How to do Star Trek Transporter effect?

I know this is a SW fanfilms message board, but people ask questions about matrix related stuff all the time, so I figured this would be ok.

I'm wondering how you do the transporter effect from the TNG era. I know how to fade myself out in After Effects, but how can I create the sparkling light? Or is there a file out there somewhere that i can just put on top of myself fading out? I also know that in the effect, right as the person is fading completely, there is a little concentration of sparkling light in the area of their chest. Any ideas or tutorials out there?

 

I think you already answered your own question without realizing it.

The easy part of the effect is the fade. But all the other stuff that happpens, like the particles and the light streams, has to be created by hand. (using your favorite FX software like AE.)

You know what the effect looks like. Break it down into it's individual parts;
It's mostly lines, dots, and a particle mass, superimposed over the fade.

I've used that effect for video games using vector shapes in Flash*, and it works really well. I'm sure with AE, you could get some killer results.


*I wrote web based games for a living in a previous career

 

Thanks for the advice, durbnpoisn, but what exactly should I put on top of the fade? I'm not that familiar with the effects in AE outside of the Lens Flare...

 

You know, I think for TNG they actually filmed some stuff swirling around in water to composite. I don't know if they actually did, but sit seems like a place to start. You could set a black BG, set a large clear glass, fillit with water, and put a bunch of confetti or someting in it and film it right after you stir it up. You could then theoretically mask what you want and Screen it over yourself, animating the mask to linger around on your chest as it fades off.

 

That's pretty much what they did.

 

That's a great idea.

It's also the funniest effect I've heard since the waterfalls on Naboo were all salt.

 

Ryan is indeed correct on this effect. I had to do it once for a school project, and mine looked just as good or better than the effect on The Next Generation. I took a clear beaker and put white glitter in it. Then I stirred it up and filmed it. However, the particles on the show swirl up and down instead of left to right. Therefore, you will need to rotate your footage 90 degrees. Then create a mask around yourself. Simple as that. I also added some CG particles to make it look better. Then some fractal noise set to Overlay to give it some texture. Just try it. It's awesome.

 

Depending on the effect you want to emulate, you may also need to use some animated lens flares, as these were used prominently starting with the movie series transporter effect...
The TNG effect also has a bright downward cascade effect layered on top of the masked-sparkles as well...

The effect I used in The Jedi Hunter combined the animated lens flares, a holdout matte around the outline of the actor with a simple layer of opaque animated particles (a combination of particles and hypervoxel elements I made in Lightwave), a *different* layer of similar particles with the same holdout matte and a new matte isolating the concentration around the chest (less opaque), and then the obvious fade out of the actor behind it all... there was also a brief travelling matte for Boba Fett, since there were a few frames where he obscured the area where the transition occured, and I had to make sure it appeared *behind* him, as opposed to just overlaid on the footage...
And all that for an effect *maybe* a second and a half long...

Fenn

 

The free 30 day demo of ParticleIllusion SE has a good transporter effect overlay.

Now watermark or anything. (for 30 days anyway, but it only takes a minute to render the effect out)

Have fun!

 

Just to reafirm what everyone else said. I took a class taught by David Stipes VFX guy on ST TNG and ST Voyager. He brought in some raw footage from the shows and showed how they did the transporter effect. It was a water tank and some silver glitter that was lit from the side against a black black drop.

Although I feel that I'm stating the obvious

 

For the TNG or movie effect you'll definately need some sort of flare overlay. Here was a test of these that I did awhile ago. I know there's a lot wrong with it, but there's the beginnings of something right with it too.

beam test

 

Woah, thanks for all the advice guys. Most of what you were suggesting seems a little complicated for what I know how to do right now. I'm limited to AE, and I don't think I'll be able to film a water tank at all.

Crook, what effects exactly did you use on the test? It's pretty cool, and seems to emulate the TOS Movie transporter effect. Right now, I'd be happy for any type of transporter effect at all.

 

Quite a while ago, while learning the ropes of AE I made a little test with an image of a picard action figure (one I don't have, mind you ) Anyhow, here's a little part of it, I could get you the blue shiny to add over it if you'd like. Check it out here.

It's due for a remake, I just might do it now that you've reminded me.

[EDIT]: Well this thread, and yes, you AWB.

 

Now that WHO reminded you, NXTB?

 

Every single Star Trek series used that technique in some way or another in the transporter beam, even though voyager and DS9 could have done it completly CG. Which is what they did on enterprise and nemesis.
But, I definently prefere it when the effect wasn't CG.

 

They are all lightwave lensflares, parented to nulls that are either moving horizontally, vertically or rotating randomly, all with envelopes to alter the intensity as the anim progresses, along with a bit of hypervoxels in the middle spewing up and down. I was just trying to put it all together into one effect. For a real effect, I'd render out the parts separately I think.