Hi guys, hope you're having a good holiday season.
Today's effect comes from the Star Wars franchise and is used to bring back those who have become
one with the Force.
This effect is possible in both HitFilm Pro and Express if you have the sci-fi adventure
pack.
If you don't have that pack, there's no problem.
you can still create the effect, just with a different technique.
I'll show you how to to do both right now.
This effect is much easier if you film your subject against a blue or green screen background.
The glow effect needs to know where the edges of your subject are, and being able to isolate
the actors with chroma keying saves a lot of time.
We'll start by keying out the actors.
I'll be using footage of Oli and Kirstie from a previous Q&A.
Before we actually key them out, you might notice that there is a slight vignette all
around the footage.
This is due to the lighting on set, and the reason I bring this up is because you want
your green or blue screen to be as evenly lit as possible.
The Vignette Exposure effect is what I'll first add to the footage.
It's kind of the opposite of the normal vignette, in that it brightens the edges instead of
darkening them.
Adjust the Amount until the lighting becomes more even.
You probably won't have to do this with your footage, but it's good to know that effects
exist if you need them.
Now we can actually key them out.
If you're using HitFilm Pro, you'll want to use the Chroma Key effect.
If you're on HitFilm Express, you can use either the Hue & RGB Key or the Color Difference
Key.
Choose the color to key out and adjust the settings until your actors are isolated.
I'll use the Color Balance effect to adjust the tint of my actors to better match the
background.
You have control over the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights.
Be sure to checkmark Preserve Luminosity so that the image doesn't get darker as you change
the colors.
I'll move some sliders around to make them more blue.
I'm going to duplicate my actor layer, and turn off the top.
Right click and set the Blend to Overlay.
Now turn back on the original and lower the Opacity as you see fit.
Here's what the footage looks like without the Overlay and just the lowered Opacity.
They look a bit washed out.
The layer under it adds back in some contrast and overall presence.
Decrease this layer's Opacity if you want.
Let's blur them a little bit, by offsetting the position of the Overlay layer by a few
pixels.
At this point in the tutorial you'll want to check if you're using HitFilm Pro or HitFilm
Express and have purchased the sci-fi adventure pack.
The effect we'll be using is called Lightsword Ultra (Glow only).
If you don't have this effect, skip to the timecode onscreen to learn a slightly different
method for this ghost effect.
Add the Lightsword Ultra Glow onto the main actor layer.
In the Inner Glow settings, lower the Width and change the color to a light blue.
Under Mask, select Invert.
This is why it's important to film against a blue or green screen- the program knows
where the outline of the actors are because they have an alpha channel.
Let's drop down the Outer Glow settings and add a stronger blue glow to the outside.
I'm not going to change the mask to Invert for this outer glow, I'll leave it as is so
that it affects my actors.
And that's pretty much it, the rest is tweaking the alpha and width properties to get the
look you want.
Now let's take a look at how to do this in Express without any add-ons.
Right, so here we are back before I added the Ultra glow.
This technique is what you'll want to use if you're running HitFilm Express without
the sci-fi adventure pack.
I've got my normal layer and the Overlay beneath it.
Right-click the main layer and select Make Composite Shot.
Move the Effects and Transform properties with the layer and hit okay.
Instead of having the Opacity lowered here, I'll do it back in the main comp.
Now create a New Plane- this is going to hold the glow effect.
Add the Lightsword Glow Only effect to it.
In the Controls panel, drop down the settings and change the Source to the actor layer composite
shot.
It should take on the shape of your characters.
If you try to do this without putting them in their own composite shot, it won't work,
because the alpha channel created by the chroma key is not baked in.
Right-click the Plane and set the Blend to Add or Screen.
Now I can start customizing the glow, changing the Inner section to white and bringing it
closer to the actors.
I'll raise the Alpha of the Outer Glow and change the width.
To constrain the glow effect to only the outside of Oli and Kirstie, I'll next add the Set
Matte effect.
Set the Source Layer to the chroma keyed composite shot again and change the Blend to subtract.
You can now adjust the glows to your liking.
To bring everything together I added a couple of color grading effects, like Bleach Bypass,
Curves, as well as a few Glow effects set to Screen.
That's it for today.
If you saw the Last Jedi recently feel free to leave your thoughts down below, as well
as any questions on the tutorial itself.
I'll see you all in the next video.