Two great love songs. Two lovely vocal performances which harmonize well, and whose lyrics also sync. What's a creative guy to do about it? MAKE A MASHUP!!!!
Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold" + Cher's "Believe" blends into a LOVELY combination.
As with my previous mashups, heading into Ableton Live and making a rough composite sparked the inspiration. Only one obstacle stood in my way, and that was my inability to procure the genuine "Believe" instrumental. No worries, the iTunes Store came to the rescue with a mildly awkward soundalike for karaoke performances. (So yes, what we have here is Cher not even singing over the original.) I had to fatten the kick drum, but it has its own "boutique charm".
I don't have evidence to support that Cher + Katy have ever actually done a duet onstage. But glory be to technology, it allows us to realize possibilities like this (and Fred Astaire pop 'n' locking).
Some parts are crowded. Some parts are sparse. I'm never content to just have "Acapella A layered over Instrumental B", so listen closely for details and signature'd tricks. Orbital's "Halcyon" had a definite influence on the more choral passages and even backwards vocals. Lots of variation as I'm known for. Not just because my attention span is as limited as astatine's half-life, but because I love a fresh cornucopia of ideas… yet making cohesive sense out of it all. Like LOVE, IT IS DIRTY AND CLEAN AT THE SAME TIME.
Sly: there's a snippet of another track with "cool" lyrics I inserted because I enjoy it immensely. See if you can spot it.
Here's a lovely video tutorial with me hugging a tree and a kitten! What more could you want? SHAKY CAM EFFECTS like you see in Cloverfield and Star Trek's Enterprise bridge after being fired upon. Or those psychedelic scenes in Southland Tales. Or every single show with drunk-o-vision. You get the picture… MOVING PICTURES.
When I need video plugins to extend my creativity, only the best will do. That's why I've gone from being an ardent fan to consulting for NewBlueFX. (Connection trivia: you may've noticed some of our effects used on my Second Life movies like this.)
Anyway, the brilliant Todor Fay, my multimedia visionary boss at NewBlue Inc., let me know we've got an awesome…
TIME-LIMITED SPECIAL running until March 15!
You can click here to get Motion Blends AND Motion Effects for US$80 which is an amazing price for this bundle o' wonders. Normal, unexaggerated pricing is $260, so you definitely save here. Click through and watch Todor show you more in his own words. Compare it to what else is out there on the market, and in my tutorial above, you'll see how easy it is to use, how well-priced it is (even in this darn recession), and how unique it can be. Within a few seconds (no kidding), you'll be indulging in A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN' GOING ON!
Motion Effects includes: Active Camera, Earthquake, Motion Blur, Ripple, Rolling Waves, Shear Energy, Spin Blur, Warp, Wiggle, and Zoom Blur.
Still unconvinced? We have a FREE TRIAL so you can gain hands-on experience.
These plugins solve practical problems and more extreme settings are quite artistic. I just about cry when I find out people are asking on various video forums, trying to do what these Motion packs simplify, and they slug it out all labor-intensive, wondering…
"Is there a better way?"
I was there once, and YES, THERE IS.
I know you can do some of the same things manually in hosts. I'm thankful for tutorials on the slow way before acknowledging I WANT GREAT RESULTS FAST — with NewBlueFX, it's much swifter, and if you're as resource-savvy as I am or more (AUTOMATION!), you'll know paying for the work we've put into this is worth the time you'll save and the pleasure you'll feel. Optimize your workflow and rock out. Consider it a lovable exchange between artists, yes?
Whether you make machinima or home movies or do video production professionally, Motion Effects & Motion Blends work well on a diverse range of footage: I've tested them on both compact web to HD (1280×720) dimensions myself and am utterly pleased with how they go beyond generic crossfades and blurs to bring you… POETRY IN MOTION!
Amplify your awesome!
How you use them is up to you. Customize presets — I love doing so; you can even save and share them with others — and explore. And if you make something kewl with these or any other NewBlueFX plugins, let me know, I'd love to see!
Special thanx to Ravenelle, who filmed our cat "Uni" and me. <3
Everytime I do something creative, I strive to explore a different angle and learn a new trick or two (or more). Can I call them "polished experiments"?
Creative challenges herein…
so you can get a better understanding of my process:
Camera – When doing machinima, it's easy to have a perfectly-still camera because the viewpoint is virtual. This can be boring, so I use NewBlueFX's Active Camera to vary the motion by a few pixels. Like I have steady hands, but they're not mechanically locked. Flycam also helps with spatial dynamics.
Flaws – One model is wearing polka dot stockings and the others aren't. :O Prim attachments cutting through avatar mesh bothers me to this day, too. (No way around this, so dig in and have fun.)
Grain – I like to add noise to my images to make them more alive, more analogue. It helps cover up pixelation and macroblocking artifacts to some degree by adding visual interest. It also makes the movie harder to compress.
Spinning – In Second Life, hold Alt-Left Arrow or Right Arrow key to orbit around a point, like how I did with these avatars. I used Vegas velocity sliders to accelerate the clips, giving them some degree of elasticity, and motion blur +supersampling to intensify the dizziness.
Transitions – Jump cuts and crossfades will always be there. I want more. I adore transitions that aren't totally distracting, but do possess a little edge. Blurs, glows, smears, and zooms are all fair game. I used a small sampling from the NewBlueFX collection. I was particularly pleased with how the morph to the bought clothes @ 1:00 turned out: it's a combo of Smear + saturation boost. No crazy 3D compositing here, but I'd like to play more with the 3D Source Alpha which Garbage Prototype does so well.
Overall theme – I've been into Italo Disco and New Wave stuff lately. It showed here, not just in the choice of music (The Presets are Australian but their sound carries Italian roots) but where the avatars went shopping. I very much had upscale European in mind. The black & white and extra-filmy moments were nods to Heroes flashbacks and 70s horror.
This video wasn't originally shot for this purpose. But I decided to do something with the stock.
Description:
Filmed on location at www.armidi.com in Second Life. Fun flick derived from raw footage with ravenelle.net on the 2 other avatars while working on a more (somewhat) serious project. Cut to the tempo, I like my noise and slightly shaky camera. This is my "Italian" video not just because of the fashion, but the musical influence and how I effected the visuals with newbluefx.com Music is www.myspace.com/thepresets "This Boy's In Love". I sure am!
I love it in life when you don't originally set out to do something, but it gets done, anyway. Obligatory descrip:
Uplift your creativity! Become more self-aware! And chop the slop! THE TORLEY TALKS CONTINUE… your fave watermelon wild man is back with a haircut and here to enrich how you think about and act upon the world. Packing cultural references from the Tim & Eric Awesome Show to iPhones to dubstep to productivity software, I care… so I must share! Get enjoyalicious, and teach me about topics you'd like to hear expounded on. The US Army says "Be all you can be", but apparently, this is lacking. Thus: BE MORE THAN YOU CAN BE!
