Halloween spooky effects plugins etc

mark003 wrote on 10/26/2005, 11:29 AM

I have to make a short video commercial for the school where I teach.

Can anyone suggest any effects I could add without learning a huge amount of technical stuff in Vegas? I've been making movies for about a year, but I haven't explored Vegas very deeply yet. Rough learning curve. I thought that maybe there were plugins or scripts that might add a spooky effect even something like old film, or sepia looking film would help (not necessarily smoke and fire).

I'm wondering if there are any small wmv mpeg files out there that might add fire or smoke or anything else that looks spooky. Audio will be easy....I'm just trying to figure out video effects.

Is there a semi easy way to change the background of a video?

The only other software I have is Photoshop Elements 3.0

THANKS FOR ANY ASSISTANCE!

Comments

toddgeer wrote on 10/26/2005, 1:44 PM

Vegas has old film look plugins as well as sepia. As for smoke or fog, perhaps "Digital Juice" or "Digital Hotcakes" may have something. I would bet that "spooky" special effects will only look cheesy. I think I would stick to a spooky story, dress, makeup, lighting, sound effects, shooting environment (location), and other sound effects. You'll probably get more bang for the buck. Good Luck!

ArthurDent wrote on 10/26/2005, 6:38 PM

You can make some spooky backgrounds with generated media. It takes some experimenting. I made a night sky with a lightning bolt, and another one was an electrode, just with the generated media.

An earlier version of Vegas (3 or 4?) came with a CD of samples from the Vision Series. 2 of the avi clips were good eerie backgrounds, one was an animated spiderweb and the other was a green background with monster silhouettes.

Also try the VASST.com website. Search for veg files with the keywords eerie, spooky, etc.

ArthurDent wrote on 10/26/2005, 6:43 PM

You can do both smoke and fire with the Noise Textures in Vegas' Generated Media.

Also you can get some old horror movies here:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Afeature_films%20AND%20subject%3A%22Horror%22

BrianStanding wrote on 10/27/2005, 8:05 AM

How about audio effects? Lots of reverb, "monstrous voices" preset on the "Pitch Change" FX... maybe some flange? If you have Sound Forge, you can probably synthesize a pretty convincing Theramin (... you know, that "WOOOOO-OOOOOO" sound in the background of lots of 1950's B-movies, or in the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations.")

Just did some of this to play over the stereo on Halloween night....

Harold Brown wrote on 10/29/2005, 10:08 PM

I have added glow to the scenes with my ghouls. Looks good.

mjroddy wrote on 10/30/2005, 4:57 PM

Thanks for that link to the archives! I had forgotten about them! Very cool stuff there. I'm dnlding some suitable scarey movies now. Can't beat that old stuff. No gore, no blood, just good writing and directing (on the better flicks, that is). I'm looking forward to watching these downloads!