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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Sickest. Timelapse. Ever! - CROSSING WORLDS

M

Meryem Ersoz

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If you ever get a chance, run, don't walk to see Crossing Worlds, it is short film, a fulldome panoramic timelapse piece, unlike anything that I have ever seen. True 4K x 8K immersive experience. Just won a Domie at Domefest.

I saw it last night in a private screening at the Denver Nature and Science Museum, and it was one of the most awesome imaging experiences of my life...got to meet one of the guys who developed the piece, who is also a fellow collaborator on a Grand Canyon dome project which we are both working on.

Web info can't do it justice, since it was designed to be viewed in an immersive dome, and trying to translate this experience via web is impossible. but here it is anyway...

http://www.xrez.com/cw_video_pano/

The (sweet, humble) geniuses behind this have worked on many of the biggest VFX projects in the world and, as one of them said in his presentation last night, wanted to use his knowledge and world-class techie expertise to do meaningful work "instead of blowing up New York again."

Dome productions are some of the toughest environments to produce for, and these films don't get a lot of exposure, so you will have to keep an eye on it, but if it comes around, it is a must-see. Since it debuted at DomeFest, only a handful of people have had the chance to see it - but if it comes around your neck of the woods, go go go!

This is the closest thing to a sacred viewing experience that I've ever had.

Look for it, if it crosses your world...you can thank me later!
 
Not that bad of a web experience either. But certainly would like to see this in dome theater. Amazing imagery.
 
Liam Hall said:
Understatement!

Ten minutes ago I'd not heard of Dome Theatre, now I want to make one:)
Click to expand...

Me too - the facade of my studio has a bit of dead space and a big glass front window. I have a friend who designs and builds portable domes and was thinking that this could be a cool thing to project our work on, for people passing by the window.

In my free time, I'm sure I'll get it done. Still waiting for that free time to roll around...
 
Very cool.

This makes a little more sense when you watch the 360-degree fisheye at Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/6045777

It seems like you could do this with with a 5D2 and a 360 fisheye. Did they talk much about how they did it? Cameras, special rigs? Is there a particular fisheye that matches up with the dome format?
 
Tom, I recently saw a snapshot of Old Faithful in Yellowstone taken at night and backlit by a full moon. Couldn't help but think this would be an incredible subject- worthy of your Timescapes talents. Just a thought.

Having said that, it would also look very decent near real time, and downright ethereal in slow mo. Maybe a decent subject/test for the new sensors.
 
Amazing stuff. Wish they'd do an international tour with this.
 
Would love to see an article describing how this film was made.

Those gigapixel panoramas are amazing!
 
That's how I get away with a Nikon d200 for my stills work.
When you blend thirty or more frames and output prints from
4 gig files there is little to compete on a conventional level.
It also allow me to focus on discreet planes so that once blended,
everything is in critical focus. There is no longer a depth of field
issue, and no longer a dependence on Fstops for same.


Their tilt and swing rig is pretty clever. looks like they Expose,
tilt up, Expose tilt up... and pan through 360 degrees after each tilt set. Yikes.

But dome coverage aside:
In the simplest sense, using a focal length that minimized
distortion (to allow decent overlap and blending) and having
the camera tilt automatically a set number of degrees after
each exposure would be doable for decent panoramas-
horizontal or vertical. So would three or four cameras
synced and overlapped slightly.

With the one camera set up, moving objects that shared frames
could be problematic though.
Much of the moving stuff in the video might have been captured
on one discreet frame.ie, foreground rocks- waterfall- skyline.
And the auto tilt and pan rig must be fairly fast to avoid misaligned
clouds and drastic light changes and so on.
 
Putting the camera on bracket mode for of each frame to allow for HDR would be.... uhm, I can't imagine how complex in post. Still, some guys are made for that.
Their blending technique is something else. Very nice.
 
Very cool video. Reminds me of the one I saw up in Seattle about Mtn. Saint Helens. The other thing I like about this is that they aren't cropping the image after the fact. I'm sure its getting cropped on the sensor but that's because of the lens. I just don't like cropping my timelapse to 16x9.
 
I Bloom said:
Meryem, do you have any idea what cameras were used. It seems like still camera HDR. In which case they might have used a medium format back?

IBloom
Click to expand...

it is still camera HDR, looks and acts like video though, with so many (hundreds) of photos stitched together, there is a lot of motion in these images, water running, etc....it was really amazing.

but rather than speak in error, if you have questions, you should ask Greg directly - he has published his email address publicly on twitter, so I'm assuming he doesn't mind responding to direct inquiries:

http://twitter.com/gregdowning/

he is a really unassuming guy -- and I could not help but think that you all here are his kind o' peeps -
 
hey, some good news...the Denver planetarium manager has agreed to, with the permission of the filmmakers, let me organize a private screening to anyone who would like to see this. I was just down there tonight for someone else's private screening, so that I could view it again, and he offered....

the bad news, of course, is that you'd have to be in Denver to participate. Let me know if any of you out there will be coming through town, or are local and interested in checking it out, and I can set it up for you.

We only need 3 or 4 people to do it.
 
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