Front Light/Back Light Matting Tutorial

Process for creating mattes using Photoshop Elements in stop motion animated films.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Front Light/Back Light
• Stop Motion
• Animation
• Photoshop
• Matting
• Special Effects

[Dinoslay]

I'm interested about something. You shoot the whole thing manually, right? How do you synchronize the axis movement when animating the puppet on the tripod rig? The reason I ask this is because I'm curious about the order of moving each element which to a stop motion animator(beginner or otherwise) is fairly challenging as you have to keep track of a lot of moving aspects simultaneously.

[animatorIsomer]

@Dinoslay I use the super secret method known as 'eyeballing it' ☺ This is where frame grabbers are such a wonderful innovation for stop motion because it allows you to check and double check that you've done what you need to do on each frame before shooting. I prefer things to be as free and non-technical as possible while I'm shooting... more of an art - less of a science.

[TEDSmithPhotography]

Nice work! Is there a way to use this effect without the rig...so the armature will be standing or sitting on a surface? I'm fairly sure it's not really possible and I'll have to use a green screen but I thought I'd ask. Oh and I don't have elements but in CS3 you can record your actions and batch files, a huge help for Stop motion work (apart from rig removal obviously). PEace

[animatorIsomer]

@TEDSmithPhotography - The flying rig is not essential, it all depends upon what you plan to shoot. Lots of stuff I shoot with front light/back light matting doesn't have any rig removal involved. It's really just the alternating shots of you subject lit against black and its silhouette that matter.

[TEDSmithPhotography]

@animatorIsomer - Thank you for the reply. I was more meaning the front and back light of the ground the character is standing on wouldn't work very easily. I'll give it a go at some point.

[animatorIsomer]

@TEDSmithPhotography I have shot one test shot where the ground was an issue, I did that by animating my puppet on a sheet of clear plexiglass.

[Dinoslay]

An idea that could be easily applicable to this: If you make a shadow barrier that forms a sort of darker line in the front light frames you can use it as a reference to rotoscope that area to make it seem like the object/character is moving in substance like water or mist with a breaking surface when compositing it.

[kezadrone]

And now onto frame 2. Ron. You got to get Keylight. Animate the puppet on green then click the image and your done. This must take you months and months to composite. It's crazy to use this now when there's state of the art keying softwear.

[Dinoslay]

@animatorIsomer *facepalm*I sure understand what you mean. It's surprisingly simple when ones mind isn't in a "brain box". *insert pun* Less hassle, better interaction. While the computer serves a part it can not replace the common sense. *insert pun about floating CGI scorpions*

I have a turntable that I could for these types of "tracking" shots. In fact, a table with enough volume could be used to put two or three puppets into a scene. More puppets takes an even greater focus though.