Mist Experiment

Food Colouring with Water from Munirat Plummer on Vimeo.

I did the experiment above as a response to the Mr X video I posted recently. I was impressed by the use of smoke effects to show how the tattoos were acting on the body. I thought I could experiment with doing this with my idea of a doppelgänger. I haven't yet thought how I want to visually represent it, so these are just simple experiments below that I did in After Effects.


My tutor gave me the idea of creating a human body shape mask so you can't tell if that the mist is food colouring in a glass. I created duplicated the masks and added different layer modes as you can see titled in the image. I shot the footage at 60fps which I then reduced to 10fps so it played back at slow motion.

The descriptions are the layer modes I used in AE to change the colour of the mist and make sure all the layers could be visible.

Human Mask Shapes from Munirat Plummer on Vimeo.

I animated the masks in After Effects, and got them moving and decided to keep the middle mask in its original colour mode and change the others to match the colour of the solid layer which shows that if I changed the colour I could change the way it looks which might help convey the thriller/horror theme I want in my video.

The colour of the background in the image below should be considered because I am not yet experimenting with lighting, but that is my next stage. However, I like how the mist has embodied the shape of the person, maybe next step would be to go from using a glass to a fish bowl or something bigger. Here I see if making the mist embody a human form if it will work. I think it will.

I used the footage from our Green Screen compositing lesson and overlayed the mist on the outline of the subject from the video.

I carried this experiment because I wanted to create that effect of cold air or mist that people say they feel if a paranormal aura was present. Though this experiment may not be used or evolved, I think it will help me rule out whether I want to include it in my final video or not, so far, I am still not sure because I like the effect that it created but I need to place more in the concept that it will be used in.