Welcome back to another Fantastic Beasts tutorial- today we're going to take a look at how to
make Oli disapparate into thin air. You can find the plate we're using in the description
below, as well as a coupon code for 50% off the Motion: Audio Visual pack. This code will
work for the first 20 people to use it, but remember that you can still follow along with
this tutorial in the free version of HitFilm Express.
We're also running our Thanksgiving sale, right now. Visit the FXhome store for over
$250 the ultimate content creator bundle. And check your emails for exclusive newsletter
offers.
So download the plate, open up HitFilm and let's get started.
Here's the original clip. Oli performs the action of grabbing the glove, and then quickly
steps out of frame. This is so that I could have a clean plate without him in view.
So the first thing we need to do is make Oli disappear after he grabs the glove. The visual
effect for the glove was a simple green screen clip, that was motion tracked and composited
into the scene. For this tutorial I'll leave that layer out.
To start, I'll duplicate the footage layer. Name this "Clean Plate", and find the spot
where Oli is completely out of frame. Make this the beginning, either with the Slice
tool or by dragging the layer itself. Now find the spot that you want the clean plate
to take over, and move the layer to that point. We now have a simple cut to make him disappear.
This clean plate was shot with as little camera shake as possible- this was on purpose, to
make it easier to align. But that means that after Oli vanishes, there's little to no movement.
So what I'm going to do is motion track the movement of the shot as Oli walks out of frame,
and apply it to the clean plate.
I'll quickly go through the process of motion tracking, but if you need a more in depth
tutorial, check the card onscreen. First, create a Point layer. Select the original
footage, and in the Controls panel click the plus icon next to Tracks. I'll place the first
tracker over here on the right, then change the Type to Double Points. This is so that
the Rotation of the camera movement can also be tracked. I'll place the second tracker
over here on the left. Then Track Forward. Select the Point under Layer, checkmark Rotation,
and hit Apply.
Returning to the Viewer panel, parent the Clean Plate layer to the Point. In the Controls
panel, lower the Opacity to see the two plates. Use the Viewer controls to line them up. You
might have to adjust the Scale or Rotation as well as the Position. Keyframe the Opacity
to fade in over a few frames. This makes it a smoother transition than just a cut. We
now have Oli reaching out and disappearing as he should.
Duplicate the main footage layer again and place it on top. This will become the disapparition
shape. End it soon after the clean plate takes over.
Now we have to separate Oli from the background, and to do this we'll use masking. Make sure
you're on the first frame of the cutout layer, and select the freehand mask tool. How you
go about masking your character is up to you- I ended up using several different shapes.
There was a mask for Oli's head, his arms, the wand, and his jacket. Splitting up the
shapes makes them easier to control. The good news is that you don't have to rotoscope out
your actor for the duration that they're onscreen- just a few frames will do, and sometimes you
can even get away with just the one. This is because from this point on, the actor layer
will become so distorted that you won't actually see how good the mask is.
Create a new Point layer, and make it 3D. This will control the shrinking and rotation
of the disapparition effect. Add the Atomic Particles effect to the cutout layer. In the
Controls panel, under Particle Placement, Position, set the Transform From to the Point
layer. Come down to Fractal, and activate keyframes for the Displace Strength. Skip
a few frames forward and raise that number to around 500. Lower the Wavelength to between
5 and 15%- it's up to you to decide what look you want for this effect.
Come back up to Particle Appearance and increase the Size to your liking. This will make each
individual particle bigger, and so it'll cover the real Oli as it transforms.
To make the effect shrink into nothing, come into the Point's Transform properties. Activate
keyframes for the Scale property, move forward to where you want the effect to end, and set
it to 0%. If the Point is in the wrong spot, adjust the Anchor Point to place it directly
over the actor, then the Position to compensate. I'll also keyframe the Y rotation to give
the impression that the disapparition is spinning.
Remember that disapparition in itself is a very quick effect. In the final short it all
took place in less than a second, so don't let it linger. Otherwise the audience will
see how it happens.
I'll make the disapparition emit light by adding an Auto Volumetrics effect to the cutout
layer. In the Light Source settings, lower the Threshold to get the appropriate amount
of light. Then decrease the Exposure in the Render dropdown. If it's still too much, change
the Blend to Screen. You can also colorize the rays if you want them all to be the same
color, rather than pulling from the source video.
You'll probably need to keyframe the Exposure so that it doesn't start as soon as the cutout
layer begins.
When we switched from the clip of Oli to the clean plate, there are some pieces that inevitably
don't line up exactly. Here on the right edge is an example. To hide this, create a Grade
layer and add the Shake effect. For now turn the Amount down to 0, then increase the Scale
until the edges are hidden.
This grade is also handy for adding in extra Shake, if needed. Keyframe the Amount to start
at 0 before the disapparition, raise it to a value you see fit, then back down to 0 after
it's done.
The last step is to go into the Atomic Particle properties again, and under Motion Blur, set
the Mode to something other than Off. In my scene I just used the Comp Settings. This
will greatly enhance the feel of movement.
I added a small dust puff using stock footage, as well as a slight bulge effect.
Version 11 of HitFilm Pro is out now. Let's take a quick look at some of the new effects.
This is Surface Studio. This effect is built based on community feedback- we know a lot
of you like to follow Andrew Kramer's tutorials, especially the ones about making titles. So
we created this effect that allows you to easily add layers to your logos and text,
making them appear decayed or destroyed, and revealing different sections of texture. We'll
have a dedicated tutorial for this effect in the future.
Exposure Pro gives you lots of control over the look of your final image by giving you
several popular parameters in one effect. This includes Vibrance, which boosts the saturation
but preserves skin tones to make your colors pop.
You can now add both Inner and Outer Glows onto layers. This isn't just limited to text-
picture and video layers can also receive these effects. You can also turn the Outer
Glow into a solid outline color.
Most of the time when you film, you can't control the weather. That's where the Dehaze
effect comes in- you can both add and remove fog from your footage. Great for adding in
atmosphere or taking it away.
You can read more about the latest version of HitFilm from the blog post below.
If you're interested in learning how the spellcasting effects were made, check out last week's tutorial.
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