Rudy Salazar
Level 1
(10 points)
Q: Ghost Effects
I shot on super 16mm. Want to add effects to all my ghost in the film. I had heavy white makeup on all ghost--but in many scenes the ghost flesh tones are seen.
I would like to add a trailing ghost effect (or open for suggestions on a good ghost effect) on all my ghost--Can someone point me in the right direction on a practical method to do this. What keyers should use, should I retime a filein after keying out?
Trying not to go down the wrong path.
I would like to add a trailing ghost effect (or open for suggestions on a good ghost effect) on all my ghost--Can someone point me in the right direction on a practical method to do this. What keyers should use, should I retime a filein after keying out?
Trying not to go down the wrong path.
g5, Mac OS X (10.5.2)
by stuckfootage,Solvedanswer
stuckfootage
Level 4
(3,040 points)
The first thing to do is to create your alpha channel,
through a combination of chromakey, lumakey, and/or rotoscoping.
Your choice depends on how evenly the ghost is lit,
and if there are other objects in the shot that are the same color.
You mention that sometimes the skin color shows through the makeup.
That could be a problem. Experiment with Keylight and Primatte,
adding garbage mattes as necessary, to see if you can get good results.
Read Chapter 21 of the Shake Manual.
If the ghosts are the whitest things in the shot, you might get good
results using Lumakey.
If you can't get a good key, you'll have to rotoscope the whole thing.
Anyway, once you get a good alpha channels on all your footage,
you might want to try to render out a premultiplied QuickTime using
the Animation Millions+ codec so you can play with various effects.
It would also be quite useful to generate a clean plate if you
want to try transparent effects. Read chapter 9 of the Shake Tutorial.
This is easy if the camera is locked down. If it moves, you'll
have to do some tracking.
For effects, try using Brightness to blow out the whites,
then add Blur, glow, and RBlur.
When you composite, experiment with reducing the opacity of the
ghost to partially reveal the clean-plate background.
As far as trails go, that's a delay effect, and Shake is not really ideal
for time-based effect, although you can get something similar if you
use the RBlur and keyframe the center to follow the ghost's motion.
Another option would be to add a couple more FileIns for your keyed footage,
and offset the timing of each so that trails appear.
You could also try bringing your keyed ghost file into Motion and experiment
with the Time Filters.
through a combination of chromakey, lumakey, and/or rotoscoping.
Your choice depends on how evenly the ghost is lit,
and if there are other objects in the shot that are the same color.
You mention that sometimes the skin color shows through the makeup.
That could be a problem. Experiment with Keylight and Primatte,
adding garbage mattes as necessary, to see if you can get good results.
Read Chapter 21 of the Shake Manual.
If the ghosts are the whitest things in the shot, you might get good
results using Lumakey.
If you can't get a good key, you'll have to rotoscope the whole thing.
Anyway, once you get a good alpha channels on all your footage,
you might want to try to render out a premultiplied QuickTime using
the Animation Millions+ codec so you can play with various effects.
It would also be quite useful to generate a clean plate if you
want to try transparent effects. Read chapter 9 of the Shake Tutorial.
This is easy if the camera is locked down. If it moves, you'll
have to do some tracking.
For effects, try using Brightness to blow out the whites,
then add Blur, glow, and RBlur.
When you composite, experiment with reducing the opacity of the
ghost to partially reveal the clean-plate background.
As far as trails go, that's a delay effect, and Shake is not really ideal
for time-based effect, although you can get something similar if you
use the RBlur and keyframe the center to follow the ghost's motion.
Another option would be to add a couple more FileIns for your keyed footage,
and offset the timing of each so that trails appear.
You could also try bringing your keyed ghost file into Motion and experiment
with the Time Filters.
