Please, look at this...

[trevsdad]

check out this site...

(Rovion)
http://www.rovion.com/index.asp

See the "In Person" thing??? they claim they have patent on this. It appears to be a variation of Flash 8 vid. with an alpha channel, and some scripting.

can they really patent this???

[donaldparkerii]

I dont think you can patent someone elses technology & they own Flash or JavaScript.

[trevsdad]

...but still can't figure out what they've patented???

[PullinGz]

Does anyone know how to create this video effect?

[toulouse2k]

You have to shoot the original production in front of a chroma-key screen. In a utility like After Effects you "key out" the background and export it as a video with alpha channel. The alternative is rotoscoping, not likely in this case. The lighting, etc. looks studio.

[PullinGz]

Thanks toulouse2k. I don't suppose there would be an easier way to get this done? Why not just shoot it against a white background and then "key out" the white?

I have about 10 of these that I need to create, and therefore don't want to spend the $250 for each one.

[bmarker]

b/c anything white, will alpha out as well. so your eyeballs will be floating and your teeth will be clear. Its not an exact science b/c your background will have some variant so picking a single color won't do it. that's why you use a color that won't exist anywhere in the final product, or else it will become transparent as well.

[toulouse2k]

Good points, bmarker.

PullinGz, you really need a quality chroma-key screen and setup. If you are using video, use a green screen, it works a bit better. Video is more difficult because it tends to be noisy (all those little 1 pixel moving artifacts). I just did a fairly "clean" project and it still required some rotoscoping. You simply can't get superior studio quality on-the-cheap, unless you do it yourself (rotoscoping) and are willing to pay yourself a low hourly wage.