Making wheels disappear

[womo68]

So uh...I got this sweet deal on a speeder...low miles...bought it from a kid at a club..... :love

Anyway.... I'm taking the speeder to CV and it'll be set up for photo ops along with my moisture vap. The exposed wheels are really bugging me.

I don't mind seeing the wheels if I'm driving it....but I'd like for them to "disappear" while just sitting there for photos.

I thought about putting some of that reflective mylar stuff around them and making the angle reflect the floor.

Any other ideas????

 

[CessnaDriver]

Magician's forums! Get thee to them.

 

[hankey01]

Carefully places rocks or Jawas. Great ride!!!

 

[exoray]

Some properly placed mirrors could give some good real time illusions, but personally I would just use Photoshop, you could always get some solid colored cloth (lime green) and make a full skirt for the speeder making Photoshop a little easier in some instances...

 

[Riceball]

Mirrors of one sort or another is probably the best way to go since I believe that's what they used when they originally filmed Star Wars. Another (imperfect option) would to be put boards that are colored like the ground they'll be parked on, you'll still see the boards but they'll probably be less noticeable than the wheels. The benefit of having something covering the wheels is that it should make it easier for someone to post the wheels out in Photoshop.

Something else I just thought would be a fake stand that's all decorated along the sides. It wouldn't make the speeder look much likes it's hovering, unless you leave a little space at the top, but it would make it look it's sitting on a stand of some sort and not wheels.

 

[fotokid]

Magician's forums! Get thee to them.

You can try magic or some photoshop 101. Simply put the camera on a tipod and take a photo of your speeder and then move the speeder out frame and take another photo. When you edit the photos place the non speeder photo under the speeder photo in your layers. Lastly you erase the wheels and the background will show through. Tah dah!

 

[Shinsei]

Sounds like a good plan fotokid.

 

[Boomerjinks]

I'd say your best best is a pavement-colored skirt of some kind. A flat, ashen gray. If you wanted to get fancy you could lean mirrors up against the tires, it may not look just right, but it will look better than staring at sidewall.

 

[Tiberius Kirk]

Nice speeder!

 

[DARTH SABER]

You can try magic or some photoshop 101. Simply put the camera on a tipod and take a photo of your speeder and then move the speeder out frame and take another photo. When you edit the photos place the non speeder photo under the speeder photo in your layers. Lastly you erase the wheels and the background will show through. Tah dah!

He only problem with that technique is that when you take the second photo without the speeder, the shadow will be missing as well....when you erase the wheels from the top layer photo, you'll reveal the ground with no shadow on the bottom layer photo.


Th best bet is to take the photo, bring it into Photoshop, use the cloning tool, use the eyedropper to sample a shadowed section under the speeder, then simply clone t over the wheels.
It should take about 5 min.

 

[themanwoaname]

you could always use vaseline. thats what i would do.

 

[trekpropguy]

I've seen the original landspeeder they used in the movie. It uses mirrors around the base, and curved ones at the front. It's the way to do it.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Park in my old neighborhood. The wheels will disappear!

 

[MustangGTR1]

Low profile tires and clear center wheels, and they do make wheels with clear centers..

 

[womo68]

you could always use vaseline. thats what i would do.

Free post??? Oh yes...I see. :confused

 

[womo68]

I found this stuff that I might give a try....

Carnival Mirror The Original Fun House Mirror Flexible Distortion Mirror

 

[Paw]

He only problem with that technique is that when you take the second photo without the speeder, the shadow will be missing as well....when you erase the wheels from the top layer photo, you'll reveal the ground with no shadow on the bottom layer photo.

Casting another shadow where the speeder was should be easy. Only problem would be if the wheel is half shaded and half lighted, like in the photos OP posted. I suppose you could take two back photos, one with a "fake" shadow and one without, and use them to create the shadow line. Might be easier ways to fix that, but at least it would be a solution. I think using mirrors would be a lot more work if you want the shadows to look proper.

 

[themanwoaname]

Free post??? Oh yes...I see. :confused

someone hasnt watched starwars...ever...

Here we have a shot of the landspeeder as it makes its way through the ‘bustling’ port of Mos Eisley. As you can see, budgetary constraints had a severe effect on the amount of activity that was seen. In this shot you may also notice the strange orange ‘force field’ below the landspeeder. This is actually Vaseline, which was put on the camera lens to obscure the wheels on the bottom of the speeder!

web source
Star Wars: The Changes - Part One in Editorial > Articles at DVDActive

its also mentioned in the first making of starwars, right out of lucas's mouth talking about his dissatisfaction of having to do it that way.


if you're going the route of a photo, why not go the original way?

thanks for the free posts!

 

[womo68]

someone hasnt watched starwars...ever...




web source
Star Wars: The Changes - Part One in Editorial > Articles at DVDActive

its also mentioned in the first making of starwars, right out of lucas's mouth talking about his dissatisfaction of having to do it that way.


if you're going the route of a photo, why not go the original way?

thanks for the free posts!

Yes, I can make everyone wear glasses with a dab of Vaseline on the bottom :eek

 

[themanwoaname]

i was saying, considering there is alot of the photoshop route mentioned in this topic. but yes. handout vaseline covered sunglasses. i would prefer panama jack aviators please.

was it the same land speeder at megacon this year?