help with effect

erikrich wrote on 5/11/2006, 10:14 PM
I was wondering if anybody out there could help me figure out how to do an effect. I'm trying to figure out the best way to have somebody "appear" in front of another person. The scenes I have shot so far are: Actor one standing looking toward where Actor 2 is going to appear, Actor 2 looking at where Actor 1 is standing, and both actors talking to each other. I want to have Actor 2 materialize infront of Actor one then transition to them both talking together. Is there a way I can do this other than Chroma Key?

Comments

Rv6tc wrote on 5/13/2006, 4:41 PM
I think you are stuck with chroma key. I tried this for the first time yesterday and had surprisingly good results. I found some cheap, green cloth at WalMart and put my son in front of it. If you've read anything about chroma keying, you know that lighting is important, but even with a "quick and dirty" I got decent results. Good enough to go back and do it for real, now.

When I was playing with the clips, I noticed that if you faded up the opacity, you could make someone appear and disappear. Much like the transporter on the old Star Trek TV shows.

So if you feel like building a green screen, follow the tutorials on VASST and you will have it.

Best of luck.
Elmo27376 wrote on 5/14/2006, 6:57 AM
Can you get by with having the appearing actor as a still? If you can I have achieved this by bringing a still snot of the actor into Adobe Photoshop Elements then cutting the actor out of the background. I save the image in .tff and Transparent background. I bring the .tiff image to a video track above the main video track then fade the upper track in and out as needed. Just a thought.
Ken
Chienworks wrote on 5/14/2006, 8:09 AM
Do the actors overlap at all? If not then you can do this very easily with nothing more than Pan/Crop.
erikrich wrote on 5/15/2006, 7:01 AM
No they don't overlap. I shot each actor seperate as if they were standing in front of the other. So Chienworks, could you explain a little more how to do this with the pan crop? Thanks
Chienworks wrote on 5/15/2006, 9:35 AM
Place the clip with the first actor on a lower track and the clip with the second actor on a higher track. I'm going to assume that the first actor is on the left side of the screen, the second actor is on the right, the space between them is in the center of the screen, and you're using full-frame NTSC clips. Please adjust my assumption to match what you have. Open the Pan/Crop window for the second actor's clip. Turn off "Stretch to fill frame" and deselect the "lock aspect ratio" button. It will probably be easier if you manually enter these numbers:

- Width: 360
- Height: 480
- X Center: 540
- Y Center: 240

You will now see the right half of the second clip on the right half of the screen and the left half of the first clip on the left side of the screen. Assuming that the camera was locked down and pointing exactly the same direction for both clips you shouldn't be able to see a seam where the two halves touch.

Fade in the second clip when you want that actor to appear.
erikrich wrote on 5/16/2006, 9:36 AM
That worked great! Thanks for your help.