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Tilt Shift Video and Photography

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | Technology, Tutorials | No Comments

Tilt Shift photography is a technique in which an image or video appears tiny due to a change in the depth of field.  This effect can be achieved via a special “shifting” lens or via post-production editing.  The shifting lens has a larger then normal field of view.  By angling the lens you can distort the focus on a specific area which causes everything around the area in focus to appear blurry causing a special appearance of depth of field.

Example of Tilt Shift Photography

By linking a bunch of Tilt Shift images together, you can create a Tilt Shift video like the one above created by Keith Loutit.

There are tons of Tilt Shift photoshop tutorials explaining how to achieve this effect post-production.  Here are a few good tutorials:

I think I’ll try my hand at this when I find myself with some free time.  Probably sometime next year…

Update:  All State has created a new commercial using this technique

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Inkscape Whirls, Twirls and Swirls: SWIRL

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | Tutorials | 6 Comments

So for a long time I wanted to know how to create Whirls, Twirls and Swirls with Inkscape.  I’ve looked over many tutorials and would like to summarize my findings into a central location as well as add my own style.  I’m going to try and make this as easy to follow as possible.

Lets start off with a simple “Swirl“:

Creating a swirl in inkscape

Creating a swirl in inkscape

A Swirl is a line that curves smoothly along a path.

These simple steps can be modified to create complex Swirl graphics:

Complex Swirl with Inkscape

Complex Swirl with Inkscape

1)  Create a simple rectangle.

Use F4 to create a square

Use F4 to create a square

2)  Then convert that rectangle object to a path:  Path > Object to Path (or Ctrl + Shift + C).  Switch to your “Edit path by nodes” tool by hitting F2

(Ctrl + Shift + C) then (F2)

(Ctrl + Shift + C) then (F2)

3)  Now highlight all the nodes by drawing a square around our rectangle or hit (Ctrl + A).  After, add additional points to the rectangle by clicking on the “Insert new nodes into selected segments” once.
Add additional nodes to our rectangle

Add additional nodes to our rectangle

4)  Highlight the four corner nodes by holding shift and clicking on them individually.  Once highlighted hit (Delete).
Remember to hold (Shift) while selecting nodes

Remember to hold (Shift) while selecting nodes

5)  This shape will be stretched out to create our final Swirl.  The next part of creating our Swirl requires us to create the “path” onto which we will stretch our “diamond” out on.  To create an appropriate path click on the Bezier Curve tool (Shift + F6).  Next left click in our workspace, move the mouse, and right click.  This creates a stright line inbetween two nodes.

If you cant see the "arms" after bending, highlight a node.

If you cant see the

6)  Hit (F2) or click on our “Edit nodes” tool.  Highlight both our nodes by hitting (Ctrl + A) or click and dragging a square around them.  Now click and drag on the segment connecting the two nodes to create a bend.  This will also display the arms we will use to modify our Swirl path.
Left click to create the first node then right click to create the second

Left click to create the first node then right click to create the second

7)  Click and drag the arms to create the desired path to stretch our diamond onto.
This is the shape your Swirl will fill

This is the shape your Swirl will fill

8)  Now highlight your “diamond” and click the “Insert new nodes into selected segments” button about six times until you have roughly 256 nodes as seen on the bottom of the Inkscape interface.  This step helps the shape stretch smoothly over our path.
Add additional nodes

Add additional nodes

9)  Switch to your selection/transform tool (F1) and click on your diamond.  Because order of creation is important we need to bring the diamond to the front by selecting it and hitting “Bring to the front” in the second row of icons at the top.
Use this button to bring our diamond to the front

Use this button to bring our diamond to the front

10)  Now all our hard work is going to pay off.  Highlight the “diamond” and the path by drawing a square around them with our selection tool (F1) or hit (Ctrl + A).  With both object selected go to Effects > Generate from Path > Pattern along Path…  This will bring up a dialog box.  Switch the “Copies of the pattern:” field to “Single, Stretched”.  Leave everything else as is.  I like to check off “Line Preview” to verify I got the effect I was going for.  Hit “Apply” and you will have a beautifully generated Swirl.
Creating a swirl in inkscape

Creating a swirl in inkscape

11)  As a clean up step I recommend highlighting the newly created Swirland hitting (Ctrl + L) which will simplify our path and remove roughly 90% of our added nodes while keeping the edges smooth.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave a comment!

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