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Simple Special Effects?
hdurdle asks: "I'm helping a teacher friend with a project to demonstrate some simple TV and Movie special effects to some of his students (14-16 year olds). I've already recreated the lightsaber effect (every geek has done that before, right?) and I've tried the Goauld eyes from Stargate, so now we're looking for more inspiration. What SFX shots would Slashdot readers like to recreate given a few DV cameras, copies of Premiere and Photoshop and lots of time? I intend to write up any HOWTO information, and of course display the footage we shoot!"
Haha, this is funny. The bright glowing lightsaber is throwing a shadow on the wall ;)
http://effectv.sourceforge.net/index.html
;)
This _LOOKS_ like a good start.
I've tried the Goa'uld eyes from Stargate
My potato gun was confiscated by the United Nations. They said I wasn't allowed to have weapons of mash destruction.
Shatner explained during an interview that the early transporter shots were done by shooting someone standing still on a glass plate and shooting a blank shot and then adding some colors to the film.
Fade together the blank and the standing still and there's an image of someone appearing from nowhere. =)
Since you've already done lightsabres, this might be fun =)
I guess the vast majority of special effects (at least photo/graphic) are just composits, if you've done the 'ghosts' in dark hallways and attics, then you've more or less covered the spectrum - the only difference is complexity and the amount of time you want to sink into it.
You could always drag up a copy of Maya, Lightwave, 3ds Max, or whatever and do your own spiderman.
Re-create the best special effects shot EVER MADE in the entire history of film! Yeah, you all know what I'm talking about... that part in Scanners where the guy's head explodes! ROCK! ... or just do some Superman flying-type stuff. You couldn't do worse than the 50's TV show, where it looked like Reeves' fat gut was just lying on an camouflaged cart being pushed in front of a painted backdrop. (Wait, I think I've just told you how to do it!)
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My friend has a DV setup with FCP and Shake, would it be fairly easy to do the lightsaber editing with these product? I'm still learning the basics of them...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
UHF has some classic special effects many of which don't need any high quality video editing software. The movie was made in 1989 on a low budget. While the movie tanked when it first came out, it was one of the hottest DVDs in 2002. (I think it was ahead of its time) This movie has proved that low-quality special effects can be the best.
There's no place like ~/
Sprint at the speed of light! You want to become the Wizard of Speed and Time.
http://wosat.remulak.net/repository/Trailer.mov
a la Pleasantville? It's simple on stills in any reasonably featured photo editor. probably a time consuming PITA on film, though, but the principle would still be the same.
Split video into frames, copy the frames, change mode to b/w, change mode back to color, add alpha channel, add layer, paste the original as the background layer, and 'erase' the areas on the upper (b/w) layer to show color, flatten image, export to frame. Lather, rinse, and repeat about 30 times for each second of video.
like I said, very time consuming by hand, but maybe there's a tool to automate it. In any case, there's a tutorial for doing this to a still on gimp.org, and I don't imagine it would be significantly different for video frames. YMMVG
Why not take a stab at doing something 3d? I remember a web page a few years ago that told how to take 2 screen shots in Quake2, take the red out of one and the green out of the other (IIRC...), set some transparency, over lay them, and you end up with a stereoscopic 3d image - funky cardboard glasses required.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
In order to spare this guy's bandwidth, here's the link, Coralized for your convenience:
/ Go auldTest.jpg
http://blog.durdle.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content
Get the kids a copy of Maya 6 Personal Learning Edition, everything in there is SFX. Try doing some lightning effects, they're the easiest Dynamics effects to create, there are even some easy presets.
I have been experimenting with creating compositing software lately, and the engine works,. it has high bitdepth, and some effects, interesting do occur when combining multiple atoms though. EffecTV has this same effect the chameleon tv effect, this version might also give a few hints about how the effect is made.
I don't have much time to work on this software, essentially what I've got is a fully working engine for video editing/compositing, but not time to get the ui really going.
These people might inspire you. They just won an internship with mtv.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Do some Bluebox/Bluescreen stuff a'la Sky Captain & the world of Tomorrow. Also, some raygun.
You could make your eyes move in different directions, a la my stupid wiggle video KillaKid.com
For ideas, check out the second chapter of Drexler's Nanosystems, google for Reynolds Number, and look around...
--MarkusQ
You could try some Indiana Jones type stuff and make people out of jello and watch them melt!
Bluescreen is cool, simple, and used everywhere in TV and the movies. Since everyone else is recommending an example, why not check out Wayne's World, the scene where they go to Delaware through the magic of the Blue Screen!
Seriously, it's one of the essential video effects.
Build a green screen or a blue screen or just use a wall painted one of those colors. A plain white wall can work if you use a luminance key (not quite as good as chroma but still cool).
:-)
With that you can do all sorts of effects from changing the background to teleportation effects to vaporization of people/objects effects. The possibilities are endless.
Another effect that is fun to mess with is overlaying the same footage over itself but timeshifted a few seconds. As long as the camera is sitting still on a tripod locked into place, it should work out nicely.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
I rendered a ufo in 3D Studio Max with a green background. Then mixed the clip with sky footage using chromakey. Pretty easy and neat!
Not sure how difficult these actually are but they look cool.
SG1 - Entering the stargate. Passing through portals or mirrors is a cool effect. The reverse side is nifty too. Having a face or body suspended in space as it peers through a portal but doesn't crossover completely.
SciFi General - Energy barrier or effect. A Shield covering an archway or deflecting something.
GhostBusters - Proton Packs and their light streams. I think those were actually done with artist/paintings overlaid on existing shots but I always like those shots.
Energy or liquid light is a cool effect. Collecting it as a ball in a hand or throwing it around.
Morphs - A transformation is cool. Having a face come out of a wall or object is pretty cool too.
Most of the effects come out of the need to carry a particular part of a story. Think LOTR when it only existed as a possibility in Peter Jackson's mind. If you want cool new ideas take the most fantastic sci-fi or fantasy story you've read and try to think how you could pull off that scene.
Robert Jordan's books come to mind, Wheel of Time. Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga. Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
Any other amazing scenes come to mind? Feel free to add to.
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
1) I think it was Powerade that did those commercials where the athletes were in B&W, but the sweat was a vibrant color, like green or purple.
2) Nike? PowerAde? The commercial where the water droplets hit the ground and turn into athletes
Ghost effect or twins
Set up camera on tripod and film the same person twice as if he is two persons interacting. Now add the two shots together with a wipe or fade stuck at 50%
Flying person
Have a person continuously jumping, now edit out the parts where his feet touch the ground. Jou can move around like this too. Very funny effect.
Reverse
Film somebody walking backwards around town. Now reverse, it is like he is the only normal person in a reversed world
Jumpcut
Have somebody perform an action (say drink coffee), ask him to freeze as you stop the camera, replace coffeecup with dead chicken. Start camera
Have fun.