Silent films of the early 20th century had some pretty breathtaking stunts that would be made using a green screen in modern days. Just think of Harold Lloyd’s famous clock scene or Charlie Chaplin’s roller skating scene. Some of the stunts they filmed even seemed quite dangerous, but this video shows that it was, in fact, all a matter of perspective and clever planning.
Here are four green screen tricks you can make without the green screen
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Green screen is a popular and useful tool for creating all kinds of visual effects. You can DIY it, you can even paint it, but there are some awesome green screen tricks which don’t even require it! In this video, Jordy and Yannick of Cinecom.net demonstrate four of these tricks you can pull off without using an actual green screen, but by chroma keying smaller objects.
City of Yekaterinburg made a public green screen so everyone can make special effects movies
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If you need a green screen for your projects, you can DIY it. But if the road takes you to Yekaterinburg, you can just get out on the street and there it is – a large public green screen to help creators make special effect movies.
How to use Photoshop’s “Blend If” feature like a pro
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Blend If is a very useful Photoshop tool. Jesús Ramirez of Photoshop Training Channel calls it “the unsung hero,” and he wants to teach you how to use this handy feature. In his video tutorial, you’ll learn some theory about “Blend If” and how to use it to replace the sky, create special effects and apply textures in Photoshop.
How to turn smoke into low lying fog for your next spooky photo shoot
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Low lying fog can be fantastic for those creepy photo shoots, especially out on location. Or, perhaps you’re trying to recreate the look of a particular 80s pop music TV show. Whatever your reason, low lying fog often works much better than a more elevated smoke-filled atmosphere choking your subject.
In this video from Jay P Morgan for The Slanted Lens, we see how to make a smoke machine produce low lying fog. And all you need is a cooler and a big block of ice.
How to make your own DIY air-powered blood squibs
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Movie special effects usually come with a big price tag. They can be complicated, requiring specialised (and licensed) skill sets. Some are also very dangerous if not performed correctly. Blood squibs are no exception. They’re the packs that you see explode whenever somebody gets shot in a movie or TV show.
Traditionally, squibs hold a small explosive charge that detonates on demand. You’ll generally need to be licensed in order to create and use them, and there are all kinds of safety checks. There are safer options, though. Such as this one shown in this video from John Hess at Filmmaker IQ. We see us how to make our own (relatively) safe squibs using a very minimal list of ingredients..
Watch: 28 years of Photoshop in only 3 minutes
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We all use Adobe Photoshop, at least up to some point. It’s definitely the most used photo editing software in the world. What’s more, it’s one of the world’s most used and most famous pieces of software in general. This short and fun video will guide you through 28 years of Photoshop in only 3 minutes.
Aerial Perspective – The depth your images have been consciously missing.
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Something I’m going to be touching on today is referred to in the painting world as “Aerial Perspective”, a way, if not “the” way to create depth in your images. When you see pictures of mountains, or landscapes you’ll often notice that they are coated with fog, clouds, smoke, steam, etc in order to make the background appear further away.
How To Create Bullet haze and Fire haze in Photoshop
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Sell the fake or add to the surrealism.
As as creative retoucher and composite photographer, these are two aspects that in my opinion are very important, you either learn techniques to help blend realism into the piece, or techniques to make it stand out and add surrealism. For example, you can have a model float in the air with giant swords, fighting a very angry octopus, but if the shadows are in the wrong direction to the sun, then i’m sorry but that is a big fat fail! [Read More…]
How The Amazing “Through The Mirror” Trick Shot From Contact Was Taken
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If you saw Contact, you know it is a marvelous film, not only for its plot, but also for its wonderful cinematography. In one of the more memorable scenes in the movie, Ellie (Dr. Eleanor Ann) discovers that her father died, and runs to the bathroom medicine cabinet to get his pills. It is a single shot that follows Ellie from the bottom of the staircase all the way until she reaches out to the mirrored cabinet and opens it, only to reveal that the entire shot was taken “through the mirror”.
How is this possible without us seeing the cameraman?
