Yup - anything really cool looking is HF

after the recent Make Me Laugh competition, Ziggy said:


at this point I want to ask what specific features/details in your video were done in hitfilm ?



In my video:

• song lyrics were added as composite shots (which gave me great flexibility to drag and position them wherever I wanted)
  
• closing credits made with a built-in template for scrolling credits
• the final "as this memory fades" scene in which a background layer fades out... was powered by HITFILM

although I could have done the same things with my previous editing software, HF made it easy.

Damn, all of them? I used HF on every shot in Twilight's Last Gleamings (TLG) in different ways... But the main ones are as follows :

LUTs! Every shot was given a LUT colour grade. LUTs are Look Up Tables, and have some deep technical explanation as to what they do. I don't know what they do specifically, I just know they can add a million dollars to your production by adding them. HF doesn't have any preloaded LUTs to use, so do a google search for free ones. A good starting point is here : https://www.smallhd.com/community/movie-looks-download Just click on the green download text. Each LUT gives you a completely different look, and because it's on a grade you can use the Transform > Opacity to reduce the effect, or combine different LUTs together. I used the 'Bob' Ford look for TLG, and then tweaked as necessary.

Title - Glow combined with Light Rays. Moved the position of the Light Rays a little to make it pan across the words a bit (keyframing is easy in HF).

Steam from the funnels on the ship are Muvizu's own, but heavily blurred in HF.

Boiler room shot - lots of effects on this one to help boost the original shot. I used Vignette, Vibrance, Falling Debris effect (aimed at camera rather than floor), Shake effect, and a Light Flare effect to ramp up the explosion (all keyframed to change the intensity as the shot progresses).

0:54 - surgery shot. Just a little Blood Spray with the particles set very low, very contained. Used a motion track on the footage to line up the blood spray, since Dr Benway's POV is a bit drunk... (if you haven't used motion tracking in HF yet, look at the tutorial for it - it's so easy! And it's in the free version of Hitfilm (Express) as well, so ditch your current video editor and get this instead!)

1:43 - 2nd surgery shot. The hardest shot to put together. Top layer is just the patient, next layer down is just the arms, next layer down are the two Blood Sprays, and the bottom layer is the green sheet transitioning into a bloodier version of the green sheet. This was all necessary to get the blood to be under the hands and breathing pipe.

1:45 - I added Light Rays to the light above his head, and was amazed to see it reacts naturally to his head moving in front of it! I didn't do anything, I didn't know Light Rays in HF did that. I do now . Added a motion track to his cigarette, then added a picture of ash falling which initially tracks the cig then falls away.

1:51 - Blood sprays can be subtle too... Just a little trickle falls from his hand as he pushes it towards the nurse (the Spray was attached to a Point attached to the motion track of his hand).

1:58 - The patient is a separate layer, and I moved the camera in Muvizu to make her 'slide' out of shot. Had to mask off the bottom bit of the table from her shot as she slides (should have done it with separate shadows really).

2:11 - My favourite shot, because no one noticed what I did. It's impossible to get a Muvizu character to stand up, walk forward ONE step and turn immediately. Hee hee...

2:18 - Light Rays again, love them.

2:22 - Actually no, this is my favourite shot. Again, no one noticed it's impossible to get a character to jump down a short distance (think about it - you can do this in Muvizu yourself...). Used Lens Blur and Glow to make the fire more dramatic.

2:29 - Again, combining Lens Blur with Glow gives you the effect of the light 'bleeding' over the actor, which looks great.

End Titles - Best to just list what I changed...

Lightning & Electricity - Seed 13, Trunks 10, Wave 0.89, Core colour bright red, Glow yellow Opacity 0.24
Motion Blur
Glow - Intensity 2.2, Threshold 61%, Radius 36
Light Rays

Hope this helps. I am a learner at this HF stuff too, and learned everything I know about the program making TLG. I know I've only scratched the surface, and there's a whole world of 3d stuff to get into as well.


edited by ziggy72 on 17/07/2016
edited by ziggy72 on 23/07/2016

WOW, Ziggy72! Twilight's Last Gleaming is an awesome short! If you're not submitting this to film festivals, you certainly should! I'm looking into Hit Film tutorials right now to see what enhancements they can make on upcoming projects.

ziggy72 wrote:


So cool. Thanks, Ziggy. I'm saving this post in my tips chart.