Predator Vs Stormtroopers

[Lflank]

Predator vs Stormtroopers: A squad of Imperial Stormtroopers encounters a cloaked hunter in the Lok System while raiding a Rebel base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfewuhY9lY


As with all my movies, I play all the roles myself, and filmed the whole thing in front of a greenscreen tacked up in my living room.

Thanks to all the Lair denizens who helped out with the voice parts.

 

[Lflank]

A couple people PM'd me to ask how the effects were done. The pred vision was done using the "colorama" effect in After Effects, and the cloaking effect was done using the "displacement map" function.

 

[NEMES1S]

Cool fx man.

 

[Lflank]

Cool fx man.

Thanks. The FX weren't very hard to do. The biggest problem I have is that the only area I have available to film in is too small for me to get very far away from the greenscreen, so I always have lots of spill on me. The spill filter on my software gets quite a workout and it doesn't turn out too bad, but there are still places where I can see grunge on the screen from spillover. Alas, though, there's nothing I can do about it--I have no choice but to work in the space available.

If only I had a budget and some real lighting to work with . . .

I think my next project will be an Imperial Stardestroyer that pulls in a derelict spaceship, sends a squad of troopers aboard, and finds some xenos.

That means I gotta make a bug costume.

 

[Charlie Collyer]

Congratulations are in order. A brilliant film and brilliant effects. I like this Xeno idea you have and am looking forwards to seeing it made Good luck and happy hunting

 

[Lflank]

Congratulations are in order. A brilliant film and brilliant effects. I like this Xeno idea you have and am looking forwards to seeing it made Good luck and happy hunting

Glad you liked it.

 

[Hecatomb]

Nice effects. I liked the tri-lasers and the crosshair on the stormtrooper.

 

[Lflank]

Nice effects. I liked the tri-lasers and the crosshair on the stormtrooper.

Thanks, glad you liked it.

I posted the lasersight effect here somewhere--everyone should feel free to use it in their own fan films if they like. Just import it into an editing software and set the blending mode to "screen".

Right now I'm working on three different YouTube films at the same time: a lightsaber fight between Good Me and Evil Me; an "Aliens vs Stormtroopers" (that one will take a while since I have to make an Alien costume first); and a "Predators: The Hunt" based on a planetary game preserve and currently planned to have a Stormtrooper, a Klingon, and a Mobile Infantry from "Starship Troopers" as prey.

I hop from working on one to another as I feel like it, so I don't know which will be finished first or how long it will take me. But I will post each of them here as they're done.

 

[berserk wolf]

I like it! Great effects job with the Pred's cloak! Always like the ''distorted ripples'' in the original two films

 

[Lflank]

I like it! Great effects job with the Pred's cloak! Always like the ''distorted ripples'' in the original two films

Glad you liked it.

The original films were done before the era of digital effects. To do the cloaking effect, they shot the scene at several different sizes, then printed all the plates atop each other to produce an overlapping multilayer look, sort of like a Fresnel lens.

The way I did it was to shoot the scene in two layers, one a background and the other a pred in front of a greenscreen, then digitally place the pred layer underneath the background and running the "displacement map" function in After Effects. This filter distorts the background layer in accordance with the shape and motion it finds in the layer underneath it.

It's a really good-looking effect.