VFX Approach?: text writing in “cigarette smoke”

[Craig Whitaker]

Does each letter get formed as if it was being written or is it an overall reveal?

[Eric Chard]

I think to save myself headaches I’d be satisfied with a soft left>>right wipe.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Craig Whitaker]

I’m reading your post again…if she’s facing the camera, how do we read the word coming from her mouth?

If she’s perpendicular, then you could read it as it happens, so I’ll assume that’s what you mean.

Ok, my approach, (not that it’s THE way to do it) would be…

1) Lock off camera so you don’t have to 3D track anything.
2) Cut your matte of the word “Spirit” either in Photoshop or AE.
3) Shoot someone blowing smoke from their mouth in front of a black screen.
4) In AE, trackmatte the smoke layer with the matte of the word.
5) If you can shoot the same person in the same position, it should be a relatively easy comp (perspective wise)
6) You can then just mask reveal the smoke layer to only show up behind the word.

Make sense?

-Craig

Craig Whitaker
MFA Candidate
New York University
http://www.craigwhitaker.net

[Eric Chard]

I’m reading your post again…if she’s facing the camera, how do we read the word coming from her mouth?

Imagine someone breathing on window, the camera facing the window and their face.

Like that. Like she’s blowing a smoke ring.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[David Ghast]

craigs solution would look odd as the smoke wouldnt be hanging in air as i imagine you want it to. This is the sort of thing you would have to do entirely in a 3d fx program, no way to realistically fake it using real smoke.

[Craig Whitaker]

It would look odd if the matte was hard edged, but maybe feather it a bit, maybe animate the feather? Ideally, yea, fire up Houdini and crank out a fluid sim, but in AE, not sure.

Craig Whitaker
MFA Candidate
New York University
http://www.craigwhitaker.net