Lost in Space Retractable Helmets
Lost in Space Retractable Helmets- special effects and filmmaking
Remember the those retractable helmets in Lost in Space?? Well i was reading the review on Lost in Space on www.vfxhq.com and there was a little note saying that this is how they did that effect...
>>>>>Especially interesting were the shots featuring the crew's retractable safety helmets. The shots were executed not with full-CGI helmets, but with careful compositing of multiple takes of the actors performing moves first with the helmet on, and then with the helmet off. Careful attention to shadows and animation make these shots quite memorable.>>>>>>>>>
ok, now i think this idea over and over again, and i don't get it...does anyone else exactly know what they mean? how does it work etc?
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Dream with your eyes wide open!
Wierd, I always figured that was CGI. I think I've got an idea of how they did it, though. The helmets were all very sectional, which makes it a little easier.
You've got stupid guy from Friends standing, gun in hand, ready to face the alien spider things. Have him stay as steady as he can. Get the shot. Then, from the same camera angle (or using a computer controlled motion rig), have stupid guy in the exact same pose, except this time have him in the helmet.
Then, in post, bring the two shots together. Start with the no face mask shot. Then, put mask shot over the top of it, except only use the top "rung" of the mask. Then, next frame, show the next rung. And so on, until you have the full shot of stupid guy in his mask.
Personally, I think CG would have been easier...
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TL
daa Productions
Nobody lives forever, so you might as well go out with a good caffeine buzz...
There's always hope, because it's the one thing that they haven't figured out how to kill yet...
There are different ways to do this.
The helmets must, to a large extent be cgi.
They will shoot the actor first.
This will then go to post digital who will import the footage into a high end animation package like alias. they then recreate the relevant parts of the scene, ie face,
lighting etc. the animation is match moved to the scene, rendered and then output to film after they have been color matched etc.
Simple really.
Have you seen the Cinefex article on the fx.
If youre interested I,ll dig it out to get the exact low down.
Bye.
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I Thank You
[This message has been edited by alucard (edited 03-22-2000).]
doom1701 is correct on how they did it. if you have a dvd player rent the dvd. there is a nice "making of the special effects" section.
ive got the making of book, (bought it for 30 cents at borders outlet)
on page 69 it tells how it was done, the helmet was a stop motion effect, each section was added one at a time, filmed and the sound of course was added afterward.
i still like the way it looks
later
Tom
I watched the DVD a little while ago, and I studied these effects fairly closely. I don't think there was anything about them in the "making of" video, though.
I'd say doom1701 is pretty close to it.
The "helmet on" sequence goes like this:
Film the shot on set with Matt Leblanc without the helmet. He comes up into the frame facing away from the camera and then turns around as the shot progresses. Now film the same action, probably with a stand in (I believe the reason for the helmet was that Matt Leblanc had to be in the US when those scenes were scheduled) wearing the full helmet. This might have been shot in front of a green screen, but I think it was probably shot on set and roto'd (it was about eighty something frames, I think, but the matte shapes were pretty easy).
The background, and Matt Leblanc's head are one shot, and the jacket, gun and mask are another. The segments are made to appear (each takes two or three frames) by warping.
I don't think that stop motion was used. It'd be more difficult to get a good match, and the shot would have taken much longer to film. Stop motion may have been used in the "cryochamber" sequence, maybe that's what you're thinking of?
I don't remember that movie, but I think I know what you are talking about. Was it the same kind of thing from Stargate???
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"V is for victory! Go tell your friends!"
no, i'm not thinking of the cryochamber
on page 69 of "The Making of Lost in Space" by pat cadigan "Major Don West's fantastic battle helmet (upper left)-its appearance on the Proteus is actually a stop-motion special effet, where each panel of the helmet is added one at a time and then filmed, with sound added later"
on page 31 there is a picture of a woman useing a drill on the helmet, dont actually know if thats for the reason, kinda doubt it, but maybe.
i cant find anything about the cyro chamber eyepiece things, but they're probably stop motion too, although they may be easier to have done CGI.
later
Tom
Doom is right. They filmed him with the helemt and without, then put them together a little at a time.
I did see a making of for it and they showed how they did it.
Yup. This prbably makes me seem like some kind of obssesive nut, but I went and rented the DVD again to check this out, and I stand by what I said before. My guess is that the author of the book either assumed (wrongly) that it was done using stop motion, or was told that it was "animated frame by frame" and misunderstood what was meant. Take a look at this web page, and see what you think...
http://www.geocities.com/crazybroad.geo/helmet.htm
i stand by what i said, the jawline? comeon, they made full body casts for the cyro suits, why couldn't the helmet be sculptued onto a life cast being very careful to keep his jawline? i wouldn't doubt that it was both, or at least both methods were tried, meaning that the book may not be wrong.
anyone know for sure?
later
Tom
The business with the jawline has nothing to do with casting. The mask probably wasn't sculpted to fit that closely over the actor's face anyway; from the directors commentary: "he was dashing back and forward doing 'Friends', and it didn't look like we could have him the days we wanted to so (I) thought let's stick a mask over his face and we can use a double".
What I'm talking about is the fact that as the segments come down over his face, because the mask is wider than his face (naturally, or his face wouldn't fit into it) at the side of his jawline you can see the fully closed mask. If the mask had really appeared via stop motion, those segments wouldn't be there.
On the other hand, Stephen Hopkins goes on to say "it was a secondary idea we did on the spot. We had a rubber mask made up with different sections and then just filled it in with CG later on." But I think the "different sections" comment just means that it was in sections to make it easier to get on and off. Also, when the crew enter the Proteus, Leblanc's helmet doesn't have the Iron Mask look, it has a transparent "space helmet" style visor, so maybe there was just one rear section, and interchangeable front pieces.
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