"Cartoonizing" DV
 

How do I create cartoon-like images such as AMC's Clint Eastwood festival promo from DV footage on my iMac?

Thanks for your help!

Dorothy

If your video editor has a "water color" effect, try messing around a bit with it.

Hi Stephen,

Thanks! I have iMovie. Is there a specific cartoonizing program which transforms DV into a realistic cartoon image with the black borders?

Dorothy

If you have Final Cut Pro, you could try a program like Video Gogh from RE:Vision Effects, Inc. (I tried it before on an older PC and it was painfully slow --- but there is a lot to do!)
(http://www.revisionfx.com/videogogh.htm)

If you have access to a PC, you could try the VirtualDub MSU Cartoonizer Filter. (http://www.compression.ru/video/cart.../index_en.html)

Or try a Wacom graphics tablet and pen and trace over all the original images like the folks making A Scanner Darkly. ;-)

There is probably something better out there... but I don't know what it is. :-)

Search for "Waking Life" and "cel animation". Here's a useful article: http://digitalproducer.com/articles/...e.jsp?id=25687

Those MSU researchers are a real asset to the community, offering their work for free.

You could also export frames as separate images and batch convert them in a photo program such as shown here with Gimp (this looks great) and then import back into a video project:

http://blogs.linux.ie/xeer/2004/10/0...with-the-gimp/

Thanks to all for your suggestions! John, I think what AMC did was to cartoonize frame grabs of Clint Eastwood. They were richer and more saturated than the Gimp example. I wish I knew how AMC did this promo. Really splendid effects~!

Dorothy

Dorothy, if you are using iMovie HD-5 (not 6, meaning from iLife '06) go to a website called imovieplugins.com. Click on the "plug-ins" link then the "cf/x effects" link. Then click on the "special fx" link. On the left of the new page there is a column. Select edge detect/pencil and it will show you something that may be at least close to what you're looking for. I've used it and it's pretty slick. Peace.

Eric, thank you, this is too cool! Can't wait to try it. Bless your cotton socks!! Dorothy

I know the commercials you speak of. They are for an investment company. The Kodak Easy Share software that came with my wife's digital still cam has that same effect for stills. Was thinking of doing a short sequence using that effect.

-gb-

Haven't tried it with EasyShare, but every time I do it with PSP + Virtual Painter, the "drawing" is too randomized to look good as a film sequence. Jumps all over the place. :(

Even just doing a "contour" effect, the motion is annoyingly busy.

I've seen the ads and I got curious about this so I decided to give it a try. The result is at:

http://www.arbourmedia.com/media/Cartoony.mov

About a 14 second clip.

I did it by:

1) exporting an image sequence from FCP into a folder.

2) Set up Photoshop CS to do a batch action from the folder to a new folder. For the test I just used the watercolor filter.

3) Imported the images in the second folder into After Effects as an image sequence.

4) Rendered the sequence.

5) Compressed it in QuickTime to .H264

Takes some time and some disk space. Works rather well.

Here's a version using the Photoshop poster filter that is closer to the AMC Eastwood effect.

http://www.arbourmedia.com/media/Cartoony2.mov

This thread discusses how to do this with Motion and FCP...and has examples of both:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....65454&#1065454

If you check out "A Scanner Darkly" trailer that uses some cell-shaded like footage but actually I believed they rotoscoped the entire film.

Yes they did rotoscope the whole film, as a matter of fact I think they're STILL rotoscoping the thing. Wired magazine this month had a write up on this flick and the process.

Hi Greg,

I understand the Kodak software is quite good. I'd love to see a sample image if you could post one.

Thanks,
Dorothy

Hi Peter,

Thanks for joining in the merriment! Is there a way to create a little less posterized and more cartoonized look?

Dorothy

Hi Peter,

Thanks for joining in the merriment! Is there a way to create a little less posterized and more cartoonized look?

Dorothy

There are two ads utilizing the cartoon effect. The ad for the investment company is, for me, the less satisfying. It's very obvious that a cartoon-filter effect has been applied. One is constantly reminded of this while viewing the video footage, though for some, this may be enjoyable.

The American Movie Channel's Clint Eastwood promo cartoonizes frame grabs from Eastwood's pictures and even applies comic book-like black borders between the still images. It is beautifully rendered and high, fun camp!!

Dorothy

I extracted the video to individual frames using Quicktime, reprocessed them using Photoshops filters in batch mode and imported them back to Quicktime (I reduced the frame rate to give it a jerkier look)

The resulting Footage can be seen here :

http://www.indian.co.uk/audiovideo/ (it's the one
to the right of the Björk video:-) - Tim Bowness)

Regards

Stephen

Boris has a "Cartooner" filter. Never used it though, so I can't say what it's like.

Dorothy:

Take a look at the following tutorial and see if the look is closer to what you want.

http://www.macmerc.com/sections.php?...page&artid=209

Merc offers a PS action to do the effect, but it has to be modified to work as an batch action. I searched around trying to find the company that does motion gaphics for AMC with no luck.

Thank you! Peter :-)) This tutorial succeeds quite nicely in conveying the Eastwood cartoon look. I also tried contacting AMC for info about their ad agency but no luck, so far. Dorothy

Finally got around to trying the cartoon effect based on the tutorial I mentioned above.

Here's the result: http://www.arbourmedia.com/media/Cartoony3.mov