Ghost

[Max Todorov]

I have one more scene...

Its an interview of a ghost.....

I was thinking of dumping some dry ice into a bucket and filming smoke then adding eyes to the smoke.

I have AE 6.5.

Any ideas on how to add the eyes?

Also may be someone can suggest a way of making it "talk". <--adding some visual element showing suggesting conversation.

Huge thanks!

[Paul Izbicki]

one word: Pepper's Ghost

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost


Have fun!

[Max Todorov]

Originally Posted by Paul Izbicki

one word: Pepper's Ghost

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost


Have fun!

Thats an awesome technique. I will add it to the tool belt. Unfortunately for my current project this may be over budget. I am looking for semething I can do in AE.

[Sean Skube]

well, you could film someone on a black backroung, and shine a light on them from the side. Then desaturate and luma key them over footage. There are lots of ways to do different ghost effects, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. Another thing you could try would be to have the person also in black, with black face paint, and have smoke or fog roll over their face. Then luma key it and the face would, in theory, be visible in the negative space of the fog. I've never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. They did something like that for Memoirs of an Invisible Man, where the cigarette smoke brushes across his face, so you can make out a hint of his lips moving.

[Max Todorov]

Originally Posted by Sean Skube

well, you could film someone on a black backroung, and shine a light on them from the side. Then desaturate and luma key them over footage. There are lots of ways to do different ghost effects, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. Another thing you could try would be to have the person also in black, with black face paint, and have smoke or fog roll over their face. Then luma key it and the face would, in theory, be visible in the negative space of the fog. I've never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. They did something like that for Memoirs of an Invisible Man, where the cigarette smoke brushes across his face, so you can make out a hint of his lips moving.

Wow thats an awesome idea......

Based on that this is what I am thinking ...... take a pieace of cardboard ... cut a small hole in it 2in by 4 in. Paint it black. Paint the face black..... Have the person stick the mouth through the board .... then shoot..... then follow your suggestion.......

Any idea how to make glowing eyes? they do not have to look like eyes.... just be 2 bright lights where the eyes would be.....

[Reid Bailey]

I have a white sheet here that I'd be happy to cut two holes in.
Hey it worked for abbot and costello...

My first thought is along the lines of Sean's. Layering footage of a person over the A track and dropping opacity, luminance etc. Pretty standard stuff you see on the Discovery channel ghost shows.

If you wanted to do more "etheral" you could conceivably (sp?) create a form mask (bezier curve mask etc) and then key in a particle layer of smoky stuff.
I did something similar to mask out things in the past but they were very small, don't know how it would look taking up a lot of the screen.

[Max Todorov]

Originally Posted by Reid Bailey

If you wanted to do more "etheral" you could conceivably (sp?) create a form mask (bezier curve mask etc) and then key in a particle layer of smoky stuff.
I did something similar to mask out things in the past but they were very small, don't know how it would look taking up a lot of the screen.

In my shoot the "ghost" is a really evil creepy thing.....

Is there more detail on how to do the above recommendation... I am somewhat of a novice in AE.....

Huge thanks!

[Sean Skube]

for the eyes you could shoot video of a person's eyes and then draw a mask around them with a fuzzy edge. Then you could do a small lens flare over each eye to make them all glowy.