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special effects trivia
Ok, so this is a stretch, but who knows. I want to create an effect where I have an image inside a glass bottle and the camera is looking in. I need to simulate a bead of water trickling down the side of the glass. Just short of some tricky animation, are there any extremely talented and gifted FCP users who could offer up any clever ideas using just FCP tools (plus my Boris effects plug-ins too)to achieve this effect? Maybe a combination of Photoshop and a image warp filter??? don’t laugh, I really need help here!!!
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6 Replies
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Why “simulate” it?
Why not just SHOOT it?It will take a little creative setup, but using some thick, clear fluid and an eye-dropper will get you some nice “trickles” on the bottle.
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Yea, but that’s the trick. The video images will have a garbage matt to appear as though they’re inside the bottle. You won’t realize this until the final seconds of the spots. Until then, the images are pretty much full screen. The subtle giveaways are the occasional warping of the images as if under water. Maybe some bubbles here an there. To add to this , I want to roll a bead of water down through the frame and over the video image. There’s got to be some tricky Photoshop treatment combined maybe with a warp effect in FCP that I can roll through the frame as if it’s a bead of water. Maybe a plug-in????
I wish it were as simple as shooting!!
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It IS as simple (or complex) as shooting.
You start with the “water bead” shot (on clear glass, over black) and key/composite it with a slightly off-set and blurred “sliver” of the video clip that’s “under water”.
The off-set sliver would wipe-in directly in sync with (and the same shape as) the “real” water bead overlay.
The “real” water-bead clip gives you the outline, shape and REALISM you need, and the off-set and blurred “under-image” gives you the illusion of viewing a distorted image “THROUGH” this water bead.
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Now that’s what I’m talking about!
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Wait. I got all excited because I get the key part, but I’m a little unclear about the off-set “silver” video thing. Exactly what do you envision with “off-set”? A duplicate of the video image that is either shifted, blown up, blurred, distorted or all of the above taht will be composited inside the water bead ? And what do you mean by “silver”?
So basically we’re talking about a luma key to bring out the water bead. Describe the steps on how you would layer them in your timeline….that is if you have the time and patience.
Much appreciated!
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If you’ll check again, I said SLIVER, not SILVER.
Sliver means a tiny slice of video (one that would fit inside the “trail” left by the water bead as it slides along.
Yes, off-set would be the clean video moved to the left or right a few pixels the way “real” images get “off-set” when you view them through water.
The rest of this (like trying to DESCRIBE IN PRINT how to TIE A SHOELACE) is best left for YOUR imagination and experimentation.
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