There is something quite hypnotic about this digitally manipulated short film set to music by Fernando Livschitz that seems to show traffic going through a busy intersection, weaving in with pedestrians and cyclists. Since it was not done using green screens (I think), I have no clue as to how it was done so that the cuts and splices became so invisible that the whole thing looks like a choreographed ballet. I know there are VFX professionals who read this blog and I am sure they can figure it out and let the rest of us know.
(Via Rich Juzwiak.)
Short answer: It’s separate clips that are overlaid on top of each other using CG. The cyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles were filmed at separate times. With a fixed camera it’s rather easy to overlay them so they look like they’re on the road at the same time. Any places where the overlap shows can be smoothed over, making the illusion complete.
I’ll add that you can see where even the same clip is overlaid on top of itself many times, with the starting frames offset. So you see a line of identical looking vehicles/pedestrians moving through the intersection, when in reality they’re all the a singular vehicle filmed once.
This is what downtown Toronto looks like to motorcyclists. Trust me on this.
…just very good choreography?