of requiring a separate purchase, like many stabilization plugins). One thing I had in mind as I watched this demo: 4K. (more…)

How to Get 1000FPS Slow-Mo in Final Cut Studio (No Extra Plugins Required)

Ryan Koo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:36:38 +0000

The go-to slow motion plugin in many an editor’s toolbox is RE:Vision Effects’ Twixtor. Twixtor can often stretch a shot originally filmed at 30 or 60 frames per second into Matrix-like levels of slowness. However, the enterprising guys at Crumblepop have come up with a way of achieving this same effect using the Optical Flow filter that ships as part of Apple Motion. Here it is in action: (more…)

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the DIY Feature 'Monsters'

Ryan Koo — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:20:55 +0000

Gareth Edwards’ appropriately-titled monster movie Monsters opened earlier this year and has grossed $1.7 million to date. With a $500,000 budget, Edwards shot the film himself on a Sony EX-3 and a Letus 35mm adapter; here’s a look behind-the-scenes. (more…)

Create Analog Lens Flares on a DSLR with 'Lens Whacking'

Ryan Koo — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:16:18 +0000

Now that everyone is shooting digital (at least on the low end), it takes a few tricks to achieve an analog look. Beyond adding film grain and burnouts in post, one way to do this is to slightly detach your DSLR’s lens and let in a bit of outside light during your shot. Thus the term “lens whacking,” i.e. letting light in from the sides and creating lens flares the analog way. Don’t literally whack your lens — but through subtle manipulation you can allow light to refract through the rear lens elements, giving you some interesting-looking flares: (more…)

3D Matchmoving for After Effects on an Indie Budget (a.k.a Free)

Ryan Koo — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:48:54 +0000

Since we’re on the topic of backyard effects with that Russian Transformers clip, let’s take a look at the technique of integrating 3D objects with live action footage. The technique of placing a 3D object into a previously filmed scene (known as matchmoving) requires sophisticated camera tracking generally reserved for high-end effects packages, but Aetuts+ has a tutorial for doing it with a free After Effects plugin called Voodoo Camera Tracker. I’ve only done 2D tracking myself (to erase people and other background elements in The West Side), but if you’re interested in integrating your own 3D transformers (or something more original, perhaps?) into a live scene, here’s a tutorial for you: (more…)

Desktop Effects Have Come a Long Way: Russian Transformers Shot on a Canon T2i

Ryan Koo — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:07:08 +0000

This DIY Russian “adaptation” of Michael Bay’s Transformers was shot in two hours and edited in a month. Despite it copying the worst Hollywood has to offer (the second Transformers was one of the least-entertaining action films I’ve ever seen, and I’m not the only one to think that — it has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), props to these guys. Presumably they will get paid effects work out of this demo, and in that regard it’s a good calling-card type of project. Remember when you used to need a room-sized computer to do this kind of stuff? Shot on a Canon T2i (known as the 550D overseas) and Nikon D5000, animated in 3ds Max. (more…)