Burning Question: How do I create and work with super slow-motion footage?

A Few Examples of Super Slow Motion

You may remember seeing this video from about five years ago that shows high-speed images of how a cat laps milk.

Here is a compilation of slow-mo footage.

Slow Mo Guys Channel Trailer

I’ve loved E.L.O. since I was a kid and somehow acquired a 45 of Don’t Bring Me Down. I was excited to see that Jeff Lynne’s E.L.O. has a new single, and the video shows some really nice super slow motion video with some compelling visual effects.

Here are a couple of other music videos that use extreme slow motion footage.

Even slower is Siska’s Unconditional Rebel.

Shooting Slow Mo

Want to try your hand at it?

Premium Beat has a tutorial on How to Achieve Perfect Slow-Motion Results in Post, which goes into over cranked frame rates.  They mention this tutorial in the article: Part 6: Shutter Speed & FPS.

Basics of Shooting Slow Motion Video at Wolfcrow is a useful resource for getting started. Premium Beat also has an article 5 Things to Consider Before Shooting Slow Motion. Both articles link to the video below.

Plug-ins and Tools to help with Slow-Motion Footage

RE:Vision Effects Twixtor Pro

RE:Vision Effects Twixtor Pro enables you to speed up, slow down or frame rate convert* your image sequences with visually stunning results.

After Effects: Super Slow-motion Effect Tutorials

A Japanese artist at Tsubuzorotta Film did an interesting Twixtor Experiment. If you can read Japanese, check it out here.

Nuke, Nuke X and Nuke Studio Kronos

Kronos used to be available for After Effects but has been discontinued. If you’re a Nuke user, Kronos is at your disposal. “Exclusive to NUKE STUDIO and NUKEX, KRONOS offers high-quality GPU accelerated retiming, useful when you have to make something fit an allotted time segment or want to creatively move in ‘super slow-motion’. Based on our Academy Award®-winning FURNACE algorithms and OCULA research, KRONOS offers the choice of multiple algorithms for retiming and includes matte inputs for highest quality results when retiming, speed-ramping, time-remapping, adding slow-motion effects and realistic motion blur.”

proDAD ReSpeedr

proDAD ReSpeedr is a stand-alone tool for creating amazing, super slow-motion video with records of 30, 60 or 120 FPS to produce fascinating records with 1000 fps or even more. Source material and cool time-lapse videos using sophisticated frame-blending, optical-flow, and keyframe technologies to achieve fantastic results using video shot on common DSLR, action cameras, even mobile phones. It’s even possible to combine both super slow-motion and time-lapse sequences in a single video.

Flicker

Flicker can be a problem in slow motion footage. Here are a couple of tools that help reduce and remove flicker.

• Digital Anarchy Flicker Free
• Granite Bay Software GBDeflicker
• RE:Vision Effects DE:Flicker for After Effects and Premiere Pro

Related

ClipToolz Convert  is a free tool that does a lot of things and one is to conform framerate for slow motion with PTS function.

Tutorial/Freebie: Tutorial Using a free C4D Plugin, Nitro 4D Magic Slow Motion – The Pixel Lab has a free tutorial using a free plug-in called Nitro 4D Magic Slow Motion, a time remapping plug-in for Cinema 4D.

Tutorial: Tempo: Up in Flames – Realistic & Slow-Motion Fire Effects – In this episode of Red Giant TV, Aharon Rabinowitz walks you through the workflow used to create realistic fire for the film Tempo. He’ll be using a combination of real fire footage, Trapcode Particular, and some 3rd Party plug-ins from RE:Vision Effects.