Hey I’m Axel, from HitFilm.
Since the dawn of cinema, movies have been about fooling the audience, creating the appearance
of something that doesn’t actually exist.
When we filmed Rebellion, we only had three storm trooper costumes to work with.
So how did we make it look like we had so many?
I’m not only going to show you, if you download the project files, you can do it yourself
in HitFilm, in just a few minutes.
This effect starts when you are filming.
You have to plan your shots with the end result in mind.
What you do is basically film the scene multiple times, with the actors in different locations
each time.
A key to this technique is the tripod.
Making sure to lock off the camera so it is in the exact same place in each shot is what
makes this shot easy to put together.
So we have five shots imported into our project, This first one has three troopers in the distance,
this will be our background.
Then these other shots, each of which has troopers in different locations, will get
stacked on top, and we will use Masks to control which parts of each shot are visible.
Hopefully that sounds as easy as it actually is, so let’s get started.
Right-click on the first clip, and select Make Composite Shot.
Then, add the second clip, with the two door guards, to the timeline.
It hides the first clip, so we need to use a mask to reveal those first troopers again.
For this clip, select the rectangular mask, and drag it to select the area inside this
door frame.
Include the edge of the door frame in the mask, just to make sure that the mask doesn’t
overlap onto any of our troopers.
Since the camera is locked off, the set is in the exact same place in every shot, so
any mask edges that are placed on the set won’t be visible.
The edge of the mask will only be visible if it contacts the characters.
For this mask we want the area inside the mask to be removed, and the outside area to
be visible, so we will tick the Invert box in the Mask controls.
And that finishes off that layer.
Super quick and easy.
Let’s do another.
Add our third clip, which introduces a new challenge.
The troopers in this shot overlap onto the ones in the other shot, so a rectangular mask
won’t work this time.
Instead, we will use a freehand mask, which allows us to draw right along the edge of
this third storm trooper.
So let’s look at where we want this mask to be.
The right edge of the trooper overlaps onto the guard at the door, so we definitely need
to mask along that edge.
The hard shadow just behind him isn’t something we want, so we won’t include that in the
mask.
The left edge of the troopers is fine, in fact, we have these great reflections out
past them, which help blend them into the environment and sell the shot, or make it
believable.
So once we get past the shadow and around this foot, we can just cut straight to the
edge of the frame, and include this entire side of the shot in our mask.
So let’s draw the mask, which we do by just clicking at each place we want to add a control
point.
You can also drag the control points if you need to adjust them.
I will speed this up a bit, but here are a few tips that will be useful.
You can zoom in and out on the viewer using the mouse wheel.
Click and hold the right mouse button to drag the image around in the Viewer.
That way you can get up close to the edge you are masking, and easily reposition it.
Then to view the entire shot again, select Scale to Fit from the Zoom menu.
Also, note that even though Kirstie was standing in this shot, it didn’t matter, because
the mask removes her.
So here is my finished mask, and notice that at the top and bottom, the mask just cuts
straight to the edge of the frame, and then includes this whole left side.
With this mask, the edges we are following are a bit soft, so we want to soften the mask
as well, to match them.
Open the Mask Shape controls, and increase the Feather to 2 or 3 pixels.
Then deselect the mask, and we have a nice edge, blending into the other shots.
Add the fourth shot to the timeline now, and for this one, we can use the exact same freehand
mask technique.
In fact, here’s a movie magic trick for you...
I’ve created that mask, but I used the exact same method we just did for the rank on the
left.
If you are lazy, use a rectangular mask right at the edge of the door, and that door guard
that is barely visible won’t be visible at all.
But come on, you’re better than that, and in just a few minutes you can mask along this
trooper and do it properly.
Our final layer is this guy, right up in the foreground.
We will use a freehand mask here as well, but since he is out of focus, the edges are
quite soft, so we will need even more feathering here.
Draw the mask a little bit inside of the edge, so the feather doesn’t extend outside the
edges of the character.
We use the same process again, adding points along the edge, then at the helmet he doesn’t
overlap over the other troopers, so we can cut straight up through the background again.
Set the feather on this one to 9 or 10 pixels.
Now with all our layers in place, let’s view the final shot.
Move the playhead to the first frame, and click the RAM Preview button, here.
This will render the timeline into RAM, a useful technique for watching complex timelines
in real time.
This timeline might play fine without it, but its a useful tool to be familiar with
as you work on other, more complex projects.
Once the render is complete, we can click Play to view the shot.
This kind of movie magic can be created quickly and easily in HitFilm, as we have just seen.
There are heaps of other possibilities with Hitfilm as well, so do look through the other
tutorials on our YouTube channel, and thanks very much for watching.