Ghostly Blue Look

S

sharker2003

Member
For an effect I'm considering for an upcoming 48 hour film festival, I'm trying to figure out how best to accomplish bathing some characters in an ethereal blue light. Sort of like the ghosts of the dead jedi in the Star Wars films, but without the transparent look. The scenes will all be outdoors in a desert environment, and including both closeups (easy to do with lighting and gels) and shots of characters far in the distance walking across the screen (much tougher with conventional lighting). I don't own any special effects software, though I may bite the bullet and get AE if its easy to do this sort of thing with the program, without using a matte (I don't have any matte experiance and probably won't have time to figure it out before the project begins). If there's any cheaper or shareware software out there that could help me do a simple effect like this I'd prefer that, I'm on a budget. (Aren't we all?)

How would you get those distant shots on a 48-hour deadline of ghostly figures walking across a lonely desert plain? Special Effects/compositing or conventional lighting?

Thanks!

Cheers,
Brandon
 
I'm confused.... How can you be planning to use ghosts and a specific location for a 48hr FF film? I thought the whole idea was that you didn't know what genre, including location, you were going to need until the first day of the festival. Am I missing something?

At any rate, I don't know the answer to your question, but would also be interested in how to do effective 'ghosts'. Good luck!
 
I think you may be looking at soft masking around the characters and adding a glow with a glow fx plugin in your editing software. At least that's how I'd do it. In this way, only the characters glow and not the other objects and surroundings near them in frame.
 
Without using a Matte of some sort, you are looking at rotoscoping, at the worst and simple masking (technically rotocsoping) at the least. Have your talent (especially for the close ups move as little as possible, and you will save yourself a lot of extra work.

To apply any kind of "glow" effect, be it a plugin, or the use of feathering in conjunction with colorization, you have to extract your subjects from the main plate. This is essential.

This could be done many ways, but you will still need to isolate them, either by Hue, Sat, or Luminance, (have them dress in a garish color and then do a reverse key of sorts to get a black and white Track Matte)

And a clean background plate is always handy.
 
I know just the thing...check out FX lab pro, by FXhome...it will work great for that, or composite lab which ever one. Mask around the characters and then ad the color (all very easy to do within the program [comes with everything you need]) hope it works out for you!
 
Ethereal Blue Glow

Ethereal Blue Glow

I think you could achieve the look you're going for with Red Giant's Shine plug-in ($99, Red Giant Software) if you play with the settings a little.

It'll help if you light them against a dark or solid-color background. If you want to see background behind them, though, you're back to rotoscoping it unless you green-screen and add the background in later (as long as the actor's aren't interacting with it in ways that make that nearly impossible).

Good luck with getting your effect!

Cheers,
Mike from Shreveport
 
Rent the movie The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy. Watch the special features, they discuss using a special type of paint with reflective glass beads on the actors and costumes. When lit, it creates an eerie glow.
 
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