Bullet VFX - My creative process and what I've learned

By Giovanni Peresson 02/03/2023

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The Process:

I set myself out with a task, I want to experiment with a clip that would show a weapon being fired the cuts to a tracking shot of the bullet traveling through the air. To achieve the results I

Credits: Giovanni Peresson, Matthew Mc Bride Seen

To achieve the results I wanted I had to have a lot of planning for filming so that the animation could be seamlessly overlayed in post. Other elements I would have to focus on include; The muzzle flash lighting, flash and smoke effects using masks and keyframing, the 3d modelling and animating in blender and to make it appear realistic with lighting and motion Blur.

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Modelling:

Credits: Wikipedia

My first task was to create a 3d model of the bullet required for the animation. After researching ammunition types used for the 357. Magnum (the prop I had available) I decided the .38 special would be an appropriate choice so began my process using the cone shape in blender and using the Boolean tool to get the tip. I then used a cylinder to create the lower half and combined the parts and smoothed them. I had also created the bullet casing although it was not used in the final product. I had then went to the shading panel and created it as a polished copper object.

Final model of bullet in Blender

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Filming Day:

On filming day there where 3 shots I was looking for: a medium shot , a close up of the revolver and an imaginary tracking shot of the bullet. It was a very simple shoot The actor (Matthew Mc Bride) and I had discussed what we would be doing beforehand and we got the shots we needed in a relatively short amount of time.

The shot was filmed outside the back of my house as it was the most suitable location it being obstructed from the public which when dealing with RIF's (Realistic Imitation Firearms) as panic could be caused or involved with law enforcement if done incorrectly.

For lighting natural daylight was used we filmed at around 16:00 on a light cloudy day giving me soft natural light which was what I was looking for as I would like to avoid using artificial lights like soft boxes outside in case of the event of changing weather.

For the shots I had used a tripod which I used with my Lumix G7 with a zoom lens 24-84mm recording at 1080p 60fps with a 14 inch shotgun mic mounted to horseshoe for better audio quality especially considering I planned on using slow motion. For the tracking shot I used my Ronin Gimbal so that I could achieve an extremely smooth shot even with movement.

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Post Production:

In Post Production I began with my rough cut compiling the clip onto the timeline and muting all the audio except the part where the hammer strikes the bullet. I then done a quick colour grade just to touch up the footage.

I added the muzzle flash as well

as the flash and smoke that comes out the crevice's on the clip. I added some directional blur and used masks the create a more realistic look to it with softer edges to flames.

For the lighting I used a combination of masks and colour grading in Adobe Premier Pro. I increased exposure and highlights as well as changed the colour temperature to be more warm to simulate the orange flame . I then created a mask around the left hand face of the weapon and the hand of the actor as that would be the areas most lit up by the gunshot muzzle flash. I used this method of using masks as I didn't want to light background as on the scene it is quick far back and would be unrealistic to light it up.

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Integrating the animation:

Back in blender it was time to create the animation for the bullet exiting the barrel I'm not going to cover how this was done as it was the same process as the tracking shot which I will go into detail on how I created it.

I imported what I had so far created premier pro to blender to use as a reference for the bullet animation. I aligned it perfectly with the camera in blender and then using keyframes, scale, rotation and transform tools to create a continues motion of the camera in a semi-orbit shot. Once this was completed I had set up the lighting for the scene in blender to match the lighting that was there on the day of filming. For the render I had rendered the video in RGBA - qt animation - QuickTime - transparent so that it could easily be layered onto the timeline without the use of chroma keys for better quality. this method significantly increased the render time but resulted in a better final result.

Once the rendered bullet was added to timeline I done some minor colour grading to match the surrounding to the best of my ability and added some directional blur and used keyframes to keep the direction consistent with the direction of the bullet. I also added a PNG of some opaque line to add a bit of depth to the motion of the bullet

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Sound Design:

My final step in the process was sound design which I kept pretty simple to keep it realistic.

first audio I added was some ambiance I had recorded on the filming day to have in the background so there's no silence, the hammer sticking was left also.

For the Gunshot sound I found some audio of a revolver being fired and I brought that audio in adobe addition where I slowed it down to match the footage and I adjusted the pitch to normalise it. I done the same process with a woosh sound effect but also added some panning in premier to match the visuals of the orbit shot. I then added the audio and synced it to the footage and the project was finally finished.

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My Thoughts

Overall I was quite pleased with the outcome as this was my first animation made through blender, I have had a lot of experience in the past with 3 modelling in SolidWorks but using different software and also introducing the element of lighting, shading, animating was a new experience which I have enjoyed and I have had plenty more ideas come to mind for projects using blender to add visual effects to projects as well as creating live action short films.

If I could do it over again I would have added the element of recoil to footage of the weapon I would've instructed the actor to do so although during the filming it had never came to mind. I would also have improved my workflow, I was trying out and experimenting with a lot of new stuff I haven't done in the past for example the animation which had really slowed me down from my normal pace.

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The Video

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