Ghost Effect HELP PLEASE!

[pa-productions]

I was asked to do an effect in which a lady sits in a chair and a ghost version of herself gets up and exits her body as she watches. Can this effect be done without rotoscoping? Should I film the real girl live and then film her again on green screen for the apparition? Is there an easier way to do this that I might be overlooking? Can I motion track the exit and apply the data to a elliptical garbage mask with a pig whip so it only affects the girl and a few pixels outside her body without affecting the background? Any help would be appreciated immensely.

[triplej96]

I'm kind of busy at the moment but I would shoot 3 times. Camera not moving ofcourse. One just her sitting, two her getting up, 3 bg plate her not there. You should be able to comp these together to get the effect you want.

[Matt Grunau]

I'm kind of busy at the moment but I would shoot 3 times. Camera not moving ofcourse. One just her sitting, two her getting up, 3 bg plate her not there. You should be able to comp these together to get the effect you want.

What he said.

You will have to mask/roto the part where she stands to isolate only her and then drop the opacity on that "standing up" layer so it's transparant, as well as probably wanting to change blending modes and do some color correction to make it blueish and more ghost-like.

If you want to change blending modes or CC the Ghost layer, you will have to have you mask really tight to the talent. Tell her not to move her arms much or make any extraneous movement and you can keep your masking to a minimum.

[pa-productions]

Thanks! I figured I would have to do some roto in the end. I'll be sure to ask my actress to limit her movement, which is great advice that I would definitely have overlooked in my panic to figure this out.

Now that I have a good idea of how I can do the effect, if you or anyone has any tips to help sell the effect, let me know. Thanks again.

[ProfessorU]

You should be able to avoid roto if nothing else in the scene moves, just cutout a still of the body in the chair in photoshop. CC your ghost layer toward blue and your base layer toward yellow, everything should balance out even except your ghost and your body. Put the body without CC back in. Should be easier than moving masks.

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

EDIT: my post assumes the sitting version is in a trance or passed out. Not lucid and looking about.

Basically what he said.

I don't know why you even have to do roto for the split ...

Have her sit there. Then have her get up.

in post loop the footage forward and backward while she's sitting so she's still breathing, etc.

The portion where she stands up and walks around the room is a standard effect and actually that's the sweet moment where she "steps out of herself". if you have just shoot her sitting and then just shoot her standing it may be hard to overlap the perfect moment where she stands ... so again, I'd get her in position for that and then have her move from that into walking around.

If the girls head is higher than the back of the chair she's in then you will have to roto around that if the ghost version walks behind the chair she's sitting in.

If the chair back is higher then the girls head, then no roto at all, just experimenting with compositing modes and effects etc.