• Adobe After Effects

  Behind Glass Effect

  Posted by Joey Ferrara on July 6, 2007 at 6:07 pm

  Hello Everyone!

  I have been trying to do this for a while now. I have many green screen clips where I wish to composite them over a CG BG like this https://www.scifi-meshes.com/meshes/gallery/finishedpic.jpg
  What If I wanted the actor to appear behind the glass without having to render out a seperate glass layer from a 3D package? How would I get the distortion and reflection to look right in After Effects? Now I won’t be using that particular picture but as another example, what If I wanted to composite an actor into a space ship that was just a picture and I did not have the 3D model to seperate the glass into its own layer?

  Thanks so much in advance,
  Joey

  Brendan Coots replied 19 years, 1 month ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Brendan Coots

  July 6, 2007 at 10:02 pm

  This should work depending on the actual images you plan to use:

  1. copy the image/background layer with the glass, moving it above the actor layer
  2. use a mask to isolate just the glass portion of the image
  3. use Hue/Saturation or similar to make the glass black and white
  4. put this glass layer in Add or Screen mode, depending on which looks better to you
  5. apply a Levels effect, and use its controls to dial in the glass look
  5. play with the opacity of the glass layer to fine tune

  By putting it in screen mode, all of the darker portions (such as the black floor showing through the glass) will drop out completely, leaving only the brighter reflections.

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