Match moving. That darkest of visual FX arts. Well, apart from rigging and those boffins that code in Python, but I digress.
To my mind, one of the best ways to increase the production value of your project is to take advantage of the power of match moving for set extensions, integration of FX elements and insertion of your 3D CG. It seems to me that the first primary “go to” for newcomers is greenscreen. Students can’t wait to get the green bedsheets up or spraypaint some plywood and get some bad actors, or classmates at a pinch and shoot some truly horrible footage.
Why not use greenscreen? I am not saying don’t use it, but it’s not the be all and end all, and when you are at the low-budget end of things, frankly they can cause more issues than they solve. Apart from people thinking that greenscreen is some magic panacea that can solve anything, you have to light them well. Even then, you are probably shooting with a low-end handy-cam which is going to give you rubbish results. Keying badly lit DV shot greenscreen is a guaranteed way for you to want to stab a pencil into your ear.
So why would you consider matchmoving. Well, as with a lot of visual effects, less is often more. As you probably know, creating photo-real environments is a tall ask, even for high-end studios let alone individuals. Matchmoving or tracking to the rescue! Why not consider shooting some cool locations for your short and then extending the backgrounds to give more depth/sci-fi buildings etc? Being further away you can get away with less detail and more atmospherics. Check out The Purchase Brothers fantastic “Escape from City 17″, a Half-Life 2 fan film. I recall reading that the budget for this short was around $600 and that was mainly for costumes and props. Checking out their website shows their other projects are equally impressive with regards to matchmoving.
Staying with the Half-Life 2 them, “What’s in the Box” was an amazing short shot live-action through a European city with some excellent match-moving of effects and heads up displays.
So where can you get software to practice? As it happens, you can still get a copy of Icarus, the pre-cursor to PFTrack on the net. Colin Levy has a donwload link on his website and has kind made several video tutorials to get you started.
Films to check out: District 9 (love the mother ship shots), Cloverfield
I kid, I kid! I will say that this is great action flick. Grab your candy and coke (obviously not bought at the outrageous candy bar prices) and slide into a chair for a big-screen movie.