How to Make FORCE GHOSTS?

Hey, I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I couldn't find the thread.

I'm currently working on my first Star Wars film, titled "Episode XI- The Intergalactic Mission", which is a parody of sorts. Anyway, I'm killing of Jar Jar, and want to bring him back as a force ghost, ala Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda in Return of the Jedi.

I have Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects, and am wondering what the best way to make him look like the ghosts in the real Star Wars films? I can make him transparent easily enough, but giving him the blue-glow has proven to be quite problematic.

Any advice?

Thanks a million,
Lee

 

Do it the same way you do a hologram shot, just alter the effects a bit and take away the horizontal lines.

Now I want my million.

 

I don't know how to do a hologram shot either! Should I film Jar Jar in front of a green screen, and then remove the background before altering the image?

I'd like to avoid doing green-screen if possible, but if that's how it has to be done, just give me some more details.

Thanks

 

Yes, that is usually how fanfilmers do it. I doubt they did it with bluescreen in Episode V, though.

So I highly recommend utilizing the Hologram method, which can easily be found here: Duality Effects.

But please stop trying to be serious by using Jar Jars Jedi Ghost in a fanfilm at all :-D

 

Alright, thanks a lot, that tutorial should really help. As far as bringing Jar Jar back as a ghost, I just figured too many people would be disappointed to see the death of Jar Jar, so I had to bring him back somehow

 

"I doubt they did it with bluescreen in Episode V, though."

You are correct. They shot Obi-Wan against black and added the glow in post.

 

I would surgest also having some sort of 'pulsing element' to the glow.

 

You could film him on location/set and do one pass with him in and one without him, then mask around JarJar much like you would for a clone shot and drop the opacity...etc etc.

Uhm, but, if it were me, I'd probably go with greenscreen, depending on the shots.

 

I tried using the effect from duality but I found its effect unsatisfying. The look it produces creates a solid blue spirit, but if you notice in the films, they are not totally blue, there are still some reds and other colors on them. I think working with layer masks produces a look that is much truer to the films.
If you want an example of what the below tutorial can do, check my sig and download the video. If you only get audio it means you need the Indeo 5.1 codec, google it and download it if you don't have it.

The following is a technique I created myself over the course of about a day, as usuall its mostly rule of thumb, so be ready to tweak considerably.

To do it you'll have about 6 to 8 layers, plus your background.

First film yourself (or whoever is going to be a spirit). A greenscreen would help, but it's actually almost completely unnecessary, unless you're going to be moving around a lot. Don't stress if you don't have access to one, a simple white background works really well also. So take your footage and use the pen tool to trace around yourself. You'll have to go through the entire footage essentially to trace around yourself and keyframe it, note that even if you don't have a green screen you don't have to draw it perfect.
Also, it's a good idea to color correct your footage even though they aren't supposed to be physical

1. Next create a new solid with a blue color. Unfortunately, due to lighting conditions, there is no definitive blue. You'll just have to see what looks best in the shot, and you'll probably have to tweak it each time the shot changes. Copy the mask from your footage onto this solid. Next feather it and use mask expansion so it spreads out from the body of the spirit slightly and dissipates. Then lower the mask opacity down considerably, like around 20 or so. Finally set the layer blending mode to color.

2. Now, assuming you've already color corrected your footage, place it beneath the above layer and set it to darken.

3. Now copy the blue solid and past I below your footage. Lower the mask expansion a little and perhaps feather it slightly more. Up the opacity a little. Again, this layer like the top blue one, should be set to color.

4. Copy and past again and place it below the second blue solid. Go to layer Solid settings and make it white, and also go to blending modes and change it to screen. Give it a MUCH larger feather than the others, keep expansion minimal, and keep the opacity very low like the other two.

5. Now you should have something which is starting to look like the Jedi Spirit effect. To make it look better though, I suggest you duplicate your footage which is sandwiched between the layers up too four times, and use various opacity settings on them until you achieve the effect you want.


Overall this creates a very beautiful and very closely resembles the same effect that was seen in ROTJ.
Again, to get an example of how this looks, check out the link in my sig.

 

Hey, thanks a lot everyone for the help and pointers.

Shadow, that was how I had originally planned to do it, but it gets difficult to keep the mask consistent from frame to frame, so it kinda flickers a bit.

Sepharih, your method sounds pretty good- I don't mind having to rotoscope it in Photoshop. I'll give it a try, and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again!

BTW, anyone know where I can find a voice actor who can do the Jar Jar voice? Or is there somewhere online that I can download Jar Jar's dialogue without the background noise?

 

Al Jolson did it pretty well.

 

Years ago, someone asked this same question, and to this day I still remember the first answer:

"Kill the actor and hope he comes back."

 

"Sepharih, your method sounds pretty good- I don't mind having to rotoscope it in Photoshop. I'll give it a try, and let you know how it turns out."


???, Actually it's probably easier to use the above method in AE. I've never tried using it in photoshop.

 

Okay, awesome, After Effects will probably make it a lot easier. I assumed that you meant Photoshop.

Thanks

 

Years ago, someone asked this same question, and to this day I still remember the first answer:

"Kill the actor and hope he comes back."

"Kill the actor and BELIEVE he comes back." would be worse... or better?