The kid stays in the picture effect.

Hello there fellow night workers,

I´m doing a short film about an old bridge about to be torn down. As the bridge was built in the 1800´s there are of course no film material to use. However there is an abundance of photos. To make the film more pleasing I am thinking about using "the kid stays in the picture effect" to the photos. This is where I have a problem as I do not have After effects, Photoshop or Motion. What I do have is FcpX. Is there a shortcut to this effect or am I f****d.

All answers are hugely appreciated.

/H

You have to have a least Photoshop or Pixelmator to process the images. You can rent Photoshop CC from Adobe for a limited period.

Good idea thank you. If I have PS and FcpX I should be able to do this without AE or Motion?

/H

As Tom says you can use either Photoshop or Pixelmator for extracting the elements of the photograph to different layers and restoring the missing background under the elements where needed. Then you can import an animate the layers in FCP X to perform the effect.

A few things you might consider:

- You can rent Photoshop for a month, but you can actually buy Pixelmator and own it forever for only a few dollars more.

- This type of effect can require some serious background layer restoration behind the cutouts. The latest version of Pixelmator has an excellent background restoration feature which IMO does a better job and is easier to use than Photoshop's Content Aware Fill feature. You might have a look at it before making any decisions.

- Both Pixelmator and Photoshop can export your layers to a layered PSD file that you can easily import in FCP X.

- Although in all honesty the animation of the layers is easier to do in Motion using a camera move, everything can be done right inside FCP X:

www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1157-...toshop-files-in-fcpx


- Ronny

I've not tried it, but you should be able to do it with keyframes or small Ken Burns effects. The trick is to create two images, one with the transparent foreground and the other with the painted in background.

I agree with Ronny,
Pixelmator is easier and way cheaper than PS.
The team behind Pixelmator has been very active in adding and improving features and so far has never required you to fork over more $$$.
Can't say the same about Adobe. After a few thousand $$ for bug fixes, decided Adobe will not get another cent, Never even use CS4 anymore.
Hope this helps, Greg

Anyone ever used Gimp + FcpX?

/H

FYI. You can download a trial of pixelmator on their site.

Pixelmator paint selection and healing tools are very well suited for this. Also there is actually a dedicated premade camera moves with cineflare pop out. (Granted it costs more than motion)

cineflare.com/pop-out/

Here is a macbreak studio with a way to do this using ken burns.

Thank you, I bought Pixelmator. Cheap as hell and actually very good.

/H

chk70 wrote: Anyone ever used Gimp + FcpX?

/H

Until the latest Pixelmator version came out, I preferred GIMP over Photoshop. Not as many features, but also not as needlessly complex.