Our World in Theirs

Posted August 10th, 2010 / By Timmy Allen in Curated, Motion Graphics

Hello, everyone!

Today I am going to take you on a brief journey through a few commercial pieces that show off insane compositing and camera tracking skills. All three of these videos are pretty dated, with the first being just about two years old; however, it takes the credit for being a pivotal piece in my decision to do what it is I do.

In any good motionographer’s toolbox there is at least a mild knowledge of how to put a decent composite together. Whether it be 2D or 3D, putting our motion and animations into the “real world” seamlessly is something we should all know or at least have a passion to figure out. There isn’t anything cooler than seeing a panning shot of a skyline while a cartoon monster I’ve drawn tears it apart like an adorable child-friendly Godzilla. I will not be trying to explain how any of this is done because, lets be honest, for the most part, I don’t have a clue. I just know I’m inspired by the pieces to take my work to the next level until, someday, I can put a piece like these together. I’m hoping that you’ll take a look and be inspired by them like I have been, then use that inspiration to make your pieces bigger and better, and maybe to try to expand your knowledge and skillset for your craft.

from on .

I remember the first time I saw this commercial on television and online. It took a few watches for me to really see what was happening outside of the blatantly obvious asset tracking to the body and the move matching with the camera. I might have been something like ten or twenty views in when I realized that the clothing the talent was wearing was changing from piece to piece. After I noticed that, I kind of felt silly because that is actually the entire point of the piece–to show off all the different articles of clothing that were now available. I just assumed they were wearing the same clothing, then I noticed magicians changed a long skirt to a short skirt and baggy pants into tight pants all while the talent was in full motion. Outside of that, a few great things about this piece was the art itself. The color palette that was used in the assets fit so well with the overall color scheme of the correction and the product itself that once all the camera tracking was added everything fit perfectly. It is an art unto itself to get a perfect camera track in order to make your assets seem to appear as if they belong in your shot. Which brings us to our next piece.

from Brand New School on

Brand New School should seriously give a class on how they put this piece together. Not about the incredible style; not about the amazing 3D work; not about the gorgeous kinetic animations. In my opinion, the real magic and meat of this piece is the camera tracking and the tracking they did for the phone. I have seen a lot of pieces after this that tried to capture this same feeling of an integrated imagination inside the real world. It is when watching those pieces that I can truly appreciate this piece. Never once do you see any asset slide or move out of place even a single pixel, which is huge. Nothing attracts the eye like seeing something that is supposed to belong in a scene move in a way it isn’t supposed to, and for Brand New School to simply cement each and every asset to the scene is incredible. These guys and girls know what is up and simply created a truly inspiring spot if for nothing more than trying to tell us all how important a solid track and building assets in correct perspective is.

from on .

I’ll get this out of the way now. This is my second article for Fuel, but as I write more and more you’ll start to notice the names Royale and J.Whitmore showing up on a number of occasions simply because I think the work that this studio puts out can not be outdone. I’m a firm believer in less is more as long as the small amount you’ve got tells the story or projects the idea. Royale is masterful at that. You will never see a ton of overly flashy and overdone trends to try and make their piece relevant. Mainly because they set these trends. I love this particular piece because if you try and picture any one of these shots without the 3D assets that have been added they would seem pretty plain and uninteresting. Not much else to say about this spot that I haven’t already said. Solid design and great tracking. Something great about this one is how well they made these text pieces fit with shadows and similar lighting. I know that is one of those “goes without saying” things, but, again, just something to really look at and pay attention to and use as a comparison for your own work.

I hope that in some way all this was helpful to you guys. Either as inspiration to dive more into this beautiful art or to finally decide to take a look and what it takes to add it to your skillset. I can tell you that once you manage to get that perfect track for the first time and add something simple like a box to a panning shot of your kitchen, you will be so excited to see what else you can do. It’s fun like that.

If you’re just now getting started with camera tracking and compositing, I will suggest starting off small. Something simple like a handheld shot of a scene where you could place an object would be best to get your feet wet. Some of the beginner level trackers have a hard time auto tracking and solving shots with a lot of panning movement unless you know how to use them. When I first started camera tracking I picked up an application from The Pixel Farm called “PFHoe“. It is the baby brother of their other, stronger, application called “PFTrack“. Both are great to get started, but I would say take a look at PFHoe first. It is more user friendly and there are limited things you can do with it which means less opportunity to mess something up. Plus it is pretty cheap. There are a ton of other trackers out there to use if you want to simple Google it and see which one works best for you. After Effects has a built in tracker however it doesn’t do 3D tracking, or at least doesn’t do it well. I haven’t really tried because PFHoe and PFTrack have been so good to me.

If you have done any compositing projects, please post links to them in the comments. I would love to go check them out and see what you have all been up to. I really want to see the community grow and flourish, and a great way to do that is to get involved with each other as much as we can. If there is anything I can do for any of you please do not hesitate to ask me. If I have the knowledge in my brain to help you out, I am more than happy to share with you. Make sure to pass any and every article you dig on Fuel around to all your friends. Lets blow this site up. It is an amazing resource for us all, and could be for all the people that haven’t yet found out about what we’re all doing here.

Be good.
Timmy.

Hello. My name is Timmy Allen. I’m a motion designer based in South Florida. Not much bio to give at this point, but I look forward to hanging out and talking with each and every one of you then maybe someday I’ll have something impressive to say about the time I’ve spent on this planet. But so far, I started a show called “Keyframe” and I’m a part of Triune Films‘ internet show “Film Riot“. I am blessed to say that I get to do what I love every single day for a living. I love and talking to cool people. With all that, to be continued….