Simulating "Cold Breath"

[TC]

Hello everyone, first time post right here. Yay for me. Anywho, this upcoming weekend or so I will be filming for a short movie I'm doing for my film class. (I'm a film major, btw) I don't know about anywhere else, but up here in Northern California, the nights are not very cold. Yet I need to film some shots at night, and they need that look of "cold breath" (for lack of a better term). Anyone have any ideas of how to do this in AE? I have the newest Pro version, so that's not a problem. I have a few ideas but i think they will look cheesy as hell. Ideas?

[Barry_Green]

Cigarette smoke?

[Zoomforce]

Ive never seen it done well fake, which is probally why they dont even try even on huge budget films. Its one of those little things you cant do much about.

[TC]

Cigarette smoke? *

No, like the way your breath looks when your breathing on a cold night.

[SirAllen]

I think Barry was suggesting using cigarette smoke on the set to simulate cold breath, which is a good idea as long as your talent can handle the smoke. But for doing it in post, I dunno, it would be very hard (if not impossible) to not look fake.

[TC]

I think Barry was suggesting using cigarette smoke on the set to simulate cold breath, which is a good idea as long as your talent can handle the smoke. But for doing it in post, I dunno, it would be very hard (if not impossible) to not look fake.

Oh, good call. That might work.

[Jay_Blanchard]

Definitely not easy to pull off in post. I know I've seen it in a couple of cheezy action flicks ("Mr. Freeze") and in the Dentyne Ice commercials.

This is kind of pushing it, but theoretically you could shoot in a meat locker in front of a green screen & then add the background in post. But if you're going to go through the trouble of doing that, you might as well just take a road trip to Vermont or Minnesota to shoot.

[Jive]

While it may not necessarily be easy to do, I'm sure it's been done in big budget films to great effect, in that, the audience didn't even know it was an effect (known as an "invisible" effect).

As for how to do it, my first inclination would be to use a 3d particle system and study actual footage of what breath looks like in the cold. *Personally, I haven't seen my own breath in cold weather for many years, so I would know how to fashion the effect beyond that. :)

[kai]

you could shoot some cigarrette smoke shots (different puffs, words, etc) on a black background, and then use that footage and different transfer modes in AE to get a good blend of what you're after...

[Jay_Blanchard]

Personally, I haven't seen my own breath in cold weather for many years, so I would know how to fashion the effect beyond that.

Lucky bastard! (i'm a bitter Vermonter coming off a brutal winter--for a ten day stretch in january, the high temp never reached over -5!)

[Jive]

lol :D

[cinebuddy]

This is easy....take a large piece of ice (I mean large). heat it from the bottom, shoot it against a solid background (black/green/blue) as the ice melts rises, hell even use a small fan to blow the steam left or right. Put the new clip in your composition, key out the black, make it a 3d layer, now you can position over the person's mouth and experiment with position, duration etc. Easy as pie. Oh yeah X2 was definitely big budget with damn awesome fake cold breath...ala Ice Man. Good luck!

[seantree]

hrmm, I've done some tests using 3ds max 6 particle flow for mist etc.. I'm sure this could also be used to simulate cold weather breath. If you have access to max that is :/

[LUCAS_HITCHBERG]

Just take a bite of a peppermint patty. I've seen it done on TV dozens of times.

LHB

[kai]

Just take a bite of a peppermint patty. *I've seen it done on TV dozens of times. *

LHB


HAHAHAH!!!!

[Neil Rowe]

i would consider shooting in a semi cold environment, and having the actors keep some hot chocolate , or something else steamy in their mouth to breath over. ..it will only work if they are not speaking at the time, but the steam will come out, and looks the same.. just not too hot :o -that would be stupid. but i breath out steam for fun alot when eating dinner.. my little girl thinks its funny. but agin..only useful for non speaking parts.

[DVX100Shooter]

There is a DVD that I have at home. I can't remember the name of the movie right off hand but the Director did say in the commentary that they had to use this effect of making it look like "cold breath" was coming out the Actors mouths. I think they had to do a re-shoot or something. Oh you know what, I think it was the opposite! I think they removed the cold breath from the actor's mouths! I'll check the last couple of movies I got at home and let you know. As to how to do it...I have no clue...I just got AE last week and havent even loaded it in my computer yet! LOL!

[andy_starbuck]

I saw on the DVD for the animation "Ice Age" that "digital breath" was created by Blue Sky Studios (now VIFX) for some of the characters and that it was left over from their creation of breath for the movie "Titanic". In the review of their effects for the movie, they have the following description of how they did it:
"Because the live-action shoot took place in Mexico, and not in icy waters in the Atlantic, breath vapor was not visible, and for over 100 shots, VIFX composited practical cold breath elements shot against black into first unit photography. At no point do the digital breath elements call attention to themselves, or reveal themselves as illusion."
So they shot real breath against a black background and composited it. If you look at icy breath, it swirls around within itself and changes opacity with denisty as it freezes and evaporates. Making it look realistic in animation is difficult because of the recognizable complexity in the form. hope this is of some value.

[visulfx]

Use Illusion from wondertouch.com it is amazing for particles effects.

[Arcburn]

Yeah it was definately all cg breath in Titanic. I think some particles and some good tracking and you could pull it off.

[TC]

The project is long past. I just didn't put it in. But the DVD hasn't come out yet. So I may try to go back and add it. Still trying to figure out the best way to do it.

[toddmcm]

So simple with Maya!

http://www.3dlinks.com/oldsite/tutorials/maya/maya_tutorials.cfm?tutorial=Vapor

[Barry_Green]

Excellent link!

[toddmcm]

Thanks, I thought so to!

The technique works pretty well.... I've talked to some guys over at cgtalk.com and man, you can get really crazy doing 3D. This particular example is the "easy" way.

I've been using Maya for about a year, and hadn't even seen some of the tools for the "complicated" way!

[TC]

That is a great link! I have the personal learning edition of Maya right now. I figured I should get good at it before I drop the cash for the real version. As soon as I get it, I'm gonna go back and do that.

Again, great link. Thanks.

[toddmcm]

To let you know, if you are a student there are GREAT deals on Maya Educational version.. which had NO watermark by the way.

AND, there is an Educational version of "unlimited", which is a real nice package... $679 ! ! sure beats $7000

Good Luck - it's an easy effect to pull off!

[BigMucho]

AE particle systems should be able to pull this off. A 3rd party 3D particle system plug-in would be better, I prefer Trapcode Particular.

The key to pulling this off would be to use _lots_ of smaller particles, and apply a blur. Then set the layer to 10% transparency and experiment with transfer modes.

If you play with this I bet you could fool em, and _much_ cheaper then buying Maya.

Ethan

[ArchCarrier]

I would always go for the practical solution. I think 3D breath looks fake, so I would shoot it, lit from the bottom or the side, against black material in a meat locker and then composite it into the frame. You can actually say the right lines of dialogue in the freezing cold, and so it automatically looks right. They did it like this in Titanic (only a few shots were digital).