Chroma keying is not just for the big studios anymore. The process of shooting your actors in front of a blue or green screen, then replacing the blue or green with another background, is surprisingly easy. Whether you are making a simple love story or attempting a low-budget space epic, there are many creative and cost-effective ways your production can benefit from a little special effects magic.

Philip Staiger is a local graphic artist with an electrical engineering degree and an insatiable admiration for art and the tools to create it. Join us at the February meeting of San Diego Filmmakers as Philip talks to us about how you can add cool special effects to your film. He'll answer questions about how to set up and light blue screen shots, how to make a blue screen, and how to get the best results. In addition, he will demonstrate affordable software that he created that allows you to do live action blue screen with 3-D animation and draw directly onto your video frames.

Come network with your San Diego filmmaking peers from 5:30 to 6:30, then stay to learn how the latest special effects technology can be utilized in your own work! And since it's Valentine's Day, why not bring your sweetheart?

Don't forget to bring your business cards and head shots! And please be sure to tell everyone you know in the San Diego filmmaking community about this exciting, free event. See you there.

Meeting Review
by Jessica Stidd

At the Valentine's Day meeting of SDF, featured speaker Phillip Staiger talked about affordable software that can easily be used to create 2-D and 3-D effects on standard home computers. He referred to these as "Tools For Starving Artists." The products he discussed, which he developed with Dan Ritchie, are available through his website.

The highlight of the evening's talk was on Project Dogwaffle, which Philip demonstrated for the audience of about 70 attendees. Especially impressive were the foliage effects. As Phillip Staiger said, it's an "easy way to make realistic effects."

He highlighted two sets of animations during his talk, to show how a filmmaker could relatively easily create an animation to show off their movie idea. One mixed video and animation. An actress was filmed walking out of a house. Against the 3D terrain, a rectangle image was placed around the actress and an animated robot was added. A column was then created on top of the 'real' image. The actress then walked out of the house and pointed off screen to where the Robot's flying saucer was. The Robot moved fluidly and cast a shadow while the actress stomped back into her house, frustrated.

Then Staiger showed how he could put this same robot in a different environment. The animated robot was saved to a file and the same exact motion of the robot was put into a completely new story. Staiger expressed this can be used as a great tool to show visualization of a bigger idea.

Note: San Diego Filmmakers does not endorse the products sold or advertised by Mr.Staiger. SDF is not responsible for any claims made by Mr. Staiger about any software products. We recommend that you thoroughly and independently research any software products you are interested in using for your filmmaking and animation needs before making a purchase.

Pictures from the Meeting