Cloning in Adobe After Effects

Hey, I see the awesome cloning effects that Ryan has on his website, and I was wondering how to clone and hard/time consuming it is to do. I'm very new to AE so forgive me if this is a dumb question.

Thanks.

 

film yourself in two different locations of the camera view, not ovelapping yourself. Keep the camera stationary. When you import the footage into AE put each clip of yourself in the timeline one on top of the other, then use a mask to erase the area that you are in on layer two. hard to explain, but if you have any questions, just ask.

 

I'm also curious about this effect. Wouldn't you just be able to change the mode of the layer to screen?

 

no you couldn't because then the actor would be semi-transparent in the darker areas, masking is the best way to go.

 

you could also shoot a slate shot for the bg stuff then shott the clone subject on a green screen bam same effect

 

So what kind of mask would it be? What color? I really have no idea.

 

uh?

a mask of the footage... no colour...

 

I have seen footage at a local production group here in high school that was so convincing I didn't know that it was an actual cloning (the clone was a background character that only had his face shown intermitantly) and it was all done using screen in either Premiere of AE, I can't remember which program.

 

I've always wanted to try cloning... mb i should try it tonight... hmmmmm...

*ambles downstairs to his camera and tripod...*

If i decide to do this I'll post it up... as for how to do it, dont you just film 2 shots of yourself in different places, put one over the other, and erase where the other part is so the other part shows through?

 

There's some info on it in my behind the scenes documentary but generally you:

- Take two shots from same location
- put them on separate layers in AE
- create a mask (animated, turn on 'keyframing', if it needs to move) on the top layer to enclose only the clone. Feathered edges help.
- voila!

/Z

 

I'll be the first to say it looks like a 2 year old did it, but here is a what I managed to whip up so far. Thank you all very much for your advice.

 

Oh, and does anyone know what the white flexks are on the left clone?

 

make sure ou get the lighting right and feather the mask as much as possible so you dont see a line around the subject and also mak sure you dont feather it as much as to it starts eating you away.

but got to remember the lighting

vince

 

Is there a way I can take a shot of the background, turn it into a still image, and have that as a layer in AE that I can use to mask to from my movie?

 

You could do that easily. Just put the background layer on the bottom. It'd be easiest to actually put the objects onto the background using a bluescreen, but you could make a mask only showing the objects.

 

Well, my Dad is a genetics researcher and I have found that by getting him to clone me it works better.

No, actually I've never done movies, but I've done cloning in stills. I just open one in MSPAINT and the other in another MSPAINT. Then I select and copy myself out of one of them and then paste in the other. Worked for me before I got ANY Adobe products. I haven't done it any other way. I know to do a video I'd need to do it in After Effects or something.