Turning a crowd of 30 people into 500+

Steve Shovlar

Steve Shovlar

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OK I need some advice.
What is the best software program to use that can take a crowd of, say 30-40 people, and turn it into a crowd of hundreds? I am Mac based.

I have done a search but no luck. Advice please.
Would love to read a tutorial on doing this if there is one out there. ie camera being static etc.

Yes I know this is not something a novice can do in 5 mins.

Thanks in advance.
 
One generally accepted method is to shoot your 30 people in a group on your set with a blue screen behind them (no need to cover the whole set in blue).
Then move your group - and the bluescreen behind them.
Repeat enough times that you have poeple everywhere you want in your scene.
Also be sure to shoot a blank plate of your scene without anyone in it.
Then take each shot of a group of people and cut them out - the foregroudn can be rough, and then use the bluescreen to take out what's behind them.
You will end up with a bunch of groups of poepl in yrou scene with nothgin behind them. Layer these shots, starting from the "back" on top of each other to fill your scene with people.


Edit:
Google turned up this rather informative post: http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=29445

... and a great demo video showing the process: http://www.bftr.com/Pages/movies/vendetta_prisonhi.mov

- Mikko
 
Thanks for the link Mikko. Thats spot on

The shot I have in mind is a high up crane shot, say 100 feet, looking along a quayside into thew distance. I need the quay to be packed with 500+ zombies. Now I can get 50 people dressed up as zombies, but need hundreds, even up to 1000. I need to somehow clone these zombies into the shot. They have to walk ( stagger) about.
 
And flip some of them left-to-right and stagger the start & speed of the additionals. It should help to disguise what you've done.
 
After Effects (by Adobe) or Combustion (by Autodesk) are probably the best option for average budget, but there are also others like Fusion. Search the forums for more info.
 
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It may also be a good idea to film several individual actors dressed up in front of a blue/green screen at the same angle etc.
This way if you come across and errors or gabs that need to be filled it easy just to wack in some 'emergency' crowd filling zombies.
Just a thought.
Crowd simulation and replication is a hobby of mine :)
 
Oh man, there was a guy a couple of months ago who posted a remax spot he cut. It was like 5 sky divers and one airplane. He turned it into 3 planes and probably 40 skydivers. I don't think there was any blue/green screen involved in that either. It was quite amazing. I'll see if I can find the post and the name of the guy who cut it. He would be able to help you, I'm sure.
Anyone remember what I'm talking about.

Jason
 
Keep the camera locked, shoot a clean plate, i.e. no zombies, for at least twice the length of the intended final shot, then shoot your zombies in groups in different parts of the frame and different actions. Take each shot of the zombies, pull a difference matte against your clean plate and you'll have the zombies isolated, then comp them all togther...

No blue screen, no mess, just keep the camera locked or otherwise you'll need motion control.

Do it all in AE.
 
Jason I got that footage of the skydivers and it is sensational. I tried to find the post but no luck. Just what I am talking about. What did he do it on? I downloaded it on the 25th August 2006.
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
Keep the camera locked, shoot a clean plate, i.e. no zombies, for at least twice the length of the intended final shot, then shoot your zombies in groups in different parts of the frame and different actions. Take each shot of the zombies, pull a difference matte against your clean plate and you'll have the zombies isolated, then comp them all togther...

No blue screen, no mess, just keep the camera locked or otherwise you'll need motion control.

Do it all in AE.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that great advice. I have just purchased a copy of AE7 and have the Total Training package to learn it. Looks like I could be busy for the next few months learning it all.
 
Having never done compositing, it doesn't sound like something that can be picked up with a few clicks of the mouse. It sounds like its a serious way on up the learning scale.

Would love to see some type of tutorial showing quickly how it is done.

Any takers?
:)
 
It sounds like its a serious way on up the learning scale.

Trust us, it's really quite easy. The hardest bit would be the logistics behind filming it. The compositing is the easy part. IMO.
 
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