Messing With Effects

[JohnM]

I have been playing with green screen for years, toying with the idea of using it to enhance videos. Paul has been very encouraging and supportive of my efforts and I thank him.

Here is some fooling around.

A quick, back alley choke out:
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/green_test1.wmv

Just messing with elements, tracking and layers:
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/dreadgirl_wrath.wmv

A knife test:
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/stabTest.mov

Sorry about the sloppiness of it all. I only have a few minutes to spend here and there messing with it. Anything I do for actual release will have my full attention.

Later,
JohnM

[Den-CnB]

JohnM,

Very nice! It looks like bar is getting higher for the producers. I guess a good thing for customers but I am guessing it adds a lot to your time and more work processing your videos..

Dennis

[JohnM]

Dennis--Yes, that is honestly the biggest reason I have not done more fx experimentation over the years. It is very time consuming and except for the good knife effects and properly done shooting effect, I am not sure it will translate to sale. I think more it is for myself. But, with HD, the possibilities have opened up and I have gotten to where I can work pretty fast.

Paul--I would love to do an epic where Dread Girl, in the early days before her power overwhelmed her, she roamed the streets of Portland randomly frying people that pissed her off. While not necro fetish, she would certainly enjoy it.

:-)

JohnM

[JohnM]

Crush with a boulder.
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/dread_rock.wmv

Still just playing.

JohnM

[JohnM]

Okay, now you just have too much free time on your hands. lol I have to ask, what is the message on the button?

Paul

I have in-laws visiting this weekend, so I kept darting into my office to escape. :-)

The button says "Emergency Stop". I would have liked it to say, "Push Me".

When I made this, I was thinking of the 16 Ton weight that always falls in Monty Python skits.

JohnM

[tOkie]

MONTY PYTHON "Self Defense Against Fruit"

[WAVE]

What editing software are you using for your effects? I know I have to upgrade what I'm currently using.

Thanks for your tips.

Gary

[Bella Morte]

What editing software are you using for your effects? I know I have to upgrade what I'm currently using.

Thanks for your tips.

Gary

Fantastic work John. I too would be interested in learning what program you are using

[JohnM]

I use an old school program for any rotoscoping (paint out) work called Commotion, circa 2001. I don't know why I have not changed, I just love the program.

I use Final Cut Pro HD Studio for everything else. The main effects package included is called Motion. It is like After Effects, but the controls are not so tiny, which is easier on my eyes.

This is all fine and dandy of you are on a Mac. But, if you are on PC, these programs are not available.

After Effects main platform is PC, but has a high learning curve. I am sure there are other programs for PC that will do similar techniques but for far less money.

JohnM

[Nightposter]

Crush with a boulder.
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/dread_rock.wmv

Still just playing.

JohnM

Cute! Wiley Coyote at his best!
If this is just playing, what will you come up with when you're really working????

[JohnM]

Here is a little beheading test. Silly and quick. I am done testing for a while. I think I have the basics for something in the future.

http://pkfstudios.com/videos/behead_test.wmv

Thanks,
JohnM

[bellystabs]

A knife test:
http://pkfstudios.com/videos/stabTest.mov

Sorry about the sloppiness of it all. I only have a few minutes to spend here and there messing with it. Anything I do for actual release will have my full attention.

Great test stab, John! I can't wait for actual release; it will have me at full attention too!

[Peter]

This looks very promising JohnM. The knife test was quite believable, especially given how you got the cloth to bunch up as the knife entered. That completely sold the effect. What I am hoping is that someone comes up with a simple way of doing the sword entry into bare skin that I did many years back, very much the hard way by exporting bitmap frames into photoshop from several different sets of footage and composting each frame by hand. The result was absolutely perfect, but literally took all day to do a single stab, so I never repeated the effect. What sold the entry into bare skin was that the sword dimpled the skin under it's thrust, not just a little bit, but pushing into the woman's belly several inches 'before' the skin parted and her belly then 'un'dimpled over a few frames as the sword finished it's plunge.

The 'Dreadgirl Wrath' clip is easily good enough to sell a context to a scene, opening up literally a universe of scene possibilities.

The green screen test was the least successful of the first three IMO. The first couple of seconds of the scene, as my eyes naturally were drawn to the actress worked perfectly. I forgot I was looking at a green screen test and saw her as being in that alley. The moment the guy entered the frame however and my eyes were drawn away from the actress, I noticed a 'problem' that told me I was looking at a green screen effect. I did not know at that instant what the problem was, I just knew there was something not right that revealed it as an effect. Afterwards, I looked more closely and figured out that what created the problem was the very problem that so frustrates green screen shooters everywhere; lighting differences between the foreground and the background. In the alley there is a hard contrast, strong light shadow, whereas in the green screen, the light is diffuse with virtually no shadow.

Dread Rock was fun, largely because the actress was good. She played that very well.

A good beheading is hard to do, and so is seldom done. I am sure that beheading fans will be happy to get anything at even this level. But I found this particular effect was the least effective, mostly due to the blood effect not working. I would suggest for blood in a serious project, use a separate green screen shot where someone with a green hand is holding a one liter green plastic jug with a circular opening about as wide as the actress' neck. Fill that jug completely with a liter of very dilute stage blood. With camera rolling, give the jug a sharp smack with a hammer at the bottom of the jug. The weight of the jug will keep it from moving much, but the shock wave from the sharp smack will send an explosion of blood flying up and out of the jug. The camera will catch a far better quality of blood splash than anything you could animate by hand. And it is easier to touch up such an effect afterwards to add to it if necessary.

[JohnM]

Thanks for your comments, Peter.

While I like effects, the method I use to sell most of my effects sequences rest on editing and lighting techniques and they fact that I mostly try for real-time, fast sequences with lots of movement.

All of these tests were me playing and not a serious effort. The first one was 10 minutes of work. The Dread Girl destruction scene was about 45 min, the Rock was only 30 minutes and the beheading was about 1hour, 30min.

In the real efforts, my plan is to shoot my own, live location footage, rather then snagging a couple shots off the internet. Then I can control my lighting better. In addition, I plan on using green screen as mostly set up sequences. Live studio and location kills are still going to work out far better. Strangling someone on a green screen set, no matter how accurate the lighting, is not going to look that good--especially in close up with the problems with fine hair detail--not to mention the sound issues. I will do one here and there, just because it might look cool to strangle a girl as her head is hanging off the edge of a cliff. In these extreme situation where the customer knows I am not going to risk the actress or go to an exotic location to get a shot for a $400 movie, I am counting on the fact they they will suspend disbelief. In addition, anything that is going to use green sets for major fetish elements will be noted on the description.

More then anything, I am treating green as an addition tool to expand the storyline. A shot of a girl riding a bus, walking down the street, at the mall, in a store, etc, now can be archived within budget where as before, the time to go take the actress out of studio to get those shots--unless a custom, was prohibitive.

Also, green will enhance my super-heroine themed movies.

The knife thrust on skin can be done with a couple different distort options I have. The rest of that movie are all direct to skin shots, so we'll see what happens. The time it takes to do any of these effects may simply be to prohibitive to do very often given the schedule I have to keep.

JohnM

[Chris B]

Very cool stuff John! I love what Chloe did to my beautiful city! If you need any background footage of PTown I have a pretty good collection from the roof of Momo. Good work as always!