Virtual made real
22 February 2010 | Posted in inspiration, video Below are two videos I recently saw on Vimeo, that at first glance have nothing in common. The first one is an abstract, computer generated composition of colorful lines, set to a minimalist piece of music.
Creator ku-schneider makes use of a couple of interesting techniques to make the whole thing come to life. For example, virtual camera shake is used to make it look as if the video was shot on a hand-held camera. This makes the extremely abstract patterns all of a sudden appear more real, because our eyes have become used to to shaky camera footage of real life situations. Shallow depth of field (not everything is in focus at the same time) is used to enhance that effect.
The second video seems completely unrelated and shows some beautiful architectural shots. It's kind of long by web standards, but it's worth watching.
While there are several shots in this video that made me wonder how one would go about filming something like that, it wasn't until after reading the description that it became clear that the whole thing is computer generated. Again, with skillful use of textures, lighting, color grading and simulated depth of field your brain gets tricked into thinking that what you're seeing is real, because we associate these things with real life footage rather than computer generated images. Given the number of views this video has received, it seems I'm not the only one who was amazed by the results. If you're interested, also have a look at some of the making-of videos here.
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