Illusions in Using Miniatures in Film

In this age of computer graphics and animation, there is a special effects art form that's quickly losing popularity and earning a place in film making history. What is this art form? It's only the use of miniatures in film making. Have you ever watched those Godzilla movies in the past that didn't use any computer graphics animation? The destruction scenes of Tokyo and other suburbs used miniatures. They may be crude, but they do a nice job in convincing the audience that Japan is being trampled on by a giant lizard - at least for the duration of the movie.

Of course, there are miniature effects that are more convincing. In James Cameron's Titanic, the director used a partial scale replica of the rear part of the ship as the background of a scene with survivors in the water. Movies like the old Sinbad movies also used miniatures to film stop-motion creatures. In Superman, the Movie, miniatures were used to show the effects of the shifting of the San Andreas fault. Indeed, for years, movie audiences were agape in fascination with these miniatures because they were very effective.

It may be old, but the technique of using miniatures for special effects is not dead. In fact, it is something that budding film makers can use quite effectively. They only need to know a few things about using miniatures to make the scenes more realistic. For example, since the laws of physics (like gravity) makes small objects behave differently, making them look small, film makers "overcrank" their cameras. In other words, they shoot the miniature scenes with a very high frame rate per second. This allows the motions of the scene to be slowed down, making it appear that a falling tiny Statue of Liberty is actually the real thing that's heavy and massive.

Overcranking usually solves motion problem, except for water shoots. In small-scale, a tiny waterfall or tidal wave would produce droplets that are too large for scale. This discrepacny does not escape the human eye. The solution would be to make associated scale models like ships bigger so that the water flow and clumping appear more natural. This was also done by director Cameron in Titanic. Ship models a fraction of the original size were made for ocean scenes.

Miniatures can be mixed or composited with normal scale live action scenes. They can be placed on the foreground and made to appear as if they are in the background at a distance from the subjects. This technique is called forced perspective and was often used to fake UFO photographs in the past. Another technique would be to use a mirror with the silver (reflective material) scratched out a section. The miniatures are filmed through this hole as the normal scale scene plays as a reflection in the mirror. It can be tricky, but it really works. A variation of this is to use a matte painting on glass with open spaces through which the miniature scene is filmed.

There are many ways to use miniatures in film. Just be creative and you may find use for it still in this age of computers!

Imagine what you can do with this Star Wars Clone Wars AT-TE miniature action figure set in a homemade film! Click here or on the image to place your order.

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How to Summon a Ghost to Scare People Using Visual Effects

What's a good thing to do for Halloween? Make something scary of course. Here's a trick that's been used by stage magicians and movie makers for decades to produce an illusion of ghosts. Mind you, this trick has scared audiences due to it's convincing effect and some of the magicians have been jailed for practicing black magic - even though it's simple movie special effects magic!

In old magical stage shows, there used to be this trick in which a ghost is summoned in a box (sometimes it's a coffin). Sometimes, this ghost changes form, it's flesh seemingly dissolving until only the skeleton is left.

Other times, the ghost transforms into a monster with fangs and all! It's a trick that has scared young and old alike and is indeed very convincing if there is a crowd that reacts to it. How is this done?

It doesn't take much to do this as long as you have a digital camera, a computer, a slide projector, some way to generate flameless dry ice smoke (or a large sheet of transparent plastic), and the slide of your "ghost." What you do is to take a picture of a really scary ghost with a dark, plain background (you can paint it yourself if you have the talent, otherwise, get one from an obscure book).

Take your computer and projector and pick a nice, scary place for your ghost to appear at night (preferably beside a private but scary-looking private "haunted" house). Make some dry ice smoke (or set up your plastic sheet), turn on your projector, and make the image of the ghost appear on your improvised smoke or plastic screen!

Note that the dry ice smoke generator should be set up at an elevated place since the curtain of smoke will flow down to the ground and not upwards.

Now that you know how to do the trick, you'd probably like to know how you can make things convincing. That's simple. Just perform your scary trick when people least expect it. That makes it more believable. Just don't do anything that can get you shot for being mistaken as something dangerous!

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