Reflection of fireworks in eyeball

James Klatt · February 1, 2006

Is there any way to reflect fireworks in an eyeball, in an extreme closeup of an eyeball?

I have footage of fireworks.

I want it to look like it's truly reflecting, 3-dimensionally, on the eye.

David Mullen ASC · February 1, 2006

Is there any way to reflect fireworks in an eyeball, in an extreme closeup of an eyeball?
I have footage of fireworks.

I want it to look like it's truly reflecting, 3-dimensionally, on the eye.

That would be a simple post trick to warp the fireball footage to fit the curvature of the eye, roto to keep the overlaid reflection just in the eye area, tracking the eyeball to match the motion, etc. Well, simple for a post efx person, not for me...

You could try surrounding the eye with some big rear-projection screens and digitally project the fireworks footage but you may find that it would be hard to control focus, i.e. when focusing on the eye, the reflection of the fireworks may look so out-of-focus as to be hard to tell what it was. Plus it would have to be very bright projection to make a good reflection.

Matt Irwin · February 1, 2006

That would be a simple post trick to warp the fireball footage to fit the curvature of the eye, roto to keep the overlaid reflection just in the eye area, tracking the eyeball to match the motion, etc. Well, simple for a post efx person, not for me...

You could try surrounding the eye with some big rear-projection screens and digitally project the fireworks footage but you may find that it would be hard to control focus, i.e. when focusing on the eye, the reflection of the fireworks may look so out-of-focus as to be hard to tell what it was. Plus it would have to be very bright projection to make a good reflection.

Perhaps you can substitute the rear-screen with a large LCD monitor (like a cinema display or a large HD TV) positioned very close to the subject. Then, surround the monitor with duvetyn to kill any other reflections and poke the lens through the duv. Having never done this, I can't be sure it will work... but could be worth testing.

Of course, if you have access to workable rear-screen or a vfx guy, go with those. :)

Can you post your results? I'd be interested in what you end up doing.

David Mullen ASC · February 1, 2006

Perhaps you can substitute the rear-screen with a large LCD monitor (like a cinema display or a large HD TV) positioned very close to the subject.

I thought of that too but the trouble is that the eyeball is like a fish-eye lens, so even a very large monitor right next to the eyeball could end up looking like a square in the reflection. But it would be worth testing, like taking a 40" LCD HD screen and putting it right up against the face, next to the lens, and blacking all around.

"Blade Runner" begins with a shot of an eyeball with a reflection of the cityscape with fireball, which I believe was done by projecting the background onto a white dome and then compositing that over the ECU of the eyeball (which may be a still.) But nowadays I think it would be easier to convert the fireworks footage and warp it into a globe, and then composite over the eye, rotoing around the eyelids.

James Klatt · February 1, 2006

Good suggestions. VFX was the route I didn't want to go...but I guess it is inevitable if I want to make it happen. I'll let you know hot it turns out.