frame by frame thingy

boogschd · Mar 20, 2009

.....i dont know what to call it

so how do you do the effect(not the stunt) ?
(yeah im being lazy ... sorry

)

NucleaRR · Mar 20, 2009

I wrote this a while ago and it is the technique I use to get this effect. I'm sure there are other ways to do this but this is the easiest for me. I am using PS 7 (still

).

Things you'll need.

Tripod
Photoshop
Graphics Tablet (optional)

The first step is to set up your shot. The easiest way to get this kind of shot is to put the camera into Sports mode or Continuous Shooting. Check your camera's manual to find out how. Next you will want to make sure that you have your camera mounted on a tripod so that the background scene does not change from picture to picture. Make sure you are not zoomed in so close that you can't get a good sequence of pictures.

Once the pictures have been taken transfer them to your PC/Mac. Open Photoshop. Find and open the pictures you want use. Now with my camera it takes a lot of shots so the subject/persons body overlaps itself from one frame to the next. To get around this select every other or every third picture to allow adequate spacing unless you want the overlap.

Once in Photoshop select which image has the cleanest background. I say this because sometimes there can be slight color changes from on picture to the next. If you can, start with the image where the action begins. Make sure its window is active by clicking on it and go to Layers>New>Layer from Background. This will make a new layer that is unlocked (can be edited). Name this layer Base when the window pops up, hit OK. Now find the next picture in the sequence. Click its window to select it. In the Layers window to the right, right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer. When the Duplicate Layer window pops up name this layer Step 1. Next use the drop down menu to select the image file that you named Base, hit OK. Once you do this click back to the Base layer and you should see that you now have two layers, the Base and the image you just duplicated and named Step 1. Do these same steps for the remaining pictures in the sequence making sure to number them properly.

Turn off all layers by clicking the little 'eye' icon in the Layers Window. Leave Base and Step 1 on. Now click the layer named Step 1. Go to Layers>add Layer Mask>Reveal All.
You should see a white or black box appear next to the image box in the Step 1 Layers window. When working with Layer Masks you use both Black and White colors to erase and/or add pixels. If you have a White box next to your image make sure that the Brush Tool icon is selected and that your color is Black. Now when you 'paint' the image what will happen is the image below will show through. So paint around the subject/person in the Step 1 layer. You should now see the Base Layer showing through. Sometimes you can just get away with painting around the subject/person other times you will have to get right up to them and outline just them. It may be easier to do this with the Pen Tool. Search Google to learn how to use this tool if you are not familiar with it. If your lines around the subject/person appear sharp like a cutout can sometimes, select the Blur Tool and set the opacity to about 20%. Then trace around the perimeter of the subject/person to blend them in a little. Remember that everytime you go over the same area with the brush it takes off 20% of the pixel opacity; try tracing it loosely one time. Repeat these steps until all layers are showing through and you have a complete transition of the action. At this point you can either Merge the images or follow the next step. Save the file as .psd this way you can go back and fix something if you have to. You can also save it as a jpeg for viewing elsewhere.

That's pretty much it. Once you have the image saved on one layer you can then begin to do tweaks on the contrast and saturation etc.

Big Mike · Mar 20, 2009

Take multiple shots. Then use one shot as the background and cut out the subject from the rest of the images and layer them in one file. Or rather than cut them out, just stack all the images as layers (in Photoshop for example) then use layer masks to reveal the multiple subjects.