Wondering if anyone has any words of advice for an upcoming project. I am being asked to create a seamless transition between rooms. Similar to the middle shots in this lovely Peloton spot: Peloton | Nothing Like Working Out From Home - YouTube
I am expecting 4 shots that will transition upward from one floor to the next.
Production has told me that because of budget constraints, they cannot shoot on a steel deck to cover the full boom from floor to ceiling. Camera will start move about one foot off of the ground, and complete above the ceiling. They are shooting motion control using a milo boom arm. FBX data will be exported.
I am planning to use as most of what is captured in camera, but expecting to fill any gaps via projection mapping a floor layer. Hoping any other issues will be solved with a little motion blur. Any red flags here? Any advice is appreciated!
The inability to drop the camera below the floor scares the heck out of me.
Maybe you can get away with a super thick floor piece (as a graphic) or some foreground furniture (either CG or practical)to mask some of it, but these types of shots are ALLL parallax, so it’s not like you can easily reproject everything to restore that first foot or two of movement.
Worth doing a hasty test to see what you can get away with.
Other than that: same speed, direction, distance from subject, and lens when exiting and entering (which is hard if you can’t go below the floor).
The fbx data exported from motion control systems rarely work as promised. We have two robots in-house and I always record a pass with track marks for camera tracking.
If possible ask them to overshoot the move as much as possible. Keep in mind that the robot’s motion will have ease in/out when starting/ending the move. You will need preferably linear motion during the transitions.
Since they won’t be able go below floor level, maybe some foreground element could be added to help the transition.
Once you have the track it will be about placing some 3D objects with PBR shaders.
Due to productions budget constraints you can’t likely achieve the creative brief. If the camera doesn’t reach the height you need on both ends….yuck.
Thanks for the info everybody! I am going to test some rough shots later today and see what’s possible. Knowing the constraints of the camera move, they are willing to accept some cheats (like an extended floor piece).
Rough test. Had to finagle the timing a bit to compensate for the ease in from the robot arm. Faked a 3D shape with PBR to mimic the floor parallax. Will ask production for plates to pull extension textures from. The speed of the move is helping out here, I think. Good to know @Sinan regarding FBX data. Thanks for helping out, hive!
Same here. Camera Data from the bots is almost never helpful. Just track the thing. I strongly suggest putting something in foreground like a short table or chair or some kind of set decoration to hide the transition.
Funny that they have the cash for moco, but don’t have budget for a deck.
All the suggestions here are spot on. Don’t know what the framing/depth of your scene will be, but a tighter lens a bit further away would also help compress the scene/reduce parallax a bit to help you work your magic on the “in” portions of the move. But then you might step all over the director and DP’s “vision”
Youza.
It’s been good to test early and see what’s possible. This is for social, so probably going with a foreground element to help mask the transitions. We will see.
It just occurred to me that my solution to that problem may actually help you as well. I had the camera crew mount a high hat on the bottom of the plate on the boom and we hung the camera upside down under the high hat. That put the lens inches from the ground. It was over a foot lower than the previous setup and gained us that extra distance we needed.
Had to do one of these recently with exactly the same problem and one thing we did was having something practical in shot on the floor (we used a low cabinet) for the camera to move past. Doesn’t give exactly the same effect, but it gives you a place to hide the transition.
Everyone weighing in here is right, but I’ll just add that it’s pretty important to have consistent speed in and out, or have a plan for timewarping the plate to get your A/B speed into the same world. Moco might get you there, but not if it has to slow down to avoid crashing into the floor.
Also, @ytf’s idea of building a rig to hang the camera from and buy a couple of extra inches is gold. I’d go one further and say that even a small amount of extra set floor, say a foot, would help considerably in that circumstance.
Not that I’m dealing with a similar issue right now or anything…
Hey Andy! Good to know. Yes we have some foreground elements to help obscure the transition now. Also, the camera will be mounted inches from the floor. A little timewarping to adjust the easing has been discussed. The move is going to be very fast, so I think we have some leeway here. Hopefully.
Thanks for all the info in this thread, everybody! Hopefully it’s a great resource as for anyone else who needs to deal with this in the near future.
A little timewarping to adjust the easing has been discussed. The move is going to be very fast, so I think we have some leeway here. Hopefully. 