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FIG 1. LEFT: Original. CENTER: Photo applied on top of original shot. RIGHT: Fingers are added back on top of photo.

In our recently released short horror Forgotten Corpses, we were able to increase the value of production by using a simple super imposing technique. The horror flick stars Lee Lawson and Greg Willmot and watch it here! Read on to the end of the article and discover an intriguing surprise!

Visual effects for independent filmmakers have come a long way thanks to the advancement in computer power and software’s. Adobe After Effects is a visual effects software that helps filmmakers bring their vision to a reality, another popular software is Nuke by the Foundry which works in a nodal platform. A tip during filming, the super imposing technique works well on nodal camera movements.

The trick is to take an image or video and place it on top of the existing footage to create the illusion of a grander scale, or to fix elements that weren’t suppose to be there in a shot. For example, the illusion can be the set extending beyond what was actually filmed, or to erase a microphone dropping down onto the frame unexpectedly.

4 Amazing Super Imposing Examples:

Fig 2. 3D Camera Tracking tool in After Effects

1) A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – On one of our shots in the film, our actress Lawson was holding an empty picture frame. As filmmakers, we like the flexibility of adding effects in post. In order to insert the photo into the picture frame, having a green colour inside the frame will make the removal of the background easier, we unfortunately had to work with what we’ve got.

The first step in these types of shots is to track the camera’s movement. This will ensure that the inserted photo will be glued onto the live action plate. A live action plate is the shot in which an effect will be placed on top. In our case, the effect will be the photo. For tracking, we used the built in software Mocha by Imagineer Systems, then manually adjusted the tracking points in order to dial in the movements. Depending on your shot, you may use the “3D Camera Tracker” or “Track Motion” tools in After Effects (See Fig. 2).

The second step involves placing back the areas of the live action plate where an effect may have covered an area in the frames that is not suppose to be covered. In our example, we placed the photo on top of the original plate, then masked out the fingers and place them on top of the photo (See Fig. 1).

The third step is matching the effect with the live action plate. In this example, we used an overlay blending method. This mode enable the footage and the inserted photo to mix into the shot and make it feel more natural and undetectable while at the same time holding the original shot’s reflections. We also added other effects like motion blur, colour correction, and video noise which can greatly sell the shot.

LEFT: Before digital camera tilt is applied. RIGHT: Final shot with digital camera tilt.

2) It’s Smokin’ Hot! – In our next example from Forgotten Corpses, we created digital smoke and a nodal camera tilt in our shot where the two actors were looking out into the trees. In the film, the shot called for a confusion in the characters as they realize that they were heading in the wrong direction. The effect that will be applied to this shot is known as set extension. If the story calls for it, we can replace anything in the background, such as a city skyline, mountains, snow etc.

We created a camera tilt in post by using the position attribute and applied the movement onto a null object in After effects then linked it to the live action plate. We also added the sky and digital smoke. Again, we tracked the shot first, colour corrected it, and added the appropriate blending mode to make it seem more natural, we used the Action Essentials 2k smoke effects.

The most difficult aspect for this shot was to separate the treeline with the digital sky. With this effect, we used several masks and chorma keying tools in After Effects. The keying tools essentially instructs the computer to analyze each frame and categorizes the bright and dark pixels into groups so that the sky from the live action plate can be separated from the tree line. For a more in depth look at how these techniques are achieved, be sure to check out this video.

A digital zombie eye was created in post

3) An Eye for Detail – The super imposing technique can also be applied onto moving elements such as parts in the human body. Again, the method is the same as the above except the effect is used differently. The next job was to add a deteriorating zombie eye onto our actress Megan Laursen. This effect can be seen in full depth in a video tutorial hosted by Andrew Kramer.

We’ve used a different blending mode in order to give it a bit of transparency and review the real eye below it. We’ve essentially cut out the eye of our zombie in post by using masks, placed the effect into the cutout, and duplicated her real eye below the effect. We even added a bit of digital eye liner.

The most challenging part in this effect was to make sure that the zombie eye effect stuck onto the live action plate.  The tracking for this was done manually frame by frame as the computer had problems tracking her eyeball because she was turning and tilting during her performance. In addition, some of her hair covered the area in which the computer needed to obtain pixel information to work with.

4) Oops, Just Fix It In Post! – The final example of where this technique can be used can be found in fixing production errors such as the visibility of an unexpected crew member walking into the shot or a light stand that wasn’t suppose to be there.

During final shot of the film while I was operating the Glidecam (I am actually selling it here) my shadow was casted onto a door inside the barn. This camera movement was quite complex, it was moving forward, tilting and panning down simultaneously. Essentially it wasn’t a nodal movement, so we needed to track the footage in 3D space (Fig. 2).

LEFT: Door plane tracked in 3D space to cover shadow. RIGHT: Projection of the background plate onto plane.

The concept is the same as above but instead this shot was setup in a 3D environment in After Effects. I needed to create a vertical plane for the door in which it will be super imposed on top of the live action plate to cover the shadow. The track will ensure that the plane will stick onto the door in 3D space. To get the image to appear on the plane, a digital light was added to project a duplicate section of the cleaned up background plate onto the plane similar to how projectors and screens work at a movie theatre. Don’t fret, the concept simpler than it sounds. You can discover more about how this effect was created in more detail here.

There you have it, some real life examples of how super imposing effects can change the value of production. For any video production needs be sure to contact us. And like always, happy editing!

So about that surprise I’ve mentioned earlier… now you can get an exclusive behind the scene’s presentation and see how we work as a team to get this production from start to finish below!