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Compostiing a woman into an ocean?
I’m trying to figure out a way to to composite a woman in to a tumultuous ocean.
So, I was thinking about filming her in a swimming pool, shooting the ocean scene, and then just kind of doing some careful masking around her body. I just don’t know how believable this would look and I’m sure there’s probably a better way to do it.
Any ideas? I’d probably throw a small buoy into the ocean scene for motion tracking purposes so that I can match up the woman with the rise and fall of the waves.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” –Albert Einstein
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5 Replies
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I’ve also thought about sinking a large blue tarp to the bottom of the swimming pool and trying to key out the water.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” –Albert Einstein
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I’ve never tried this. It certainly sounds interesting. I’ll give my thoughts.
It would be easiest and most realistic to let your actress actually get into the water. For safety’s sake it would be wise to have a SCUBA equipped diver nearby along with a lifeguard or two.
Unless of course, it’s too dangerous. Just how “tumultuous” is this ocean? If it’s too dangerous to put a woman in it, how are you planning to film it?What is the woman going to be doing in the ocean? If she’s going to be struggling with the water ie. thrashing around, it’s going to be difficult to make it look realistic to comp a pool into ocean. I’m not sure how well a chromakey would work in a pool. Many pools have a blue color already in them which is nice, but I don’t see that (or your color) working very well, not because it wouldn’t key, but because the ocean isn’t as see-through as most pools are. Do you have a pool that has a similar level of visibility to your ocean? Perhaps you could film her in the ocean on a calmer day/calmer location with a green or blue screen behind her and rotoscope the front of her.
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[malcolm DeSoto] “I’ve also thought about sinking a large blue tarp to the bottom of the swimming pool and trying to key out the water. “
Easier to paint her blue.
bogiesan
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Ha. This thread has been encouraging.
I guess I’ll just have to do a test shoot and see if it works.
Having her in the ocean is definitely not an option. I live in the north west which means that our actress would probably succumb to hypothermia before she actually drowned.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” –Albert Einstein
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One of the real problems with this is that in a pool, you’ll get ripples, and ripples do not look like waves. Another is that the water splash action around your subject will make compositing difficult in several ways, not the least of which is that ripples – as above – don’t much resemble waves. And roto-ing? Well, that won’t be fun.
Pay your talent very well and have rescue swimmers, blankets, warm drinks, and anything else you think you’ll need – as well as a few things you think you won’t – and do this as a practical shot. Best results that way. And give her a break of at least 15 minutes after every take, and make the takes short, and probably best to shoot them multicam from varying angles, for coverage.
And don’t forget camera enclosure(s). Seawater and electronics are not friends.
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