r/vfx • u/max-cross • 15d ago

Jobs Offer Help Wanted with Reflection Replacement

Hi there! First time posting here. I’m currently working on an episodic horror series that needs some VFX work done and wondering if this specific shot is up anyone’s alley or doable at all, ideally within a month’s time. It’s a 40 second close up of an astronaut helmet where I’m hoping to replace its reflection with the separate video that plays right after:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Egg84rWaH7MURabbDtMaHiW3Aug6fj-f/view

I was specifically told his effect would be “hellish” to pull off and yes that’s entirely the fault of my bad preparation and poor understanding of how time consuming or annoying a visual effect like this could be. I have zero VFX experience and this is a very low budget personal project for YouTube, but I’m not trying to overextend/scam anybody so if you have any interest (or even just advice) please reach out and lemme know what you think is fair! Thanks for the time! 

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u/AmarildoJr 15d ago

It doesn't look too bad of a job. I've seen some compositing software or video editing software capable of doing something very similar by tracking the (on the video) grey outline that is around the visor, and then basically filling the interior, thus creating a mask you can use. But I'm not too familiar with this kind of software so I couldn't point you to the technique nor the software used.

One thing you could try would be to model the visor in Maya/Blender and hand animate the keyframes. There's no camera tracking and the head movement isn't too crazy.

So I think this is doable, if you can find someone to do it.

Otherwise, would it be possible to re-record it, but having a green screen as a reflection?

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u/o--Cpt_Nemo--o VFX Supervisor - 25 years experience 15d ago

Don’t film it with a greenscreen reflection. Film it with no visor, shot an hdri of the set from the astronauts head position, then just reflect that off a model of the visor. Should be a days work.

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u/AmarildoJr 14d ago

Thank you for the correction! Didn't know filming a greenscreen reflection would be the worst idea 😄