how to melt someone?

[gaffer]

i was wondering if anyone could help me. my latest film involves one person melting someone else and watchin them form into a puddle on the floor. any ideas?

[SammyJim]

i can help! ever used play doh before? shoot the melting man, (we'll call him Martin for now) in some close up shots, face, hand etc and they are melting(have a search for "simple gore" in the forum and i'd use that stuff in stop motion for meltin) Then, you have the other person watchin Martin melt, but its just a play doh model of him!!! Well, thats how i'd do it cos i'm crud at cgi. with clever shots and camera moves you could do it like that.

for stop mo, i suggest monkeyjam! i just got it today and i like it.

[Clarence]

i was wondering if anyone could help me. my latest film involves one person melting someone else and watchin them form into a puddle on the floor. any ideas?

Do you mean like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz?

[gaffer]

wow! thanks for the quick response as for the wizard of oz i havent seen the film in about ten years and cant rember much of it at all . the play doh sounds great though i shall try it out thanks a lot.

[Vor]

What you do is pour like a mix of goop (flour/water/cocoa powder) and slowly run it doen their face, but only have quick shots of that. And then have a shot of your reaction to the melting then show a shot of a goopy puddle on the ground with a few fake eyeballs....it seems simple.....

[aaronv2]

On indiana jones they made a wax head heated it a little took a frame then did it again as stop motion maybe you could do the same thing with play dough.

[DEDFX]

Use Velveeta melted cheese, haha. Watch The Devil's Rain, very good movie with great melting scene in the end.

[SammyJim]

yeah, vor was the one with that simple gore idea i think...
Hmmmm....so where DO you come from Big gaffer? (it makes me feel better by saying that)

[aaronv2]

gaffer sounds sooo english... lol but hes probably named after the person of the same name on a movie set... basically they just tape down cables and help out with general stuff. but hey everyone wants to be a director and thats the worst position of them all.

[El Brenty]

i was wondering if anyone could help me. my latest film involves one person melting someone else and watchin them form into a puddle on the floor. any ideas?

Do you mean like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz?

That was a classic old-skool effect! They had a lift built into the set. The witch's cape (As well as "wet melting smoke") hid the hole created from the lift descending. A few camera-cuts and it appears the witch is melting from the water. Hmmm, I wonder if rain was a problem for her. Anyhoo, finally, after a couple of reaction shots to help with the cutting, you're left with a witch's cape and hat in a pool of smoking goo! Your witch has been melted!

Ohhhhh... What a world! What a world!

[gaffer]

gaffer sounds sooo english... lol but hes probably named after the person of the same name on a movie set... basically they just tape down cables and help out with general stuff. but hey everyone wants to be a director and thats the worst position of them all.

how can you tell if someone is english or not , just by looking at a forum. your good at it though because your right lol.
gaffer was the first thing what came to my mind when it said username. then i thought at least its got something to do with making films ....hmmmmm could this be telling me something lol.

[SammyJim]

hey gaffer (woops) do you help with lighting and cables at school plays and stuff? i know a guy who does that.

[gaffer]

well i can assure you i dont do anything like that. im not even old enough to get a job

[UFProductions]

Woooo! Go lighting tech!!! Ahem... sorry, I would go with the hole in the floor, lots of smoke, pile of goo way, rather that trying anything CG or makeup intensive. Keep the cuts short and sweet and it'll come out nicely. Either that or really big magnifying glass. Welcome to the forums by the way.

[jcdenton]

Maybe this isn't nobudget, but I'd hire a professional wax figure modeler, so he could make me a realistic wax model of the character. Melting it will be easy, take a frame every minute when the temperature is 40 or 50 ° celsius.
An other approach would be to use a morphing app.

[aaronv2]

i didnt know i was assuming from your name you either got the name gaffer because of old cockney english talkin.

its like calling someone guv you can call them gaffer aswell

otherwise its a movie term because this is a movie thread

[gaffer]

i didnt know i was assuming from your name you either got the name gaffer because of old cockney english talkin.

its like calling someone guv you can call them gaffer aswell

otherwise its a movie term because this is a movie thread

and thats why its my username because its the first thing what came into my mind when i was thinking about a name to do with making films.
strange eh?

[FabianJansen]

I did an effect like this once, first we ran thick grey goo ( Food coloring, flour and milk ) over the actors head, then we put a kind of tent of cling film over his head ( only for a few seconds at a time obviosuly ) to eliminate the obvious human shape of the head and neck and ran more of the goo ver that making it seem like the head has melted into the body. Then the same with clingfilm around arms and legs with the actor slowly kneeling on the floor . In the final shot we got the actor out from under the cling film and replaced it with a black bin bag of the same size filled with air, hole in the bag, more goo, and as the air slowly comes out of the bag the shape collapses into a puddle...


... it took a lot of the goo mix though, and made one hell of a mess but the end result was more than worth it!

[SammyJim]

can you post it or something?