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Adding Wounds with VFX

WilliamRedRobin

WilliamRedRobin

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I'm doing a Star Wars TFA edit right now, and I want to make Kylo get his scar a little sooner than he does in the original.
Does anyone know of any good resources for learning how to implement that sort of thing?

My current plan is to use an animated mask to change the colour of his skin to look like a cut/burn, but I'm not sure the end result would look that good.
 
Easy = color grade some isolated discoloration
Medium = motion track a wound overlay image
Harder = that thing you said
Hardest = quality deepfake
 
I tried doing motion tracking with Mocha, but I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I ended up doing the mask.
It looks more like a nasty burn you'd get off a kettle than an actual lightsaber wound, but it's experience for next time at least. I'm trying out Davinchi Resolve for my next edit, which has way more facilities than my current software so it might open up more options for me.
 
Maybe EbSynth could help? https://ebsynth.com/

If you're just trying to add something to his face, you can do that on a keyframe, save your shot as a series of png stills, feed them into ebsynth with the changed keyframe, and see what it spits out. Might work, might look messed up.
 
Ebsynth worked very well:

I managed this with a quick painting of a wound on one of the frames.
With a Photoshop free trial and some elbow grease, I think I can make it look really good.
 
WilliamRedRobin said:
I tried doing motion tracking with Mocha, but I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I ended up doing the mask.
It looks more like a nasty burn you'd get off a kettle than an actual lightsaber wound, but it's experience for next time at least. I'm trying out Davinchi Resolve for my next edit, which has way more facilities than my current software so it might open up more options for me.
Click to expand...
What are your image editing skills like? Can you create a realistic still version of the wound? If you can, motion tracking seems the best route in my eyes because it’s just a matter of moving the wound pixel by pixel at that point, maybe with some warping for perspective changes. I spent weeks motion tracking masks for a 5 second scene on one of my edits. It’s a pain but worth it in the end.
 
FrameSniffer said:
What are your image editing skills like?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say I have any image editing skills, but I think with enough time and attention I can make a decent looking wound.
My current plan is to shortcut that part altogether and photoshop on the wound he has later in the film. If I can make it look right.
I'm not averse to motion tracking, I just need to get a better understanding of the process. EbSynth worked well for the mediocre wound image I made, so I'm hoping a better image will finish the effect.
It is a little wobbly (hard to see in the small version I posted but it's definitely there in fullscreen). I'm not certain, but I think this is the result of the mask I did being wobbly. I used the mask footage for the EbSynth effect, and I think the red mark helped EbSynth understand where the wound was supposed to follow in the footage. In one or two frames it actually tracks the wound onto the lens flare from Kylos lightsaber which coincidentally makes a bloodsplatter effect.

I'll do a couple more trials with a better wound image, and try to track the mask better to see if that helps.
If I can't get it to look good, I'll go back to surface tracking and see if I can get it right.
At this point I've put so much energy into it already that I might as well make it as good as possible.
Plus I think motion tracking will be essential in an edit I plan to make in the future, so I'm going to learn it eventually.
 
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WilliamRedRobin said:
I wouldn't say I have any image editing skills, but I think with enough time and attention I can make a decent looking wound.
My current plan is to shortcut that part altogether and photoshop on the wound he has later in the film. If I can make it look right.
I'm not averse to motion tracking, I just need to get a better understanding of the process. EbSynth worked well for the mediocre wound image I made, so I'm hoping a better image will finish the effect.
It is a little wobbly (hard to see in the small version I posted but it's definitely there in fullscreen). I'm not certain, but I think this is the result of the mask I did being wobbly. I used the mask footage for the EbSynth effect, and I think the red mark helped EbSynth understand where the wound was supposed to follow in the footage. In one or two frames it actually tracks the wound onto the lens flare from Kylos lightsaber which coincidentally makes a bloodsplatter effect.

I'll do a couple more trials with a better wound image, and try to make track the mask better to see if that helps.
If I can't get it to look good, I'll go back to surface tracking and see if I can get it right.
At this point I've put so much energy into it already that I might as well make it as good as possible.
Plus I think motion tracking will be essential in an edit I plan to make in the future, so I'm going to learn it eventually.
Click to expand...
What you’re doing is on the hard side of visual effects, so it’s going to be tough to implement, if it’s your first time at it. I can think of a lot of films where they get this wrong and they have a team of pros at it. Just take a look at the result of trying to mask superman’s moustache out in Justice League!

If your results are less that perfect in your eyes, consider that the viewer might not see the wound with the same critical eyes as you.
 
FrameSniffer said:
Just take a look at the result of trying to mask superman’s moustache out in Justice League!
Click to expand...
Superman's mustache is actually my benchmark. If it good enough for a billion-dollar franchise, it's good enough for me!
I'm really just trying to get to a point where I can say it looks decent. Luckily I'm not going to have to do any shots longer than 3 seconds so people won't really have a chance to look closely.
I'm not hoping to make it look like on-set makeup, but I'd like to see how good I can make it look, for future reference more than anything.
 
So, I was half right in my earlier post. Ebsynth was trying to follow the mask, but it turns out it didn't need to. It's an incredibly powerful bit of software considering the UI looks like this:
ebsynth-1024x487.png

It tracks moving objects really well, but doesn't seem to like zooms or pans.
The hardest shot to do was the second one here:

(Posted to Vimeo because the Copyright Gods of Youtube didn't like it)

The first and second shots only required one keyframe, but for some reason the second shot needed four keyframes and I even had to do a couple of frames by hand.
Let me know if you spot any problems.
 
WilliamRedRobin said:
So, I was half right in my earlier post. Ebsynth was trying to follow the mask, but it turns out it didn't need to. It's an incredibly powerful bit of software considering the UI looks like this:
ebsynth-1024x487.png

It tracks moving objects really well, but doesn't seem to like zooms or pans.
The hardest shot to do was the second one here:

(Posted to Vimeo because the Copyright Gods of Youtube didn't like it)

The first and second shots only required one keyframe, but for some reason the second shot needed four keyframes and I even had to do a couple of frames by hand.
Let me know if you spot any problems.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I’ll take a look at Ebsynth 😊

I don’t know the scene well enough to understand what you have added. What’s the timecode for the added wound?
 
These are the original shots:
The first added wound in my video is at 5 seconds, the second is at 15, and the third is at 38 seconds.
 
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Very impressive! I’ve watched it on a tv and it’s looks great! I’ve not fined toothed it frame by frame on a pc but don’t think there’s any need if it works for tv viewing 😊 great work!
 
There's definitely a bit of quivering in the second shot going frame-by-frame, and I didn't bother doing any of the short in between shots where you can see his face isn't cut, but If you didn't notice any of it on a normal watch through, that's definitely good enough for me!
 
WilliamRedRobin said:
There's definitely a bit of quivering in the second shot going frame-by-frame, and I didn't bother doing any of the short in between shots where you can see his face isn't cut, but If you didn't notice any of it on a normal watch through, that's definitely good enough for me!
Click to expand...
If the end result looks good then it’s a win. Depends on the perfectionist in you. Sometime even if no one will see the fine tuning I still go ahead and tweak, just so I know it’s right, for me 😊
 
Chiming in to say thanks for posting the thread, as I have 2 different projects where it sounds like ebsynth may be the tool I need to look at 🙂

Watching your clip those are impressive results for something working on a small number of keyframes!
 
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