Visual Effect Editing Guide

Visual Effects Editing Guide

If you are making an animation and you wanted something to hover or to look like it is in mid air there are ways using the software Photoshop to make this happen. This is done over a process of five steps. These include the equipment, the set up, getting your footage, editing the film and then finally, using Photoshop.

The first step is to make sure that you have all the equipment needed for your animation. This will include your characters that you are using, the set where you are going to film, a digital still camera, and  a stand or some string and a clamp. The string and clamp or the stand will be how you get the object to be in mid air. Once all of this has been collected then it is onto the next step. 

The second step to this is to set up the equipment. Once the set is ready and you have placed the camera in a sensible position to view what you want to capture you would need to place the character or object where you want floating either on a stand or tied to a piece of string which is elevated by the clamp. Although the character is suspended in mid air, it is still clear how it is done and does not give the impression of floating. This will be the last step we do which fixes it. 

After the set up you will need to start taking the photo's for your footage in your animation. This would be done by taking images using a still image camera in a sequence and remembering to move the characters slightly each time. This would give the illusion that the, assumable, Lego man is moving. once this is done and you have your sequence you would need to upload your footage onto a computer and start the editing process. 

Once the footage has been uploaded via either SD card, or USB cable, you can edit the footage as you feel fit's. The footage that is uploaded into the editing software Final Cut is then editable to become shorter, longer, a change in colour, or adding video effects. Creating your story and adding audio is the main thing here, as you can add sound affects and dialogue to the animation. Once your story is ready then you can move to the final finishing touches and patch up them errors  using Photoshop. 

With every image used where the character or object is seen on a stand or tied to a clamp you should open it up within Photoshop so you can start to make it look like what you want to achieve. using the colour selector you can choose the right colours of the Lego man and paint over the string hiding it from all shot's. Once all images are edited your animation would look like the character/object is floating and would give this illusion to your audience.