Forrest Gump - How?
 

Hey guys,

I was recently watching the bonus material on the Forrest Gump DVD (best movie ever) and have a question. Does anyone know what software was used to remove the man playing ping pong with George Bush? This clip was never used in the mvoie, however it was partially produced and can be found on the DVD. Somehow the software views each of the frames in the shot and builds what is behind the guy by copying the pixels when he moves. The interesting part about the scene is that the camera is held by a cameraman and therefore moves. I am just assuming that some sort of "compiling" program is used because it appears that the shot is built by examining each frame. My guess was that some custom program was used... any ideas?

Back in the days when FG came out they probably used the Flame, Henry or Cineon systems to produce that effect. Nowadays you can do it with a simple app like Commotion from Pinnacle. It costs something like 1/100th less than the above mentioned systems.

There are automatic match move software packages out that are
pretty good at matching camera movement.... they rest was
probably done by matting things out etc. Some people have made
an art out of manipulating images like that!

It was Flame or Henry, I don't remember which one. There were big ads in American Cinamatographer with FG shots. Pretty amazing for the time, people still talk about it.

Jeff

Hey Martin,

You said Commotion would be capable of doing such an effect. How? The reason I ask, is that you cannot simply copy the people from one frame to another because they too are moving. You would need a couple of good frames and morph between them or something...

Commotion and other systems use a motion-tracking compositing system to perform such effects on a frame-by--frame basis. It is, however, still a tricky proposition requiring high skill. The subject is a complex one, beyond explanation here. You can learn more about Commotion at their site:

http://www.commotionpro.com/

Hey Ken,

I will have to look into it. I have Commotion and use it a lot, but have never had any formal training in anything. But, I like a challenge... :)