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Moving Stills in FCP
I just saw a documentary of Robert Evans called THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE and there is an effect used in it with stills that looks great but I cannot figure out how to do it. It seems like a simple motion key-framing move but I don’t know. Basically what happens is that the people in the stills are slowly zoomed in on while the background stays the same. It is used on many History Channel shows as well. Anyone know about this effect and how it is done? Maybe motion key-frames of a layered picture in Photoshop? I am working on a doc right now and would love to use this in my own if I could figure out how to do it. Thanks in advance!
~Little Bobby
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4 Replies
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Google: Rotoscoping
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
[Little Bobby] “Maybe motion key-frames of a layered picture in Photoshop?”
Yes, this is actually closer to what the process actually is, rather than true “Rotoscoping”.
This starts with what’s known (in newspaper and photo business) as “COB” (Cut Out Background).
(Rotoscoping is the same process but it is done on motion images and needs to be done for each individual frame in the moving image sequence.)
COB just needs to be done ONCE on a given still image and then (as you suspected) you move individual layers in respect to each other
(Walt Disney, William Garity, Roger Broggie and ace animator/director Ub Iwerks invented the “Multiplane Camera” for the Disney Studios in the late 1930’s to do this to create realistic “motion-depth” with painted animation cells.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera
So now, using FCP or other edit systems, once you COB the foreground image (leaving a “clear” Alpha channel around the cut-outs) you can lay it over a generic (but appropriate) background, or (much more complex, but more satisfying) you can “paint-in” the “background” that you cut the foreground FROM (carefully “clone-in” the HOLES where you removed the foreground images.
The most dramatic of these effects use 3 or more layers in motion. -
“The 3D Picture Trick”
https://www.adobeevangelists.com/aftereffects/The3DPIctureTrick.pdf -
That’s right…as a matter of fact DV magazine had a feature a while back on the making of THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE and they definitely used Photoshop and After Effects (they took the archival stills and made separate layers in PS, then used the 3D tools in AE, like having Bob Evans closer to AE’s “camera” and the background swimming pool layer “farther away” with more depth on the Z-axis, for instance).
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