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Voc
Student
Landrum, South Carolina
42
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How can you make special effects of kids turning into animated versions of themselves?
I like stories where live action kid actors become cartoons of themselves #actor #actor
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Joseph Neilson
Radiation Detection Physicist
219
Answers
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but there's a few different techniques that can contribute to doing something like this.
Firstly, there's the simple magic trick idea. Start with the live action shot, then use something to cover up the actors - anything from a sparkle effect to something physical like a curtain or door. Then cut to the same camera angle shot but without the actors so that you can composite in the animated versions.
Rotoscoping is a key technique that might be used - that's editing each frame of video to "paint over" the actor with the cartoon version. There's various computer automated tools for rotoscoping now, so you can do it without manually editing each frame yourself.
Morphing is an effect to show something turning into something else. It can be as simple as a "dissolve" effect, or there's cleverer techniques with slightly different results.
Another area to look at would be Motion Capture. This uses computer vision to track the actors movement, and then a CGI model can be moved in exactly the same way. A great example of this is the character of Gollum/Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings films; copying Andy Serkis's movement and performance - there's some good documentary videos you can find online about how that was done.
Research animation compositing, rotoscoping, morphing, and motion capture
Firstly, there's the simple magic trick idea. Start with the live action shot, then use something to cover up the actors - anything from a sparkle effect to something physical like a curtain or door. Then cut to the same camera angle shot but without the actors so that you can composite in the animated versions.
Rotoscoping is a key technique that might be used - that's editing each frame of video to "paint over" the actor with the cartoon version. There's various computer automated tools for rotoscoping now, so you can do it without manually editing each frame yourself.
Morphing is an effect to show something turning into something else. It can be as simple as a "dissolve" effect, or there's cleverer techniques with slightly different results.
Another area to look at would be Motion Capture. This uses computer vision to track the actors movement, and then a CGI model can be moved in exactly the same way. A great example of this is the character of Gollum/Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings films; copying Andy Serkis's movement and performance - there's some good documentary videos you can find online about how that was done.
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