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Scene Relighting
Hello,
I’m editing a scene where a bunch of guys walk into a room and have a conversation with a hologram in the center of the room. Unfortunately, the footage was shot with all of the overhead florescent lights on the entire time, with no change and no effect lighting. Ideally, when the hologram is activated I would like the overhead lights to dim and the light from the hologram to reflect off of the guys’ faces and clothes. Does anyone know of any way to achieve this (or know of a tutorial that I overlooked)?
Thanks!
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8 Replies
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This is very, very easy to do. It will just take a very, very long time.
First, you’ll want to rotoscope each person. Then use those masks in combination with other masks to isolate the brightness/color correction to just the part of their bodies that are facing towards the hologram. This could be a series of masks on an adjustment layer, or you could put each person on their own layer…really, there are endless solutions to this.
This tutorial covers adding in light from muzzle flashes, etc to a scene. You’ll want to do this, but instead of just for a split second, you’ll want it for the entire length of your scene.
Have fun!
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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q[Ryan Zernec] “I would like the overhead lights to dim and the light from the hologram to reflect off of the guys’ faces and clothes. Does anyone know of any way to achieve this? “
Michael’s suggestion is the only thing that actually accomplishes your effect in post. Every object in the room will receive light from the hologram so they all must be roto’d.
This is a classic example of really poor direction and planning, though. If you have never done rotoscoping, you have no idea how difficult this effect is going to b. If you need any degree of realism, as if the scene were shot properly with on-set, motivational, and practical lighting effects, you’re looking at literally hundreds of hours of work.
What you’re going to need is a mask that will be used to apply your lighting effects to your characters, it doesn’t not have to be created by hand-rotoscoping but that is the only way to achieve any believability. If you have some time, shoot a test sequence with a flickering light source shining on the faces and bodies a couple of stand-ins.
A hologram of Hans Solo is not a point source light, it’s more like a tall skinny balloon with a light in it. If the room in which he is standing while he is being scanned for the transmission is completely illuminated, then the light source, the hologram, is a huge object. The light emanating from these two different hologram images is quite different and will have dramatically different effects on the stand-ins and on the shadows their bodies cast onto the objects in the room.
The best way to deal with this project is to reshoot it.
bogiesan
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visit CHRISH DESIGN (find it yourself).
Our most recent course for lynda.com is Lighting Effects in Post, created for After Effects, Motion, and Final Cut Pro. These are detailed walkthroughs of one of our favorite techniques: using footage of abstract, animated patterns and lights with blending modes to add excitement to other clips. In this course, we spent a lot of time explaining our mental process of why we would choose one lighting clip over another to complement specific shots, plus showed ways to modify the lighting clips to make them even more suitable for the underlying shot.
bogiesan -
Hey Dave, Could you put your “stock answer #2” on a big ole billboard that’s viewable through every window in my building for all the YouTube-schooled genius Account “Executives” who insist shooting video is just a matter of turning on a light switch and pointing a camera at something … then, are upset when their budgets are blown because the editor spent hours correcting the shots in post for 3 times what it would’ve cost to just shoot them right? Hmmm, do I sound bitter? ;~)
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Thank your for granting usage rights, sir … you’re a gentleman and a scholar. And, I have an idea for you … a series of fix-it-in-post t-shirts … one has an image of a shooter with the lens cap on his camera and one of the ‘dangerous’ types standing next to him saying “just fix it in post” … on the other side of each one is “Dave LaRonde’s Stock Answer #2” … they’ll go like hotcakes!
But, ugh … sometimes I wish I could delete my posts … especially those from when I’ve just left meetings with the ‘dangerous’ types. I know random rants aren’t good in a public forum, but sometimes ranting to others who understand is the only thing that keeps me sane! lol
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There was a film I worked on where I kept getting called upon to fix stupid things in post.
The crew eventually made me a t-shirt. The front said, “We’ll fix it in post.” And the back had a picture of me wielding a gun saying, “I’ll fix YOU in post!”
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Thanks for the advice, guys.
Contrary to popular belief, I DO realize that this should have been shot differently and I DO know how hard/time-consuming rotoscoping is. I looked at my footage, realized that’s what I would probably have to do, and decided to check with you fine gents to see if there was a simpler way that I didn’t know about. The lecture on production planning was not necessary. No one, myself included, ever said “we’ll fix it in post”. Doing things this way was a last minute idea… the guys in the scene were originally supposed to be listening to a speaker-phone, Charlie’s Angel’s style, hence the lack of practical lighting effect. And due to the nature of this project (and the poor communication in my production department) there is not time to reshoot things. I wish there were. But as it is, the project is looking better than I’d thought, and since I dread rotoscoping I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got. No one watching this will notice the lighting anyway, it was more to satisfy my own personal vanity and perfectionism.
Thanks guys!
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Not whining, sir. Just explaining my situation. I even thought my reply was pretty good-natured, considering. I apologize if I offended, it was just an honest question.
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