Motion Backgrounds

[Paul Gallagher]

Hi all,

A Bride came to see me tonight to book her wedding with me and I asked her was there anything she had seen before that she really liked on a wedding DVD. She told me about her sisters wedding that it had flowing white satin background behind the childhood photographs and in the DVD menu with falling flower petals to match the bridesmaids dresses, I wanted to ask you if you know of were I could buy this type of looping background and the different coloured petals, it sounds like a nice touch and not too cheesy.

Many thanks

Paul

[Rick Steele]

I'm thinking Digital Juice might be your best bet for this kind of stuff. Personally, it's not for me though.

[Bill Mecca]

I have a number of Digital Juice Jumpbacks and also had a demo disc from digital hotcakes (tag line... "when you need more than juice" I tought that was punny but clever)

[Jonathan Jones]

Hi Paul,
Based on your description, I would bet that what you are looking for would be the Digital Juice Editors Toolkit Volume 3 - Wedding Tools 1.

I have a whole lot of the DJ products but find that the best use of them is in MODERATION. I think the DJ stuff is pretty high quality, but there is also a high 'cheese' factor' if not appropriately used for the integrity of the content. I have seen alot of wedding videos that overindulge in effects and animations that it becomes almost comical and quite distracting - so while I think they are a great tool to enhance or help beautify a video product, moderation is key. Use animations that you think will help provide a compelling viewing experience, not just because they look cool.

Digital Hotcakes also sells a large selection of backgrounds and animations, and they are typically less expensive than Digital Juice, but IMO they are also less complex than much of the juice products. Alot of the Hotcakes animations are pretty simple to create from scratch using things like Motion, Livetype, After Effects, or other such types of apps.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
-Jon

[Dave Stern]

hey Paul.. take a look at the digital hotcakes wedding essentials vol 2.

I used the perisoft background in the quince anos theme set in that vol. for a project. It is very soft and if you use it as a background, it's nice.. (the DJ stuff is nice too, just more $).

also I think the pink satin petals loop in the victorian theme set on that same vol. may be similar to what you are looking for.

and , I agree w/ all of the other comments that this stuff needs to be used sparingly at most.., but the quality on these wasn't bad.

I could actually sell you my extra set used if you are interested..(only if that's legal to do)

[Peter Jefferson]

DJ Weddign Editors toolkits are what your after, but IMO, creating your own custom backgrounds serves as a more personalised service, being that if they have a specific theme, you can create a background based on it. I also animate invitations and otehr stuff but i use Particle Illusion 3 for all this but the app is not cheap

[Richard Wakefield]

Peter,

Do we ever get to see any of your clips??
You always give alot of advice, but i thought it'd be nice to see something for a change?....I'm intrigued to see how someone else might use Particle Illusion, as you and I seem to be the only people to have used it. (well, actually I use Trapcodes's Particular but it's pretty similar :)

[Peter Jefferson]

actually Particular is rather advanced compared to PI3, as trapcodes offering allows for 3d space whereas PI doesnt.. Shine is another brilliant one to use, however AE itslef is a bit of a bugger for those jsut learning. Once u get your head around the way it works, its a gorgeous piece of SW, but PI oofers instant gratification and results, where AE doesnt.. even on a 6800GT 512mb 256bit gfx card...

Another thing is that PI is currently in development as an AE plugin.. but i dunno whats goin on with that.. thing with PI is that u can create an emitter out of anything to become anything, and DO anything.. so theyre gret for different uses.

I usually take a still grab from a llookin up at a church steeple then mask out 9or block in PI's case) then i run a water motion emitter to bring life to the sky, another trick is the obvious timelapsed clouds, and doing this saves time (and tape) instead of doing it for real

As for my own work, i dont put stuff online as like afew others here, ive had my work leached to a point to a point of it being funny. Right now theres a guy in Brisbane who still has the text he copied and pasted from my website on his own.. to a point of not even changing my business name details.. so my business name is plastered on his site..
I do send some clips out to people i know and trust though, but my stuff isnt like a full on production like most peole think.. i try to kep it simple and raw but to convey a feeling of realness.. cross between cinematics and doco style u could say

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Paul Gallagher

Hi all,

A Bride came to see me tonight to book her wedding with me and I asked her was there anything she had seen before that she really liked on a wedding DVD. She told me about her sisters wedding that it had flowing white satin background behind the childhood photographs and in the DVD menu with falling flower petals to match the bridesmaids dresses, I wanted to ask you if you know of were I could buy this type of looping background and the different coloured petals, it sounds like a nice touch and not too cheesy.

Many thanks

Paul

Hey Paul,

Try creating the affect yourself. For example, on my front page here, http://droptodesign.com/index.html, you'll see a drop into water.

I filmed that in my bathroom, all the lights out, used a light with a blue bulb, and had a cookie sheet filled with blue colored car wash liquid. I have a lot of fun with filming effects or back grounds.

With a camera and a little imagination, I bet you could create some of those affects yourself. For example, if you took a white sheet, silky maybe, lacy maybe, and lit it well, dropped some flowers on it, then slow moed it etc. That would look awesome, you could even use the same flowers as she used in her boquet.

Man, I'm coming over to help you! I love doing that stuff........... Wait, too far.

If you can pull your own 'effects' off well, IMO, that's what sets you apart from just always relying on CGI.

Peter, post some more of your work, I need to update my webs...........hehe. :}

[Richard Wakefield]

Peter, ok fair point re material swiping...god, that would do my head in too!

(I used to make music sample CDs (copyrighted to me) to sell on ebay, and for a while i was making a mint....then all of sudden, a few people were selling them around the world...I got them caught out by ebay, but it peed me off so much, i stopped making them!...Jeez, they even had the cheek to use my exact pictures and descriptions!)

if u have any clip links though, i'd genuinly love to see them (and no, i won't sell them on :) (n.b. can't u just slap a huge great sloppy watermark over it?)
As you may know from past clip posts, I use the cloud-lapse, animations, particles etc etc alot, so it'd be good to see another man's take on it.

I love AE, and everything by Trapcode...simply for the 3D aspect. I agree with you, PI is instant gratification, but is the slightly cheesier side of Trapcode. I like to control every element to the nearest frame, and emitter physics, but then i'm just sad like that!

p.s. non-thread, non-wedding related, but i've jsut sat down with my partner and watched Sin City...I was blown away by the lighting effects, and use of spot colours. Then it suddenly dawned on me, i've become a person that can't EVER watch a film for the story now. I'm just ALWAYS analysing the post production! AAH!

[Peter Jefferson]

p.s. non-thread, non-wedding related, but i've jsut sat down with my partner and watched Sin City...I was blown away by the lighting effects, and use of spot colours. Then it suddenly dawned on me, i've become a person that can't EVER watch a film for the story now. I'm just ALWAYS analysing the post production! AAH!

u know, i said the exact same thing on a bridal forum 3 days ago.. one girl was saying "how god is good" and im like, we dont see it that way, we see things as to HOW it was done.. in addition to WHAT was done.. we lose all aspect of the NOW, and go into the depths of the HOW

[Paul Gallagher]

Thank you all so much for your help and ideas, as usual the help and quick responses on the forum is super, a great bunch of members so thanks to you all.

Paul

[Cody Lucido]

If you have the Final Cut Stuido Suite, you can easily generate this kind of thing in LiveType or Motion. In fact they have that as one of the presets. You can also customize and tweak the colors.

[Paul Gallagher]

Originally Posted by Cody Lucido

If you have the Final Cut Stuido Suite, you can easily generate this kind of thing in LiveType or Motion. In fact they have that as one of the presets. You can also customize and tweak the colors.

That sounds the best but as my luck would have it I'm a PC User, thanks For your help.

Paul

[Bruce G. Cleveland]

Originally Posted by Rick Steele

I'm thinking Digital Juice might be your best bet for this kind of stuff. Personally, it's not for me though.

Digital Juice for me