Replacing Green ball with CG glass orb

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It looks like you could benefit from this tutorial:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/galactic_orb/

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Nick Bibbo]

Thanks Ted! That’s probably what I need for the Orb! Now I just need some tutorials on adding it to a green ball!

[Andrew Somers]

Why a green ball” If you were thinking “green screen ball” that may or may not be a good idea.

COnsider instead how you want the obs to look. Solid glow? Or transparent? If held in the hand do you want to be able to see thorugh the balls?

Then *DON’T” use solid green balls.

For the record (and contrary to common misconception), there is no “magic button” you can click to make green objects disappear.

If you want the balls to end up with a solid glow, you may want the balls to be absolute black (not just painted flat black, but flocked black so that are as non-reflective as possible). With flocked black, you should be able to make a “MULT matte” and then add glow effects to it in ADD transfer mode while working in 32 bit

If you want the balls transparent, then I’d suggest using a highly transparent ball (hollow plastic sphere may work best).

You may want transparent or translucent balls to be illuminated on set, in shot – LEDs inside as a seed, to add real lighting, then augment with additive glow effects in post.

Whenever possible, get the *in shot* look as close to what the final should be, then augment from there.

[Nick Bibbo]

Thanks Andrew for all the helpful info! I appreciate it!

I currently have a large glass marble that I was thinking of using.

How do you believe they did the effect in the “Magic Crystal Ball” video? A painted ball? or LED’s inside a transparent ball?

If I can create the same effect in the video using the same methods I’ll be pretty happy.

[Andrew Somers]

Looking at the video example you posted in HD, it looks like a simple large clear marble was used, and the lighting effect was added afterwords. I don’t see any indication that there was any internal light or LED, etc.

The reason I mentioned using a practical (LED or other light source) as something you might want to try is that it will help integrate the effect into the shot.

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Practical effects are always the best way to go- I second Andrew in this.
As far as how to replace the ball/marble with the orb, you will need to track it and then roto the hand to be able to comp it on top.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Nick Bibbo]

Thanks guys!

I think I’m going to go the practical route and use a glass marble.
I shot a test video of me holding the marble, was able to track it pretty decently. What glow and lighting effects do you recommend to add the the marble in after effects? I also have Video copilots optical flares.
I tried a few effects, but they seem like they are put “on top” of the marble and not coming from the inside of it.

[Andrew Somers]

I usually create things of my own when I can, rather than use stock plug ins.

Work in 32 bit mode, linear color space – play with masked solids that have the blur and the exposure plug in on them, and over-expose, blur it out, use ADD transfer mode, etc etc.

Experiment!!

If you have a marble with an LED point of light, that will give you a great tracking point.

A 3D track, with object tracking, could also be very useful, as then you can add in “shadow catchers” where certain key objects, and in particular the ground/walls are, and these can be affected by a point light source that you have connected to the object motion track of the ball ,and things that interact with the ball like hid hand, etc.

TIP: make shadow catchers for shadows “neutral” and light catchers for highlights either neutral or close to the color of the object they represent. Shadow catcher “shadows” are added to the comp using the MULTIPLY mode., and light catcher highlights are added to the comp using the ADD mode.

(I find its easier to control separate shadow catchers for shadows vs light, instead of trying to use the same catcher for both).

[Nick Bibbo]

Awesome tips Andrew!!! The Lens blur effect really helped too! Sweet! The look is coming pretty close to what’s in the video! I’ll give you a “Special Thanks” credit in my film when i’m done!

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

One trick to make it look like there’s stuff going on inside the marbel/orb is to comp the marble on top of itself and sandwich the fx in between. Play with transfer modes and see if you can pick any highlights/ reflections.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist