One of the main components in terms of effects that were vital to my trailer was the famous eye replacement effect (black eye effect). It is a feature used to identify a character as part of the vampire side and heighten the moment when they "vamp out" as such like in "Being Human" when they taste blood which results in bearing their fangs and eyes changing black. So it was very important to get this effect correct and accurately done since without it, the project would lack the verisimilitude needed to convincingly display the chosen characters as vampires.
I had thought about using the effect when I initially started planning my project as being a fan of many forms of the vampire medium, I knew already it was a vital and widely used convention of the genre. Whilst planning the project, I asked Sir and consulted forums on-line to see if an effect like this was possible with the programmes we had and it was, but only if After Effects was used. This was were the problems started to arise mainly due to my inability or lack or knowledge with the programme since I had no idea where to even begin with it as it felt daunting to even attempt. The focus shifted to perhaps purchasing black contacts as no computer work needed and would look a lot more natural. However the potential cost for each actor who needed them would be expensive and would only change the iris not the whole eye unlike what is seen in the other media. So I decided to brave it and learn to use After Effects by viewing tutorials on the internet, mainly Video Copilot. (http://www.videocopilot.net/) This site was a monumental help as it showed me the basics like tracking etc. and then more specific examples of effects, more importantly, an actual eye replacement effect.
With the knowledge, I did a test of it by placing a motion track on the eye and creating a matte around the eyeball so it can be replaced with a black texture, and here was the first test:
You can obviously tell the track was off too much by the excessive shaking of the matte when it follows the eye and plus the texture was very plain. In all, while it wasn't too bad for a first go, it was no where near as good as it could be or professionally looking enough to make it look like it was a film trailer. So I went back through and started to practise with motion tracking and looking for better textures, finally resulting in the best examples of Craig's final reveal at the end of the trailer and mine after feeding on Ellen.
This attempt was much better as with a more accurate track, better texture, more well drawn matte around the eye and even a little shine to the eye to make it look more authentic. The added transition from normal state to the vampire like state is also a much needed extra to help sell the effect as it turns black as my eyes open. Not to mention the sting used as well really gives it that supernatural and horrifying effect that this is more horror/supernatural theme and genre.
This one I think is my best effort of doing the black eye effect as they track and matte were done better as there is little shake or white exposed from the original eye. The general filming of it and the texture really suit the moment especially with the line he says, a little clichéd but it suits the purpose of the scene. The sting from my previous eye effect is also used to represent it as another supernatural/reveal moment as the eyes change to black and also signifies that it means a particular scene involving the supernatural characters is about to take place or has already happened in the scene with me.
