it is funny in a way to me, this whole "Ken Burns" thing. Stills have always been used in films and many have "zoomed" and "panned" - I just think that when Ken Burns did his Civil War stuff he created an entire series that, obviously, had to rely on images so he used the pans and zooms very well...and pretty much all the time. Suddenly this technique is called "The Ken Burns tecnique" or "the Ken Burns effect" popped up. So to answer you BB - yes, this is when the "camera" pans across a still image or zooms into a still image.

As for the original question - I did not see this - was it in the new Ken Burn PBS stuff? "The Blues" is it? it might be simply adding perspective to the still. or if you mean 3-d objects? It might be adding a slight perspective and edges - sort of like you get with creating titles in Photoshop and doing the whole "cut out" thing. I mean I can think of several programs that "create" 3-d from 2-d. After Effects has plugs available. Photoshop has plugs available.

Thanks filmy. I thought that was it. I saw his Civil War series too. Well done, by very long. My PBS station was running it during one of their fund raising drives and I think it ran 4 hours or more. I first saw it years ago, if its the same one. Probably.

Maybe he got credit because almost every image was panned and/or zoomed. <wink>

I think that Civil War series was done in the late 70s so thats why it was a revolutionary technique.

I just watched Born Rich on HBO and they used the same enhanced technique I mentioned, seems to be still pics with some foreground object of interest literally cut away from the background and given a different persepctive as the camera sweeps across the image. Sometimes the background is put slightly out of focus to give perspective. It gives the image a lot of depth even though you know its a still.

Ironically I've been experimenting with this very thing recently and hope to integrate it into a title concept I have for my current editing project. I first saw this used in an HBO documentary about film producer Robert Evans a while back. It seemed so simple in light of today's software technology, and yet I'd never seen it before. I was like, "Duh. Why hasn't anyone done this before now? Why haven't *I* done this before now?":-) Evidently it's catching on fast because I've seen several more instances of it since this documentary originally aired.

Incidentally, HBO features some of the most innovative, aesthetically pleasing video fx and compositing you'll ever see. I love nearly all of their "Next on HBO" ads, and the ads done for some of their original movies and programming ("My House in Umbria", "Angels in America") are just short of stunning.

Back to your question, though. You first must have a compositing program that works in Z space (i.e., 3D compositing). I use Boris RED, which happily is now also available as a Vegas plugin.

Basically you mask/cut out/key the person or main subject matter of a still photo and then do this with a number of other people or subjects from other still photos and then composite them all in a new space (3D container in Boris RED) with whatever background you choose. You can interpose yet another photograph for the background if you like. Take care to stagger the keyed photos in Z space to give the illusion of a real 3D environment. Then make your camera (or the whole 3D container) go forward (zoom), and pan simultaneously to taste. In Boris RED, it's a nice touch to use a 3D container in 3D model mode so that you can have each photo cast and receive 3D shadows from the container lights.

I'm just now experimenting with this and will be happy to post a low res MPEG of the piece when it's finished, which, at the rate I work, could be quite a while. But the technique is yielding some very encouraging results so far.

Elizabeth Lowrey
Amore Productions

Billyboy, I looked at your Bird Mask effect and it is similar to what I saw in the documentary. Only they just use the same overall photo, mask an object of interest and then let the original background move at a different aspect than the foregraound mask, making a simple 3d effect. very nice.

Civil War was done about 11 years ago, not in the 70s. And The Blues is executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Damn, what kind of video forum is this? :-)

. . yeah and who responds to it? Huh? Huh? Huh? - That's what I wanna know . . who spends time here . . going on and on and on . . . ;-)

G

Actually, Civil War aired in 1990 and took 5 years to make so the technique is nearly 20 years old, maybe older but I can't name other movies that were doing this effect before this.

I saw an article on something like this in DV magazine a while back, but each picture had only one subject. The trick was, after the subject was cut out of the background, the editor used cloning to fill in the background layer in the area where the subject had been cut away. This way, you could move the subject and background layers independently without the cutout showing. DIdn't actually see the finished result, but I can imagine it is very effective.

Richard Hunter

Here's a link to the DV Mag article. You'll probably have to register.

http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?LookupId=/xml/feature/2003/diaz0503

The movie about Robert Evans is "The Kid Stays in the picture"

L.Disney on the dmn forums did that effect in Vegas
http://www.dmnforums.com/cgi-bin/disppost.cgi?forum=sonic-foundry_vegas&filename=030409205705.htm

Also, a lot of people refer to it as the Ric Burns effect, supposedly he taught used it first

> Incidentally, HBO features some of the most innovative, aesthetically pleasing video fx and compositing you'll ever see. I love nearly all of their "Next on HBO" ads, and the ads done for some of their original movies and programming ("My House in Umbria", "Angels in America") are just short of stunning.

I agree with that. The first time this 2D/3D thing (subject of this thread) clicked in my brain is the intro to the HBO series Carnivale. Very well done, I'd say. The program itself has gotten a little too wierd for me, but visually I can't knock it.

yes... The Kid Stays in the Picture used this effect very effectively.
It seems like a ton of prep work, but well worth the effort if done cleanly.

Gary

"Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun."

Which member of the Burns tribe said that?

Robbie Burns?

I think EPM is sort of pulling our leg.

Hint: Think the Simpsons aka the TV series.

Montgomery Burns??? perhaps...

Montgomery Burns.
"What good is money if you can't inspire terror in your fellow man?"

Indeed. Ric is the brilliance, Ken just has better PR. Ric's "New York" is simply unparalleled in the documentary world, IMO

Damn I love The Simpsons.

I just saw one of the Halloween episodes yesterday with the cursed Krusty doll

Shopkeeper: I must warn you the doll is cursed.
Homer: That's bad.
Homer: But it comes with a free frogurt!
Homer: That's good.
Shopkeeper: The frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: That's bad!
Shopkeeper: But it comes with a free choice of toppings!
Homer: That's good!
Shopkeeper: The toppings contain sodium benzoate.
[Homer looks puzzled.]
Shopkeeper: That's bad.
Homer: Can I go now?

>>> "Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun." <<<

ROTFL!!!!!!!!

That was a great episode. Monty gone mad...he he. Hey - is BK Doing their yearly Simpsons halloween toy giveaway with the kid meals? I have'ne heard - haven;t been to BK to see.

The best use of this effect was in Burns' "The Kid Stays in the Picture Documentary." This is the movie that is discussed in the DV article (the link was given in an earlier part of this thread).

This technique was briefly discussed in this thread:

Scanner questions (for photographs)

I have used it myself, and while it is tedious to produce, the effects are to die for.