Mac Rutan

This was an experiment for me and a lesson for my kids who helped with the blue screen set up and photography. They liked setting up the cyclorama ( a blus fabric draped over a picnic table on the back patio) , camera, lights and iPhone remote. Yet After a few minutes of animating the toy they were off to other things...

The T-rex Foreground plate photography took about 20 - 30 minutes including set up of DSLR Remote on the iPhone and Macbook, focusing, and articulation of the toy.

The Background plate took less than 5 minutes to shoot including directing the kids. I shot it in 2 sessions, the first was hand held, the second was static on sticks. I was going to use the handheld BG to create more kineticism, but the perspective differences between the fg and bg were too much.

The camera height, angle, were roughly matched. The dino is approximatly 8 inches tall. The camera was inverted and touching the floor of the cyclorama in order to get the low perspective on T-rex.

The lens focal length, and aperture were identical between the 2 plates. The shutterspeed varied at 1/30th for the dino and 1/320 for the background.

The camrea to subject distance was 36 inches on the T-rex and appoximatly 90 feet to the kids on the playset.

I did moderate tonal and color work to both sets of images in Aperture. I did further color adjustments in FCP to the foreground using the 3 way cc filter in order to work it into the environment better. Yes the key and many other aspects need work etc. but it was fun never theless... and the kids experienced first hand!