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Topic: Snow: How do you do it?

It's getting close to the Christmas Season, and many of us Brickfilmers are beginning to turn out our Christmas brickfilms (we are no exception).  There is one thing though that personally has me stumped, and many of you may be stumped about it too: How do you make decent snow falling from the sky?  It is fairly easy to make snow on the ground, for it can be white LEGO bricks, flour, paper, or anything else white in color. But making snow fall from the sky is something that I just cannot figure out.  Does anyone out there have any suggestions? mini/confused

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BuilderBrothers's Website

  • MOL
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  • Location: Canada
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Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Simply do it in your editing system. If you don't have a decent one, I can do it for you, if you'd like.

Persist.
  • Location: California
  • Joined: October 6, 2009

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Thanks, but I'd prefer to do this ourself.  Do you have any recomendations for any free software to use to do this?

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BuilderBrothers's Website

  • Location: Eastern US
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Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Sqirlz Water Reflections.
I recently discovered it on the free software list, and... mini/love

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Euphreana's Website

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Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Euphreana wrote:

Sqirlz Water Reflections.
I recently discovered it on the free software list, and... mini/love

Wow, that looks great mini/bigsmile If I'd known that was there, I wouldn't have offered. mini/blankexpression

Persist.
  • Location: United States
  • Joined: July 16, 2009

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

I used it once and it was great! mini/smile

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  • Location: California
  • Joined: October 6, 2009

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Uh-oh... I tryed using the program, and it says I can only add effects to still shots!  But I want to add effects to avi or other video files!  Help!

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BuilderBrothers's Website

  • Location: California
  • Joined: October 6, 2009

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Woops!  Figured it out! (you have to go to file/avi open and THEN open your animation).  Looks great!  Expect our latest film near Christmas with some of these amazing special effects in it!

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BuilderBrothers's Website

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Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Holy crap. A quadruple post. Never seen that before mini/rolleyes

Persist.
  • Joined: December 27, 2008

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

mod edit - no, that won't make snow

Yeah, Squrlz water reflections is the way to go.

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Squrlz? Really? I thought that was only used for water. Personally, I'd try using some powdered sugar, normal sugar, or salt, assuming that the snow has already fallen. You'd have to be careful not to bump the set, or touch the snow at all, but it would look great if you could pull it off.

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Littlebrick's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

@ Littlebrick: Squirlz can do falling water, static water and falling snow, but not static snow. That's where your method comes in.

A little tip for using Squirlz (or AE)... don't just add one snow layer, as the result looks like a single, thin layer of snow falling between the scene and your camera. Instead, use several. Have some of the selection areas intersect the ground (so that some of the snow actually appears to be hitting the ground). And as the layers get (supposedly) farther and farther from the camera, make them more blurry and transparent with smaller flakes and a slower speed to give the illusion of distance.

It takes a lot of tweaking to get it to look right, but when you do, the results are FAR better than a single pass.

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  • Location: California
  • Joined: October 6, 2009

Re: Snow: How do you do it?

Thanks!  Will try!  (By the way, because of you guys' help, our new film is going along at a record pace!)

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