Arm Replacement - How Hard

Larry Rutledge

Larry Rutledge

Fest Master
If I had a character in my film who was supposed to have his arm missing from just above the elbow and in it's place was a hook, how hard would that be to do? Any ideas how I might pull that off, considering my actor presumably will have his whole arm?

I was thinking I could wrap the part of the arm I want removed in green (paint it green, put a green stocking on it, etc) and then make sure I get matching plates for each scene, but how do I get the hook added in?

Any other ideas how I might pull something like this off?
 
In Forrest Gump, Lt. Dan had blue "bags" over his legs which were then digitally removed. If you have the movie, perhaps you can pick something up from the bts footage. Of course, you'll have to pay a lot attention to colors you are using so your keying can be made simpler.
 
They did something similar with the faun's legs (actually mini-stilts worn by the actor) in Pan's Labyrinth.

But be aware this sfx will cost serious time and money to look believable. Unless you also need to show the same actor with their hand, a far easier and cheaper and faster solution is to cast a armless actor and give them a hook.
 
Removing the arm with green paint or whatever shouldn't be difficult. But digitally inserting a hook onto the stump will be much, much harder to pull off. There's lots of motion tracking to deal with there, not to mention making a CG hook look real.

What kind of clothing is the character wearing? I'd just tape the actor's arm to his side, and construct a phony prop arm that he could manipulate with a pulley. Shouldn't be that big of a deal, as I couldn't imagine too much mobility would be needed anyway considering it's just a hook on a stump...
 
They have this in Planet Terror.

Don't you have to reshoot the scene twice, with them in it, and then WITHOUT the actor? What if you're doing a movement? That's hard to do unless you have like a computerized dolly or something...
 
Thanks for the input. I figured this might be a bit much right now, may have to re-think the character a bit. Perhaps we can just put a hook over the hand and not go with the stump.

I saw the pictures for Planet Terror where they show her leg, then her leg digitally removed and then a cg machine gun comp'ed in. While it is totally do-able, it is beyond our budget for this project.

You don't have to re-shoot each scene twice, but you do need to film a background plate of the scene without the actor(s). If you're moving then you have to make sure the movement is repeatable.
 
WOW, you guys spend way too much time on digital effects, but to keep it easy for everyone, get a meat hook for the hook ( with handle) then put green stocking over that and digitally add flesh to the green stocking,
 
I would put black tracking markers on the green stocking worn on the arm and matchmove a cg hook on there. That might be a little complex but you asked...lol:2vrolijk_08:
 
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