Footsteps invisibility

[nummerzes]

Hello everybody,

I need some help over here. I need to shoot a couple of shots in which you see someone walking over a path (gravel) in a park.

That sounds easy, I know.... But now I need to let it appear as if someone (an invissible someone) is walking next to the acter. They don't speak or touch, they just walk side by side. So you need to see footprints, moving gravel and maybe breaking twigs on the place where the invisible person places his feet.

Note that I don't have much of a budget, maybe just a couple of €'s. :roll:

Does anyone has a clue how I can do this?

Thanks in advance...

 

[nummerzes]

I'm afraid I need to make more money to buy that program (see I'n only 17). Right now I only use Pinnacle studio 10

 

[nummerzes]

well, thanks anyway!

anyone else...?

 

[reindirkfilms]

what

what

Pinnacle studio 10 is that any good. never herd of it.

 

[nummerzes]

Well, it's not a great tool for pro's. But it's the first and only program I've really used and I think when you are just a little creative, you can do a lot more with it than the everage user can and does.

I hoop in the future, I can lay may hands on a copy of Final Cut Studio with a 17" Mac Book Pro.

I just need about €4.000,- to finance it. :roll:

 

[element80]

Try this: shoot the scene without the invisible footsteps, and then go back to a gravel area, and have someone off to the side of the camera (they can be in frame) throwing gravel onto the ground or somehow moving the gravel in a way to get the effect you want. Just make sure you have a footprint-sized portion that has the movement you want, but nothing in frame you don't want. You should be able to crop the video to just the "footprint" and overlay it along the ground in the original footage. I don't know how well it will work as far as looking seamless, but I think the texture of the gravel will help. If possible, don't make it a square crop, try to give it some kind of shape. Let me know if/how this works for you.

 

[palatia mpg]

foot steps

foot steps

Okay, I came across this special effects book that had lots of things other companies did on there sets for practical effects. This came from the original invisible man; they had him walking through snow. They had a board that had cutouts in the shape of footprints. They had them rigged so that they could make each footprint fall with the tug of a small cord. They coved the board with snow and then pulled each footprint in order to make it look like someone walking in the snow. You could do the same thing with the gravel, just have it drop a small amount. Have fun with whatever you do.