The Forest II: RELENTLESS THIRST - A few more screenies

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:33 pm

Hi all,

It's been in production for almost a year, we're approaching getting it done - a sequel to our film "The Forest - Death or Beer", a deadpan, action-horror-comedy. A collective mickey take of pretentious action and horror.

The first film was hosted on this site a long time ago (I need to get the links updated, thinking about it...) ... but now we've completed a teaser for the second one. Lots of nice effects - cloning (WITH A MOVING CAMERA OMGWTFLOL), muzzle flashes, gore effects, day-for-night colour grading, a completely digital matte painting, etc etc... with lots more effects like digital stunt doubles once the film's complete.

If you don't like YouTube's uber-compression, there are much better quality versions available to download at:
http://www.secret7000.co.uk/theforest2.htm

Also see the same website for the original: http://www.secret7000.co.uk/theforest.htm

Enjoy!

ctbullet · Post by **ctbullet** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:18 pm

wicked teaser,

wow, that cloned guy is ugly, sorry if its you

looking forward to the final vid

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:38 pm

ctbullet wrote:wicked teaser,

wow, that cloned guy is ugly, sorry if its you

looking forward to the final vid

LOL, yes he is, it's not me (I'm the bloke that shouts "NOOOOO!!") and he knows it

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 4:59 pm

Some stills:

youngfilmmaker · Post by **youngfilmmaker** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:07 pm

Looks Really Good. =]

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:03 pm

Is it anything like the first one? Bad plot (if I can remember) but pretty entertaining. Do you guys use a Pd-150?

rep22 · Post by **rep22** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:21 am

haha, absolutely loved the first one! Teaser looks good too! Anxious to see it.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:08 am

DEDFX wrote:Is it anything like the first one? Bad plot (if I can remember) but pretty entertaining. Do you guys use a Pd-150?

You're right, terrible plot, and frankly it should never have become a full short. The second one follows similar lines but with a few extra twists plot-wise, a better script, and obviously much improved effects. It amuses us, at least.

The camera is an older JVC miniDV one. Not brilliant, but with enough care in post does the job.

Gyro · Post by **Gyro** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:26 am

Oh dear... I remember the first one.

Why?

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:11 am

Why not, is more the answer. I learned so much and can do much better now, why not have another go in the same world, try out my new-found love for compositing and my new appreciation for production values, while at the same time poke some much-deserved fun at pretentious war films, terrible horrors, action and Hollywood clichÃƒÂ©.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:48 am

Just thought I'd show a recent render of the CGI arm that will appear in one or two shots of this film.

We also have some shots that will utilise digital doubles of all three actors. They're coming on quite nicely now, I'll post renders of them soon.

ctbullet · Post by **ctbullet** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:23 am

how did you do the moving clone shot?

managed to push the dolly at the same speed everytime??

how did you do the cg aswell?

Jperson · Post by **Jperson** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:42 pm

Lol looks f*** good. Can't wait.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:30 pm

ctbullet wrote:how did you do the moving clone shot?

managed to push the dolly at the same speed everytime??

how did you do the cg aswell?

The 3D is done in 3D Studio Max - having taken appropriate measures of my arm which it will replace, and on-set took reflective bauble pictures so we can get HDRI maps.

"managed to push the dolly at the same speed everytime??" - in effect, yes. We only have about 3 metres of dolly track, and counted "1-2-3" as we pushed it each time. The dolly is not, however, perfect and we are only human, so there was a lot of bumping about and a fair bit of error in the timing. By using Adobe After Effect's time stretch tools, combined with some VERY close masking and post-animation, it looks rather dandy.

Also, here's a still frame showing the CGI arm in action. Animation is ongoing for this (the matte painting you see in the background is done, the 3D anim for the arm is taking a little longer.)

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:42 pm

I'd lighten the sharpness of the arm and make it a little blurred since you footage is DV.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:52 pm

It is blurred already - infact I blurred it to match the colour sampling of the PAL DV footage. Thinking about it, however, I did forget to take into account the fact that I enlarged the original footage by 10% to allow stabilisation, so it probably does need a little more blur.

Here's a comparison with the original frame to show how much editing has gone into this shot. I'd love to show more, but like I said the arm is taking quite a while (and it's properly positioned here ... it'll be better aligned to the original when we're done).

Jperson · Post by **Jperson** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 3:04 pm

Quite frankly I thinks you got it spot on. And that is one hell of an editing job.

Good work

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:37 pm

Jperson wrote:Quite frankly I thinks you got it spot on. And that is one hell of an editing job. Good work

Thanks

It's getting there.

Theshapecool · Post by **Theshapecool** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:46 pm

This Looks great!
Cant wait to see it!

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:18 am

Some WIP - shots of the CGI double for Liam. It isn't going to be involved in any closeups, just some fairly distant shots that we can't physically do. We're working on materials and shaders now.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:13 am

Today, I managed to finish one of the toughest shots in the movie .... and I'm really glad I have. Sadly, it's a shot that, if I've done it right, you won't be able to tell it's vfx. Now that's done, I'm 100% confident everything else is doable for us.

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:49 am

Looks good except for the brown hair, IDK about the motion, test soon?

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:00 am

DEDFX wrote:Looks good except for the brown hair, IDK about the motion, test soon?

The stunt doubles themselves are pretty much going to be ragdoll - falling down cliffs, and getting thrown about in an explosion. The modelling is going great - the things we have to worry about now are materials and lighting.

The hair is a WIP also - our 3d guy, while great, hasn't worked with 3DSM's hair and fur plugin before, so he's learning as he goes. I think he's done a great job so far ... just needs to tweak it.

Once we have some footage rendered of the 3d doubles in action, I'll post it.

angusware · Post by **angusware** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:13 pm

that's awesome. You guys are all doing 3D stuff and i'm still shooting miniatures?

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:02 am

angusware wrote:that's awesome. You guys are all doing 3D stuff and i'm still shooting miniatures?

I personally consider miniatures to be a more refined art - one I've had no experience with, and when I come to make the third installment of this film in a few years time, something I'll definitely want to try.

An update coming soon. The computers of myself and my CGI artist are hard at work network-rendering one of the shots as I type.

MattHawkins Online - Film Making Forum

The Forest II: RELENTLESS THIRST - A few more screenies

The Forest II: RELENTLESS THIRST - A few more screenies

RE: The Forest II: RELENTLESS THIRST - TEASER NOW ONLINE!

Re: RE: The Forest II: RELENTLESS THIRST - TEASER NOW ONLINE