Photoshop Cloak Effect

[IronHunter]

Before we start, you don't NEED to have photoshop. You can use similar effects and options using a Free software called GIMP
This is a tutorial for still images only...Not an actual film sorry but I do believe the principles are similar but with using videos.

Stuff you will need~
Photo editing software
Two (2) pictures (This includes a shot of the background and then a shot of yourself or the object. Try to keep your camera as still as possible)

Through this tutorial I will assume you have Photoshop, if not then try and find a similar option to what I say

Process~
-Step one
Load the images into your editing software

(Yes...Its Ezio from AC2...I had nothing better at the time)

-Step two
Move the image with your object/person over to the background image (Make sure it is formed into another layer)

-Step 3
With this layer selected, go to the top tabs and select the Overlay effect to make the layer transparent

-Step 4
With the same layer selected, go to Filter>Distort>Ocean Ripple
This will give it a nice effect

-Step 5
Now select the eraser and start getting rid of those unwanted ripples in the background. We only want the effect to change the actual object/person right? (If you wish for this too effect the background then don't erase anything)

-Step 6
The next effect to add is the Plastic Wrap, so go too Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap

-Step 7
Now this is were you can add other effects depending on what you like but this is really the basic outline of the way I do a cloak effect
From here you can now go back to the layer effects and select the Pin Light option...

And there we are, a simple and basic cloak effect.
Remember that you can alter and change any of these steps to improve the effect and make it to your likening

Thank you for taking the time to read this tutorial and I hope that I have helped some of you in need of help...

Merry Christmas~

 

[Darth Pinhead]

Dude, that is AWESOME! I use Photoshop quite a bit for work but was too lazy to figure it out, LOL. Thank you for this thread. I'm thinking about doing some Xmas cards incoporating this method...

 

[IronHunter]

Thanks and glad I could help!

Merry Christmas~

 

[Eaglewood]

I have played with photoshop a bit and gotten some good effects, but this is great-- need to spend more time on it for sure.
Thanks for this!!!!

 

[BurnEm]

I was always wondering how to do this on photoshop, just never messed around with it enough. Thanks

 

[BigEvil]

Very cool, had to play around with it myself. Found a bit of a short cut/work around too. Mine went this way, shoot the frame with the object in it (my arm in this case) then shoot again on timer but wait until the camera auto focuses before you move whatever out of frame (this keeps the background in the same focus from plate to plate) most likely more beneficial to outdoor style shooting where you don't have the same control over the shooting environment. Follow the instructions up to making the overlaying layer transparent (in my case I had to open a control panel and adjust the opacity of the overlay, transparent wasn't an option). The quicker work around however was instead of doing the effects and erasing the unwanted sections, I used the lasso tool and ringed the arm where I wanted the effect to happen, then used the ripple effects etc. At the end I merged all the layers together and got the following pic. Again, nice job IronHunter, thanks.

 

[Hunts With Man]

Somewhere, I found another set of techniques to produce the cloak effect. It took some bluescreening to pull off, though. I didn't have an easy source image for the Pred at the time, so I produced this using the sample from the website. The background image is taken by a friend at Mt. Dandenong in Victoria, Australia. (Small version of this as my Avatar)

 

[BigEvil]

So living on a mountaintop and getting bored tends to lead to all kinds of "ideas". Curse you Ironhunter for giving me another idea to play around with

played with the opacity, used the "glowing edge" filter, erased the background to get it where I liked it and then used "glass ripple" effect to finish off before adding some airbrush detail to fire the gun

 

[BigEvil]

Here's another take on it. The middle shot is a 3 layer composite using a pencil tool and airbrush tool for the effect detail. Just an extra step to get that halfway shot for a display print.

 

[Skullsplitter]

I fail to do the freshnell-lens effect right...