Day to Night Conversion

With the help of videocopilot.net (Andrew Kramer is a GENIUS) I learned how to do some Day-to-Night conversion. To learn this technique for yourself, watch his tutorial HERE.

I've provided some screen grabs of what I did to end up with the final result. I just used a still image for practice, but the real one I'm going to do will be video. I just need to FILM the video asset still *sheepish grin*.

1) Original photograph.

2. Crushed the brightness, made it kind of bluey.

3. Made the sky even more inky blue than the rest of the photo. Used a feathered mask to make it blend in with the road.

4. Added some spots on the ground where the street lamps will hit.

5. Added some glow to the street lamps as well as a the fall-off from the light. This wasn't necessary but I liked the look better with it than without.

6. Added some lights to the traffic lights and cross signal.

I am not a Trekkie, but...

...the new Star Trek movie was really freaking good. It was one of those movies that I had been anticipating for a really long time because of the trailer and I was not disappointed by its awesomeness. I kind of can't wait to go watch it again.

There were several reasons why I liked this movie, but I'm just going to mention the two that everyone seems to be talking about (with good reason) before moving on to why I, personally, loved this movie.

The awesome young crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

First, is the cast. J.J. Abrams picked a stellar cast that just meshed together so well. Chris Pine did a fantastic job playing the young badass Kirk and Zachary Quinto was a great Spock. I don't think I've seen greater facial control in an actor, ever.

Second, I was never bored. There was a fight scene right from the get go, and the pace never slowed up, so there was always something to think about in every single scene. I don't think my mind deviated from the story line at all because it couldn't. The amount of action never let it.
However, the real reason I loved this movie so much is not because of the cast or the writing. It was the effects. This movie reminded me why I want to be a special effects artist.

There's this one part, that can be seen in the trailer, where a planet consumes itself and it's probably the coolest effect in the whole movie. It's definitely the part where I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing as I took in visual effects marvel before me on the screen, then when it was done, the breathing started again with a whispered, "fucking cool".

See, told you it was really fucking cool.

Yesterday, I wasn't watching a movie. I was actually in space. On the USS Enterprise. Where there were laser gun fights, and black holes and a planet consumed itself before my very eyes. Forget the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing. Disbelief was crumpled into a ball, set on fire, then thrown out a window 40 stories up into the ocean where it sunk to the bottom where it will never be heard from ever again.

Live long and prosper, my friends.

Nicole, out.