Fake Smoking

jeremyhung · Mar 27, 2009

Hey guys,
I'm filming a short involving teens and one of the characters is a smoker.
Since they're student actors, I would like to add the smoke to the video instead of having them smoke.

I was wondering if there was a way I can accomplish this. I think the best way to do this would be with a footage of blowing smoke against a green screen. Instead of setting this up...etc. is there another way to do it? Or any links with a footage that would help?

Thanks
Jeremy

indietalk · Mar 27, 2009

http://www.thatrestlessmouse.com/product/PR1302/Puffing_Prop_Cigarettes.html
http://www.vickysjokeshopalaska.com/fake-cigarettes.html

jeremyhung · Mar 27, 2009

Thanks,
but i actually need the smoke footage.

M1chae1 · Mar 27, 2009

I believe After Effects or CG plugins can handle this pretty easily. We recently added smoke to an unlit cigarette and it looked really good, as long as you don't show it too much. If you don't have those applications, it will be very difficult for you.

There should be tutorials online.

jeremyhung · Mar 27, 2009

Thanks. I use Final Cut Express.

Any idea how?

DjMeko · Mar 27, 2009

Hi, I do it with After Effects. For more info check out Andrew Cramer's site.

You can watch this tutorial on his site: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

--DjMeko

knightly · Mar 27, 2009

This one is almost exactly what you're looking for, just need different settings for the smoke if using AE. Motion should be able to generate smoke footage for you. If you don't have access to the latest version of motion (with FCS2), the you'll have to track the smoke to the end of the cigarette by hand.

you'll move the particle generator in motion so the particles it generates linger in the same place rather than shifting like a plate would... the technique above can be reapplied to motion to get the effect. The difficult part would be that you'd have to hand track the tip of the cigarette if you're using the old version.

jeremyhung · Mar 27, 2009

Thanks for the site.
I will try the technique from the site

M1chae1 · Mar 27, 2009

DjMeko said:
Hi, I do it with After Effects. For more info check out Andrew Cramer's site.

You can watch this tutorial on his site: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

--DjMeko

Awesome tut man. That is very helpful. I'm very much a novice with AE, but I could get into this right away.

ccfilms12345 · Mar 31, 2009

in AE, you can also you the particular plugin that comes with trapcode. Video copilot also has a tutorial on "cold breath" he'll walk you through it and show you how to create the smoke effect using the particular plugin. Its pretty simple to use. Also when the person sucks in the smoke, the cigarette tunrs red, so somehow it has to took real like that as well.

Also you can consider shooting someone really smoking closeup then you won't be able to see the actor's face. I also remember seeing some "fake" cigaretts for stage performers that you can purchase.

Fake Smoking

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