Combining two identical "tripod" shots with different subjects in it?

F

filmguy123

Veteran
Lets say I have a tripod shot of a room. The camera is locked down. I want the same actor to be appear TWICE, like the easy clone effect where you split the screen down the middle. Except I want the actor to be able to overlap (ie, the actor first walks around 20 feet away from the camera, and then again 10 feet in front of the camera, so they are overlapping - however, the background and shot remains unchanged and static, save for the subject).

Is there a way to composite these two shots together? When I use a blend mode, such as add, it makes the actor appear at 50% transparency and the whole shot get brighter. I just want to add both actors to the exact same shot so they can walk around and overlap...

Does that make sense? Is there a way to ADD these two shots together since the rest of the shot/background is identical?

Thanks!

PS I have After Effects CS3 Pro, Shake 4, Motion 3, Photoshop CS3, etc so software isn't an issue... I just don't know what I'm doing, lol.
 
You'll have to rotoscope it, but yes it can be done, and having the backgrounds identical will mean that when the two people aren't overlapping you won't have to be very exact with your mattes. :)
 
I agree that green screen would definitely be a viable option for the overlap. espescially if you set up the screen in the same room in the same locked down shot without changing the lighting.
 
Yes, I am aware of green screen and masking, but I mean an even easier solution. It seems like it shouldn't have to take that much work... Iqbal - I haven't shot this footage yet, but, to clarify... will the Auto Align node in shake do exactly this w/out having to use a mask or green screen? That would be excellent.
 
Ok and holy what, I haven't used shake yet, but it looks really confusing - if auto align is what I want, is there an equivalent to this node in another program like AE?
 
If you don't need the people to overlap then it's a simple split screen deal...

If they do overlap, it will involve either rotoscoping, or creating a traveling matte with a blue or green screen. Shooting-wise the easiest way to do it is to shoot at the location with a locked down tripod.

Post-wise, the easiest will likely be greenscreen. Either method is totally doable, but to make either look good you'll have to put a little work into it. I really don't think a magic button exists that will just make it work, and if it did it still wouldn't be as good as doing it by hand. ;)

But.. the principles involved (and a couple others) are covered in this tutorial:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=23
 
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