Nothing looks more like water than … water … but it’s a pain to animate. I needed a shot of water running from a tap into the basin of a sink and while I was able to create the wider shots using a number of different techniques, the close up was another matter. Never a fan of cling wrap I came up with this set up. I poured water through a custom funnel into my oversized miniature basin and set Dragonframe to time-lapse; 1 frame every 5 seconds. Then for 10 minutes I kept the water level in my funnel consistent until I had the 4 seconds I needed. On play back it still has that stop motion feel which was absolutely necessary. I then brought the shot into AfterEffects and double exposed it; that is to say I put one clip on top of the other, slide the top layer out of sync by 1 frame and set it at 50% opacity. This helped smooth out the jitter. And that’s how I got my shot.
a film by ADAM CIOLFI 