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Merging Video Effect
Hello all, I’m kinda new to the FCP world, but I was wondering if someone can help me out. I’m trying to create the effect that a person is multi-tasking. I want to put a person dressed in a suit on the left of the screen, have the same person dressed in gym gear to the right of the screen, then have him as himself in the middle of the screen. But I want to layer the video so that its one continuous shot, and that the same person is in three different angles of the shot.
I know how to shoot it, but how do I layer it? I found this old Bo Jackson commercial to help describe what I’m talking about. Thanks.
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3 Replies
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Well, I hate to say this, don’t take it the wrong way…
If you know how to shoot it you won’t have ANY problems layering it.
So, let’s assume you DON’T know how to shoot it.
You have two options (well, three)
1) Shoot everything on a green screen
2) lock the camera down and take off any auto-anything. You want full manual on this baby. Turn the camera on and don’t turn it off until you are done the entire shoot.
With method 2, don’t play to do any cross axis stuff unless you want to roto.
3rd method… shoot some empty room before doing v2 and try your luck with difference mattes. Won’t be as good as green screen, but could do in a pinch.
Layering would be as simple as putting them in track 1 and 2 and 3 etc. Then, just use a mask or crop. If everything was EXACTLY THE SAME except for the talent you shouldn’t see any lines.
Hint… watch shadows… use feathering.
Mike
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Thanks. Ok, so I thought I knew how to shoot it. Our station doesn’t have green screen capabilities, so I thought my best bet would be the cross axis model. But as long as they don’t cross each other, and the shot is locked down, everything should be ok, right? I might have to make it just a two mutli-tasking job instead of three.
I was thinking it might be a blending effect on the timeline, but I wasn’t sure either.
Melvin
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You don’t need any special ‘Green Screen’ capabilities. Just a green-screen cloth background, seamless paper or even paint. You can do the compositing in FCP. The standard keying is good, but you can buy some excellent specialty green-screen Plug-ins. Once you learn what you can do with keying, you’ll be hooked!
Now, that’s not to say, you need to do some research on lighting and practice before you shoot a real project. Most gaffers know how to light for green-screen.
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com
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