cutting a person in half

[kene555]

In my film, a person standing still(relatively) is to be cut in half by a lightsaber. I have After Effects. Exactly how would I go about shooting this sequence?

[Magic-Man]

well what i would do would be to film the person stand still, then fall on the floor to the right (as if he just got cut in half) then film the same again but get him to fall to the left (and film a backplate) Then in after effects, mask out his bottom half of his body so you only the top of his waist falling to the left , on to of the layer with his body falling to the right, but with that layer mask out the top of his waist so his legs fall to the right. Then you will get him standing still, then half his body goes one way, and the other half goes the other.

I understand this is a very poor explanation, but thats how i would try it.

[rhys]

It really depends how gorey/realistic you want it to be. Because you could always make a lightsaber fight as if it were a kill bill fight. I dont like star wars and i have never tried to do a sword fight (i will someday) so i wont waste our time until i know you want my opinion, unless you want it to be a normal flat light saber fight...

[Zacatac927]

so i wont waste our time until i know you want my opinion

what a dingle

idk if you meant it to sound that way

[kene555]

This is going to be shown at school, so no blood or gore. Some smoke is all I will add to it.

[ALove]

Film your shot locked down on a tripod, have your actor pretend getting cut and hold the pose for a second, then fall by pushing his knees out. It should look like just his torso falls. So in after effects, freeze the frame, and animate the fall using a subtraction mask for the legs, allowing the torso to fall.

[kene555]

Thanks. I'll post the vid of this effect by Wednesday

[kene555]

ok, here it is



Would it be better if the top half was just a still frame Photoshopped in rather than the video?

[Nba185]

hhm. that looked kinda faked. If he was cut by a light saber, wouldn't it be better if the body just slide off and not thrown away?

[kene555]

Yeah, he was falling and grabbed for the chair on the way down, didn't look so good.

I'm going to have the top part be a photoshop layer, and use that instead.

[Epsilon]

It looks like the top half of him sorta blasted off like a rocket.

[Zacatac927]

I LOVE PENIS

Edited by Ornsack

nice ornsack.... nice

[kene555]

will an admin kindly delete borskin's post?

thank you

[rhys]

Make the actor just fall straight down (get them to throw there legs up and then drop themselves, if they can do it), it will look more realistic like that then if you make him float away. The legs were okay, but it would be better if they just lost there life and fell back.

[Ornsack]

will an admin kindly delete borskin's post?

thank you

Sorry, he said you all liked penis. After deleting about 30 messages in quick succession I couldn't resist leaving one and editing it.

As you were...

[ALove]

hmm, if you can reshoot, have him just suddenly lay down, and speed it up then. though the photoshop method should work fine. you could even mask the actor in AE and just animate the layer to fall.