Well, most of you who opened this thread, must of done it asking yourselves: What on earth does that mean?

Since I don't know the technical designation of the effect I had to improvise, meaning:

An effect we often see in commercials or movies (perfume commercials or the martial arts scene in Shreck), where the movie stops at a frame and the image goes around the subject in a 3D 360º view.

Questions:
1 - How it is done.
2 - Can it be done by the common mortal or it's reserved for the big$$$ studios.
3 - If it is doable, what programs and workflow.

Best regards,
Arnaldo Paixão

This was first done in the original Matrix. It was done then using 120 Canon D30s set in a 270° arch around a green screen and then firest off at set intervals. If they are still using that method I don't know but I think there is a plug-in to do similar effects.

The term coined for this by Matrix's visual effects supervisor is
"bullet time"

See the following previous threads on this subject:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1327
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2642

Keep in mind that the effect is overrated now-a-days and used
as a rip-off in a lot of movies / shows. It might work if it's original
or complements the story, but otherwise it's just for show and
a lot of people have already done that.

Thank you Adrian and Rob for your replies.

Best regards,
Arnaldo Paixão

a buddy and i pulled off a surprizingly convincing version of this with NO special equipment in high school. the scene was: a box of Wheat Thins <dont ask...> in the center of the room and 2 guys racing for them. the bullet time part is one guy mid-stride reaching, and the other guy <me> in mid-air as the camera loops around us. now the really technical part: we were just sitting really still as he moves the cam around us smoothly < this guy never needed a tripod or steadycam, born camera man> To put me in "mid-air" I was ballancing on my stomach on bucket with my hands in front of me and my feet in the air. he just kept the bucket out of the shot and sped it up in post. not professional by any means, but for high school and no budget...

with a bit of a budget you could do much better. buy as many digital cameras as you can aford. there cheap POS ones for 30 and 40 bucks. youll need a dozen or more plus two video cams. youll have to desigv a system to make all the still cams go off together. rent the matrix revisited. youll get the idea quick

Here is a thread about bullet-time and how to do it:
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/kumar_satish/bullet_time/index.htm

Cheers,
Mark Jefferson

Thank you all.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Here's an article (with setup pictures and an example finished clip) (http://www.jushhome.com/nick/Tutorial/freezetime.asp) I wrote about the research an mechanics that went into doing something like this for a client once.

Have fun.

I don't think the matrix was the first one to use this technique. There were several television commercials that came out prior to the matrix that used this techique....

I could be wrong, but that is my recollection. I seem to remember reading an article about them before the matrix came out.


Cheers

Stephen Schleicher
www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
(over 50 after effects, 29 FCP, and 10 lighting tutorials on site)

I know a guy who did this for a bike video with just a single trv900 and a single digital camera. I am planning on using his technique myself.

He wanted to create this effect while the rider is in the air. To do it he hoisted one of his buddies in there air with his bike using a rope and a tree limp. Then he used a home made blue screen as a background and walked around his buddy taking pictures. Then all you have to do is edit the pics in photoshop, place them in order in your clip and your all done.

Oh yea. And for the rotation part of the shot, he just walked around the ramp with his camcorder and then boosted up the speed in post. Now of course this effect wont work too well if you are trying to do it at a more slow pace as seen in parts of the matrix but it makes a really good "quick" effect.

They did a similer thing in buffalo 66, a scene with a guy getting shot in the head. looks like they did it with the guy sitting very still, and a sculpted exit wound painted red was sticking out of the back of his head as the camera swung around it.

there still is some interesting stuff to be done with this technic, chech this out...

http://www.virtualcamera.com/samplework/html/orangemovies.html


same sort of setup as the ones used on the matrix and countless tv commercials, but they left the shutters open for a bit longer, so the people in the scene would smear. so when played in a timeline, it created this awesome 3d smeared image.

what was good with the early bullet time or the first one i should say..is that it was done with photographs....the 2 matrix sequels had all their bullet time done in CG....which didnt have the same feel like the original..... ...it was too polished and just....bleah....granted it was prolly quicker to do and maybe cheaper.....considering that they had many many sfx setups...but stilll i wasnt to impressed wif the CG bullet time....

...yah..the cheapest way is to have your subject hold the pose...and just circle around him..via dolly or steady cam....