The Model Bank saves them as a .3DS file. From there, it can be imported to Photoshop and saved as an .PSD file, which can then be imported into After Effects, and when moves are programmed via keystroke animation, retains its full three dimensionality. While Model Bank’s catalog program is Windows-only, once the images are extracted and imported into Photoshop, they can be used in both Windows and Apple. To get an idea of how this process works, check out the aforementioned tutorial at the Website of Digital Juice, an online video retailer, which promoted the Model Shop last year. Also, the more RAM and processing horsepower the better for this, and I noted significantly better performance when working with 3d models in the 64-bit edition of After Effects CS5 than the CS4 iteration.
The shot of the Apollo capsule at 1:30 into the video was literally my first attempt at manipulating a Model Bank model in After Effects. For anyone with very rudimentary After Effects chops (and I’m no expert with the program), these should be pretty easy to import and manipulate. The flame blasting out of the Apollo Service Module’s rocket engine, and in the next shot the blasts from the Service Module’s attitude control jets were taken from Digital Juice’s Compositor’s Toolkit Volume one, and animated into place, using the motion tracking controls in After Effects. If you’re new to After Effects, watch this Digital Juice tutorial for some tips on how to accomplish this.
3d Models Open Up New Possibilities To Desktop Videomakers
The 3d models in Model Shop open all sorts of possibilities to the video maker. Virtual sets can be constructed from these elements, as well as material for B-Roll. Existing virtual sets can be fleshed out by using the elements in the Model Bank as props. For example, at the 1:50 mark in the previous “The News They Kept to Themselves” Silicon Graffiti, for my Walter Winchell-style Drudge parody, the library wall behind me is from a Serious Magic Ultra set. But the antique 1930s microphone I’m shouting into is a Model Shop 3d element of a pre-war BBC radio mic carefully lined up and imported as a Photoshop file, and placed on a separate video track above myself in front of a green screen, and overlaid onto the virtual set. (The “mic stand” that appears to hold it up was simply a thick black line drawn in via Photoshop.
The Model Shop is available from Digimation, its manufacturer, and from a variety of Internet retailers. Shop around for the best price, but considering how many 3d models are included in the package, the inventive video or Photoshop maker should get a quite a lot of use out of this package.
You wait until the very end to indicate that this is for $$$, not for free. Following the link and we see that it costs about $1K — rather pricey indeed.
Compare that $1K with the price of getting the same shot using physical models, or a full sized set.
I believe that in 20 to 30 years, computer graphics will be good enough that it will be hard, if not impossible to tell if the actor is real, or computer generated. Computer generated voices and sound affects are advancing just as fast.
At the same time, the cost of such graphics will be coming down as well.
I can’t wait until the blowhards in Hollywood are told that they have been replaced by a kid in a garage and his computer.
All one will need is a good script, and enough self-discipline as a director, and the world of movie making will never be the same.
(Think of what really cheap high quality sound equipment has done for the garage bands.)
Ed: you are the only conservative comentator/blogger here with a sense
of Humor! i visited bcast.com and the concept is not new
and it is also not advertisng friendly. but it is cool.
I am trying in vein to convince markthegreat that I am not anti semite or anti jews
but to no avail.
markthegreat: take a trip to NYC and I will take you’
out for a cigar and a drink..
The best way to convince anyone that you aren’t anti-semitic, is to stop saying things that are blatantly anti-semitic. Things like condemning Israel for doing things you find ok for others to do.
Stop telling blatant lies about Israel and Jews in general.
Regardless, why did you believe that this issue was even relevant in this article.
I’m not going to respond futher here, and my apologies to the author for taking it this far.
Miriam Rove “I am trying in vein”
bloody marvelous.