In our last tutorial, we made a gun fire by creating a muzzle flare and a casing from scratch. This time, the muzzle flare will be 'borrowed' from an existing movie, and the casing will be already in frame - too much so, in fact, and we'll have to remove it some.

Before we start, take a few seconds to check out the 'before' movie.

tuorial 2 - before (QuickTime; 520K)

Right away there are a couple of problems we'll have to fix. The most obvious is the hand in the bottom right corner. That's a simple case of 'wire removal', like in the kung-fu movies. After all, that's the same thing we'll be doing to the casing in the air before it reaches the gun. This is what we call the 'Subtractive' method of casing effects.

Another problem is the timing. The trigger is pulled about five frames before the casing appears above the gun. In reality, the lag would be zero to two frames, at most. As I mentioned in the previous tutorial, removing some frames judiciously can help the motion of the gun's kick appear more sudden. We'll be removing a few of those errant frames, but first, let's hit the obvious.

Step 1:
As before, export the frames you'll need and open them in Photoshop. This time around, I've exported all the frames starting from right when the trigger is pulled, all the way until the last frame we'll need to do 'wire removal' on.

Step 2:
De-interlace the frames by going to Filter > Video > De-Interlace, removing even fields and choosing Interpolation to replace them.

Step 3:
We'll begin with the 'wire removal'. Choose the Clone Stamp tool, and set it on a large, soft brush.

With a bland background such as we have, we can Clone Stamp out the casing image by cloning the surrounding background. With a more complex background, you may need to Clone the same area from an adjacent frame, or cut-and-paste the background from an adjacent frame.

Step 4:
On the frames where the casing hasn't yet reached the gun, Clone (or paste) the background over the image of the casing (Figure 2.1). (In our case, we'll do the same with the hand in the lower right corner).

Figure 2.1. Before and after using the Clone Stamp.

Step 5:
Repeat Step 4 for all frames with material that you don't want there.

Step 6:
Now, because of the timing problem mentioned earlier, I'm going to insert an intermediary step. On your own material you may not have to do this, but I'm going to re-import the cleaned-up frames and see which ones I can eliminate.

Check out the sequence with our 'wire removal' done and a few extra frames trimmed out:

tutorial 2- middle (QuickTime; 472K)

Step 7:
I've pulled four frames out of the new sequence, starting with the first frame where the gun begins to kick and going until the casing 'emerges' from the gun.

We'll do just a bit of a cheat here, staging the muzzle flash on the first frame and then the slide movement on the latter three.

Step 8:
It's time to find a muzzle flash. Unlike the first tutorial, we'll be 'borrowing' one instead of creating it from scratch. In Tutorial 1, the finished flare seemed a bit small, so we'll grab a little bigger one.

I've chosen a frame from the BAD BOYS II trailer online (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2. Found footage to filch flare from.

Step 9:
Open your captured frame in Photoshop and use a Lasso to isolate the muzzle flash (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3. Lasso the flare.

Copy and paste the flash into the frame from your project; resize and align it as necessary (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4. Paste the flare into your frame.

Step 10:
Depending on the flash you choose, you may have to blur it out, clean up the edges, perhaps duplicate it a few times to round out any clipped sides (Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5. Duplicate, blur, and otherwise modify flare as needed.

Step 11:
Also add highlights to exposed surfaces that may reflect the flash (Figure 2.6)

Figure 2.6. Add highlights.

Step 12:
Now, we'll add the slide movement. In the first tutorial, we moved it during one frame; this time, we'll move it over the course of three frames. The first and third frame it'll be half-advanced; the second frame it'll be advanced all the way.

Check the first tutorial if you need a refresher on this technique. Also, on the frame after the flash, I'll copy the flash and make a smaller, fading version of it (Figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7. Add a smaller flare on the second frame.

Step 13:
While adjusting the slide movement, I'm also carefully shaping the original image of the gun so that the barrel is visible where the slide has receded.

I'm using the Clone Stamp tool to fill in the cropped area with the background color (Figure 2.8).

Figure 2.8. Shape the barrel where the slide has receded.

Step 14:
Now, import the frames back into the video editing program to see how they play.

Check out the sequence now:

tutorial 2 - after (QuickTime; 472K)

Again, sound design is really key - but this some nice looking effecting. This would be completely passable, but I'm sort of a nit-picker and that casing coming out at the end of the slide cycle is really bothering me.

So, I'm going to pull those frames back out and copy the casings into earlier frames. This simple cut-and-pasting can also be useful if the thrown casing doesn't align with the gun very well; you can fix the alignment easily.

Check out the finished, polished sequence. Nice.

tutorial 2 - polished (QuickTime; 468K)

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