So, with all the awesomeness that’s packed into Action Essentials 2, what improvements would we like to see in Action Essentials 3? We have five things we’d love to see in Action Essentials 3 and a sixth if technology coincides with the release.
Shotgun Effects. With the easy obtainability of full metal shotguns which can be dry-fired realistically, assets associated with them would be a great addition. Specific things we’d like to see in relation to this would be: well rendered shotgun shells, smoke plumes from the shells being ejecting, muzzle blasts with the particulate expulsion you get from shotgun blasts (with the greater amount of smoke spill, as well), and sound effects to go along with this. [Note: After the review was completed Video Copilot's Andrew Kramer told me they will be releasing free shotgun shell downloads for customers. -JH]
Blades and Arrows. Movies like The Crow, Hard Target, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves used motion tracking shots of thrown blades, and flying arrows. As such, creating realistic assets of popular knife styles, like the Kabar Fighting Knife, and flying arrows would be great. (Also, ninja shuriken are always popular.) As would still assets of knives and arrows embedded into flesh and walls, in addition to flesh impact wound videos from these sorts of weapons. With some clever camerawork and tracking these could be combined to create very realistic effects.
Bullet Tracking. We’ve all seen the sniper shots that track behind a bullet headed toward a victim’s head or the cool bullet shots from movies like Wanted and The Matrix. It would be great to see some high rez rendered video assets of bullets that your camera could track, either that move straight ahead in front of the camera or which come from different parallel or head on directions. (This would be most useful for a high quality slow-motion gunfight sequence.) [Note: VideoCopilot does have an official training and asset collection called, The Bullet, but this is more in-depth than the sort of assets I'm referring to.-JH]
Specific Muzzle Blast Identification. There are currently a number of different muzzle blasts but no mention of what gun these were filmed from. It would be great to see gun or caliber identification of the different types of muzzle blasts, for filmmakers who want the greatest authenticity. For example, there could be a number of muzzle blasts from 9mm pistols, a number from .45 caliber pistols, a number from big handguns like a .44 Magnum or .50AE Desert Eagle, a number from M16 and Armelite battle rifles, and a number from sniper style rifles. (As well, as the shotgun blasts I just mentioned.) Additionally, trajectory fire for grenade launchers like the M203 would be cool.
Expanded Sound Effects and Training. The 20 piece sound FX collection was an awesome addition in this one. I’d like to see these options expanded in the future to include more explosions, grenade and rocket launcher firings, and a variety of skids, impacts, and hand-to-hand effects. Additionally, I know that they were trying to keep the number of DVDs down to a minimum, but, for the future, I’d love to see a lot more of Kramer’s great training included with the asset pack. (Maybe there could be an expanded version that includes an Action Essentials specific DVD of nothing but three or four hours of advanced compositing training.)
120-150 FPS 3K. This is the one that completely depends on the release of new technology. With the RED Scarlet on the horizon, once it actually becomes available, more and more low-budget filmmakers are going to be looking at shooting 3K with action sequences at 120 – 150 fps. (In fact, that’s what we’re tentatively planning to shoot the Depleted feature with, if it becomes available in time.) As such, if it’s available for Action Essentials 3 to take advantage of, that would be awesome.
Quality
The quality on Action Essentials to is really great. I love that so many of the assets were practically recorded with the REDOne. It allowed Kramer to down-rez to HD, rather than up-rezing from HD to 2K. This just yields better quality effects.
For some things, like the shell casings, falling glass, and concrete cracks, the assets had to be rendered. However, Kramer got Hollywood quality rendering on these assets, which makes them incredible. You can see some of the examples of some of the things we did with these assets for the Depleted promo art we’ve included.
The only thing that confuses me a little bit on the quality options for this set is that it was shot with the REDOne and yet it maxes out at a 2K data size. Most of these effects were shot with slow-motion enabled, but it seems as though it was never more than 60 fps. As such, it should’ve been able to be shot at 3K. While not all filmmakers need this option, with the eventual release of the Scarlet, a 3K version would’ve been great, even if it was double the cost of the 2K. [Note: VideoCopilot's Andrew Kramer mentioned that this asset collection was shot on 3K, but that it wasn't released on traditional DVD due to the cost. As such, when the Scarlet becomes available, I'd assume a BluRay 3K version will be made available.-JH]
These clips are examples of using the Video Essentials 2 as they are intended in filmmaking. (Footage from pre-viz FX tests for the upcoming short, Depleted: Day 419.)
