Cloning an actor in post

F

FilmBoy77

Veteran
i need to have my actor cloned. basically i want the actor to find his clone laying in his bed as he comes in the bedroom and i want him to walk over and look down at himself.

i dont have AE. can this be done using Shake or just FCP? will i have to use greenscreen??
 
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I have mostly used AE for this effect, but Shake will work just as well. No greenscreen required.

You can check out some old test clips on my website that used this effect:

http://snodart.com/clips.php

Eat Smoke, Electric DVD, Car Hit, and Bat Hit all used the same technique (the same one that you can use)

Aslo, I used this effect for the end scene of Cache (bat hit). We did this so the bat hit would look more realistic. For this one, clip A is the guy swinging the bat and hitting a 2X4. Clip B is the guy at the door flying back (as if he was just hit with a bat).

I am currently putting together a brief tutorial that runs down how to do this in AE. The same concept applies when using shake though. Not sure when I will be done :(

The basic idea and keys:

The camera needs to be motionless and the lighting needs to remain as constant as possible.

Shoot the actor in position A. Keep the camera rolling and then have the actor move and then shoot him/her in position B. For safety, have the actor leave the scene and get a blank slate of the shoot (just empty, no actor).

In Shake/AE you will put these clips on top of each other. Cut a mask around the clip on top (pen tool in AE). Once the mask is complete, everything outside of the mask will become transparent, allowing the clip below to be seen. So if you have clip A on top of clip B. Use a mask to cut around the actor in clip A, so that the same actor on clip B can be seen as well. Obviously, you will have to spend some time planning the timing and such for dialog. If you come across any problem areas, you can make use the blank slate.

Camera movement is possible (such as a slow pan), but it will take forever in post. The movement must be repeated for each position (clone) in this case. I would stay away from this unless you have a programable jib with servos (as used with clay animation).

Make sure not to bump the camera. Even pushing record/stop can move it enough that you will have to spend some time lining the clips up to match. I would just let it keep rolling or use a remote.

If the lighting changes (sun, clouds, etc) between the various actor positions, it will show up later and be very hard (if not impossible) to fix.

If the action of the actor overlaps between positions, you will be keyframing for days. If it works with your idea, try not to allow this happen. So, if the arm of the actor in position A swings in front of the area where the actor will be in position B, you will have to move the mask frame by frame around the arm as it passes in front of the clone in position B.

I'm sure that is confusing, but I only had a moment to post this.

EDIT: for more exaples, check out Ryan W.'s site as well. Tons of good stuff. He might even have a tutorial floating around... I'm not sure.
 
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I have never used it, so you can get away without it. The problem is that you will have to export the clips from FCP and then export (render) again from AE. This can cause a hair of quality loss, but normally isn't a big deal. You could always export and work with uncompressed clips, but things will move a little slower this way. I have done it this way as well.

If I remember correctly, FCP can "send to" Shake without having to export. I have done this effect using Shake and it is actually a little more well suited for this sort of thing (only by a hair though). IMO Shake isn't very user friendly and is less intuitive than AE... so I have stuck with AE.

EDIT: How long does it take?

If the actions of the clones do not overlap (ie A's arm passing in front of B), then you can be a little more relaxed about where the mask is. If you have to cut around an overlapping object (such as the bat in the example clip and in Cache), then you will have to carefully cut around the object at each frame.

If you are already comfortable with AE... and there is no overlapping, I would say that it might take 5-10 hourse in post. If there is overlapping, it could take anywere between 10 - 50 hours (moving the mask frame-by-frame).

EDIT 2: almost forgot. Be sure to feather the edges of the mask a hair. I normally set the edge feather between 2-8. It will all depend on where your mask it.
 
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Final cut

Film your person on one side of screen, film the same actor but move to other side

in final cut you can have these two ppl on two tracks, ontop of eachother, and go to the motion property, adn then motion, and then crop, and crop over the left or right side, u can feather it a bit if the lighting is off
 
effect

effect

Bat hit was really good, A++++ there. I thought it was real until I read the descriptions. lol. good one




snodart said:
I have mostly used AE for this effect, but Shake will work just as well. No greenscreen required.

You can check out some old test clips on my website that used this effect:

http://snodart.com/clips.php

Eat Smoke, Electric DVD, Car Hit, and Bat Hit all used the same technique (the same one that you can use)

Aslo, I used this effect for the end scene of Cache (bat hit). We did this so the bat hit would look more realistic. For this one, clip A is the guy swinging the bat and hitting a 2X4. Clip B is the guy at the door flying back (as if he was just hit with a bat).

I am currently putting together a brief tutorial that runs down how to do this in AE. The same concept applies when using shake though. Not sure when I will be done :(

The basic idea and keys:

The camera needs to be motionless and the lighting needs to remain as constant as possible.

Shoot the actor in position A. Keep the camera rolling and then have the actor move and then shoot him/her in position B. For safety, have the actor leave the scene and get a blank slate of the shoot (just empty, no actor).

In Shake/AE you will put these clips on top of each other. Cut a mask around the clip on top (pen tool in AE). Once the mask is complete, everything outside of the mask will become transparent, allowing the clip below to be seen. So if you have clip A on top of clip B. Use a mask to cut around the actor in clip A, so that the same actor on clip B can be seen as well. Obviously, you will have to spend some time planning the timing and such for dialog. If you come across any problem areas, you can make use the blank slate.

Camera movement is possible (such as a slow pan), but it will take forever in post. The movement must be repeated for each position (clone) in this case. I would stay away from this unless you have a programable jib with servos (as used with clay animation).

Make sure not to bump the camera. Even pushing record/stop can move it enough that you will have to spend some time lining the clips up to match. I would just let it keep rolling or use a remote.

If the lighting changes (sun, clouds, etc) between the various actor positions, it will show up later and be very hard (if not impossible) to fix.

If the action of the actor overlaps between positions, you will be keyframing for days. If it works with your idea, try not to allow this happen. So, if the arm of the actor in position A swings in front of the area where the actor will be in position B, you will have to move the mask frame by frame around the arm as it passes in front of the clone in position B.

I'm sure that is confusing, but I only had a moment to post this.

EDIT: for more exaples, check out Ryan W.'s site as well. Tons of good stuff. He might even have a tutorial floating around... I'm not sure.
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