Recently we added a zombiefied, disembodied hand as a creepy addition to our homepage (we were getting into the Halloween spirit). We did this in the studio, with zero budget, with some very basic equipment and a bit of a Blue Peter approach.

Here’s a little bit of an insight into how you can achieve some pretty cool special effects with some nice software, and a trip to your local Focus DIY.

The key to most digital special effects is taking your subject, and seamlessly combining it with other filmed elements to make one scene. Imagine you want to have a scene of an actor running away from a giant marauding robot. Rather than spend the next 10 years building said giant robot that can physically chase down a person through the streets of Manchester (though that may be fun) – you could film a miniature robot, or create a robot digitally. You could then film the actor running away, and reacting to the robot. These two pieces of footage are then combined, or “composited” together digitally to create a finished scene.

Hollywood uses lots of complex techniques in order to achieve these effects that can be seen in many modern blockbusters – where actors are shot against blue or green backgrounds.  These green screens allow for seamless compositing to happen, as the green / blue background can be removed, or “keyed out” later in post production, allowing the cast to be transported to other worlds or put in mortal danger.

For the kind of composite effects we wanted to achieve at Fluid, we needed a green screen. This was created by our team from several sheets of scrap wood paneling and an outing to the local Focus DIY for the correct coloured paint (a bright, lime green colour was the nearest fit. Think the colour of cheap mushy peas and you can’t go far wrong). We then shot our willing hand model, Scott, against this makeshift green screen.

We even shot our footage on an iPhone4 camera as an exercise in low budget production (and also because our HD camera was in use).

With a bit of tinkering in After Effects (you can find a load of powerful plug-ins designed to make this keying process pretty simple) we composited the footage into our digitally created scene, removing the green background on the footage so it could be seamlessly pasted into the environment.

Here are some examples where we have used this technique on our in house acting department!

As you can see, whilst this is a pretty low-fi approach, you can achieve some pretty cool little effects with a limited amount of equipment. Have a go and experiment with this approach next time you are trawling through boring stock footage, you may be surprised with the results.

If you want to find out a bit more some of the techniques we used, give us a shout on twitter @fluidcreativity

Whether you ever owned an Amiga or not, you can’t help but be impressed at this wonderful animation that is sure to bring a tear to the eye of many 20-30something bedroom designers/gamers/coders.  Enjoy!

1)  PeterSage.com

If you’re looking to hire a really dynamic speaker then you may want to call on the services of Peter Sage:

This site has been my favourite for the past few months and I can’t decide on where to start in order to fully convey how wonderful it is.  The landing page asks whether you want to go to Peter’s new flash site (for which broadband is wisely recommended – each page takes about 20 seconds to load) or his html site (for which dial-up is for some reason recommended).  I implore you to begin with the flash site as each page contains a different blocky pixel flash video of the man Sage giving you a guided tour of the services described in a tone that seems to combine Alan Partridge and David Brent into one gloriously cheesy character.

There’s so much to explore and find on this site that through the tears of laughter you may forget that there’s still the html site to explore (don’t forget to unplug your cable modem and hook up your dial up modem first!).  On this site you will be able to find such treats as Peter’s words of wisdom (‘Sageisms’) and even some songs that he has penned himself.  There are also of course any number of photos of him grinning inanely as all dynamic entrepreneurs do.

And that’s not all – if you can bear to navigate away from the site you helpfully get returned to Google…but wait – oh Peter, you are a scamp:

2)  Norcalis.com

If Geocities was still around and one of their websites got smacked round the head with a baseball bat made of flash, it would surely result in the triumph that is Norcal Internet Services.

According to the strapline not only will they make your website, but they will also make your website better!  Talk about an offer that’s too good to refuse.  The website looks wonderfully serene, what with that waterfall and everything but don’t get too relaxed.  Your eyes are about to take a shelling:

In a similar fashion to big Pete’s site, a blocky video Francis Rossi stumbles onto the screen and proceeds to take you through all the visually engaging and user friendly services that he can craft for your business -  whilst some ducks float past.  Surely the results speak for themselves and there’s no reason for any other element of persuasion so virtua-Rossi is pointless.  Unless he goes on to elaborate on how Status Quo’s career was so successful despite only knowing 3 chords.

3)  Ling’s Cars

If you aren’t already familiar with Ling’s cars then you are in for a treat.  This shot doesn’t do her site justice at all, but it will show you a small slice of the madness:

The site itself is a long list of ever increasingly insane images and content – it’s the sort of site they show terrorism suspects in order to drag a confession out of them.  Bizarrely, the business seems to be very successful and the whirlwind behind it, Ling has even managed to put an appearance on Dragon’s Den.  Any business that is awesome enough to advertise on the back of a rocket clearly deserves attention.  It would appear that we aren’t the first website to appreciate the eccentric nature of Ling’s cars and Ling herself appears to go out of her way to track down her dissenters and comment on their site.  We’re half hoping that she makes an appearance in the comments at the bottom of this post!

Rather than going on a typically British tirade about how ridiculously cold it is I thought I’d try and lighten the mood with some nonsense about snowmen.  Here goes…

The Worlds Tallest Snowman

This rather intimidating chap is the world’s tallest snowman and was built by the (presumedly bored) people of Bethel, Maine way back in 1999. It took 15 days to construct the 113’7” snowman who was disappointingly named Angus by the locals.  Apologies to anyone reading this who’s called Angus – but you’ve got a rubbish name.

The World’s Smallest Snowman

This cute little snowman was created by (presumedly bored) scientists from the National Physical Laboratory in London. Unbelievably, the tiny fella is just 0.01mm wide (a 5th of the width of a human hair) and constructed from 2 tiny beads of tin using tools that were designed for manipulating nanoparticles. If they were really showing off they would have made him a hat but it looks like current scientific techniques can only take us so far.

Lego Snowman

Everyone likes lego. Everyone likes snowmen. This was always going to be a winner.

Pixar Snowman Short – ‘Knick Knack’

This wonderful short cartoon was made by some bloke called John Lasseter (the link is for those who don’t get irony) back in 1989 when Pixar was a fledgeling company.  I think it looks fantastic even by today’s standards and still has all the warmth and charm of the recent Pixar output.  A couple of interesting facts: apparently this film is one of Terry Gilliam’s favourite short films – and the music was done by Bobby Mcferrin!

Build Your Own Snowman

For those of you like me who are sick to the back teeth of this weather, here’s a lovely little website that allows you to build your own snowman from the comfort of your chair.  Don’t build anything too rude, now….oh go on then.

The Snowman in Dubstep

If you all enjoy Phil Collins as much as we do then you’ll no doubt love this bass heavy reworking of the theme from ‘The Snowman’:

…I bet campfires are highly illegal in this town, and I wonder what their toilets must be like, I’m guessing they’re just a pile of papier-mâché, but how do you flush a mound of mush?
I’m thinking into this too much I think, nice video though!