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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Reference and video rip

I highly recommend building a reference library. Start collecting great poses from comic books, images/clips online, clips from DVDs, etc. etc. It serves as inspiration and guide and can help you figuring out complicated body mechanics.

Check out this post about reference and this critique post for a look at how quickly you can find great reference online and how it can help.

I also recommend getting Netflix, try to watch at least one movie a week. Check the link as to why.


If you find a scene that you like you might consider getting PQDVD, which rips clips into iPod format, which quicktime can read as well. The trial version lets you rip 5 to 10mins (other packages will let you rip more but you'll probably get a watermark over the clip, which is not that bad in some cases). Obviously don't rip full movies which you don't own since that's illegal. Those packages are around $30 and totally worth it, so just get on a cup-noodles diet for a while if money is tight. :)
I personally use Cucusoft's DVD to iPod + iPod Video Converter Suite. It's a very good all in one package for $40.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the DVD to iPod converter link. I totally agree that making small quicktime clips is much more efficent than trying to remember at what point on which dvd you saw that really cool gesture you would like to steal, I mean.. use as a reference :)

Do you have any suggestions for getting reference from TV? I sometimes find that the most natural, unique and non-cliched reference is observed from people who arn't neccessarily 'acting', like documentarys, news reports, interviews etc. I know there are hard-drive recorders that you can hook-up to your telly, but is it then easy to transfer that clip to the computer for easy editing?

Jean-Denis Haas said...

I agree, the best reference is real life. Go sit in an airport and you'll have a great time observing people (until they kick you out).

Grabbing stuff off the tv is tricky. First thing I can think of is having Tivo and then transferring your recordings to your PC via TivoToGo.

Other than that, I don't know, sorry.

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