Animate Time - Speed Ramping Footage For Intense Special Effects

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Featured in NAB 2008 Show Guide
Animate Time
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Speed ramping footage for intense special effects.
Perhaps you remember the impact of The Twirling down the audio layer settings in Settings (ctrl+alt+shift/command+
Matrix; nearly a decade ago, that movie the Timeline, then Audio, and finally option+shift + K). This also makes it
started a number of trends, among them Waveform, I am able to see where the easier to understand how the retimed
one that is still seen in recent features flourishes occur in the music; they are the footage actually works.
such as 300: effective storytelling with widest (or loudest) points in the waveform
footage shot at high speed often means (FIGURE A). I add a marker for each of Back in the comp, I enable time remap-
ramping the playback speed, animating these using the * key (with the layer ping for 207H (ctrl+alt/command+option
time itself. Adobe After selected) and can then twirl the controls + T). With the Current Time Indicator (or
Effects was built to do up again. CTI, also known as the playhead) at frame
just that, and no 96, about 15 frames before the
production using first audio marker, I slide the
high-speed footage whole 207H layer so that the
should be without this (shift = F9) visible Remap
option. keyframes, by sliding the whole
by Mark layer the number changes to 190.
Christiansen In a speed ramp, time I add a Time Remap keyframe
itself is animated; here.
typically the footage slows down at key
moments. This turns slow motion from a Now I scrub forward to find a
pretty effect to a dramatic device, as some Figure A frame where the swimmer’s head
of the most intense moments of life – be it enters the water – around frame 295. I add
a car crash or the winning goal – can leave Now I add the first video clip to be a keyframe here. Moving the CTI back to
the memory that time actually slowed retimed, UM207 from the Ultra Motion 2 that first audio marker (you can hold the
down as it occurred. collection, a close-up of a woman plung- shift key to snap to it), I shift select the
ing into a pool shot at 1000 fps but set as a final Time Remap keyframe and drag the
This example is made up of three clips 29.97 fps clip. After Effects allows you to keyframe at 295 to the current time (again,
from the Ultra Water 2 collection, as well freely mix footage of varying frame rates, holding shift to snap).
as a short 20 second soundtrack roughed and to alter it as you see fit.
out with Sonicfire Pro using material from To see what just happened, enable the
the SmartSound Ethereal Dreams collec- You may not realize that you can change Graph Editor. You should see the graph for
tion (all available from Artbeats). Sonic- the frame rate of incoming QuickTime Time Remap; if not, choose Show
fire lets you take modular pieces of music movies; in this case, selecting the clip and Selected Properties under the icon that
and assemble them any way you like; I opening the Interpret Footage settings looks like an eye. In the next menu over,
designed the soundtrack to have three (command/ctrl + F), I conform the frame choose Show Reference Graph so both the
flourishes where the speed changes are to rate to 24 frames per second. Because the Speed and Value graphs are displayed
occur, and so the next task is to edit the actual frame rate of the footage is not (FIGURE B). This is a lot like the type of
timing to the soundtrack. 29.97 but 1000, I conform it to
the target 24 fps so that I don’t
I create a new composition (command/ctrl have to retime it for smooth
+ N), and in Composition Settings choose slow-motion playback.
the HDTV 1080 24 preset and a duration
of 1:00:00 (type 10000 in the duration The other helpful adjustment for
field). This is much longer than the audio 24 fps footage is to switch the
clip, which I now add to the comp, but it project to display in frames
allows room for the longer clips. instead of timecode in Project Figure B
Clip UM207 from Ultra Motion 2 is perfect for a
speed ramp. You can view the final preview clip
of this project at artbeats.com/animatetime
shot at a higher frame rate, as here, and

speed it up as needed. Timewarp is
perfectly capable of doing this much
simpler task.
All that’s required is to apply the Time-

warp effect and change the Method to
Whole Frames. I then animate the speed
from 800% down to 100% (full slow-mo)
over the course of about 10 frames, with
Easy Ease applied to both. In this case, I
don’t even have to worry about affecting
the rate of incoming and outgoing frames,
as they’re kept steady by that constant
percent setting. Again, if there’s any doubt
Ease In (shift + F9) for the you can check the Graph Editor (FIGURE
following keyframe. This keeps D).
the incoming and outgoing speed
linear but eases the transition to To complete the piece, I add fades in and
and from the faster speed; you out of white using a solid white layer as
can see the result in FIGURE C well as an Adjustment Layer containing
(and in the animation itself, the Exposure effect and create the transi-
which you’ll agree is harder to tions with keyframes. Finally, over the top
depict on a printed page). of everything, I add an adjustment layer
containing the Colorista effect from Red
That however only covers one of Giant Software, a true lift/gamma/gain
the three time animations in this color corrector; by blueing out the
piece. The second (using the shadows, greening the midtones and
UM205 clip from the same pinking the highlights to bring a cool,
collection) is very much like the soothing, yet human look.
Figure C first – another plunge shot with
retime you’d get by default in most an eased transition to slow-mo
nonlinear editing programs; in both graphs when the splash is most impres-
you can see an abrupt shift and hard sive – but for the third and final
corners, and by creating a preview you one (UM206), let’s try a different
will notice that the speed shift is equally approach.
abrupt.
It can be difficult to think of
Let’s change that. I select the first retiming the way Time Remap Figure D
keyframe of the speed shift (frame 96) to handles it, as it’s more natural to
add an ease. The standard Easy Ease (F9) think, “I want it to play at 10x speed until
creates eases both in and out of that a certain frame, and then transition to 1x
keyframe, which is not what we want. By slow motion.” There is however a way to Mark Christiansen is the author of After
moving the cursor over the Speed Graph I do this in After Effects, including adding Effects Studio Techniques (Adobe Press).
can see from the frame values that the eases: use the Timewarp effect. He has created visual effects and anima-
frame rate dips near zero prior to the Timewarp is usually associated with tions for feature films, network television,
keyframe, where it should remain steady. slowing down footage that was shot at a computer games, and an array of high
Undoing that, I instead choose Easy Ease normal frame rate, because it can add technology companies. His feature credits
Out (either using the button at the far optical flow analysis to create the missing include The Day After Tomorrow, Pirates
right bottom of the Graph Editor or via slow-motion frames. Much better, of the Caribbean 3 and films by Robert
command+shift/ctrl+shift + F9) and Easy however, is to start with footage already Rodriguez.

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Animate Time - Speed Ramping Footage For Intense Special Effects

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Your

Featured in NAB 2008 Show Guide

Speed ramping footage for intense special effects.

shot at a higher frame rate, as here, and

All that’s required is to apply the Time-

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