Alexander Lehnert - motion graphics, film + compositing

How-To 01: Tracking a Head with Syntheyes

Alexander Lehnert — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:22:13 +0000

Allrigthy! Here we go, i just recorded my first videotutorial. i m planning on doing a video tutorial series covering the life of a “one man band” in digital postproduction covering matchmoving, 3d and compositing.

I started out with an object tracking tutorial, as i got asked for it from a few guys over at cgtalk.com.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial and i promise to get better in in talking proper english and fill the gaps with useful informations while i work through the tutorial in future ones :) It´s not that easy as i first imagined, so sry for that :)
I got some audio issues on that tutorial, dunno exactly where they come from, whether it was my zoom h4 recorder, my screencapture software or my slow laptop´s hdd.

feel free to comment and critique to get better tutorials done in the future :)

01 head tracking final from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

CGI Integration.

Alexander Lehnert — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:28:46 +0000

Few weeks back, we did some interesting Testshoots at our company Haus&Gross communications, to improve our CGI Integration pipeline regarding new 3d tracking oppertunities, on-set HDRIs with our new 8mm lens and a mirrorball, and using Cinema4D for all the CG elements.

We came up with this little Making-Of:

TheFoundry CameraTracker & Kronos.

Alexander Lehnert — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:17:40 +0000

“The Foundry launches two brand new high tech tools for Adobe® After Effects® taking full advantage of the 64-bit capabilities offered by Adobe® Creative suite® 5 Production Premium (CS5).” www.thefoundry.co.uk

I had the chance to take part in TheFoundry´s beta-testing programm for their 2 new high-end After Effects Plugins “Camera Tracker and Kronos 5.0 (including its own motionblur effect)”.
From the beginning , i was suprised by the fast and really stable versions of the tools, didnt expect that for a v01 of a beta-candidate.

After a little period of trial´n´error i felt quite confortable with the tool , especially the cameratracker, which gives a really huge amount of new possibilities to motion graphers out there using AfterEffects all day long. And with the really cool AEtoC4D-script from Paul Tuersley its even possible to have a great tracking-2d-3d workflow.

Testing this possibilities was my task at work at Haus&Gross communications, and so i came up with some fast-comped shots.

Luckily, TheFoundry set up a little competition for all beta-testers sending in their shots, so i did and even more luckily won a licence of both plugins, incredible awesome! :)

So here is what i came up with:

1.Domino

Thanks to Philipp Hubel for setting up the original 3D simulation for an earlier project.

2.The Door

3.Running - Retiming

Some more examples and infos about those great plugins can be found over at the product pages
CAMERATRACKER and KRONOS

Hiob.

Alexander Lehnert — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:40:55 +0000

Here we go after a short break.

This is our latest short movie i created with my brother Benedikt Lehnert and my friend and director Markus Braun for his university project.

Once again we shot on a Canon 7D and some L-Series lenses.

HIOB. from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

Sidney Harbour.

Alexander Lehnert — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:08:18 +0000

New FXPHD-Term, new Challenges.
This time i took part in “challenge33 - CGI/LiveAction Integration”.
The shot of sindey harbour and the corresponding 8mm bracketed shots for HDRI lightning were provided by FXPHD.

That´s what i came up with at the end:

FXPHD - Challenge33 - Sidney Harbour from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

I´m planning on doing a Making of for that shot, so stay tuned.

Straight Lines Only.

Alexander Lehnert — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:24:38 +0000

Inspired by the latest 5 sec challenge provided by greyscalegorilla.com i came up with this little piece.

Straight Lines Only - inspired by GSG from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

Gearless by Robert Llewellyn.

Alexander Lehnert — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:52:39 +0000

Once again i entered into one of this awesome challenges provided by fxphd. This time we were supposed to create a intro-sequence for the new podcast show of robert llewellyn called “Gearless”.

After a 36 hour hurry (cause i thought the deadline was 1 week longer) i came up with this intro sequence.

Suprise! my logoanimation at the end of the intro got selected to become part of the final podcast intro! Great!

My Entry at Challenge 32 at FXPHD from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

And here is the previz i came up with for this intro:

previz of the challenge32 entry for fxphd from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

Let´s Dance - Movie

Alexander Lehnert — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:56:28 +0000

Finally, here´s the movie. I only shot the few new shots in the old facility. Parts of them aired live in the German TV Show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”, Saturday evening, 20:15 Primetime.

Let´s Dance - Video from Alexander Lehnert on Vimeo.

Getting the U.F.O. done.

Alexander Lehnert — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:19:41 +0000

For the last few days, i worked on my U.F.O modell for my shortmovie project “The Big Step (AT)”.

So this is what i came up with … old, dirty, long time used 2nd hand U.F.O. ;)

Joe Average - Final Rig

Alexander Lehnert — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:04:57 +0000

After 2 evenings of learning how to rig, i just finished my first lowpoly character rig ever for my 3d animation project “The Big Step (AT)”.

Joe is now ready for animation, but i still have to rework texturing, weight maps, facial expressions/blendshapes and some minor modelling issues. The rig is the hardest part of getting a character to live so i thought of doing it now, to have something to work with.

After the rig was done, i just set up the Cinema4D internal “Visual Selector” to select my animation controllers as easy as possible.