Okay, so let's break it down.
It all starts with a base plate, the raw footage from the set:
The first step is to isolate the character from the original background. Typically, this would be done with green screens. Unfortunately, I have had little success with green screening (probably due to my camera being so old), so I went a route I could trust myself with a little more. Regrettably, this path required a lot more manual labor, and likewise a LOT more time: cutting him out frame-by-frame (aka "rotoscoping", a VFX guy's worst nightmare).
I only cut out the upper portion of our character, since I knew everything below that would all be foreground material.
Next up, creating a fantastical world around him. Since I had previously completed the entrance to the woods in another VFX shot (the poster), I was able to reuse much of that material for this. Flip some things around, change the background, add in a few new details, and BAM! The woods from the inside…
(Click image for higher resolution)
It looks a little weird on its own, but this is really all I needed to make the scene around him work.
Then comes the tricky part. Layering it all together, and animating it in such a way that it creates the illusion of the camera dollying backwards through the woods. Yet, a simple combination of zoom, scale, distortion, and layers is all it takes. I'm really glossing over a major step here, but this is where the magic really happens. Add in some color correction… and you've got your shot!
And there you have it! Most of my shots are not this complex (thankfully), but I had a lot of fun seeing this one through. Definitely a challenge, but pretty rewarding to see it completed.
Looking forward to posting more!
- Erik (Director)
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