How to film a model rocket like Apollo 13! | Miniature plus After Effects tutorial

Hey guys, Steve Ramsden here and today I'm going  to try and recreate the launch sequence from   Apollo 13 using only a miniature rocket, some  pre-keyed elements and some compositing skills! Apollo 13 is another of those amazing 90s  films that relied heavily on miniatures and   practical effects. These were done by Digital  Domain in Venice, California, and most of these   shots involved filming with pieces of very  large miniatures. The launch sequence is a   really amazing scene and as usual I wanted  to have a go at recreating something similar   on a serious budget. And if you like filmmaking  and practical and visual effects then hit that   subscribe button and you'll get to see lots more. So first I needed a miniature rocket - now of   course I couldn't use anything nearly as big  as what the filmmakers did, I started with a   commercially-available kit model of a Saturn V  rocket and the first thing of course I had to do   was to build and paint the model. And even though  this was pretty fiddly, I thought I could probably   get away with it just for a few quick shots on  camera. Next I looked back at the launch sequence   in the film and picked a few key shots to try and  recreate. The first one I tried was this shot here   of the rocket just rising straight up past the  camera. Now as you'll know if you've watched my   video on filming Star Wars miniatures, it's often  easier to move the camera than move the model.   So for this first experiment I could simply  set up the rocket pointing upwards in front   of the green screen and worked out a method  of moving the camera up and down the rocket.   I did this by mounting my slider 90 degrees and  simply moved the camera down the length of the   rocket in a smooth movement, and although this was  creating a portrait-shaped final shot, this didn't   matter because of course I was planning to remove  the green screen and the edges, and just use the   rocket from this shot. So that was a pretty easy  method of filming the rocket supposedly rising up   past the camera. For the next shot I wanted some  kind of dramatic angle showing the rocket engine   starting up, and because the rocket or the camera  didn't have to move this shot I could just lie   the model down sideways. Digital Domain filmed  these scenes with real pyrotechnics, whereas I was   planning to composite this in later - however I did  turn on a bright light source just out of frame   because I figured this was one less thing  to fake later and you might as well have   a real bright practical light source  reflecting back onto the base of the rocket!  "Oh... please don't break!" Okay so this is  the shot I really wanted to try and get:   this is where the rocket whooshes up past the  camera and we're looking down to the ground   and the only way to do that that I can figure  out is to mount this rocket sideways using these   threads, which I'm really hoping don't break  - because then that's the end of filming! - And   this way I can move the camera smoothly right past  the rocket and this will look like the rocket is   shooting up into the air. Now because the model  is so small, it's a lot smaller than what they   would have used to do the film, I need to get my  camera really really close to this model and use   a very wide lens to try and make the model look  bigger. And actually the only camera that will fit   this close to the model is my little DJI Osmo  Action camera. And every time I knock this model   then I need to wait ages for it to stop  moving around because it's on these threads -   this thing is really fragile and bits keep falling  off it, I'm not sure if it's gonna survive for much   longer so I'm just gonna try and get whatever I  can and it's being supported by this terrifying   looking thing as a makeshift stand, if you're  going to suspend a delicate model from something   don't do what I do kids - I've just built this crazy  thing out of whatever I could find lying around in   here. Which ironically I think is how they save  the astronauts in the film. DIY moviemaking!   So using this method of the rocket suspended  sideways I was able to do these shots just   by pushing the camera directly past the rocket.  Digital Domain would have probably done these   using motion control, whereas I was simply doing  this manually at quite a high speed to get real   motion blur. The next challenge though was looking  at the original film, their camera had started   much further away from their model rocket than  mine could - because the slider is only about a   meter long. So by carefully moving the slider just  further up in the room, I was able to try and line   up a similar shot which would increase the move  from where the slider ended and my plan was to try   and blend these two shots together to produce one  long camera movement past the rocket. So because filming with the model suspended sideways ended  up being a success and the model didn't break   I decided to carry on and film a few other shots  with it suspended as well. This could basically   recreate a shot in the film where you're below the  rocket as it takes off into the air, and once again   I added a real light source right below the rocket  engines and I could get the shot of the rocket   slowly taking off. Finally I rehung the model  again, this time vertically from the middle of the   ceiling and because you can tell that Ron Howard  is a big fan of these sweeping camera movements   I decided to get the gimbal out and try one of my  own - this again was moving down past the camera to   make it look like it was taking off, only this time  I used the gimbal to change angle and follow the   rocket up into the sky. This produced another good  shot which I thought would work well for a take-off.   Finally with the rocket still hanging from the  ceiling I just did a wide shot again on the gimbal   starting high and ending up low, just to make it  look like the rocket was moving into the sky. And   having run out of ideas and energy to film these  things, I decided to move into the editing room...   So like a lot of these experiments I  try I was building this in Adobe After Effects and   started by removing the green screens from these  shots using Keylight. For this shot of the rocket   moving directly upwards I just did a little bit  of realigning and re-rotating just to make it move   in a straight line and then it was time to work  out a way of adding some digital scenery. Adding   skies using stock photos wouldn't be a problem, but  how would i get the launch site and the landscape   right for all these shots? Well I went onto Google  Earth and found Cape Canaveral down in Florida and   I could actually see the launch sites where the  Apollo rockets had been launched from. And so by   looking at these from various angles in 3D, I was  able to save some screenshots and use these as my   backgrounds - so Google owns these, not me, this was  just as a demonstration - but this is how I found my   digital scenery. So for this take-off shot I could  line up one of these screenshots behind the model   and add a real sky element over the very basic-  looking sky seen in the screenshot. Then I could   add some blur to those background layers and  do some color correcting to the model, add some   cinematic black bars and add a slight wobble to  the whole shot by attaching everything to a null   object and adding the wiggle expression tool  to the null object. Now in the film there's all   this kind of debris falling off the rocket, I never  quite knew what it was but it looks kind of cool,   so using some pre-keyed debris elements I added  those in over the rocket as well, and a slight glow   over a separate adjustment layer at the bottom  shows that the rocket engines are approaching.   I cut away before you can see that the rocket  engines are of course actually sitting on a chair!   For the static shot where I'd simply laid the  model down and I didn't want to put the model   on the green screen because I would have got loads  of spill from it, I just drew a simple mask to cut   out the rocket from the background. I then just  added some color solids and did more masking to   create some kind of launch bay that we're seeing  from the inside. Using some explosion elements   which I lined up to the frame where the light had  been switched on I was able to duplicate these and   add these into the rocket engines, and these are so  quick that you don't really see that it's the same   explosion copied and pasted. Finally then a large  fireball on top completes the effect and some   smoke elements as well. I also experimented using  some pretty fun 3D rotatable explosion effects   which were provided as part of this year's  5DayDeal for which I was an affiliate.   For the top-down shot I removed the green screen  from the two rocket shots and was able to kind   of blend them together just by time remapping the  speed a little bit and by doing a fade between the   joins. I didn't get the perspective quite right but  my plan was to use some of the fire elements under   the rocket to disguise this! Next I dropped in a  top-down view of the Cape Canaveral launch pad   and added a rotation which I think is such  a cool part of the original shot. On top of   this layer I could drop in some smoke elements  and line them up with the launch pad and then   parent these layers to the background screenshot  so that they would all rotate in the same way.   Then I added another fire element under the rocket  boosters and just tried to keyframe it moving with   the rocket. I also used an adjustment layer with  a glow over it to just try and overexpose some of   that bottom of the rocket and hide the point where  that dodgy change happens between the two shots   For some of the shots close up to the rocket  engines as well as using real fire elements   i also used the Particle World effect that  would look like fire from the rocket boosters   and if you want to learn how to use particle  world in more detail check out my video   on how to do the Doctor Who regeneration. I could  duplicate this particle effect over all of the   different rocket boosters and keyframe  this to match the movement of the rocket.   And then I dropped a few real fire elements  on top. For some of these shots it's actually   a flamethrower element and combined with an  adjustment layer which has a glow over it. The   gimbal shot was a little trickier because the  perspective was changing. I was able to drop in   more background scenery and then try and line  up the horizon with the moment where the rocket   boosters look like they are directly level with  the camera. I copied and pasted the same particle   and fire effects underneath the rocket boosters  and the gaussian blur added to the background   and changed to 'vertical only' gave it some nice  vertical motion blur as the rocket was taking   off. And with that all the shots were done and  it was time to look back at the finished effect... well guys if you enjoyed this and you want  to make the best film you can on a budget   using all of our regular techniques you can sign  up for my new course over at diymoviemaking.com   it will cover everything you need to make  a passion project without breaking the bank   budget lighting affordable  camera and sound suggestions   lots of visual and practical effects ideas of  course and it will also include my in-depth   after effects training with downloadable  footage for you to practice with   so definitely consider signing up using the link  below happy moviemaking and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Steve Ramsden

Views: 161,705

Keywords: apollo 13, saturn v, apollo 13 (event), apollo 13 launch sequence, tom hanks, digital domain, model, rocket, miniatures diy, movie magic, diy moviemaking, steve ramsden miniature, steve ramsden, after effects filmmaking, filmmaking, filmmaking effects, rocket take off, rocket take off to the moon, adobe after effects tutorial, apollo 13 launch scene youtube, practical effects in movies, diy movie making, budget filmmaking, low budget movie effects, tutorial, model rockets

Id: cnL4d5y6dyY

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021