Time Postering? Another name perhaps?

1. Leee1102
   Member

   

   Hi all,

   It's funny, one of the reasons I joined this forum was to find out the name of a special effect that I can't seem to find the name for.  I had it on an old VHS VCR (a top of the line JVC at the time) that had various effects on it.  But the funny part is as soon as I looked in this special effects forum, the very first post was talking about it.  The post called "Slow Motion looks like real time".

   But actually it's real time that looks like slow motion! And as the responder states it's actually just freezing one frame for a split second, creating a series of stills, that seem to jerk forward in slo-mo.
   The person called it "Time Postering", but I've done a bunch of Google searching for this term and have not come up with anything.

   Does anyone know if there is another name for it?�  And also does anyone know if there actually is a plugin for Sony Vegas that would do this?

   I was so desperate for this effect that I hauled out my old VCR to try and use the effect on that machine, but I haven't used it since the mid-80's and the rubber parts need to be replaced.  Besides I don't want to lose the digital quality by going to tape.

   Thanks for any advice or help,

   Lee

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. EarlC
   Moderator

   

   Are you talking about the special effects as seen in The Matrix where Reeves is in super slow or still motion while action is going on all around him? Or are you talking about people moving in real time while the rest of the scene is either moving about in slow motion or faster than realtime?

   I don't know if a particular plug-in or commercial software program exists to allow for this by us independents on shoestring budgets.

   In The Matrix rotation took place as well as the actor moving in slow motion. I read somewhere that in the movie that made the effect popular some five various special effects techniques were used to create the final results. A huge number of still cameras were strategically placed around the actor, firing off in sequence with the actor against a green screen. Wire suspension was used to put the actor in desired motion paths and later removed frame-by-frame. Software interpolation and computer-generated backgrounds were then added.

   I've only ever heard this technique referred to as The Matrix Effect, or "bullet-time walkthrough" Ultra slow motion in real time is another descriptive term. But The Matrix Effect would, I suspect, give most editors the idea of what you want to accomplish.

   There's a YouTube tutorial 

   Get the Video Player

   that supposedly helps develop some of the titling and other effects in The Matrix: Matrix Special Effects Tutorial for Movie Edit Pro V14 and below. It's a decent workaround for accomplishing PART of the effect, but you'd still have to experiment to add other elements, perhaps rotoscoping the bullets, or whatever, that are being dodged. A similar effect in some program files might be called "trails" creating the same thing with less effort.

   But like you said, there doesn't seem to be a universal name for this or the series of effects.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. Leee1102
   Member

   

   Hi Earl thanks for responding.  Unfortunately that is not the effect that I'm talking about, although your effect is VERY cool, I'm going to have to try that one as well.

   The kind of thing I'm talking about was popular back in the 80's MTV videos, where you would see a quick series of frozen frames.  I made a video back then and recently updated it with some newer effects, if you want to take a look at it, it will show you exactly what I'm talking about.

   At 3:00 minutes in, where I'm playing the guitar, you'll notice the jerky movement and even though it looks kind of like slo-mo, it's in real time but with just every other second frozen, then on to the next frozen frame.   You can also see it a little better at 5:00 minutes in of the footage of a fish jumping out of a bucket.

   As I said this effect was one of the built in effects that came with that particular VHS VCR, and I was hoping I could find it again using a digital effect.  

   Thanks again for your time, here is where you can find my video:

   Get the Video Player

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. EarlC
   Moderator

   

   It's called strobe or strobing and was used with abandon by MANY to disguise unwanted camera jerkiness or movement, but some actually managed some artistic application as well. Most editing systems will have a strobe effect, or as you said, it can be manually created simply by removing every other frame, or every fifth frame, etc. depending on the amount of strobe desired.

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. Leee1102
   Member

   

   Thanks again for your reply.  I guess I'll have to do it by hand (which could take some time if the scene is more than a few seconds long).  Any search I do for "strobe" or "strobing" will show me an effect that has a white screen or light strobing on top of the video....Not the effect I was looking for.

   Probably because (as you said) it's been done to death already, no one is interested in that effect anymore.

   Oh well, thanks anyway Earl, I appreciate it.

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. EarlC
   Moderator

   

   That's really weird, Lee. I know they're old and antiquated, but the software in my old standby (still working) Casablanca editing system has a strobe effect I can apply to any clip segment automatically, with greater or lesser intensity.

   My old and antiquated, discontinued also, Amiga Toaster/Flyer has a built-in strobe effect that can be applied.

   I've not looked for it in either the Mac-based FCP or even iMovie, but will have to do so now, because I'll bet it's there somewhere. Hand-building is an option, though, as you've said, and you probably wouldn't want to do it for an extensive length of time anyway, so doing a few seconds wouldn't be THAT problematic would it?

   Sorry couldn't be of better/more help. By the way, I mentioned these units and the strobe effect also to say that none of the effects I've used/seen have the white screen or light strobing on top of the video. They actually do what I saw in the guitar playing sequence on your video sample, affecting the frame rates only.

   Posted 1 year ago #

7. Leee1102
   Member

   

   Sorry couldn't be of better/more help. By the way, I mentioned these
   units and the strobe effect also to say that none of the effects I've
   used/seen have the white screen or light strobing on top of the video.
   They actually do what I saw in the guitar playing sequence on your video
   sample, affecting the frame rates only.

   Yeah, if you do a search on YouTube for Strobing Effect, you'll see only examples using the white flashing strobe. And the term "Time Postering" turned up even less (nothing that I could find)

   I did however find another effect I've been looking for, and luckily that one has an established name: "Swish Pan".  Boris FX has a new plugin that will do that. Pretty cool.  Anyway....

   Thanks again!

   Posted 1 year ago #

8. Leee1102
   Member

   

   THE PUNCHLINE:
   Well here's a funny ending to this little thread... It turns out that I actually have a Sony Vegas plugin already that does this kind of effect, and in many different adjustable variations and presets, including blending, tempo and even the colored strobing.  It is part of a Pixelan effects package that I got a couple of years ago.  The actual plugin is called Pixelan StepTime 2.

   Go figure!  I guess I need to take a closer look at what I already have!

   Posted 1 year ago #

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