The Weekly Filmschool: IMAX
Nearly every major Theater has an IMAX auditorium now, but what is it exactly? Is it just a bigger screen? Bigger sound? Well, the answer isn't as clear-cut as you might think.
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Ask Dr. Helmig #34: "That's What You Sound Like"
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Ask Dr. Helmig #33: "Makin' Bacon'"
Ask Dr. Helmig #32: "Vertically Challenged"
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Ask Dr. Helmig #30: "Symptoms of Life"
The Weekly Filmschool #4: Sync Sound
Pretty neat huh? Using an iPod as a flash recorder/microphone. It's a trick of editing I'll show you how to do below.
The Weekly Filmschool #3: Animation #2, The Story Thus far
It's been about two months since I declared my intentions to make a fully digital animation in Toon Boom Studio. So how's that going? Well, it's roughly 75% done. However now that summer has rolled around my initiative has been somewhat sapped. Not to mention work and trying to get this Filmmaking Club started at the University.
But just as an interesting side, I figured I'd post all of the backgrounds I did. You can find them all here on my Fickr Gallery.
Under the cut I'll show you the basic process I went through to make them.
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The (somewhat) Weekly Filmschool #2: Chroma Key
Chroma Key (or Green Screen) is one of the most popularly known compositing techniques in our film-literate society. The concept is simple: put a pure-color in places where you want to be transparent later on. It sounds simple in theory, but can be very complex in practice. Fear not though, for it is not out of reach of the average geek! I'll show you how it's done.
continue reading "The (somewhat) Weekly Filmschool #2: Chroma Key"
Ask Dr. Helmig #29: "Spectre of a Gun"
What? an early comic? Yup, I'm heading out to California and I don't know when I'll be back, or if I'll have reliable internet. But you can take the next couple of weeks to come up with some questions for Dr. Helmig! (Seriously, though. Do that.)
Ask Dr. Helmig #28: "Immunity Syndrome"
Witness the triumphant return of Ask Dr. Helmig! My animation is going to need some more work to be presentable, so stay tuned on that. I'll still do Weekly Film Schools here and there as I come up with worthwhile ideas.
The Weekly Filmschool: Animation Numero Dos
As the end of the semester looms like a freshly detonated whale carcass on a nudist beach, I have decided to do an equally ambitious animation as my previous cel project. This time, however, in digital.
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The Weekly Filmschool #1: Cel Animation
These days the concept of a "hand-drawn" animation is quite alien. Even shows that still animate on paper eventually send everything into a computer program to be inked, colored, or composited. But there was a time when cartoons were inked, colored and composited painstakingly by hand.
Dr. Helmig is dead. Long Live Dr. Helmig!
Ok, folks. Here's the deal.
As you may or may not know, I am a film student. Film is a very time-consuming, very difficult process. Even major studios take years and hire hundreds of people to make a simple two-hour movie everybody hates. Learning about it is even more daunting, and Dr. Helmig is competing for freetime I just don't have anymore.
But I'm not ending it. No! Instead I'm expanding what I do here at the Weekly Geek. The comic will update basically whenever the heck I feel like it and in between those sparse comic updates will be demos, showcases, and how-to's on video production, animation, and photography. Basically a dumping ground for all the things I learn and/or produce in film school. One week I'll show you how to animate on cell, the next I might show you how to do good green screen compositing, or I might just show you a funny video I made.
This all starts next week. Until then, I'll show you a little animation I did about a year ago. This was actually painted on cell, and shot underneath a 35mm camera.
Next Thursday, I'll show you how I made it.
No Dr. Helmig This Week. So Instead...
Well folks, the academic career of a film student is wrought with time-consuming project after project, and this week I have been hit particularly hard. However, instead of a... "special needs"... narrative critique of a show nobody has watched since the mid-90's, I created a short animation in Garry's Mod for a class assignment titled "Gmod Gnome Dance." Hey, it's sort of like a Dr. Helmig comic in video form. Hope you enjoy.
Ask Dr. Helmig #25: "Texas Hand-Job"
No Dr. Helmig This Week
Well, there's no Doctor Helmig for this week. February is not a good time for me, and the past week was particularly horrid, but I won't bore you.
I feel I have some sort of responsibility for providing you, our audience, with some sort of humor-based visual stimuli. So instead of a comic that takes many hours to complete, how about a random bitter commentary on an episode from a television series nobody remembers? That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I present for you:
Ask Dr. Helmig #24: "A Spy Sappin'"
Ask Dr. Helmig #23: "Fatal Attraction"
I should mention that Dr. Helmig will be changing it's schedule to once Fridays from now on. Never cared for Thursdays myself anyway. It's a cruel reminder that the weekend is just out of reach.
Ask Dr. Helmig #21: "Death to Mondays"
Ask Dr. Helmig #20: "Exit Strategy"
Ask Dr. Helmig #16: "Four-Step Process"
No Dr. Helmig This Week
Well, ain't this just the crappiest week ever? Unfortunately one of the programs I use to make the comics has suddenly taken a liking to crashing my computer. And since today is a Federally-mandated day for spending quality time with family (goddamn you, Abe Lincoln), I don't have the time to reinstall Windows and all that hullabaloo to fix the problem.
So... that's it really. Have a happy Thanksgiving... or "Turkey Day" if you have the personality of a demented ferret.
Cop-Out Hero
So, yeah. I have a term paper due later today and I have to make it exist. The comic will be posted later on Friday but I always feel bad leaving my day unfulfilled as you walk the long desert that is the week to the next podcast. So today I'll share with you a stunning video of Guitar Hero... on a bicycle.
The amount of work that must've gone into this is incredible. I mean... just the LED synchronization alone...
Ask Dr. Helmig #14: "Dingalingaling"
Ask Dr. Helmig #13: "Worst Place On Earth"
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Ask Dr. Helmig #12: "Ze Cure For Inzomnia"
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Ask Dr. Helmig #11: "Winners Don't Use Drugs"
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Helmig will be a little late this week
What? A German late for an update? Unlikely, but true! Real life has rolled your cartoonist... comicist... Sequential art-smith? Listen, the important thing is the comic will be delayed until Friday-ish. At least until my Heroine and Satanic Orgy Box Social... um... I mean... "Midterm Examinations" (yes, that'll do) are out of the way.
In the meantime, allow the good doctor to "lay down some beats" and get "hip" or whatever the hell it is you kids do whenever you're not huffing acetone or keying Oldsmobiles.
Ask Dr. Helmig #5: ...
What happens when Dr. Helmig doesn't get any questions? Well, this. I hope you're happy. Gawd.
Ask Dr. Helmig #2: Learning Curve
This week the good doctor shows us the most efficient way to teach US Geography: vicious sadism!
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