"BAMF-like" X-MEN NIGHTCRAWLER effect how-to
 

Hi all, Rage here with another tempting morsel:)

Vectorman has asked this question of me tonight, and since his PM-box was full, I thought it appropriate to post my reply here for all to learn from, and to submit other techniques as well!

Here is his quoted PM question to me: My reply is below:

Sure:)

Ingredients:

-1 plate of the person/object moving.
-1 clean Background plate.
-1 cup of a roto'd sequence of the first plate for maya. (unless it was a green/blue-screen shot already complete with a processed alpha.
-Optional:
A "Locked-off" camera for the shot to work, or some tracking will need to be done to get the plates to match.
...unless they have acess to a motion-control rig in which case, nevermind me:)


RECIPE:

1. Apply the Roto'd live-action footage to a 2d Fluid container in Maya, and using the alpha info, you can effect the footage directly, and/or emit fluids from that alpha area.

2. Spend some time-consuming hours/days getting the fluidic-"Bamf-like"-animation and shading/color to the fluids.

3. Render out separate plates of the character/object being fluid-ized, and one plate of the fluids being emitted from the alpha area.

4. Play with those plates in a compositor to get a seamless blend/timing of the overall effect:)

5. Fade that effect away to taste revealing the matched BG plate.

6. Pay us some hefty cash! hehe...

More:
 

Obviously, that was the "quick-and-dirty" way to approach this type of shot, but that is what this forum is for.

Lets hear any other ideas that could help others attempting this kind of shot in the future.

I'll start:

- If you watch the effect in the movie, you'll note that it happens REALY FAST!
This means that you only need to animate the effect in Maya to a small handfull of frames.

-Also take note of HOW the effect looked.
(see attachment below)
(also thanks to whoever sent this to me a while back!)

Next!

OMG i'm a moron, i never even saw this! Hahaha um, lemme link my friend over here from vfxtalk. THANKS IZZY!

nice one rage. its so simple. When I first saw that in X2 I thought the VFXshot was more expensive than that. but when I look at it slowed down I can see easy how that "quick and dirty" way you posted would work...

just thought i'd mention a lil something, if you go out and rent/buy the x2 dvd, one of the behind the scenes documentary deals actually had quite a lot of info about the "bamf" info about the particle system for the smoke and the colors used during that flash of gold color.

@ragecgi:
Do you have made an animation with your technique? If yes, I would really appreciate if you could give me a link where I can watch it.