superimpose tv footage

[Patrick Hearn]

Not at a machine with After Effects to have a play with this but off the top of my head:

If it’s a CRT TV then perhaps warping or bulging the image just a tiny bit would help.

Reflections for sure. Hopefully the screen was black when you filmed. Duplicate the background layer and mask off the screen then have a play with blending modes to get the original reflections back onto the TV.

Contrast and levels also might help. Make sure that the black on the screen aren’t darker than the blacks in the rest of the shot.

Depending on your scene (ie. how light the rest of the room is) you might want to play with using the footage on the screen to light up the room a little. Try playing around with scaling it, masking it, blending modes etc. Really depends on how long you’ve got to play with it

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/936496#936496 <- a slightly more subtle version of the effect discussed in that thread might be of help too.

[Tl Westgate]

Try setting the mode to Screen or Overlay or one that looks good. Maybe tweak the transparency a bit.

— TL

[David Bogie]

Honestly, the BEST way to do this is to play your footage on the set and shoot it.
You may need to shoot twice, once with the image playing back and properly exposed/white balanced for the CRT and once with the set off, properly exposed for the background setting. Then mask or blend the two clips together.

The problem with attempting to fill the glass with a video image is it will always look fake. Always. Crucial are reflections in the glass of the environment, windows, plants, people moving. And an appropriate video-ish look to the footage which is possible, it’s just easier to shoot it off the screen.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Ian Schmoel]

Try adding a subtle vignette to the footage. This helps to blend the edges into the screen. Adjust the opacity based upon the footage but don’t use much.

[William J. meyer]

Hi.

What I have done in the past is to duplicate the TV layer and mask out the screen, and then sandwich the new footage between the TV layers. Now when you bulge or otherwise manipulate the new footage you can slip and slide your footage layer to re-compose the shot within the TV screen. Alternately you could use a track matte.

Within the Presets that ship with AE you can find some “Bad TV” settings inside the “Image-Special Effects” folder. Granted, these can look cheese-ball, but you can eliminate or reduce the grosser aspects of the presets until you get some decent, subtle scan lines.

For the reflection I take a photo (or footage) facing the other way on the set (or mock it up of an actor watching or really anything at all to suggest the environment of the TV). Laying this precomp over the new image but under the masked screen layer, you can mess with its opacity and transfer settings (overlay works for me) as well as position.

Besides color correcting the new footage, it’s a good bet to use the “Match Grain” filter in the Noise & Grain menu to add grain to your new TV footage, using the original TV layer as your guide.

Lastly, you may find your new image is a bit too sharp assuming it’s been scaled down to fit inside the TV frame, so you might want to soften it a bit.

Take care, wjm

Now in post-production
The House That Jack Built
https://thehousethatjackbuilt.wordpress.com

OS X.5.3 MacPro 8-core (2X 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT