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Desktop Effects Have Come a Long Way: Russian Transformers Shot on a Canon T2i
This DIY Russian "adaptation" of Michael Bay's Transformers was shot in two hours and edited in a month. Despite it copying the worst Hollywood has to offer (the second Transformers was one of the...
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3D Matchmoving for After Effects on an Indie Budget (a.k.a Free)
Since we're on the topic of backyard effects with that Russian Transformers clip, let's take a look at the technique of integrating 3D objects with live action footage. The technique of placing a 3D...
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Create Analog Lens Flares on a DSLR with 'Lens Whacking'
Now that everyone is shooting digital (at least on the low end), it takes a few tricks to achieve an analog look. Beyond adding film grain and burnouts in post, one way to do this is to slightly detach...
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A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the DIY Feature 'Monsters'
Gareth Edwards' appropriately-titled monster movie Monsters opened earlier this year and has grossed $1.7 million to date. With a $500,000 budget, Edwards shot the film himself on a Sony EX-3 and a...
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How to Get 1000FPS Slow-Mo in Final Cut Studio (No Extra Plugins Required)
The go-to slow motion plugin in many an editor's toolbox is RE:Vision Effects' Twixtor. Twixtor can often stretch a shot originally filmed at 30 or 60 frames per second into Matrix-like levels of...
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Adobe's New 'Warp Stabilizer' Effect to Fix Camera Shake and Rolling Shutter...
Adobe has just previewed "Warp Stabilizer," a new After Effects-bundled tool that fixes camera shake and rolling shutter artifacting with a simple drag-and-drop operation. Or so they claim; their...
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Lensbaby's New Movie Maker's Kit is Designed Specifically For, Well, Movie...
Digital cinematography often looks too clean to my eye, and I like "messing up" the images a bit (whenever appropriate). To this end, I bought a Lensbaby Composer Pro earlier this year, and, as always,...
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CineGrain: For When You Want Your Digital Footage to Look Like (Grainy) Film
I like grain. Photochemical film grain, that is, not digital noise. Maybe it's just because I'm used to seeing grain on 100 years of film-originated material, but even one of the best-looking...
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How to Make Digital Look Like (Grainy) Film: CineGrain Review
Celluloid is expensive. And besides, literally nobody makes film cameras anymore. But it does have a very particular aesthetic, one chief component of which is grain. There is a grit to film that...
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Want That Tilt-Shift Look on a Budget? The Lynny Lens System is a Lensbaby...
The tilt-shift effect is nothing new -- if you've ever been a large format photography shooter you know how interesting it can look. It wasn't until the Lensbaby line of lenses that tilt-shift really...
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FilmConvert: the Best Film Stock Emulator You've Ever Seen
We've said a lot about the digital versus film debate, and a lot of people have a lot of different opinions. Film still had a technological advantage over digital until really the last few years or so,...
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9 Tutorials to Get You Started Making DVD Content in Adobe Encore
We've written a lot on No Film School about the tutorials available for editing, visual effects, and color correction, but there's one area of post production we haven't really touched upon: DVD...
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Want Film-Like GH2 Footage? FilmConvert Now Supports GH2, More Canon...
Not too long ago we told you about a color corrector plugin/standalone software solution from Rubber Monkey that not only tries to mimic the looks of many film stocks, but does it in a way that is...
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Film Looks the Easy Way: FilmConvert Now Supports Canon C300 and Arri Alexa,...
A solid color grade can very quickly take the edge off an image that looks "too digital." If you don't have much time to spend on said color grade, but you'd like to get a great look very easily, a...
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Get Your Canon T2i/T3i, GH3, Nikon D800, & More Looking Like Film with...
During the NAB 2013 show, FilmConvert, the film emulation color grading program/plugin that actually maps color profiles to specific film stocks, was updated with support for the Blackmagic Cinema...
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Are You the Next Great Filmmaker? Win Feature Film Development Deal Through...
If you've had a dream of making an action, sci-fi or effects-driven film, but lacked the funding and resources to make it come true, you're in luck. Break Media and New Regency Productions have teamed...
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Media Composer Tutorial: Using the Paint Effect to Create Sci-Fi Energy Blasts
Avid's Media Composer is a powerful piece of software, especially in terms of its media management and collaborative editing capabilities. However, Media Composer also boasts a powerful palette of...
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Creating the Cosmos with Household Items; Shanks FX's Practical Approach
You can make pretty much anything with visual effects software: other worlds, new creatures, even sharknadoes. With so much creative power at our digital fingertips, it's easy to forget the incredible...
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FilmConvert Film Stock Emulation Now Works in DaVinci Resolve 10, Get 25% Off...
FilmConvert from Rubber Monkey is a unique film stock emulator because it's not just about applying a look to your footage, it's about replicating the exact color profile of specific film stocks on...
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How to Recreate the Title Sequences from 3 Hollywood Films Using (Primarily)...
Nailing the opening title of your film is important for a number of reasons. Usually it's the first thing your audience sees on-screen that introduces them to your story, which means that it has to...
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Go Behind the Scenes on JC Chandor's Epic Second Feature 'All Is Lost'
Two years ago, JC Chandor's first feature film Margin Call did the unthinkable. It humanized the people responsible for the banking disaster of 2008. His second feature, the devastatingly titled All Is...
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'Life After Pi': A Sobering Look at the Dismal State of the Hollywood VFX...
As many of you know, Rhythm & Hues, the company responsible for the incredible visual effects work in Life of Pi, filed for bankruptcy just weeks before the film took home multiple Academy Awards,...
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Re:Vision Effects Introduces the Re:Lens Plug-in for Creating 360 Degree Video
Re:Vision Effects shows off Re:Lens, a lens distortion and un-distortion plug-in for a bevy of NLE's and post-production software. With the Re:Lens, you can achieve 360° angle video with only one...
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How to Create a CCTV Video Effect With or Without Plugins
Learn how to degrade your image to make it look like security camera footage. Whether you're shooting a movie about a bank heist or a found footage horror flick, you might be playing with the idea of...
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Here Are 5 Simple Color Effects You Can Do in Adobe Premiere Pro
If you're just starting out, these color effects are not only super easy to pull off, and don't require any plugins. Designing a great color effect can be pretty complicated. The easiest part is...
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Explore All the Sweet Special Effects of 'Alien: Covenant' with Adam Savage
Peep all of the weapons, costumes, sets, and awesome blood effects in Ridley Scott's "Alien: Covenant." For fans of the Alien franchise, five years is a long time to wait for the next iteration of the...
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Here's How to Make Your Gun Blast Effects Look More Realistic
Find out how to make a gunshot blast effect that looks so real it hurts. If you've got a project you're working on that includes some gunfire, one of your biggest obstacles is making sure that those...
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5 Sweet Lens Effects You Can Create with Stuff from Home
Want to give your shots some interesting in-camera looks? Here are a few hacks you can pull off with stuff you probably have at home. It can be tough giving your footage the look you want, especially...
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How to Turn Smoke into Thick, Spooky Fog for Your Film Shoot
Shooting a horror film and need fog that sticks to the floor? Here's how to make it. Adding smoke, haze, or atmosphere can give your scenes a lot of much-needed depth when you add lighting, but if you...
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Subtle Video Effects You Can Use to Make Your Video That Much Cooler
Not only will these 3 effects make your videos look awesome, but they're also super easy to pull off. If you watch a lot of videos on YouTube, chances are you've seen several little camera tricks that...
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How to Create a Glitch Effect in Premiere Pro in Under 2 Minutes
This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to add some sweet glitch effects to your footage in Adobe Premiere Pro. Whether you're working on a feature film or music video, glitch effects can add...
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Watch: 5 Camera Hacks in Under 2 Minutes
Got 100 seconds to spare? Then you have enough time to learn five sweet camera hacks. You're not always going to have the proper tool to get the job done while making your films. That's why it's...
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5 Creative Things You Can Do with the Crop Tool in Premiere Pro
The crop tool in Premiere Pro has a lot more to offer than you might think. If you have any experience working in Adobe Premiere Pro, or any NLE for that matter, the crop tool is probably something...
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7 Practical Effects That Can Help Zhush Up Your Cinematography
If you want to add some style and flare to your shots, these cheap items will help you create some stunning practical lens effects. Post-production programs like After Effects are great for adding...
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4 Elements You Can Add in Post to Give Your Footage More Style
Whether your footage needs fixing or you just want to give it a little makeover, these techniques might be just what you're looking for. Despite our sincerest attempts at shooting what we need,...
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5 Simple 'Desert Island' Effects You Can Do In-Camera
These effects are so easy, you barely even need your camera to do 'em. What's a "desert island" effect? Well, imagine being on a desert island thousands of miles away from your gear bag, a camera...
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Create Sweet In-Camera Effects with These Mountable Prisms
These specially made prisms allow you to capture stunning in-camera effects 100% hands-free. After providing the filmmaking community with tons of excellent guidance on launching music video careers,...
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These Variable Lens Filters Have Stunning Effects Built Right In
Want to create some sweet in-camera effects? These filters will do all the heavy lifting. Light leaks, lens flares, and other stylish lens effects are relatively easy to create, but filmmaker and...
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Capture Insane Images with This Kaleidoscopic Lens Filter
The images you can capture with this little gadget are dope as hell. We've talked about TheBuffNerds host Jakob Owens and his team over at PrismLensFX who make these awesome, built-in lens effects...
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Learn How to Pull Off This Awesome 3D Freeze Frame Effect with Stills
Move your camera through frozen time by using this (pretty) simple technique in Adobe After Effects. Animating photos is a technique used in many different areas of filmmaking, from commercials to...
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How 'Scary Stories' Pulled Off Its Crazy Practical Effects
Producer Guillermo del Toro and director André Øvredal were tasked with bringing Stephen Gammell‘s iconic illustrations to the big screen. To succeed, they needed Spectral Motion to help them change...
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Create Stunning In-Camera Effects with Lensbaby's New OMNI Color Pack
Lensbaby has expanded its OMNI system with new color gels that magnetically mount to the front of your lens to produce beautiful in-camera effects. Announced earlier this year, the new OMNI system...
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No Post Required: 5 Ways to Stylize Your Shots with In-Camera Effects
Want to give your shots a little style and flavor? Forget post-production trickery—try using these dope in-camera effects instead. Whether you're shooting a feature film or a music video, adding...
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How to Replicate the Dreamy 'Deakinizer' Effect in Post
Roger Deakins pulled off this dreamy effect in-camera, but here's how you can do it in post using DaVinci Resolve. Roger Deakins is one of the most exciting, visionary DPs working today, blowing...
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7 Zach King Magic Tricks You Can Pull Off Easily on Your Own
Bored and isolated? These Zach King special effects are not just fun and easy to learn but they can also be really useful once you're back on set again. Who said you have to be a seasoned pro working...
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This Is How You Create a Horde of Zombies
What’s more terrifying than being trapped in a building by a crowd of zombies? Zombies have been around since the dawn of time. There is something so cool and menacing about zombies that draw many...
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