Green Screen & Explosion Test

Kirk Gillock

Kirk Gillock

Rebel with a cause
The following clip was put together using 4 elements (green screen, background photo, explosion, and sound fx). I used AE 6.5 Keylight for the green screen and a gaussian blur to give the focus/unfocus look. I then exported an AVI into Premiere Pro 1.5 and added some motion effects (camera shake), a sound effect, and Magic Bullet. The cropping was done in Sorenson Squeeze.


Handheld Explosion (620k):
http://www.isara.com/photos/explosion_test.mov


Steady Shot Explosion (620k):
http://www.isara.com/photos/explosion_new.mov


SPECIAL - Happy 3,000 Posts TC Explosion ;D (620k):
http://www.isara.com/photos/explosion_tc.mov


My goal was to make a realistic explosion, captured accidentally. I tried a desert landscape as the background but it just didn't make sense. (Why is a cactus exploding?) So I used Seattle, my last home address.

P.K. Gillock
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

P.K.

Cool. Good idea. I dig it. A couple things I noticed - the camera shake seemed a bit too much. That part of it didn't seem real. Maybe just lessen that effect. Even if there was camera shake, my guess would be it would be a little less active - you know instead of keyframing 1 frame at a time, more like 3 or so. Of course, I've never actually documented an explosion. Yet.

Also the girl turns early. She would hear it, then look back. Unless she can predict the future. :o

Also the sound seemed a little late.

Dude, I want to blow up my last home address. (Of course only if the landlord is in it)

Bill
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

okay, its 3 in the morning and I can't phucken sleep! Anyways, PK, all I have to say is not bad. I've seen worse and I've seen the real deal. I used to do pyro(not certified) back in my earler years, but what you did wasn't too bad. It needs some tweeking of course. My real question is why didn't you run man. I would of left if I heard an explosion. Plus your female friend just smiled. Not a good sign and maybe possible suspect. :). Where did you get your explosion? Anyways Pk, that was a good attempt. I would of like to see that cactus exploding though. I like the your progress. Keep up the good work my friend. Maybe you can try blowing up TC in that banana suit. :) Oh, TC is not here to defend himself. Alright, I'm going to try to get some sleep. Peace out,
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

Thanks Bill and Blue. The girl footage was originally used to superimpose balloons. That is why she is smiling. She thinks she's looking at happy balloons, not angry bombs. :D

You're right, she turns around too early. I got lazy. By the time I did all the motion effects and magic bullet stuff in Premiere I didn't feel like going back and changing the original clip in AE. The sound effect is late because of the distance the sound travels. Does it look odd?

The camera shake is horrible. I tried 20 variations and never got it to look like natural handheld. I will change it back to the original steady shot, with a minor shake during the blast.

Updated Version:
http://www.isara.com/photos/explosion_new.mov

Thanks again for the advice.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

I think it looks really good for a first effort!  Try slowing down the expolsion element by 10 - 25% and see if you can introduce some atmospheric haze between your foreground plate (sexy balloon girl) and the Seattle still image?  

The rack focus is a bit too quick - as a reaction, it's unlikely the shooter would be on the focus ring so fast.  More likely, he would zoom into the action across the bay, as you would be short lensing it to have the girl 3 - 6' from the front element in the shot as presented.  I think the shakey-cam was just about dead-on actually.

Nice work!

e
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

Thought it was frigging brilliant considering how simple you made it sound. Nice.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

[quote author=overlandfilms link=board=Clips;num=1103191539;start=0#4 date=12/16/04 at 04:59:34]The rack focus is a bit too quick - as a reaction, it's unlikely the shooter would be on the focus ring so fast.  More likely, he would zoom into the action across the bay, as you would be short lensing it to have the girl 3 - 6' from the front element in the shot as presented.  I think the shakey-cam was just about dead-on actually.
[/quote]

I was actually thinking the opposite -- even though it would be less realistic, I want to see the explosion more clearly earlier in the scene.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

I thought about putting a disclaimer up saying, "Sorry disjecta. It was either Seattle or Mt. Rainier that explodes."

I don't have a lot of background shots.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

the explosion neeeded a little bit of debree or something else linking it to reality, the sound from that far away would be a bit delayed, but so would the girls reaction, also. if you slow it down a little you can see that the explosion doesnt seem to start from the ground.. All in all first time seeing it i thaught it was good.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

Thats pretty cool. Where did you get that explosion clip? It looked very good.

I think why the camera shake is so jarring is because before and after it, it doesn't move like handheld, it seems like its on a tripod.

I'm not digging the sound effect coming late.......screw reality, we're making movies. ;)
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

I think it looks great. I've seen low budget movies there was a low budget movie posted on here a long time ago, I don't know if anyone remembers it, but it looked really awesome. It started out with a guy talking to a priest telling him he had sinned, etc. It also showed a bunch of nuns getting blasted (Ringa bell anyone). Anyways, they had an explosion (I think it was a car), and I think yours looks better than theirs. Good job, and the smoke looks totally real to me. Tim.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

not bad man.

the only thing i would say would be to delay the shake on the camera just a touch. from that distance, you would see the explosion before you herd it/felt it. also might want to delay her reaction a touch in the case.

you could if you wanted to get into some hand held action with the cam. once the explosion happens, and little handheld action of the camera zooming a bit to see the explosion more. im jus imagining it from a cameraman point of view. something like that happens, id imediatly take the camera and pan and zoom over to the explosion. which you could do for real, if you shot her again, this time, have someone give a que for EXPLOSION! then have her look and the camera get picked off the tripod and zoomed and panned over....would be way more realistic. you would have to do some tracking to get the background to match what the camera is doing.


annnyyywaaayyy....thats alot of work...im just talking out my arse right now.

looks good though, definitly on the right track.

peace!
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

Thanks everyone. Those were good suggestions. I'm learning a lot.

The explosion is stock footage available FREE at http://www.detonationfilms.com It is a great resource.

I realize the girl green screen could be better (it wasn't intended for this purpose). Unfortunately I don't have a lot of people available to help me because I'm alone here and because of the language barrier. "Hey do you want to come back to my place and let me videotape you?" (insert face slap here)

I placed both the original video (handheld effect) and the updated version (tripod with blast shake) on the original post (top of this page). If you want to let me know which one you like more.

Thanks again everyone!
P.K. Gillock
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

hey that was neat. i liked it.. just to add to the mountain of suggestions here, id say that you should delay your shake ing the cam untill a little after the explosion.. they are a ways away, and the tremor AND sound would not get to them until a little after you could see the blast. as a general rule every mile = apx 1 sec of delay. ..just like thunder so a little delay here is probably in order. and the shake should be slow to start, and worsen quickly as the tremor would not hit all at once, but in more of a wave.. anyway.. nuff said. its cool as it is. ;)
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

I don't know what everyone here is smoking but this effect is 10 times better than what I have seen in FX or SciFi channel in some of those "original" movies.

Great work dude, to be your first it is great!
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

Thanks Neil R. I agree and had the sound delayed on the original. The camera shake is not delayed because it's more of a reaction-shake, to seeing the explosion, and not from the blast/sound. It's a shocked-shake, not a shockwave shake. ;D

And Thank You Very Much Gualbert. You're my new best friend. :D Yo Moderator, promote Gualbert up to a Platinum Member. I would do it. That bee looks angry.
 
Re: Green Screen & Explosion Test

[quote author=BLUESPIDER link=board=Clips;num=1103191539;start=0#2 date=12/16/04 at 03:09:29] I used to do pyro(not certified) back in my earler years, [/quote]

Is this something we should not ask for more details about, or are you allowed to talk about it.

It was cool PK. It looked real to me.
 
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