Your low budget special effects

[Chance1234]

Ok low budget special effects , heres a few for starters

1, Fake blood
Flour, eggs, water, milk and food colouring mix is a thousand times better than all the glycerine crap, only thing s it has a very short life span. what you need to do is break the eggs into the milk till you get a nice gooey texture , then add in red and black food colouring till you get the desired coloured, add in a tiny bit of flour if you want a "Dryish sort of blod " or add in water if you want a "nose bleed gushing" sort of blood.

2,Blowing up buildings on a low budget
one you dont actually need ot blow the building up . what we did was use thunderflashes rigged along the inside of the building then attached to these were smoke grenadesd at right angles giving bellowing smoke, add some rubble noises in post and hey presto, we blew up an army magazine for less than a ?100 quid with this.

3, Poltergeist plates!
Fish wire! but!!!! this is where most people go wrong , if you attached one bit of fish wire and try to swing the plate or whip it through the air, it will look like a plate on a rod or a plate being swung by a bit of wire, what you need is two bits of fish wire and a guide rail. for a laymans example. get a metal pole tyre a loose loop round the pole and have a bit hanging down, hold the pole out of shot horizintially if you pull the thread hanging down it should nicely move along the pole. now attahced your object to this. now attached a second bit of fish wire going horizonitaly off frame so you can pull your object along the guide rail, this way you mantain the same height wiht your poltergeist object and dont get any swinging.

4, bleeding wounds
easy, get a bit of sponge soak it in your blood mix and place under clothing. make a small hole in the clothing, if its a gun shot burn the edges of the fabric, if its a knife wound just cut it straight, then get ytou actor to put there hands on either side of the wound and get them to press down on the sponge. works a treat.


Chance
5YLAC Films www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.com/desktop/deadlights/index.htm www.itkoa.co.uk

[Gwailofilms]

Have you got a vid clip online of the explosion, Chance? I'm trying to make action flicks, so blowin' shit up'd be really useful.

Thanks for starting this thread. I wish I had more to add other than Dale's compressed air squibs work a treat (I have used them many, many times and they always look awesome).



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The future is here:-
www.gwailofilms.co.uk

[Matt J Heaton]

I too like to see that. I can't imagine it being that convincing but I'll take your word for it.

[Keviano]

Using firecrackers (those small often-French bangers) is polystyrene covered in emulsion paint to look like brick works really well when replicating gunshots hitting walls. I've also used the garden sprayer device in polystyrene to do the same, it workes ok when you run it down a thin copper pipe, but you have to get the pressures right. I was gonna build a complete website about all the techniques I use when doing small budget special effects, but I'm less knowledgable when it come to all that HTML and website stuff! If I work it all out I'll post the address. In the mean time, if anyone needs any help with any aspect of creating effects, drop me an email on
[email protected]
If you're working in or around Oxfordshire I'd be happy to come and help out, as long as you cover my petrol expenses*, and I'm available! Contact me and we'll work something out.

Kev http://www.catdogfilms.co.uk

*The petrol is for my car, NOT part of the special effects!

[This message has been edited by Keviano (edited November 04, 2000).]

[LAmind]

Exploding blood:

Some time ago me and friends were experimenting with blood mixes and how to produce someone getting shot and blood spalttering over things. What we did is this.

The blood we made looked excelent, you really don't need any eggs or flours or sugar, all we used was red and black paint. We found that it's better for fake blood to be TOO dark than too bright. So make the mixture of paint dark red, but not to dark. Then get a very small balloon. The smaller the balloon the better, because it needs to be blown up very tightly so it blows up well. So then just take the balloon, one of you has to hold it open so the other person can pour the blood in. Pour in the fake blood all the way to the top until no more will go. No this part is kinda gross but neccessary. Put your lips on the balloon and blow it up, (yes i realize that paint wil "probably get in/on your mouth). Blow it up so the rubber is very tight and it blows up well. Then: you have to make a cylinderical "thing". what we did is, we took a sheet of paper and rolled up one side so it looks like an old fashion megaphone. Put the balloon in the cylinder and your set to pop it.

The cylinderical thing is just so the blood splatters in one direction, but feel free to just hold up the ballon with your hands and popping it, that way the blood will go everywhere in all directions. NOTE: You might have guess that the ballon and the person popping the balloon is NOT in the shot.

-Ivan

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"A place for everything and everything in it's place".

[This message has been edited by LAmind (edited November 04, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by LAmind (edited November 04, 2000).]

[eddie]

1- If you have the right software (eg Premier) and a nice clear sunny day you can use the sky as a blue screen instead of buying loads of blue paint and a wall of wood.

2- get a camera with an excellent lens (good zoom and wide angle range) and dont bother changing lenses, just zoom to the right angle and leave it there.

3- for a complicated and expensive action scene consider using animation instead of people.

[Littlerich]

Bullet hits: Use simple party poppers!
Take all the paoper streamers out, as well as both little circles of cardboard.

Cut it down so that the thin "handle" bit is left, with the party popper bit inside.

Strap this to a wall / fence / etc.

When filming, get someone to hide round the corner, and pull the string.
Voila! One gun shot squib. And all for less than 20P!

Easy!

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KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
www.rmsgraffix.freeserve.co.uk
[email protected]

[Chance1234]

little rich,

Models can be done extremly well, you just need to spend the time. a few tips for you

1. remember your camera angles, they can make all the difference , thing how something big is normal potrayed on film and so the same with your models.

2. Lenses get the right lenses for the job,

3.Avoid, anything that you cant get to scale on the model or is going to look like something stuck on a bit of plastic.

4. let the camera do the moving, keep the model static.

5. Explosions million and one things you can do here, what i would say though is break the model reassemble with water glue then attached fish wire and yank it apart. then in post add in the explosion and a mean sound

6. talking on which sound is going to make all the difference

7. Film is all about creating an illusion go out and create one


hope this helps

Chance

[Littlerich]

While we're on the topic of Special Effects, any suggesions as to the best way to do spaceships?
I would need a small space cruiser, (kinda like an X-wing fighter), and a huge mothership (Like a Borg Cube, or Red Dwarf sort of...)

I will also need to have them both exploding
(I can film these at the end, so don't worry about there being more than 1 of each!)

Obviously there is CGI, but I don't know how to use any 3D graphics packages, and I don't know anyone who does...

There is also Models, but again, if I made them, they would look cheap and Nasty...

Anyone got any other Ideas? Anyone out there willing to make me some ships / etc... I will GLADLY put their name in credits... (It's a TV company that I'm making it with, so you'r work WILL get seen!).

If you can help, or need more info, please E-mail me:
[email protected]

Thanks!



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KEEP FOCUSED!
Little Rich.
http://go.to/littlerich
www.rmsgraffix.freeserve.co.uk
[email protected]

[Chance1234]

in the DEadlights trailer you can see, the blood mix we used and the sponge trick, unfortunatly no biulding blownig up in this one , but there is one of our explosions.


Chance

right click on the below and select save as to download the deadlights trailer


http://www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.co...ts_trailer1.rm