AV News 177 - August 2009
When I convert an old sequence, my aim is not to make a 'straight' digital copy of
the original, but rather to breathe new life into the old one by using current AV
techniques. Therefore the new version of "The Final Cut" is not really a
"conversion" but more of a "re-make". The story and flow remain the same, but I
have added some animation effects where I thought that they would 'add value'
to the sequence.
The new version now opens with a
simulated
"heartbeat
monitor"
accompanying
the
opening
heartbeats on Dark Side of the
Moon. Although this appears to be a
trace moving from left to right across
the screen, it is actually a static
image. The apparent motion is
achieved by using a mask with a
vertical slot that is rapidly moved
across the screen. As the slot moves over the underlying image a small part of it
is revealed, creating an effect similar to a heartbeat monitor on the screen. This
was made prior to the Mask Container becoming available in PTE 5.6, so the
mask is simply a png file created in Photoshop and added an a separate object.
The next 'new' addition was a revolving LP record. I photographed the LP with
cross-lighting to pick out the shine of the
grooves. When I rotated this in PTE,
however, it looked very false as in reality
the shine would stay in the same place
as the record revolved. I solved this by
making a copy of the image and
removing the shine and then used both
"shiny" and "dull" images. The "shiny"
version was placed on a separate static
layer in PTE at a reduced opacity, and
the underlying "dull" image was rotated. The resulting illusion is a lot more
convincing.
The other major change was the "marching hammers", a well-known Pink
Floyd motif from "The Wall". I created a hammer in Photoshop, then used several
copies of this as objects in PTE to make the animation. Each object has many
keyframes as it moves across the screen and with every 'step' the centre of
rotation had to be moved from top to bottom of the object to simulate the
marching effect. The centre of rotation of an object can be moved by holding the
'shift' key and dragging it to a new position.
I don't believe in using animation for