District 9 (Effects Test)

As inspired by a shot from the film District 9 (2009), this brief clip features an alien spacecraft over Toronto, Canada. The spacecraft was constructed in Adobe Photoshop CS3, and then digitally composited in Adobe After Effects CS3. Because of the rough nature of the background footage (shot at 100km/h), the motion tracking was particularly complicated. The audio track is from the theatrical trailer for District 9.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• district
• peter
• jackson
• neill
• blomkamp
• film
• 2009
• alien
• space
• ship
• ufo
• mothership
• toronto
• ontario
• canada
• cosmos
• darwin
• effects
• test
• adobe
• photoshop
• after
• visual
• digital
• vfx

[HipHopReigns]

I'm actually looking to create a ship from scratch to use in an ending scene of a short. Any tips on where to start?

[CosmosDarwin]

@HipHopReigns Yes, actually, if at all possible, do it in 2D in Photoshop. It's so much easier. I built mine from a couple dozen royalty-free stock photos I found online. Namely, the core of the ship is the front of a jet engine. Other bits and pieces include the skylines of cities and industrial factories, and some NASA and MIR stuff, just pasted together with a handful of effects for uniformity. Basically, my advice is this: get started, play around in Photoshop, and see where it takes you.

[HipHopReigns]

@CosmosDarwin

Wow, thank you for the tips. I've just started the tutorials on AE. I think I'll need to animate my ship in my last shot instead of having it remain a static image. Not much animation, and it'll be more of an obstructed view, but still animated. The main character will just look up to see the lights and underside of a large ship flying overhead. Do you have any experience with 3D imaging? Do you think I'll need to look into that or could I get a 2D static shot to do that?

[CosmosDarwin]

@HipHopReigns I personally have very little experience in 3D, so I would be inclined to try to do as much as I could in 2D. stargatefilms(dot)com has some interesting reels showing just what can be accomplished in 2D. Keep in mind that for flickering lights, or even thrusters, you can composite various 2D images and still achieve a realistic effect. Play around with it, and good luck!!

[Andyax]

Not the best tracking I've seen. But ok. Why is the ship inclined?

[CosmosDarwin]

Yeah, I know. There`s a couple things I`d do differently if I were to do ig again. Why the angle? Dunno. I thought it looked cool. Keep in mind I designed the ship from scratch too, so I`m not really hoping to directly reproduce District 9. Thanks for the comment! :)

[YababaVideo]

@CosmosDarwin The color grading of the 3D object way off because the light from the sky should be dark - adds dynamic range. Though I must thank you for this inspiring upload. Just the boost I need I will now like this video.

[SpeedXX71]

Nice ending :D under the bridge

[DANEBLUEGNOME]

PRETTY UFO CLOSE BY EFFECT MAY ATTACK TO THEM ISN'T???

[RainbowSockMonkey2]

LMAO - Toronto. Amazing effects work!