inserting a building into a shot
 

I need to insert a large building into a scene. My first idea is to do it practicaly, as a painting on a sheet of glass or plexiglass, and then just film through it.

Choice number two is to do it digitaly, either by taking a picture of a real building, or painting it and scanning it.

Anyone have any suggestions, or know any websites where I can find out more ways of doing this?

Thanks

Is it a lock-off? If it is, there are quite a few ways to attack it. If you have any camera move at all, including zooms, bounces, or if it is hand-held it is going to be pretty difficult. Please give more detail about the shot.

~Brad

I haven't composed the shot yet. It will probably be locked down, to avoid extra complications.

It's basicaly going to be a castle atop a hill, or possibly in a field.

If there's no motion in the shot. It's pretty easy...I can even do it with Vegas 4, with no problem. Just get your picture of the castle that you want to put at the top of the hill, take a framegrab of the video that you want to put it in, take it into Photoshop, slap them on different layers, and then use the erase tool to fit the castle on there, the way you want it, delete the framegrab layer, make sure its transparent, and then save the PSD, bring that back into Vegas (or whatever program you are using) and lay it over it.....atleast thats how I would do it...

And if there need to be motion, you can keyframe each frame....

Well, if you haven't composed it yet then try to make it a lock-off, unless it is an AMAZINGLY important shot. I have worked on a number of projects where elements were required to match-move and it is time-consuming and expensive. If you are doing this yourself, then only the time-consuming part is important, but don't underestimate the difficulty here. If you are just shooting a master/establishing shot then it won't look unnatural if its a lock-off. If this is the case I would recommend digital matte-painting. Trying to find an uncopywrited image of a castle that matches the perspective, lighting, etc. of your shot will be an adventure. If you have a budget I can hook you up with some people. If you don't have a budget, post a link to the final shot when you get it and I can take a look at it. Hope this helps.

~Brad

the other suggestion..........
 

Green Screen

Thanks guys. going to do some test samples sometime in the next week or two. Will post samples when don.