help with hologram effect

[spkenny]

I currently am trying to make a hologram effect in a video. There is a tutorial already out for how to do this, but my subject is not recorded on a green screen. I need to know how to create a green screen to complete the hologram effect. The tutorial is located at http://www.hiddenphantom.com/Tutorials/ ... SPHolo.htm
I am using ulead media studio pro 8.0, and I can supply further details for anyone who can help in this matter, thank you.

Aaron

[Gorf]

Your subject is already recorded, but not against a green screen? Or you want to know how to build a green screen?

If the former, you're up a creek - unless you can reshoot.

If the latter, there are instructions on the same site.

[spkenny]

First, the subject recorded is a 2d character in a game called runescape (I think it's 2d, possibly 3d). So no, there was no green screen intially, as the background surrounding this character are buildings, and landscape within the game. I am looking to make a greenscreen to complete the process, which leads to my next question now. I obviously have the ability to save the video sequence frame by frame, then edit in say ulead photoimpact. Would it work to take each frame, outline the character with a black outline, then fill in the entire background with either green or blue then I fit the edited pictures together re-creating the clip with a new blue or greenscreen. As for the post you say is already up concerning holograms, where is it? I looked the keyword up in the search before posting and found nothing, so I apologize if I'm repeating a question.

[rwernyei]

Gorf,

Well, not completely up the creek without a paddle. One could rotoscope in VP. Or make selection of subject with individual frames in photo editor, etc... then use as image sequence in MSP. Needless to say, very tedious work. OK, he may be up the creek.

[rwernyei]

Aaron,

Gorf was referring to the Build-a-Bluescreen link:

http://www.hiddenphantom.com/Tutorials/ ... creen.html

[spkenny]

thank you for the help rwernyei, and Gorf. You've been much more informative than anyone else I've spoken to for even a hint on what I need to do. Unfortunately editing individual frames seems to be my only solution to this. I'm not sure 'tedius' is the right word for what I have to do now though and rwernyei, yes I knew of the hidden phantom site tutorial. Seems to be the ONLY one that even remotely explains the steps on what I need to do. So now only 3 questions remain, and I should be able to move on with things myself I believe. First, what is rotoscoping, and how would that help me with my situation? I know its used for light saber effects, but other than that...? Second, is there a way to capture the frames with ulead? I have the virtuadub program and have actually captured the frames of a clip a while back, but the results were only able to be saved as bitmap, and horrible looking stills. And finally, what program to edit the frames in? I have Ulead photoimpact, and photoshop, both of which I havent had too much experience in yet.

[Gorf]

...OK, he may be up the creek.

...So now only 3 questions remain, and I should be able to move on with things myself I believe. First, what is rotoscoping, and how would that help me with my situation? I know its used for light saber effects, but other than that...? Second, is there a way to capture the frames with ulead? I have the virtuadub program and have actually captured the frames of a clip a while back, but the results were only able to be saved as bitmap, and horrible looking stills. And finally, what program to edit the frames in? I have Ulead photoimpact, and photoshop, both of which I havent had too much experience in yet.

Rotoscoping with regard to filmmaking is drawing on each frame of the film, usually with some sort of guide such as a stripy pole to be drawn over to make a lightsabre. In this context it is drawing over the outline of your character in each frame with the purpose of erasing the game's background scenery. In 3D animation, it is the tracing out of an image or live action with an end result of creating a 3D object or object motion from something that has actually been photographed.

If you have access to PhotoShop* there is an easier solution. Export the game footage from MSP as an image sequence using TGA format. Load the frames up en masse into the image editing program, and use its "magic wand" tool to select the character. Invert the selection, and press {Del}. Save the image and close it. Do the same to the next image.

If you're savvy with photoshop, you might be able to write an action that does the underlined bit with a single keypress, which would save a lot of messing about.

Now, when you load the image sequence on to track 2 or higher, you'll see that whatever is on a lower track is showing through.

* There may be other image editing software that allows you to select a region quite coarsely, abut the selection marquee actually snaps to the contrasting line between subject and background.

[spkenny]

what is msp?

[Ron P.]

MSP=MediaStudio Pro..

[spkenny]

Thank you vidoman, I think I've gotten the idea of what I need to do on all this. It'll take some messing around. But I have found what seems to be another alternative. On youtube, there is a guy that made a video called jedi kids. In a part of the film, he does a hologram effect, not like the one I've been asking about so far. In his list of short movies, he has a sort of behind the effects video for the jedi kids film. Specifically with the hologram, which is a video of his wife and kids, there is NO green screen that appears to have been used. He somehow selects the video, changes the size, and adds a tint to it making it transparent. Here is the direct link to watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-wxN8At_p0
Can someone please tell me how he did this as it appears to not use a green screen, which would save me tons of time on having to edit frames.

[Gorf]

Crop filter to get rid of the background you don't want. Monochrome filter too.

Moving path to distort the result and put it where you want.

50% or so transparency.

If that effect is acceptable for your production, it's about 3min work!

[spkenny]

Thanx again garf for the info. I totally get what you are saying. However after much time messing with the program according to what you had last posted, and the tutorial for the hidden phantom hologram, I cannot get the initial clip (lets call it holo1) to overlay clip2 (named it holo2). Here is what is happening. Holo 2 clip is a bit longer in time length than the Holo1 clip. The final result upon playback is it only shows holo clip 2 until the end of the clip, then suddenly jumps into holo1 clip (the actual hologram projection)which is a tad bit longer in length. So in otherwords, its not appearing transparent, or overlay the other clip. Here is what I've done, if you want to glance at the tutorial. I've taken a 5 min video of mine, and shrunk it down from 720x480 to a much smaller size, sort of a mini video within the frame using the moving path filter. Thus, the entire area around the playing video is all black, which according to the tutorial is what color should surround the hologram being projected. I then went through and added all the filters according to the hidden phantom tutorial. But as I said, the end result plays clip 2 until it runs out, then jumps to playing clip 1. Is the black surrounding the hologram preventing it from overlaying the other clip? And you also mentioned cropping the video to get rid of the background I didnt want. I do not see a crop filter in my Ulead mediastudio pro 8. Or maybe I just missed it somewhere. The cropping function could be all I need to get this all to work

[troppo]

put the clip you want in the background on track 1 and the clip you want to overlay on track 2. There are different overlay types, right click the clip on track 2 and click 'overlay options' in the box click the type and choose 'multiply' and then drag the 'blend/opacity' slider to achieve the desired blend. Have a play with the different settings, I'm sure it will work.

[Gorf]

...after much time messing with the program according to what you had last posted, and the tutorial for the hidden phantom hologram...

My last post had nothing to do with Nick's method of greenscreening so you need not mess around with filters or key types, unless you're expanding on the basic effect shown in the YouTube video. Basically all you need to do, for that effect, is crop the video with the cropping filter (Don't forget to clear the "fill color" checkbox.) and distort it with a moving path. By all means make it slightly transparent (in overlay options) and add a monochrome filter, but these are secondary to getting the video in place over its background.

[spkenny]

Finally figured this out guys! Thank you all for the help!