Chopping off a finger?

Hi erverybody,

Next weekend, I'm doing this short "FingerGun."
In that video i need to make following effects look nice:

1. Bite of a finger,
The finger has to be stuck in my actors mouth, and since i dont have the cash, to make it as a special effect. I wanted to do it in post-production.

2. Chopped of hand,
The hand is need to look realistic, were it was cutted over.

3. Invisible tank,
I need one of my actors to be sitting in the air, just like he was sitting in a tank.
My idear was to make him sit on a chair/table with a green screen over it.

If Anyone can help me out, it would help me a lot.
i have a very short deadline, and not that much time for practice the effects.

-Felics

Btw. I have acces to following softwares.
Final Cut Pro X, (I have some experience)
Motion 5, (I'm very new to the program.)

Zach King did something related to having an object floating in air. It was accomplished using after effects instead of motion but the basic procedure is the same. finalcutking.com/make-things-float-in-after-effects/

As for biting off the finger, you really might be better off shooting it practically. Especially if you're looking at a quick turnaround.

Green screen over a chair, that's how its done.

Fingers and hands, well, wrap the arm, etc in green screen, shoot on a green screen (or down onto a table covered in green screen).

To really sell the effect, your biggest helps will be in quick cuts, moving camera & sound effects. The sound actually is as important as the visuals. Once you record a sound there's a lot you can do with it in post. For the biting off a finger, the sound of celery snapping is an old foley favorite for breaking bones. You might want to muffle it a bit as it's in the mouth. Not sure how much of that you'll hear over the victim screaming. I can't believe we're talking about this...

oh, ohh, just another Zombie Movie

Felicsp wrote: …
1. Bite of(f) a finger,
The finger has to be stuck in my actors mouth …

Editing, Ketchup, a sausage:
in case, you can not effort a rubber-finger from the next Halloween-Shop, I would do some 'Movie Magic':
I assume, there's some sort of fight-scene establishing it.

• Zombie bites.
• Victim shows reaction, close-up of hand:
• hold hand (palm off camera), deviate finger, add some ketchup on top of joint ...
• cut to Zombie, sausage in mouth (add ketchup):

if you do that with the right pace (fast fight, slow showing of 'finger off', fast finger-in-mouth, your audience does 'know', the finger got bite-off ... no need, to show bones & arteries ......

Felicsp wrote: … 2. Chopped of(f) hand,
The hand is need to look realistic, were it was cutted over. …

if you shoot the hand in direction from tip to ankle, you can use a sort-of green-screen as mentioned above: hide the victims body, except the hand, under some green cloth. record scene without actor. composite both recordings.

if you like to shoot in the other direction … my other hobby is cooking: did you ever saw a piece of raw meat, a whole ham, a hock, ossobuco before cooking it? meat + bones (+blood, veins, skin)? that is rather complex to make it 'realistic'.-

Felicsp wrote: … 3. Invisible tank,
I need one of my actors to be sitting in the air, …

as mentioned above: scene with actor on green chair, don't toch the camera!, same scene without protagonist, composite both recordings

happy grrrrrrrr :woohoo:

==edit==
just saw trixtrax' post:
for sure - sound is of paramount importance! it adds 500% 'realism'.
you get, aside sound libraries, a good 'crunch' (=bones) with biting into a cucumber (mic super close), cucumbers are a very noisy veggie .... :lol: