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Recently Cesar Kuriyama got in touch with Altsounds.com to forward us a visually interesting music video he had just finished directing for Fat City Reprise - "Long Gone" . I thought you might find this of interest. Now, what blew my mind most was the fact that I was informed that "No Video cameras were used in the production of this music video". Me being me, the minute I heard this I had to talk to Cesar about the in-depth technicalities of producing such an amazing piece of work.
Altsounds: Your new music video is very ingenious and well put together. I was reading that you did bursts of 60 photos that made about 4 frames per second. How did you convert this post-production to 24 frames per second and what software and processes did you use for this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm an animator, so I'm very familiar with such things as frame rates and methods of generating moving images.
Stop motion animation is a technique of slowly moving ojects and photographing them in order to create the illusion of motion. Film runs at 24 Frames per second. Video runs at 30 FPS. I find most animators, including myself, prefer the look of 24 FPS. There's a similar technique called "Pixilation", which is just like stop motion, but it involves using people instead of objects.
At it's best stop motion animation is unbelievably smooth and beautiful, such as Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Pixilation on the other hand is far less popular of a technique, and usually looks extremely choppy. For some examples of what I mean by "choppy", check out the following music videos:
"Paralyzed - the Used"
"Nu Shooz - Point of no Return"
(note: according to Wikipedia only about a dozen music videos have incorporated Pixilation in at least part of the video)
My goal was to make this music video by photographing people, hence "Pixilation", but to make it look as close to the smoothness and beauty of stop motion animation as was possible. Firstly I did a couple of tests with myself and a Canon digital rebel to make sure I could do what "in theory" worked in my head.
There are multiple reasons why most pixilation doesn't look very good to me. Usually it's because the talent is moving way too fast and jumping from place to place very quickly. For instance, if I'm walking down the street at a regular pace, and a camera is taking 4 pictures of me every second... then when I play back the photographs at 24 pictures per second, it'll look like I'm speed walking in the olympics.
My idea was... "if I can get the talent to move very very slowly"... "to do everything as slowly as they could"..." and I could get a camera that could shoot photographs as fast as possible, for as long as possible"... "then in theory", I thought..." at 24 photographs per second, I might be able to get a lot of it to look as smooth as film. Or at the very least it'll have a unique look."
It took about 6 shoots and 45,000 photographs to get what I needed to make this music video as I had storyboarded it. Occasionally some people have been confused about the 45,000 photographs. For a perfect example of this, please read Thomas Holm Frandsen"s comment [and my reply] towards the bottom of this link:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
I organized all the photographs in iPhoto by Shot Number, take number, Shoot number, etc. Next I brought them into Final Cut Pro to edit. In order to smooth things out, it often meant getting rid of photographs or extending them to make it look good at 24 photographs per second. Once I was happy with a particular set of photographs, for a particular shot (there were over 150 shots in the video), I would bring that particular set of pictures into Eyeon Fusion which I used for Visual Effects, Compositing, and Color Corrections. Then I brought the completed final HD frames from Eyeon Fusion, back into the Final Cut Edit.
*On a side note: People have been wondering about the inspiration behind the video.
If you read Hunter.S.Thompson's comment [and my reply] at the following link, it'll give you a good idea about it:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
Altsounds: As a photographer myself I love the power Photoshop can bring to photos. Did you utilize photoshop at all in this or did you just put the photos straight in? If you did use photoshop how did you prcoess the 40,000 images to have the same look and effects and what sort of server was used for such a MASSIVE task.
Cesar Kuriyama: I stored everything in a Lacie Quadra 500GB external hard drive. I didn't use Photoshop at all for this video. I used Eyeon Fusion instead, which is a high end compositing program for moving images.
Altsounds: What software did you use to import the images in to make the actual video? Was it some sort of batch import or did you have to manually add each photo one by one? If so, how many mice did you go through!!
Cesar Kuriyama: I wasn't sure how I would accomplish this as first. So I had to try many ideas. I spent a lot of time figuring out the best/fastest possible pipeline for making this music video. In the end I was able to literally drag and drop pictures from events in iPhoto right into the Final Cut Timeline. From there it was a matter of rendering it in Final Cut to see what it looked like at 24 frames per second... evaluating... extending the length of pictures... deleting pictures... re-rendering... and seeing how it looked afterwards... re-evalute... and so on and so forth over and over again until it looked the best it could...
Altsounds: I appreaciate this took A LOT of time to do. How long did you spend on production and actually getting all the photos you wanted and how long did it take for all the compilation and animation of this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I was clear to state in the WIRED interview, that I spent 14 months making it, but that I only worked on it in my spare time. Not to mention that I work on television commercials... so I often work very long nights and often weekends as well. So spare time is often hard to come by.
I spent 3-4 months storyboarding and making a full animatic of the entire Music Video. I'll probably post this online at some point. And then between casting and organizing the shoot and even losing our original shooting location, it took another 4-5 months before I had most of the video shot and ready for editing and effects. Then it was about 7 months of actual Post Production trying to put together the video. [Editor: by my calculation 16 months in total!]
Altsounds: Could the process you used be a new way of carrying out stop motion animation in HD without the need for expensive HD video cameras?
Cesar Kuriyama: Real Stop Motion Animation, which uses Objects and not people, has basically always been done with HD capable DSLR cameras. A movie like the Corpse's Bride didn't use any video cameras, just sweet DSLRs. Stop Motion Animators have the benefit of using puppets that can stand perfectly still for as long as they desire. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen a stop motion animation level of quality and smoothness created with Pixilation as this... created with real people.
I think what makes my video stand out is the very goal I had set out to conquer. Stop Motion Animation level of quality, but with people instead of puppets.
I think the quick answer to your question is... I don't think I've done anything new as far as Stop Motion Animation is concerned. However I do think, at least on a personal level, that I may have accomplished my goal of bringing Pixilation to the next level?
For a good article on the process of creating stop motion animation at the highest level see this story:
..... >> VFXWorld / Feature Articles << .....
Altsounds: If I wanted to do a music video similar to this in terms of the technology used where would I start? What would I need with regards to lighting, direction and storyboard? What do you use to make sure on location you have the right set of bursts so you won't need a re-shoot? What do you use to import the photos? Do you process them? If so, how and why?
Cesar Kuriyama: I think all of this is answered in my larger answers above... If not, feel free to be more specific with a follow up question.
Although I desperately need to mention that I could never have made this look so beautiful without the help of my Director of Photography Tommy Agriodimas. He's the most talented photographer I've ever known and the exceptional level of his work speaks for itself. While part of my expertise lies with lighting computer generated imagery, Tommy is a demi-god when it comes to lighting for photography. Ultimately the final look of the music video was an artistic collaboration between the beauty of the photographs Tommy was able to provide me with, and my tireless hours of Post Production/Visual Effects & Color Correction work in Fusion to turn the photographs into something more atmospheric.
(Please see the attached some images... for one shot, you can see how it developed from storyboard to photograph to Final Look)
Altsounds: What's your plans for the future? After completing such a hefty project do you think you would ever use this style of video making again or did this one almost kill you to complete? What is your day job and do you ever think that you wil make video direction your full time role (if not already)
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm a computer animator and 3D Lighting Technical Director at a fantastic studio here in New York called Charlex (Charlex.com). We make a ton of television commercials. As far as my future plans are concerned... I'm hoping that this music video will lead to an offer to direct another one. My brain is literally overflowing with more ideas for music videos. Would I ever do it again in this method? Sure. But maybe 2 or 3 other projects from now. I wouldn't want to pigeon hole myself as the "Pixilation guy". And if I did it again, I would recruit 2 or 3 people to help me put it together. It would be much much faster. I certainly got better and better at it as time went on. The first shoot with the little girl at the beginning of the video is the first thing we shot... and it's definitely the choppiest. By the time we shot the band (the last shoot), I knew exactly how i needed to direct the talent, and I was able to tell just from going through the pictures on the camera, how the images would play back at 24 FPS.
Altsounds: It has been a pleasure talking to you Cesar, please use this space to promote whatever you want!
Cesar Kuriyama:
- It's unfortunate that everyone can't see the video in it's full 1080p HD glory, but I invite everyone to watch it on my website in really good web HD:
Cesar Kuriyama Webpage
or watch it and leave a comment on Vimeo HD:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
-I would also like to invite everyone to check out Tommy Agriodimas's website for some absolutely outstanding photography:
agriodimas.com
- Everyone should check out Fat City Reprise! I asked them if I could make the music video for whatever song I wanted and after they agreed, it took me 2 weeks to pick a song. Basically because I loved all of the songs! I couldn't decide. Phenomenally talented band... and having heard snippets of their next album, I have no doubt that they're destined for greatness!
fatcityreprise.net
- And if you're interested in "Poppy" (the green dude), you can go ahead and visit Adam Levine's Adimals...More fun than a plastic bag!
That's my good friend Adam Levine's website where he custom builds these little guys for their owners! Makes a great gift!
He helped me design him and then he built 2 of them for me. HunterSThompson's comment above has some additional tid bits about Poppy.
Altsounds: Your new music video is very ingenious and well put together. I was reading that you did bursts of 60 photos that made about 4 frames per second. How did you convert this post-production to 24 frames per second and what software and processes did you use for this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm an animator, so I'm very familiar with such things as frame rates and methods of generating moving images.
Stop motion animation is a technique of slowly moving ojects and photographing them in order to create the illusion of motion. Film runs at 24 Frames per second. Video runs at 30 FPS. I find most animators, including myself, prefer the look of 24 FPS. There's a similar technique called "Pixilation", which is just like stop motion, but it involves using people instead of objects.
At it's best stop motion animation is unbelievably smooth and beautiful, such as Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Pixilation on the other hand is far less popular of a technique, and usually looks extremely choppy. For some examples of what I mean by "choppy", check out the following music videos:
"Paralyzed - the Used"
"Nu Shooz - Point of no Return"
(note: according to Wikipedia only about a dozen music videos have incorporated Pixilation in at least part of the video)
My goal was to make this music video by photographing people, hence "Pixilation", but to make it look as close to the smoothness and beauty of stop motion animation as was possible. Firstly I did a couple of tests with myself and a Canon digital rebel to make sure I could do what "in theory" worked in my head.
There are multiple reasons why most pixilation doesn't look very good to me. Usually it's because the talent is moving way too fast and jumping from place to place very quickly. For instance, if I'm walking down the street at a regular pace, and a camera is taking 4 pictures of me every second... then when I play back the photographs at 24 pictures per second, it'll look like I'm speed walking in the olympics.
My idea was... "if I can get the talent to move very very slowly"... "to do everything as slowly as they could"..." and I could get a camera that could shoot photographs as fast as possible, for as long as possible"... "then in theory", I thought..." at 24 photographs per second, I might be able to get a lot of it to look as smooth as film. Or at the very least it'll have a unique look."
It took about 6 shoots and 45,000 photographs to get what I needed to make this music video as I had storyboarded it. Occasionally some people have been confused about the 45,000 photographs. For a perfect example of this, please read Thomas Holm Frandsen"s comment [and my reply] towards the bottom of this link:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
I organized all the photographs in iPhoto by Shot Number, take number, Shoot number, etc. Next I brought them into Final Cut Pro to edit. In order to smooth things out, it often meant getting rid of photographs or extending them to make it look good at 24 photographs per second. Once I was happy with a particular set of photographs, for a particular shot (there were over 150 shots in the video), I would bring that particular set of pictures into Eyeon Fusion which I used for Visual Effects, Compositing, and Color Corrections. Then I brought the completed final HD frames from Eyeon Fusion, back into the Final Cut Edit.
*On a side note: People have been wondering about the inspiration behind the video.
If you read Hunter.S.Thompson's comment [and my reply] at the following link, it'll give you a good idea about it:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
Altsounds: As a photographer myself I love the power Photoshop can bring to photos. Did you utilize photoshop at all in this or did you just put the photos straight in? If you did use photoshop how did you prcoess the 40,000 images to have the same look and effects and what sort of server was used for such a MASSIVE task.
Cesar Kuriyama: I stored everything in a Lacie Quadra 500GB external hard drive. I didn't use Photoshop at all for this video. I used Eyeon Fusion instead, which is a high end compositing program for moving images.
Altsounds: What software did you use to import the images in to make the actual video? Was it some sort of batch import or did you have to manually add each photo one by one? If so, how many mice did you go through!!
Cesar Kuriyama: I wasn't sure how I would accomplish this as first. So I had to try many ideas. I spent a lot of time figuring out the best/fastest possible pipeline for making this music video. In the end I was able to literally drag and drop pictures from events in iPhoto right into the Final Cut Timeline. From there it was a matter of rendering it in Final Cut to see what it looked like at 24 frames per second... evaluating... extending the length of pictures... deleting pictures... re-rendering... and seeing how it looked afterwards... re-evalute... and so on and so forth over and over again until it looked the best it could...
Altsounds: I appreaciate this took A LOT of time to do. How long did you spend on production and actually getting all the photos you wanted and how long did it take for all the compilation and animation of this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I was clear to state in the WIRED interview, that I spent 14 months making it, but that I only worked on it in my spare time. Not to mention that I work on television commercials... so I often work very long nights and often weekends as well. So spare time is often hard to come by.
I spent 3-4 months storyboarding and making a full animatic of the entire Music Video. I'll probably post this online at some point. And then between casting and organizing the shoot and even losing our original shooting location, it took another 4-5 months before I had most of the video shot and ready for editing and effects. Then it was about 7 months of actual Post Production trying to put together the video. [Editor: by my calculation 16 months in total!]
Altsounds: Could the process you used be a new way of carrying out stop motion animation in HD without the need for expensive HD video cameras?
Cesar Kuriyama: Real Stop Motion Animation, which uses Objects and not people, has basically always been done with HD capable DSLR cameras. A movie like the Corpse's Bride didn't use any video cameras, just sweet DSLRs. Stop Motion Animators have the benefit of using puppets that can stand perfectly still for as long as they desire. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen a stop motion animation level of quality and smoothness created with Pixilation as this... created with real people.
I think what makes my video stand out is the very goal I had set out to conquer. Stop Motion Animation level of quality, but with people instead of puppets.
I think the quick answer to your question is... I don't think I've done anything new as far as Stop Motion Animation is concerned. However I do think, at least on a personal level, that I may have accomplished my goal of bringing Pixilation to the next level?
For a good article on the process of creating stop motion animation at the highest level see this story:
..... >> VFXWorld / Feature Articles << .....
Altsounds: If I wanted to do a music video similar to this in terms of the technology used where would I start? What would I need with regards to lighting, direction and storyboard? What do you use to make sure on location you have the right set of bursts so you won't need a re-shoot? What do you use to import the photos? Do you process them? If so, how and why?
Cesar Kuriyama: I think all of this is answered in my larger answers above... If not, feel free to be more specific with a follow up question.
Although I desperately need to mention that I could never have made this look so beautiful without the help of my Director of Photography Tommy Agriodimas. He's the most talented photographer I've ever known and the exceptional level of his work speaks for itself. While part of my expertise lies with lighting computer generated imagery, Tommy is a demi-god when it comes to lighting for photography. Ultimately the final look of the music video was an artistic collaboration between the beauty of the photographs Tommy was able to provide me with, and my tireless hours of Post Production/Visual Effects & Color Correction work in Fusion to turn the photographs into something more atmospheric.
(Please see the attached some images... for one shot, you can see how it developed from storyboard to photograph to Final Look)
Altsounds: What's your plans for the future? After completing such a hefty project do you think you would ever use this style of video making again or did this one almost kill you to complete? What is your day job and do you ever think that you wil make video direction your full time role (if not already)
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm a computer animator and 3D Lighting Technical Director at a fantastic studio here in New York called Charlex (Charlex.com). We make a ton of television commercials. As far as my future plans are concerned... I'm hoping that this music video will lead to an offer to direct another one. My brain is literally overflowing with more ideas for music videos. Would I ever do it again in this method? Sure. But maybe 2 or 3 other projects from now. I wouldn't want to pigeon hole myself as the "Pixilation guy". And if I did it again, I would recruit 2 or 3 people to help me put it together. It would be much much faster. I certainly got better and better at it as time went on. The first shoot with the little girl at the beginning of the video is the first thing we shot... and it's definitely the choppiest. By the time we shot the band (the last shoot), I knew exactly how i needed to direct the talent, and I was able to tell just from going through the pictures on the camera, how the images would play back at 24 FPS.
Altsounds: It has been a pleasure talking to you Cesar, please use this space to promote whatever you want!
Cesar Kuriyama:
- It's unfortunate that everyone can't see the video in it's full 1080p HD glory, but I invite everyone to watch it on my website in really good web HD:
Cesar Kuriyama Webpage
or watch it and leave a comment on Vimeo HD:
Fat City Reprise - Long Gone on Vimeo
-I would also like to invite everyone to check out Tommy Agriodimas's website for some absolutely outstanding photography:
agriodimas.com
- Everyone should check out Fat City Reprise! I asked them if I could make the music video for whatever song I wanted and after they agreed, it took me 2 weeks to pick a song. Basically because I loved all of the songs! I couldn't decide. Phenomenally talented band... and having heard snippets of their next album, I have no doubt that they're destined for greatness!
fatcityreprise.net
- And if you're interested in "Poppy" (the green dude), you can go ahead and visit Adam Levine's Adimals...More fun than a plastic bag!
That's my good friend Adam Levine's website where he custom builds these little guys for their owners! Makes a great gift!
He helped me design him and then he built 2 of them for me. HunterSThompson's comment above has some additional tid bits about Poppy.
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