Special FX Test - Comments please

[Alan Mills]

I've been playing with a special effect. Let me know if you think I've got it right. It's a sort-of Predator cloaking effect. I'm pretty happy with it, as the first attempt was pretty much completely invisible and had to make the effect more 'visible' so viewers could tell it a 'special effect'.

Only a couple of seconds long and is about 500K.

http://www.alandmills.co.uk/VidTest.mpg

If anyone likes it I'll be happy to write a tutorial on how I did it all. Warning though, it takes bloody ages!!! Hence only a couple of seconds of test footage.

[fAuLk]

thats cool, special effects are something i am going to dive into once my exams are out of the way, but knowing how to do that particular one would be awesome.

[purejammy]

Impressive! Go on do the tutorial.

[Alan Mills]

Untill I get around to doing the full version, here is the short one.

I rotoscoped it. Drew every single frame by hand in Photoshop! Took ages!

[GillianG]

Very effective - boy must you have some patience

Cheers

GillianG

[Alan Mills]

My second attempt at this technique has proved a lot worse.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted the flaw in the posted example, the things behind the 'invisible' player disappear instead of showing through. In the example clip this was an easy fix, only a couple of frames of the end of a player's arm and hand to show through the player.

I've attempted (and will post so you guys can see it if there's enough call for it) an example where the 'invisible' player runs in front of a number of other players and they need to 'show through'. This took longer, but I'm not too unhappy with the results. When I do get around to writing the tutorial (and a lot easier it'll be now we can upload image attachments ) I intend to include how to show details 'through' the player.

On second thoughts, I won't upload it. I'll make it the basis for my competition entry and you can all see it then. However, I'm waiting for my new PC (With a Matrix RT.x100 and Premiere Pro ) before I truly begin my entry so hopefully i'l have somethign before the comp closes.

[MaDa]

rotoscoping always takes a long time, but the outcome can be incredible. I have been trying to test my rotoscoping skills lately from various things such as lightsabers and even trying to make a skateboard video where the skateboards appear invisible.

anyways... i came across this tutorial that may interest you
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/...man/index.html

hope this helps... by the way, im very interested to see the final product of what you rotoscoped, with the person being shown through the invisible person... should be awesome

[Alan Mills]

That link is the texture mapping invisible man right? Looked at it a few times. A 'cleaner' effect than mine in a number of ways, giving the invisible person depth where mine is a little flat tbh.

As to the fruits of my labours, check out my competition entry at http://www.videoforums.co.uk/ftopic1550.html . The second effect shot is the one where the 'invisible' player runs in front of other players.

The main difference here is that the cut and paste to cover the player comes from a different frame (with a clean copy of the person in the background) rather than background from the same frame.

Now my comp entry is done I will be producing a tutorial on how I did the effect.