Smoke / Fog Chroma

[dakotapod]

looking to simulate a scene walking through clouds and have it appear as a vast space. Very similar to the walking through heaven scene in "Heaven can wait" for those who may have seen this.

I was thinking of a fog machine and green screen. Shooting various empty shots of the fog rolling by and layering it to simulate a wide space. I can imagine fog and a green screen is asking for a nightmare.

Has anyone shot fog chroma? Also any other suggestions?

Very short scene (under a minute) so I don't want anything that will be an expensive setup.

Thanx

 

[Rich Lee]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

shoot the actor against green. generaly fx elements are not shot against green, almost everything is shot against black. its hard enough to key green/blue on dv anyway, even harder when you get such random densities and patterns that occur with things like fog/rain/dust/smoke/fire.

 

[dakotapod]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

So you are saying shoot the fog against black? And this will key better?

 

[Rich Lee]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

shoot the fog against black.

stuff like fog is pretty easy to key against black...you can mess with how its overlayed on your footage as well. also, you can make pretty good alpha channels using the image on itself, and messing with the levels.

all the stock footage places shoot their stuf against black as well.
check it out...

http://www.artbeats.com/prod/clip.php?vw=movie&id=5314&fr=search&pg=10&kw=fog&ct=&fm=

 

[dakotapod]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

Thanks Rich!

Black it is.

I never thought to look for stock footage as well.

 

[Rich Lee]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

stock footage is really great..but can be pricy.

 

[Shaw]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

You could use live fog with a greenscreen if you used ultimatte advantedge. It's specifically designed and great at keying with translucent and fine materials (ie smoke, fog, hair, etc). Absolutely the greatest program I've ever seen.

 

[dakotapod]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

[quote author=Shaw link=board=fx;num=1103605131;start=0#6 date=12/21/04 at 20:38:25]You could use ultimatte advantedge.  .[/quote]

$1,495.00 -

Not in the budget

 

[Shaw]

Re: Smoke / Fog Chroma

Heh, yeah it's a bit pricey! But if you're working on a large project with lots of complex keying it would be worth it. It's certainly not in my normal budget though!