Recreating the effect used for HP and the Forbidden Journey?

Mattia

Mattia

Member
Hello,

I know this is a bit of an odd question but I really need someone's help. I know quite a few of you are rather technical with your stuff and it got me wondering if I should ask here.

Basically, you know the Forbidden Journey ride has talking portraits which are similar to the HP films? Well, I've been trying to search for hours on end as to how this affect was achieved. For my final year at university, I want to do a drama piece which has various "portraits" of me talking to each other and having a conversation as the audience stand and watch. I understand I'll need software to achieve the syncing etc for this (which isn't a problem) but if anyone could help me in terms of what I would need to achieve this "talking portraits" effect then it would truly be appreciated. Also, does anyone know how I could achieve a more realistic drawn-looking video effect to depict a more realistic portrait?

Many Thanks for reading this!

Mattia :)
 
Looking at a YouTube clip, the talking portraits look like videos playing on flatscreen monitors.  I'm not clear about what you meant by using software to sync up the portraits.  If each video is playing back from its own DVD player and the players are the same model, then face all the players in the same direction, cue up each video at its proper starting point, and point the remote control at the pile of DVD players and press the PLAY button. ;)

There are tutorials on how to make photos look like oil paintings with Adobe Photoshop.  You should be able to take those same techniques and figure out how to implement them in a compositing software package to apply that look to your footage.
 
I have been in there several times, and yes, its simply flat screen monitors, but I believe the key to the effect is a plastic or glass overlay that has brush strokes carved into it.  When you walk into the room, the combination of lower light levels and this overlay make it hard to tell which is a painting and which is a video monitor.
 
A few years ago at CES they were showing a backlight free television (more of a gimmick since natural light would not suffice) and odds are they are using similar setups and they may also use a clear lacquer painted on top to simulate the brushstrokes (which is a common trick used to make printed canvas look more like real paintings).

Disney might also use the same stuff on their magic paintings they use on the ships. 
 
Thank you all so much for your help! I was thinking of a anti-glare acrylic overlay and then painting some oldage/crackle effect ontop of the acrylic to give it that effect.

I was mean by the software on how to control, say, four individual paintings but ensuring they'd all sync together. I would be worried that the DVDs could slightly mess up and become out of sync.

Once again thanks so much for your help - it means a lot! :)
 
Odds are you could do it with a multi-display setup on a computer so that the files could stay in sync. It might also be something you could set up similar to how the flying madam leota works, where a large video file is playing that has all the elements in it and each display is only showing a portion of the total image.

The flying leota effect is kind of the opposite of this where they use a super sharp projector and have the face projection move within the plane rather than having to make it mechanically sync to the moving screen.

Forgot to add, for the realistic brushstrokes, the stuff you will want to look for is acrylic gel medium.
 
Hmmm, if you were going to film your own you would probably also need some video editing software to help make sure it loops properly and other needed effects.
 
Thanks so much everyone! Huge help!

The project won't be finalised till 2013/early 2014 but I'll be sure to take all your help and suggestions on bored!
 
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