multiplicity in After Effects?

[scrimski]

There is no multipilicity(no, it's not the right term, because there is no term for that) tutorial as you need several techniques to create this. Some rotoscoping(masking with animated paths), some keying and the creation of a cleanplate(tracking and clone brushing the required parts of the background).

[hospadam]

This is probably a good type of project for you, as a photoshop veteran, to take on.

Before we can give you some tutorial ideas, you need to answer this question:

Are you going to be able to greenscreen yourself (or whichever actor is going to have multiples of), or, are you going to have to film with the final background already in the shot?

If you have access to a greenscreen, then you need to look into Keying tutorials. Very simply put, you'll have several different clips, keyed, and comped on top of eachother. There are obviously more steps, but if you want us to go into them, I'm sure we can.

If you are going to have to film it all in one shot, things become a little harder (but still possible). Basicly, you'll need to setup a camera on a tripod, and hopefully it has manual settings. You'll point it to one area, and leave it there throughout all of your shots. Then, you need to go through and mask off each of your shots that you want. This requires much much more hand-masking.

I think we'd all agree that going the keying route, will probably be easier (and more fufilling in learning AE). If you can get a good matte, I think you always end up with better results when you go the keying route.

[jussing]

Guessing that you'll propably shoot miniDV and not 16mm or 35mm (or Genesis), I say avoid chromakeying like the plague. Keep it simple.

Shoot the actor(s) with a locked off camera (tripod, no panning, tilting, zooming or anything)
Keep their overlap (standing behind one another) to a minimum.
For interaction, have some kind of dummy object on a table in front of the actor, to indicate where he needs to have his hand, so it matches the other take.
For instance, you can have the actor pour his other self a glass of water, if you hold the glass in the same position in every take, using said dummy object as a point of reference.
In one take, you have a stand-in pour the actor a glass of water.
In the other take, have the actor pour the stand-in a glass of water.
You can pre-record and edit the dialogue, and mark essential interaction points with sound effects, and then play it back during shooting, so the actor can hear the timing, to make sure the timing is the same in every take.
Timing things to a piece of music is propably also a good idea - it's easier to follow a rhythm than wait for a specific sound effect at any moment. It depends on how complicated timing you want in your clip.
And remember to make a clean background plate, like the other guys said! :)
In post production, make an animated mask that fits their movement. Basically just a complicated splitscreen.
Use the clean plate to remove the dummy object(s)

Good luck,
- Jonas

[Fess]

scrimski, hospadam, jussing.....

Thanks for the input.
From your responses i can infer this is quite a involved project. But.....I'm not to sacred, will just take me little time since I have other tasks to do.




Are you going to be able to greenscreen yourself (or whichever actor is going to have multiples of), or, are you going to have to film with the final background already in the shot?


No hospadam, not greenscreen, I dont' want to delve into greenscreening yet.
The final background is already in the shot.
The cam & tripod will be used, no panning or zooming.
I grew a beard for xmas so I'll film myself with a dummy object. Shave, film my with no beard & comp the 2 together according to the advice already stated. Just learned masking/track matting, so it should not be to hard.

I just don't want to deal with 2 different lightings for each comp, so I'll have to shave quick :wise: , or maybe AE as a "match color" filter :)

My interaction will be something I have to think about, because I don't mind hand-masking arbitrary masks, just want to avoid tweaking precise masks for numerous keyframes.



jussing my good man, loved the F-117's anim.
Avation's been my secret passion since my 1st hotwheels toy. Did ya know that plane use to be called the "Wobblin' Gobblin"? :surprised



Fess

[mackdadd]

I entered that challenge over at VFXTalk, it was fun. (I'm "hype" over there)

A few people over at SimplyCG asked me about the techniques, so I did a couple video tutorials for some VERY basic split screening. Maybe you'll find them useful. I designed the shots very specifically, so if you were doing this for a production, it would NEVER be this easy! :D

http://www.simplycg.net/viewtopic.php?t=1875

[Fess]

Hey mack,

thanks for that link. :thumbsup:
I wanted to check out you entry but could not find it.
Personally I thought guillt had a more eligant piece that the winner...

Fess

[mackdadd]

i was pretty torn between guillt and dreamie, the winner. i got third. i did the "tron" looking thing.

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