Rent- A- Helicopter Cheap

Anyone know?

And a driver?

We took copter rides in New Mexico when I was alot younger, and they charged about $30.00 for around a 20 minute ride.....

UNLESS ...

you use the power of networking.

If you ask absolutely everyone you know at all to ask everyone they know at all (and some of them acually comply) you can connect to a potentially large number of people.

This is for the purpose of finding a helicopter pilot who could arrange to take you up with them as a favor to you, your Uncle Pete, or your neighbor, Mr MacGruder. If you carefully and professionally explain yourself and your project, you may be able to swing this for free.

The only other approach I can think of (other than hauling out the wallet) is to try to make it a Public Relations deal - if you can get press coverage lined up and sell the idea to a company that owns a copter ("Local Company helps amateur film maker") as a chance to gain favorable image by looking helpful.

A "thank you" in the credits is unlikely to get you much froma company unless your picture has demonstrable potential of making it into theatrical release.
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Jeff F - Magic and FX
Amazing the Masses

I also have a scene in my movie that calls for a helicopter. I've asked before what to do and people have said "Use CGI!" but how am I supposed to do that when I need people to climb in and out of it?? Plus I might add I love CGI and all but I'm just no good with it.

i suggest you get some cash (just in case), a release form, a bluescreen, your camera and head to an airport. if you're filming on the ground you could easily do it for $100, just make sure you have everything ready to go before you leave. you may have to rush through filming, but at least you'd be in a copter

any airshows coming up in your area?

later
Tom

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What everyone seems to forget is that once we look past race, religion, gender, and all that, everyone on this planet is first and foremost...

...a PERSON

Course now and days I would just use a real helicopter.

If its for shots that you don't need to see people getting in & out.

I've used local clubs that are only too happy to show off their scale Jet rangers, Hughes 500's.

Promise them a credit, I'm sure they'd help.

Good luck

It's a sequence where a cgi chopper lands and some soldiers in enviromental suits jump out.

Check it out! (and all the other shots that are explained)

Blue screen some boxes etc to make up a Copter shape. Then get in and out of the iomaginary copter.
Simply overlay over the cgi copter.

If you need copter meshes give me a shout.

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"I like to see things as I remember them, not as they were."

-Bill Pullman "Lost Highway"

You crack me up,

Drug running for heavens sake....

Firstly what are you using for your models?

Secondly that is excactly what I was refering(spelling?) to in my earlier post.
Let me know and I will write up a tutorial for you (provided it's for max)
I should be able to rake up a copter like that too. If it's for lightwave I think Benny would be your best bet for info.

Easier if you go to the free meshes at 3dcafe and pick the one you want. Saves me spending ages modelling one.(Got a bit of a backlog at the moment) Them just let me know which one and I will texture it and add bones etc. for animation.
www.3dcafe.com

You guys that are using cgi, does it actualy look real like the dinasaurs look real in Jurasic or are you looking at your finished pieces with "It looks real to me" spectacles?

Seriously, I'd like to know

It's all down to how much time you are willing to spend.
If you want it to look like a real chopper then you just have to work hard.
Dimensions are about as spot on as you can get. Glass is a snap to make including real refraction and reflection. Various metals are also v.easy.
Dunno if i'm being over zealous with my own reviews.

Bearing in mind - The globe is rotating the wrong way - There is no starfield - I didnt bother with clouds or an atmosphere -The lighting is poor - and it was done v. quickly
Check www.chimpoid.homestead.com/population.html and let me know if that look a reasonable approximation of a globe.
Feel free to mail me with comments good or bad

The image below is from the test I'm doing for a total cgi-chopper in our coming movie. The image represents all my spare time in about a month - from when i got off work at about 5 in the afternoon until 3 in the morning.

The first thing I had to do was to find the best program (for me that's Cinema 4D XL) to use for the cgi and get my 3D model converted to a format that program would understand. When I had the model and the program I started to roughly reapply all the textures and dividing the chopper into movable parts (the rotors, machinegun, FLIR). After that I had to find out how to get shaddow onto the background plate - something that works a bit tricky in Cinema 4D XL.

The picture is JUST a test. The textures still need a LOT of work, the shaddow is too sharp - and currently I'm doing some tests to get the rotors to look just right when they are moving.

I'm also researching Reelmotion - a program where you can drive cars, fly planes - and choppers - just like in a simulator and then import the data into your 3D program (sort of like motioncapture). I also still have to figure out how to make smoke/missile trails with particle animation.

Good results takes some time. Our movie should have started shooting this summer, but because of all the tests we still have to do on the visualfx (the chopper is just one of them), we've had to push everything back one year. After that we think we'll be in postproduction for a year, doing all the effects and editing. (When the rotor moves on this chopper and motion blur is applied, 4 seconds takes about 8 hours to render on my 450 MHz G4 - and if I want shadows on the background plate that's another 8 hours rendertime)

Please check our site:
http://home16.inet.tele.dk/nobudget

There's only the frontpage, but more will come soon.

r2d2

you may want to move it towards that camera in the final though since the tail rotor seems a little too close to the fence, if they had more room to land they wouldn't have picked that spot...but i guess it could have been rolled back there.

just my 2¢

i also think its cool that you are actually testing and planning to get the best possible FX, something that i dont hear here very often * thats a big gold star next to your name!

later
Tom

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What everyone seems to forget is that once we look past race, religion, gender, and all that, everyone on this planet is first and foremost...

...a PERSON

Well, you have to plan when you do vfx so that you know what difficulties to expect.

Right now I'm also doing some test with Difference Matte from the Production Bundle for After Effects. With that effect it should be possible to extract people from the background in some shots where the camera is locked down, so that you don't have to use greenscreen.

During my first test I quickly found out that you have to avoid grain in your DV footage, never have the camera on autofocus - and avoid changes in the level of light (clouds in front of the sun for example). All this is it important to know before you shoot the real footage otherwise you waste your time.

AND the picture is just a test and the location is something I shot on a parking buildings roof on my way home from work. The chopper needs all it's textures and some dirt/scratches to make it look a bit beat up.

Other than that it looks real nice, a job well done I think.
As I am using the laptop here I don't get quite the same colour def. so it looked a good match to me. Very interested in reelmotion, you couldn't post me some details could you?

Once again well done mate!

It works with LightWave 3D, Studio MAX, Maya, Electric Image and Cinema 4D.

I think they have some quicktime clips with cars that you can download. The stuff look amazing. Half of what makes cgi look real is the right movement - and the results you get with this are great. And it's quick. Animating the right movements for a car is very boring - this program takes care of that. Great!

You can download the demo of the program - the plugin you'll need for your 3D application and some premade projects. You can't save in the demo - but download the projects (tutorials) and the plugin and you can open and render the projects in your 3D application and see how it works.

IMOH it's very good.

Have fun.

I take your point, They can, with a lot of work, look very good.

Whats a good programme to cut your teath on with CGI modelling etc ???