Best way to shoot a smart phone screen without moire?

S

shawn.w

Active member
Hey everyone,

I’m shooting a promo for a smart phone app this weekend which will require close ups of someone navigating the app. I'll be shooting on my 5D MKII. Previously I've shot stuff like this with the sharpness at 0 and the mosaic engineering filter in, which helps a bit, but doesn't eliminate moire entirely.

Are there any digital cameras that could film the phone screen without producing moire? Are there any that are known for being better than others? I know film would be best, but that’s not possible.

I don’t have much motion graphics or compositing experience. Is there a super easy way to screen capture a smart phone? Even if there was it would only be the resolution of the phone and nothing close to 1080p like the rest of my footage right? Also screen capping the phone won’t include the fingers interacting with the app, which would be a downside.

What do you all think would be the best solution to this problem?


Thanks!
 
Depending on your shot here is what I would do.
First test if it works normally, the retina screens might not moire. Play with the light level of the screen to key it right
otherwise, iPhones can output the screen via HDMI which you could record on a Hyperdeck, ninja or similar while filming the screen. Then you composite the image back on the screen.
Is the phone moving in the frame? Or is it 100% fixed?
 
Humm interesting. In the case of capturing the screen while I run through the app then compositing it back onto the phone in editing, wouldn't the fingers interacting with the phone be hard to matte out? I guess if the phone was perfectly still I could place a totally green image on the display and use that as a green screen for the fingers, but then you dont get the interaction syncing up perfectly since you would have to composit in a screen capture of the app being navigated from a separate take.

I guess the best option is a stable phone with a green screen and then animating in all of these things? Im guessing thats how the iphone commercials do it? But then how does the person navigating the app know where to click on the phone if they are just seeing a green screen? ahhhh!?

Another option would be to capture the smart phone screen and then just use that to fill the frame and not bother compositing it back onto the phone. Then use animations to represent when something has been clicked. But thats not as satisfying as seeing fingers / hands interacting with the screen.
 
Does anyone know how the Iphone commercials do it?

I'm guessing they use animation rather than screen capturing and replacing it back onto the phone.

What would be your recommended software for doing the compositing?
 
ChristianMoriarty said:
"Does anyone know how the Iphone commercials do it?"
Planar Tracking
shoot phone with a black screen to retain reflections
Click to expand...

But if the stuff you're tracking onto the screen is opaque how do you get the reflections to show up? Do you remove the black, keeping the reflections, then somehow make the reflections their own layer and place them on top of the app navigation?
 
Anyone know how you would go about retaining screen reflections and also compositing your screen capture / animations onto the black part of the screen? Can after effects only remove the black bits of the screen, leave the reflections, and then track your content onto the phones screen?
 
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