Walking through closed door
 

Hi guys,

I'm planning a short movie - mostly for entertaining my daughter(and myself :-). Basically I'll do an interview with myself about housing a ghost in the home.... In the end I'd like to float/walk through a closed door that is in the end of corridor.

If possible I'd like to place the camera on a tripod on the opposite end of the corridor - but then it will be almost impossible to make a good mask? Or am I thinking wrong here? My idea is to make 2 shots, one with the corridor empty and the door closed. One with the door open and me walking through it. Then somehow combine the clips using a mask...

Guess I could do I a bit easier placing the camera sideways and have a 45 degree shot on the door... should make the masking simpler....

Ideas, please!?

// Lazze \\

ps. I'll do the editing on PC with PPro 1.5 / AE6.5 and/or Vegas 5 ds.

Size of subject really has no impact on masking, only on the size
of what you are watching. I don't know how large your hall is,
but you clearly want to see what is going on.

The problem in your case would be to make it all work, which if
you just open the door would probably involve a lot of animated
masks to work. It might be way easier to simply remove the door
completely for the second shot (easy to do with doors here)?

In that case you should have an easier time masking I think, but
some small and fast tests might work wonders in such a case.

Hi Rob,

Am I getting you straight here:

One: Take a shoot of the empty hallway with door closed - then I'll "cut out" the door from that clip and

Two: Open door with me walking though + the door from the other clip?

// Lazze \\

No, physically remove the door in your hall, so:

1. take one, empty hallway with door in place and closed

2. take two, remove the door and then have you walk through the hallway

Anyone had any luck with the difference-matte tool in After Effects (6.5)?

I tried using it today but with very bad result.... I followed the documentation.

1. Saved a still-frame from the AE timeline
2. Imported it and removed the "eye" in the timeline
3. Activated the source-track and applied difference-matte
4. Tried to adjust the parameters but could not get a decent result

Tried to get as much contrast in the shot as possible - I dressed myself in black and walked towards a white door...

// Lazze \\