A capturing a couple locations with a jib.
Background
I wanted to create a short introduction showing an animated jib operating to illustrate what a jib does. Most people have heard of a crane, but not a jib - which is a just a small version of one. This was a way to illustrate how the footage about to be shown was captured.
Introduction
Originally, the concrete/park background appeared and then the tripod slid into the frame. However, I thought the tripod arrived too quickly so I added something before that in Premiere.
I cropped the top and bottom of the initial first image so only the maroon horizon line remained. I then keyframed it so it would appear from the left and move to its final position on the right. I did this on the third video layer with a black video layer under that.
As soon as the maroon line reaches the right side. a Venetian Blinds transition effect begins (it's on the black video layer) and it begins to reveal the park/concrete image underneath. Since the maroon line is above the black frame with the Venetian Blinds effect, it remains unchanged as the top and bottom of the frame appears.
Jib components
I created the jib and tripod using shapes in After Effects. The camera was taken from a photo and then manipulated so it would match the other shapes.
The tripod was Pre-composed once it was designed.
The jib arm was Pre-composed once it was designed since it would need to move independently from the tripod.
The camera and the bottom plate holding it was left as independent layer since it's supposed to stay level as the jib arm goes up on an angle.
The small vertical bar - and its smaller horizontal piece - which is attached to the front of the jib arm on the left was also independent since it's supposed to stay upright and move down as the back of the jib goes down.
Once the separate components of the jib were completed (tripod, jib arm, camera and the small vertical bar), I keyframed the jib arm so it would move up. I then had to keyframe the camera and the plate frame by frame so it would appear as if it was attached to the jib arm as it moved up.
After the camera looked like it moved up with the jib arm, I had to keyframe the small vertical bar and its smaller horizontal bar. Like the camera, I had to keyframe small bars in the same way, except they would be moving down since they were in the back of the jib - the part that moved down.
Once the jib movement looked coherent, I pre-composed it so it would become one layer allowing me to move all the components as one. I then keyframed the jib so it would appear from the left of the screen and then rotate up. As soon as jib stopped its rotation, I added a CC Light Sweep starting from the camera and moving to the left to help give the jib a more 3D look.
Jib Shadow
After I finished with the jib movement, duplicated the file and Right-clicked and selected Transform - Flip Vertical. I moved the now upside jib down so the bottom of the tripod would meet the bottom of the original tripod.
I added a Drop Shadow to the upside down jib.
Opacity 56%, Direction 0 x 135, Distance 5, Softness 62, Shadow Only
Now the shadow would move along with the jib.
Behind the jib
I used a clip of the park jib footage and used a freeze frame for the beginning and end. The only time video footage is used is when the jib rotates up. I synched the video footage and the jib movement so the video scales up as the jib moves in the same direction.
For both the freeze frames and video footage, I used the Vignette to create a subtle border and added a Camera Lens Blur effect.
For the bottom half of the introduction, I created two shapes - one white and one maroon to serve as a place where the tripod and jib would slide onto.
I added texture to the white rectangular "floor" by adding Noise HLS.
Noise - Squared, Hue 43%, Lightness 76%, Saturation 38%, Noise Phase 1 x 30.
Text
I used two Drop Shadows: a white one to outline the text (instead of the usual text outline) and a black one just beyond the white one to make the text stand out against the background.
I created a Mask to make the text look as if appears from behind the jib.
In the Layers panel, I selected the 3D cube, which brought up the Orientation, X Rotation, Y Rotation and Z Rotation controls under Transform.
I manipulated the Position (only the height value) to bring the text down as it appeared. I keyframed the Orientation so the text ends up flat from its original angle position. I also keyframed the Y Rotation toward the end.
Transitions
I pre-composed all the intro layers so it would be one layer and then I used CC Split so it would open up to reveal the following shot. I started the Split at 0 and set it to 100 at the end of the transition. The levels in Point A and Point B were keyframed as well.
CC Griddler was used for the park shots. I keyframed the effect to begin with thick lines that narrow until they reveal the next shot. The effect allows for horizontal or vertical lines. In the shot where the camera moves horizontally I used horizontal lines and the two times I used the vertical lines as they matched up with the camera movement and the trees.
I used a Mask and keyframed along the tree as it moved from right to left so it would reveal the following shot.
For the transition between the lake house shots, I moved the first twenty frames of the new shot above the last shot and keyframed the Opacity of those first twenty frames from 0 to 100.
Camera
Panasonic AVCCAM-AG-AC160P
Editing
Premiere Pro
After Effects
Premiere Pro
After Effects
Music
Cirrus by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Cirrus by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
