Light Painting

[Max M.]

https://vimeo.com/34468869

"This is a new technology we have developed. We used a RED Camera and shot in 4k to achieve cinema quality. Another part of the production process is our self developed software which creates animated light paintings out of the video frames. We do not use any cgi or effects for this so no further post production is necessary."

How did they do this? I don't understand their description, they say no CGI is used, but one sentence before they state that they have self developed software. I've read about software that tracks the light point in the frame and automatically makes the trail behind it and leaves it on the frame, but that was a linux plugin. Does anyone now a plugin for AE that does something like this?
What would be best way to create this effect as much as possible in camera with the least amount of post?

 

[Dominik Muench]

wow they are doing some cool stuff, but the website doesn't give much away, they offer workshops though.

 

[Christopher Barrett]

I'm guessing the software takes each frame, copies it and lays it over the next frame with a "Lighten" composite mode, continually adding all previous frames to the the timeline until the "painting" is finished. Kinda fun. I assume you need a static camera for this...

 

[John Marchant]

You can do this in after effects. I was asked for something similar by a client recently and I sent them this proof of concept:

Not rocket science at all

 

[Richard Andrewski]

I have a Cool Lights customer that has been doing something like this for quite a long time in stills. I think he uses real film to do it. The way he described to me that he works is that he starts in a completely dark environment, leaves the shutter on a camera open for an extended time and then uses some of our LED panels on battery to "paint" light onto some object in very strategic ways. Some of his work has a surreal quality to it. Here's his gallery, missing some of the earlier work that I thought was so striking:

http://www.haroldrossfineart.com/#mi=1&pt=0&pi=2&p=-1&a=0&at=0

This would definitely require some other tricks to do it in digital motion format.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Richard, there was a faddish craze in commercial photography a few years back, Hosemaster light is one name I remember. Also, other quite well known fine art guys would paint large landscape areas with hot lights and/or flash at night.

 

[Phil Holland]

Not really paving new ground. There's a variety of ways to do what's demonstrated in the video above. Either through post additive effects or using two cameras through a mirror.

Love light painting. Take a bit of patience and the willingness to experiment. So many are focused on the light trails and shapes effect, but there's other things that can be achieved.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Agreed Phil, in the right hands, "light painting" can be very expressive.

 

[Richard Andrewski]

That's right, the one I am talking about has nothing to do with the light trails effect in the video referenced by OP and I think is really more aptly called painting with light because it does require a lot of forethought and skill to do it right. Lets just call the other effect "slit scan" or "light trails effect", lol.

 

[Max M.]

Thanks for the replies, but would above effect also be posssible in camera without after effects?

 

[Mark Toia]

What would be best way to create this effect as much as possible in camera with the least amount of post?

Im listening... Been curious how to do this as well..

Doing at a still frame... Easy...
Do in it AE via trapcode or Motion does it as well... Easy...

But doing it in camera... I would love to know myself.

 

[Richard Andrewski]

I do think this has something in common with slit scan photography (think 2001 A Space Odyssey or the effect with the starship Enterprise goes to "warp" and leaves a light trail behind). That was possible with film because of the way you can expose film with precise timings and get a good record of whatever light was passed across the film. As one person said about it, its like a record of time rather than of space like a normal photograh is.

So, substitute a matte (they called it a "slit") for a shutter and you have this kind of effect. In other words, leave the shutter open and expose with the matte being dragged across the image plane. In the digital world, it definitely requires some other kind of post processing to make it possible.

Here's an example of someone that made an app to do this kind of thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSesvu_uqLo

http://trevoralyn.com/Slit-Scan_Movie_Maker_Samples.html


The vimeo video in the OP says they made an App to do it with a 4K motion image. I would imagine the app works similar to the app I linked to above. That page explains a bit of what he does to get this slit scan effect in a video. I don't think its the exact same thing but they share some ideas in common no doubt. There probably is a way to do it with after effects though.

My guess is that first scene in the video where the guy is writing with light would probably have to be done with some compositing if this is slit scan as he would have been distorted and not appear "normal" at all. So the light trails were probably composited on top of the guy writing in the air. The light trail writing was probably created by slit scan of the light he is holding as he is writing.

 

[Eric Santiago]

Revisiting this topic and wondering what I need to do to get my Scarlet or EPIC DRAGON for setting up a shoot such as this?

 

[Elsie N]

You can do this in after effects. I was asked for something similar by a client recently and I sent them this proof of concept:

Not rocket science at all

I know this was put up nine months ago and there have been improvements even since then, but this production proves the Dragon as much as anything I've seen demonstrated.

Don't mean to derail the thread but watching the video you referenced and then seeing the link to the one I referenced just compelled me to comment.

And since I'm knee-deep in thread-jacking waters already, I may as well continue on and say that this demonstrates the wide appeal of the Dragon. That is, in the right hands it can produce images nonpareil.

And even in the hands of someone like me (when I received my first R-1 I was too intimidated to even plug it in and turn it on for days) who can set up the camera to simply capture all the information in a scene as it occurs and manipulate it in post.