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Eye Candy

eycndy.com

834 pointsbookofjoe134 comments

Hello! My name is Jacobi. I made Eyecandy. I'm appreciating seeing suggestions. Is there anything you want me to try on the website? Anything I could improve?

Yea. Maybe tell me what this site is about?

It's a visual technique library for the creative industry. Ad-folk, Directors, Cinematographers, Editors, and Creatives in general. It's a compilation (library) of all the best techniques categorized by type.

That isn’t at all obvious from the frontpage.

You probably want to keep the design lean, so just a simple “about” in small font would help to explain.

The autoloading is also problematic on mobile/tablet but others already chipped in with solutions.

It was obvious to me. On desktop, the top of the page lists categories. The content below is everything inside that category.

Love this site, how long did it take to build?

Would be cool to see clips of behind the scenes showing camera placement and set/crew

Love that idea. I'm starting to roll out pages dedicated to each shot (when you click on it) that go into detail about it. The crew, the story, and eventually BTS and 'how to's' on how to make it.

https://eycndy.com/fixed-object-schoolboy-dope-dealer

Oh, and about a year. Started roughly compiling stuff and thinking on this in July of 2022

And for an example of the camera placement examples, check out the subreddit r/praisethecameraman (I think it’s called), sometimes shows the camera crew and rig and how they work their magic to pull off cool effects.

Well done. How did you select and cut the examples? All by hand?

By hand, but I get a lot of great references from the film community.

Really great site would make solid Tik toks and YouTube shorts one technique a minute long. No joke can see this being useful for prompt engineering like for people making AI memes. It’s about knowing what to ask for.

There's one. technique I've been wondering about for a while but don't see on the page. Say there's one or two people who are the primary focus, and they stay in focus, but the background shifts so it comes closer even though the primary character(s) don't move. Not sure what it's called, would love to know.

Sounds like you're talking about a dolly zoom?

Yes, the classic example being from Jaws https://youtu.be/_eO_5q5dR9M?t=20

Yea I think Dolly Zoom. https://eycndy.com/dollyzoom There's also double dolly https://eycndy.com/double-dolly

Thanks all!

Is there an explicit name for tracking shots whereby the camera passes through objects impossibly (a subset of "Object Portal" in your website but I'm referring to shots that don't transition to a difference setting)?

e.g. camera through keyhole/window/mirror.

It's such a delight. It is overwhelming and in the best possible way.

The only thing I might suggest is adding some tagging for additional ways of rummaging. I love your existing approach to categories and I think you should keep them primary. But it would be great to browse by, say, director. E.g., I have enough of Edgar Wright's movies in my head that I'd love to see what clips you have from him and whether it's worth submitting more. I happened to find one here: https://eycndy.com/fourth-wall

That's in the works! I want to incorporate a search bar into the site that uses a complex array of hand-done (and A.I. categorized) tags. So that you can search (for e.g.) by director, color, time of day, composition, genre, etc. In the works.

> N/A (Know where this came from?)

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen?itemId=axdz1h5b22ecka9q12voxj... Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015)

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen?itemId=71ke0wcliam5bx1hd2wvaj... Sisters (1972)

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen?itemId=seohywjmhaktt6kjmt7g8x... Sisters (1972)

https://eycndy.com/rotoscoping?itemId=bh2cjz8pipya1nskejta43... Adidas Here to Create

https://eycndy.com/rotoscoping?itemId=2afcukjqbz27e96l0qmb9h... Adidas Here to Create

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen-1?itemId=4o31q53c05kl5j76zikh... The Perfection (2018)

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen-1?itemId=22teiyrsa1n8t134f1bk... Jennifer's Body (2009)

https://eycndy.com/splitscreen-1?itemId=dio7my4nmf2xbkzut9je... Reservoir Dogs (1992)

  tool          gives useful lead? (listed order)
  Bing          YYYYnYnY
  Google Search YYYYYYYY
  Google Lens   nnYYnYnn
  TinEye        nYYYnYYY
  Yandex        nYYYnYYY

I recognized the Reservoir Dogs example just from my brain.

To the site author, if you're going to list unknown images like this it would be nice if there was a way to give you feedback on them directly.

Very cool!

Animation is missing this classic from Aha: https://media.tenor.com/KAxhQIW7wTYAAAAC/aha-take-on-me.gif

Also movies such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit [1] and Space Jam [2].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KujzFdGu7gY

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS_muZsLBok

And the intro to Watchmen would deserve to be there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24D87SqaLQ

Edit: I guess that would simply be the "Slow Motion" section.

Off topic but that is one of the best film intros ever, showing rather than telling a 40 year backstory.

Loading performance improvements would be great. Took several seconds for anything other than the title to load.

Maybe pull a low-res thumbnail of the first frame for each gif while loading.

You may be able to use a virtual list to make performance even better as users rapidly scroll (but not as impactful as just loading a frame quickly).

Initially thought it was a giphy alternative (still kind of is). Maybe add a subtitle or CTA (at least on mobile) to make sure someone clicks into a gif to learn.

'Click to view film style' 'Select to find related gif' ...

May be overkill, but could change first impressions

This was super cool to click around on the various techniques and see the examples.

(Questions/Thoughts)

- I was looking to see if there was a Steadicam group, wondering if I would see a gif of Henry and Karen walking into the Copa, that's got to be one of the most famous shots in film in the last 40 years (not a critique, totally possible it's there under a different name I'm not aware of as a layperson, I didn't peruse every group.) [Edit note added]

- "Fourth Wall" should include a gif of "The Big Short", breaking the fourth wall was a great way to get the minutiae of the financial subject out of the way and return to the characters.

- Bonus upvote for finding a shot from "Halt and Catch Fire"! (dolly zoom)

Edit: I knew I was forgetting the proper term for my question about Goodfellas, it's a tracking shot. I didn't see the movie in there though, I think it should be added :)

Hi, my only suggestion I immediately had is that if you're paging the content on mobile scroll, then for client performance reasons you could be unloading the older pages from the very top otherwise my experience ends at nearly few scrolls where my cpu says it is done.

This page is hosted with Squarespace right?

How much does it cost for you to be hosting this site with so many files?

I see that you are using gif for everything. I suggest using webm and similar video formats instead. To use less bandwidth from your visitors.

Gifs have large file sizes and poor image quality. Replace them with videos and you’ll improve page load, reduce bandwidth costs (for yourself and your users), and have better quality.

You can configure HTML video to (by default) show no controls and auto-loop so they’ll be indistinguishable from gifs on a first look, but better in every other way.

One thing they're not great for though is shareability. With gifs, you can generally just drag & drop them between most apps and they'll behave as you expect. Not true with videos.

Gifs have limitations and limitations benefit art.

The site doesn't seem to work with GIF's limitations for artistic purposes. It's just slow.

BTW: https://gif.ski can work around most of the visual limitations of GIF, so only poor compression remains.

Looks great, thanks for the experience!

Personally I'd like a "table of contents" where you get the title, a summary and an example. Then you could scroll and learn a bit about all techniques, clicking in one that piqued your interest.

I'm not sure if that's easy or not. Let me know if I can help.

Hi Jacobi. I love the content but the design is too busy for me. I can't concentrate on one clip because the others distract me. How about allowing to switch to a style where only one clip is shown and I can scroll down to see more? I wouldn't want to click to advance (like it is now when I zoom in on a clip), just endless scroll like you did it with one clip on the screen at any time.

Also, is https://eycndy.com/crab-shot?itemId=cxns025fad8r33ene8rmxxnw... actually a trucking / crab shot? For me it's just a pan.

I clicked on a a technique, then I clicked on an example, and it went fullscreen. Neat.

I pressed escape, and it went back to all the examples of the technique. I pressed escape again to go back further, and got a Square Space login screen?

My monthly mobile data plan consumed in seconds. I hate html video autoplays, especially on mobile! Unfortunatelly it appears that it is currently not possible to disable it in Kiwi browser... EDIT: someone on Reddit suggested AutoplayStopper extension

These pages are using gif rather than video. That also contributes to more data consumed, because gif has very basic compression.

So in addition to an extension to disable auto play of videos for other pages, you probably need a different extension to disable gifs.

Ublock Origin solves this with an option to block media elements that are larger than a configured threshold: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-...

There should be a warning in the title, "(website has large data size)" or somethlike that.

The 90s are back baby!

Where is the "No Frames" option?? /s

I'm saddened that in the 4th wall examples they didn't add Leslie Nielsen from Naked Gun walking around the prop door. I thought that was the classic example.

For reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siE_182RwpA

That's from police squad, the one in the naked gun was done slightly better (different camera angle) but I cannot find a short of that on youtube.

That's hilarious. If you find it I'll add it

Hi, this is unrelated, but I was trying to find the source video for Bruton Stroube - STL Jersey (2022). But I can't find it anywhere! Could you share the title of the film?

Here's the gif https://i.imgur.com/FqmoBQy.gif

It's such a blink and you miss it kinda thing, but then a lot of gags in Nielsen films are like that

everything is "pan". https://twitter.com/tvaziri/status/1501217030112006150/photo...

Urgh. Thanks, I hate it.

also everything's "pov" whereas there's snorricam.

Reminds me of https://www.sakugabooru.com/, a booru that is (as I understand it) designed as a reference for anime animators

Nice. A great collection of extraordinary animation.

Especially https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/147316

Apparently the animator eschewed keyframes entirely, opting to "just do it correctly" frame by frame. I haven't seen weight conveyed quite like like that.

nota bene, there's no "correct" way to do it. Pose to pose vs straight ahead have both pros and cons, with latter more suited for fast-paced and/or fluid (as in fx/water) type of animation.

It's a big site, but https://twitter.com/randomsakuga will do a nice selection on your timelines if you follow them.

reminds me of ffffound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFFFOUND!

somewhat NSFW - https://ffound.tumblr.com/archive

Wow, this is great for getting a glimpse of various video techniques in cinematography... just found out I could click it to see bigger video. This also reminds me of https://shotdeck.com, which is a paid service.

The color palette is so vibrant and inviting, and everything just seems to pop off the screen. I could spend hours scrolling through the different sections, admiring the gorgeous graphics and typography. It's clear that a lot of thought and care went into creating this site

Very cool, reminds me of patakk[1].

[1]: https://patakk.tumblr.com/

Slightly NSFW

Some of these could make rather nice freedesktop.org Plymouth themes.

People might also enjoy https://archillect.com/

Most of them have descriptions (which I've enjoyed because I previously lumped all "weird camera tricks" together). But https://eycndy.com/frame-division seems to just show the home page over again.

Ha! Is it purposely recursive? The home page is laid out in a frame division. I think it's a joke.

:facepalm: of course. Thanks.

Yes. yes... definitely on purpose

Really like it but it feels very sluggish which I assume is due to the size of the content. Clicking on FPV Drone seems to result in 192 mb being fetched. Despite this, clicking on a thumbnail still takes time to fetch the full size. I don't know if a more optimised format would be enough or a TikTok layout would be better suited but it does impact the experience negatively. Love the project though.

Yea, using gifs for videos is probably not the best idea in 2023. The page source is also interesting with 147 CSS classes defined on the <body> tag... XD

This was very smooth in my iPhone. Strangely satisfyingly smooth.

It's the small screen since the site loads as many images as is required to fill it. On a full-size monitor, it's a lot more and hence takes a lot more time.

A few of the datamoshing examples (Sleazyworld Go, Duda Beat) are just normal vfx and not actually datamoshing.

Datamoshing is just reusing the motion tracking done by video codecs intended to provide compression in unintended ways.

Datamoshing is one effect that I don't think I'll ever process as an effect instead of an error (and as a result, I don't like it). My brain simply won't process it as "effect". I think it's from my history of downloading videos that had errors which produced the effect. Especially back in the slower less-reliable internet days, it was always soooo annoying to have spent hours downloading something only to have a glitch that caused the datamoshing effect. Plus, now all video I ever watch is digital, so I'm never totally sure that there wasn't a streaming issue or if it was intentional, unless it's being used heavily as an effect over and over and I see it enough in the same video to realize it's intentional.

At least the comment is correct: "It's used to add a touch of psychedelic flair to your shots or to hide the fact that you accidentally deleted half of your footage."

> Datamoshing is one effect that I don't think I'll ever process as an effect instead of an error

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS7QvOX8LVk what about this

I'm not sure if actual datamoshing was used, but I always enjoyed the effect in Mastodon's (the band) Oblivion music video.

https://youtu.be/s6WGNd8QR-U?t=41

https://youtu.be/s6WGNd8QR-U?t=93

https://youtu.be/s6WGNd8QR-U?t=102

This isn’t a criticism, but the examples are mostly from very recent films. As a casual fan, I’d be curious to learn about some of the seminal uses of each technique as well.

I don't disagree. I think some of the best examples are the originals. Vertigo (1958) for example: https://eycndy.com/dollyzoom?itemId=pwx05dri0q485xyjb7vboa8g...

I can't wait for the day I can make photo-realistic full length movies with spoken dialogue and different camera effects entirely using an AI-generation / AI-enhanced tool. I have a feeling those days are coming soon.

Probably only two more papers down the line... maybe a year, maybe two. But like anything new it'll be expensive at first.

My prediction is that within 20 years we'll be making full length high quality movies, automatically. Everyone will be a production house, in a of themselves. You'll subscribe to people's individual streams of movies like we subscribe to netflix.

This seems like a terrible future

Why?

Movies to me are an art of thoughtful composure. A deliberate creation. Nothing seems more soulless and boring to me then some generated sludge born out of an AIs unconscious peephole view of the human experience.

What if I want a tool that will help me with my own creativity? I never said I wanted randomly generated AI art. I just want a tool that will help me create when I'm not a cinematographer, actor, editor, or any of those things. Why can't I have the augmented intelligence assistance I'm looking for? Not sure I understand this perspective on technology and tools.

I’m all for tools. I must of misinterpreted your post

What if it's really, really good and isn't boring, though? And feels soulful?

In which I can make my own movies? I don't have the technical capability but I have the interest, why would it be terrible for me to have tools at my disposal that can take my creative interests and make them a reality? I'm not suggesting all films be made like this. I just want tools that I can use, myself to make something that I would enjoy and perhaps others might enjoy as well.

There's potential, sure, but it won't make everyone into a filmmaker just like Microsoft Word didn't make everyone into an author and Photoshop didn't make everyone an artist.

You are arguing against a point no one made.

I’m all for tools to empower deliberate creation. An end to end AI generated movie, while intriguing to see what it might think up, falls flat to me. What is the point of watching it other than fascination. There is no conscious decision, direction. Merely a recycled reflection of past input.

It's fascinating to me how ~80% of the population of the atheist-dominated parts of the Internet seem to have found religion as soon as they started thinking about the implications of AI passing the Turing test in varying degrees in the present and near future.

Here's what I'd like. I have an idea for a script. I have a story line, with an arc, and a real compelling story. I have absolutely no skills for camera work, editing, directing, production, lighting, audio, any of that. So basically, without a cast, crew, and skills I can't make my idea for a film happen. This is where I'd like the assistance of tools that can help me make my film idea a reality. I don't want algorithmically generated movies with random and disconnected plot lines. i just want tools to help me achieve my goals when I don't have the tools or skills available. Isn't that what technology should be all about?

2027, Netflix has regressed to an Amazon-like platform where each movie search yields a long list of movies "fulfilled by netflix" made by lkmmfffrrx movie store, with 100% positive feedback.

LKMMFFFRRX Movie Studios presents FOLGRISTCHI

【Long running times. Over 90 minutes】

【Many audio tracks. Choose cinematic or directors talking】

【Best movie for 2027】

【Vibrant colors make it lifelike】

I'd never really considered it before, but people replacing a large portion of their media consumption with self-made media could buttress, if not accelerate the echo chamber effect.

I think people would consume less media if they could make their own. I know I care less for things I can make myself. When you have a nagging feeling you could always go back and improve the thing you'll start noticing each imperfection then get bored after a hour of tweaking

I don't mean to be flippant, and I wish you the best of luck in your creative endeavors, but I think the emergence of this sort of functionality will solidify the role of professional artists in our society. If you compare the work of art school freshmen with art school seniors, it's pretty apparent that using tools to physically create media is a pretty small part of what they learn.

And they've been drilled by experienced creative professionals full-time for four years. Many of the creative controls these generators abstract away are the most consequential, and they will never be more than an amalgam of what they've already seen. Smooth? Sure. Polished? Yes. Visually striking? Absolutely. Will every detail be considered, reconsidered, pored over, lightly massaged and then reconsidered by a team of people who've dedicated their professional lives to using images to elicit precisely crafted emotional responses in people? No.

That said, SyFy Originals and Hallmark Channel movies will probably operate much differently than they do now.

I think the CEO of Runway said he believes that is only 2 years away on a podcast. It is already starting to look promising: https://twitter.com/IXITimmyIXI/status/1649242592876412928

Out of curiosity, do you already make films without the use of AI? And if not, why?

Very cool. I found the author's candid FAQ page worth a read. Their head seems to be in the right place.

Some Camera Shake https://eycndy.com/camera-shake

Could also be classified as so called Wiggle Steroscopy, helping to create a stronger sensation of depth.

There were quite a few of them in the peak GIF tumblr era and later on instagram about a decade ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiggle_stereoscopy https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/wigglegram

I thought it was nothing but photos because there was no motion while scrolling. Had scrolled through several pages before I stopped long enough for any motion to be apparent. Not sure if that can be fixed/optimized.

Instant motion for me on 5-yr old iPhone.

Instant motion for me on Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Irrelevant data point ?

No motion for me on my S23 Ultra. Might have something to do with my current 5mbps internet connection though :-P

That "Nothing more exiting in your life than looking at 'About' pages on the internet?"-banner on their 'About' page made me feel slightly embarrassed :)

https://eycndy.com/about

Very hard to appreciate the demos when they all play at the same time.

You can click each one and it gives you a more in depth explanation of the technique used. I didn’t realise this for the first couple of minutes.

I thought this was going to be about KPT or Kai's Eye Candy.

I just wish Kai would send out a life sign from time to time. Hope he is doing well.

ADHD simulator

A pen test for seizure disorders

What is this exactly?

Doesn't explain anything on the site.

Same here, no idea what this is.

click on the terms to see definition and examples of various film techniques

A catalog of various (usually) camera-created visual affects. It gives names to all the weird angles, pans, and tilts that you might see in film.

A lot of them are pretty extreme and would overwhelm if over-used, but are eye catching in short amounts, such as ads, music videos, or short bits in longer format film.

Loved the description, using it. :)

A library of cinematic shot references.

My old Android phones used to look like this site's format. I had a theamer (called theamer as I recall) and set one up with mostly gif tiles for folders and it was good looking and functional two thumb clicks to almost anywhere. Android UI options today are way less cool.

Tangentially related but also fun:

http://www.steadishots.org/list_popular.cfm

"SteadiShots.org studies and shares the incredible talents of many of today's Steadicam Operators."

How is it that this site hasn't succumbed to the HN Hug of Death, yet text-only pages linked on the HN front page often seem to easily collapse under a lot of traffic?

I think this should be turned into a wiki-like community site.

You can email submissions and corrections to the owner, but maybe a git repo would serve better?

Love the mission. Keep it up (literally)!

I'm surprised you didn't have any Battlefield Earth clips for the Dutch Angle.

Ground Level - N/A - Know the source?

To Live and Die in L.A.

Is it just me or does this page sync up nicely with any music?

It's just your human brain

This reminds me of fffound but with video only.

Good material for AI to study and copy

Camera off

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