Reflection in someone's eye

[Phil Beastall]

I was wondering if anyone knew how I could superimpose an image of someone into someone's eye. I want to add a slight fish eye look to it but want it to remain 100% opaque and clear, but look like a reflection. Is this possible in after effects?!

[Serge Teulon]

Do you want a clear image or a would a silhouette suffice?

[Phil Beastall]

Ideally it would be a clear image. So the viewer can see what is being reflected, as the shot is an ECU of someone's eye.

[Chris Keth]

Is there any reason you can't do this practically on set?

[James Steven Beverly]

Yeah, you could possibly do a variant on Pepper's Ghost.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

It could probably easily be done in camera. Get the actor and his/her eye on a set with black everywhere. Place one light source to the right to light the eye, place the actor who's reflection you want to the left and be sure he/she's well lit (placing his/her light behind the "eye actor", unless you want another twinkle to show up in the eye). Get some duvetyne or some black material to hide the camera and operator from the eye's reflection and there you go.

 

Easier said than done, but it can be done, and it'll look much more natural than some After Effects composite.

[Chris Keth]

It could probably easily be done in camera. Get the actor and his/her eye on a set with black everywhere. Place one light source to the right to light the eye, place the actor who's reflection you want to the left and be sure he/she's well lit (placing his/her light behind the "eye actor", unless you want another twinkle to show up in the eye). Get some duvetyne or some black material to hide the camera and operator from the eye's reflection and there you go.

 

Easier said than done, but it can be done, and it'll look much more natural than some After Effects composite.

 

That's pretty much it. I will add that the person in the reflection will have to be lit pretty hot to show up how you want. It will probably surprise you how much light i will take.

[Phil Beastall]

Some great ideas there, but lets say we can't do that and I want to do it entirely in post. I have the two shots ready to go - the eye and the figure to put into the eye.

[David Auner aac]

Some great ideas there, but lets say we can't do that and I want to do it entirely in post. I have the two shots ready to go - the eye and the figure to put into the eye.

 

Hi Phil,

you can do that in post if it's not possible in camera. Won't look as natural though, unless you put some real effort into it. Use a combination of distortion filters and masks, maybe tweak the colours a bit too. Either use After Effects or Combustion or whatever app suits you most.

 

Cheers, Dave

[Phil Beastall]

I haven't really use masks all that much, I'm just getting into After Effects etc, so was wondering if it would be ok to get a guide through...Nothing overly specific but just a rough idea...?

[Phil Beastall]

I was pointed in the direction of motion and using motion tracked masks I'm going to overly the reflection onto the eye.

 

Thanks for all your help

[David Auner aac]

Is there any subject or camera motion in the shot? If so, you'd have a hard time tracking the whole thing. Better keep the camera locked down and the eye static.

 

Cheers, Dave

[Joe Giambrone]

I saw a tutorial about "projecting" an image onto another image in After Effects. Can't remember the link, but maybe searching gobos will help your search (also included in their tutorial). Projecting your reflection onto an eye shaped 3d eye shape might be the way to go.

[Colin Rich]

I'd suggest checking out creativecow.com and going through a few of their AE tutorials. The previous posts have already cued you in on what sorts of techniques you might need: masking, distortion, projecting, etc. Creative Cow has a huge amount of written and video tutorials, many of which are on AE. Just browse for the techniques you want and check it out!