The Ultimate Superheroines Forum

Hi all

for the ongoing Supergirl screencap story I am doing in the dungeon section I have been putting in new heat vision effects.
The first image is from the movie and uses a red beam effect, presumably to run with the established FX from the Superman movies that came before Supergirl.

The second and third image are what I have done to try and add a look of the current Supergirl series which uses a blue beam instead of red - plus a sense of that energy erupting through the heroine's face and exiting the eyes... how did I do?

Personally, I prefer the first one.

brdiy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Personally, I prefer the first one.

Thank you for your opinion and honesty. There is something classy to that first effect, maybe it's the simplicity to it. It also always appears to be an effortless power for whoever uses it in the original SM movies and Supergirl (save for Non's early attempts is SM II). I guess being a professional visual effect of its time it also fits in better.

The issue I have is that in my ongoing story SG will show this power more than she did in the movie. The CW Supergirl effect tends to mask the eyes and face more and so for shot selection purposes I had more choice as to when I could show her using heat vision. That intent "I'm using heat vision" expression doesn't come up often enough for me to then try and replicate the original effect on top. The other bonus is that you can indicate the threat to use the CW style heat vision without actually firing a shot, something the movie version doesn't allow you to do, being a bit binary in appearance.

Thanks for your input though, I'm sorry the fx style I've gone with isnt to your liking, maybe I'll get it right next time!

AEM

I can't wait to see what you've come up with no matter what the heat vision.

Maybe you could make the effect more subtle? I think the problem with image two is it creates an uncanny valley effect. They say the eyes are windows to the soul. If you completely obscure her eyes, Supergirl looks disturbingly soulless and creepy. Just a thought!

By the way, I'm really enjoying the story!

Bert, understood. It's true, it's just capturing that moment in time that best describes what is happening. I get one frame, but obviously in the show there is a progression that you see. The issues with the original movie effect (red) I have outlined above. It's identifying the "best" single moment - I mean, where would you draw the line with the sequence below as she powers down ...

Anyway, thanks for your feedback, it's all very welcome!

That's an awesome clip to illustrate your point. Looks like six or seven frames to fade out from full heat vision, which goes by pretty fast at full frame rate. For a still, I prefer one near the end when the effect is fading, but maybe some other people could chime in. And by the way, Melissa was gorgeous in earlier years of the show!

Bert wrote: ↑

4 years ago

That's an awesome clip to illustrate your point... And by the way, Melissa was gorgeous in earlier years of the show...

Thanks, the GIF is not mine but I knew from previous searches it would be out there to find! I am glad you can see my side of the problem. At any rate that "masking" effect allows me to force the idea that she is going to use, or is using heat vision on to more images of Supergirl. A more concentrated Supergirl (requiring less masking) seemed to be harder to find! And yes, Season 1,2 SG had a certain appealing look about her but these days she is more SuperWoman than Girl, in her style and presentation which I kind of regret.

Oh...I totally missed this. For what it’s worth I too prefer the original (1984) effect. It fits better with the shot.

But that Benoist GIF is hot. A median where you can still see her eyes, while still getting that heat vision glow gets my belated vote.

Get Your Exxon wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Oh...I totally missed this. For what it’s worth I too prefer the original (1984) effect. It fits better with the shot.

But that Benoist GIF is hot. A median where you can still see her eyes, while still getting that heat vision glow gets my belated vote.

Hi, again - yeah, I will revisit some of the latter frames and see where I can dial back the white a fraction. You and others may have missed what I said before but I will try and clarify the point I was trying to make.

The '84 effect. Basically with this effect ... the movie shot evolves like this...

1) Hero sees the target ...
2) Hero looks intently at the target...
3) Laser appears - hero stares intently during the effect...
4) The effect stops....
5) The hero is free to look somewhere else.

To replicate the '84 shot when I want I need some co-operative expressions from HS (for 1&2). This, is as frequent as rocking horse poop, ie, non-existant and would mean I wouldn't be able to choose when I wanted her to use the heat vision. The second problem is you can't easily show SG intends to use heat vision whilst not actually using it. I might be able to "thought bubble" it, but I cannot show it.

In the movie the effect shows up 4 times I think.

1) Warming up the flower
2) Severing the power cables by the gas station during the fire
3) Heating up the wrench during the shower scene.
4) Heating up the knife during the "trucker scene".

In the movie she never uses this power in the battle with the monster or her encounters with Selena, something I would want to be able to do.

The CW effect. With this effect the shot evolves like this ...

1) Hero sees the target ...
2) Hero's face reddens, eyes glow during the "power up" ... looking at the target
3) Laser appears - hero looks at the target ...
4) beam ends.
5) face and eyes "cool down"
6) Hero looks away at something else.

Luckily with the "power up" the white eyes and red glow masks the face a bit, so I dont need to find the exact expressions that convey that use of heat vision. Many shots of HS have her wide eyed at least... so, I have more choice over when I want to show she is using that power. The other aspect of that is, I can show intent (powering up), while not actually firing a shot, something that is not easily done with the '84 effect.

However, I see many people are not overly plussed with the lit eyes like from the show, so I will try and dial them back a little. Hopefully everyone will now understand the thought process that went in to choosing how to do the FX and the compromises I had to make... and please, remember, I am pretty much a self-taught amateur - I'm doing my best!

This will sound ignorant (and it is) but what about shots from other HS movies (Legend of Billie Jean or any other when age was comparable, for expressions)? I know magic wand stuff. I realize it’s probably not that simple.

But dialing it back just a bit is all that’s really needed. Again, great stuff.

Get Your Exxon wrote: ↑

4 years ago

This will sound ignorant (and it is) but what about shots from other HS movies (Legend of Billie Jean or any other when age was comparable, for expressions)? I know magic wand stuff. I realize it’s probably not that simple.

But dialing it back just a bit is all that’s really needed. Again, great stuff.

No, you make a good point - it's funny you should mention "LoBJ" because DrD and I had that conversation late 2019/ early 2020 as I was re-sequencing the Supergirl movie. We even talked about the movie "Wicked Lady" to see what extra material of Faye Dunaway I could work with. In the end I gave up on the idea as getting hold of the screencaps I would need would be a job in of itself. And even if I got them the skill to work those images back into "Midvale" would probably be beyond me.

Considering the literally hundreds of man hours I've put into the project (Yes, honestly a couple of hundred easily for me PLUS DrD's time!) the additional expense of sourcing material that might be only borderline-beneficial couldn't be justified - especially as the end product is something I'm contributing to a public forum for free. As you've seen though, I was prepared to go a little off piste and adopted some scenes from other sources, "Superman" (1978) for example, to try and enrich the story a little.