 Download my detailed lesson |  Click to download all my resources for The Scream |
I wanted to see if an app I already had on my iPad, the Green Screen app by Do Ink, could help create a ghostly illusion. I knew that you would have to be able to combine a layer of the environment without a figure under a layer of video from the same exact view of the environment. This layer (the one with the figure) would need to have less opacity (be made semi-transparent) so that it appeared that they were see through.
BUT, the green screen app takes away some of the difficulty of creating two exact videos with and without a figure since you can layer using the magic of green screen over anything and change the opacity with their mask tool. Here is how I was able to achieve the effect. There might be an easier way, but this is pretty simple.
BUT, the green screen app takes away some of the difficulty of creating two exact videos with and without a figure since you can layer using the magic of green screen over anything and change the opacity with their mask tool. Here is how I was able to achieve the effect. There might be an easier way, but this is pretty simple.
Haunted Masterpieces from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.
Haunted Masterpieces: using this illusion
Now that I know I can get this effect to work using an app my students already have available to them in the art room, I thought about what content I could teach that would make this illusion necessary. I came up with the idea of Haunted Masterpieces. This would teach, art history, creative writing, storytelling through body language, digital layering, and transparency by having students enter a piece of artwork as a ghost and tell the story of why they are there. This would be a short campfire ghost story that would engage students in a piece of art and its artist.
STEP ONE: Mask out the figure from the artwork (if necessary)
I started with a piece of art, The Scream by Edvard Munch, where I had masked out the figure by matching the colors and textures in a drawing app (see video below or just grab mine here). You might choose a painting with plenty of blank space like an Edward Hopper painting (see my curated collection) or no figures like a landscape or still life. In that case you might choose to skip this step.
STEP ONE: Mask out the figure from the artwork (if necessary)
I started with a piece of art, The Scream by Edvard Munch, where I had masked out the figure by matching the colors and textures in a drawing app (see video below or just grab mine here). You might choose a painting with plenty of blank space like an Edward Hopper painting (see my curated collection) or no figures like a landscape or still life. In that case you might choose to skip this step.
STEP TWO: Film the green screen video of the student
Before you film, the student needs to know their story and be prepared use their body language to help tell the story. It might be fun to come prepared in costume or with props. I think a two second clip is all that is necessary. They will write their story and make their haunted video into a looping gif or still image. Filming with audio where the student explains their story would work as well, but each audio clip would need to be short enough that a class video would remain under 3 mins (to keep it engaging). Capturing audio while the student is in front of green screen and backed away from the iPad filming him/her is tricky. You could set up an external iPad mic and have the class completely silent. Or, you can put a lapel mic on the subject if you think you can hide it for the filming. That takes time so classroom management would be more difficult.
Before you film, the student needs to know their story and be prepared use their body language to help tell the story. It might be fun to come prepared in costume or with props. I think a two second clip is all that is necessary. They will write their story and make their haunted video into a looping gif or still image. Filming with audio where the student explains their story would work as well, but each audio clip would need to be short enough that a class video would remain under 3 mins (to keep it engaging). Capturing audio while the student is in front of green screen and backed away from the iPad filming him/her is tricky. You could set up an external iPad mic and have the class completely silent. Or, you can put a lapel mic on the subject if you think you can hide it for the filming. That takes time so classroom management would be more difficult.
 The Scream by Edvard Munch masked |  Student pretending to haunt The Scream |
STEP THREE: Create the ghostly illusion
The illusion doesn't happen during real-time green screen capture. It happens in post-production. So, students would need to gather their background image and green screen video into their iPad camera roll and open up the Green Screen app by Do Ink. The background image goes on the lowest level. The green screen video goes above it. The app will automatically remove the green but you will need to crop, resize, position the ghost, and mask it to make it semi-transparent to complete the effect.
The illusion doesn't happen during real-time green screen capture. It happens in post-production. So, students would need to gather their background image and green screen video into their iPad camera roll and open up the Green Screen app by Do Ink. The background image goes on the lowest level. The green screen video goes above it. The app will automatically remove the green but you will need to crop, resize, position the ghost, and mask it to make it semi-transparent to complete the effect.
Use the mask tool, choose eraser, lower opacity to 40-45%, erase the figure in even strokes
Crop to trim off sides, pinch video for size & placement, then click "save" with "video" selected
STEP FOUR: Convert to a gif and caption it with the ghost story
Students can pull up the website EZGIF.com from their iPads and upload the video from their camera roll to convert it to a gif. These can then be displayed on my weebly blog and shared on their online art gallery. They could use the caption tool for the image to tell their story (or use the artist statement section on Artsonia to share in their portfolio.)
Students can pull up the website EZGIF.com from their iPads and upload the video from their camera roll to convert it to a gif. These can then be displayed on my weebly blog and shared on their online art gallery. They could use the caption tool for the image to tell their story (or use the artist statement section on Artsonia to share in their portfolio.)
It's a little known fact that Edvard Munch's, The Scream, is haunted by a less frightened, rather, annoyed, ghostly figure
Legend has it that long after Vincent Van Gogh left his bedroom at Arles, his personal assistant still remains checking his inventory of art supplies while waiting his return.
Long before Andrew Wyeth painted Christina's World there were sightings of three ghostly girls sitting in the field pointing to Christina's farmhouse hoping to meet her someday
James Whistler was said to have chosen this corner of the room to paint his mother since he wanted the wobble chair ghost to keep her company as she posed
Some patrons of the Des Moines Art Center has seen the Ghost of the Automat eerily dancing in the window in Edward Hopper's painting.
Sitting in the first row of the orchestra as in this Edward Hopper painting, can awaken a ghostly performance
Layering into artwork with masking:
The techniques I shared above have the ghost layered over the painting with or without an erased (or masked) element. The easiest and fastest solution to this effect is to find a painting with open space and layer the ghost into it. If you want to explore more advanced approach, you can create an effect where the ghost is layered into the painting as if they are behind elements of the painting. This effect can be created through masking of the original image. All of this can be done in the Green Screen App using their masking tools however, I find it easier to mask images in superimpose app and save them as "mask png" which holds it's transparency in the iPad camera roll. I have a tutorial showing how to use this app this way (see beginning of this video near 2:40).
 Son of Man, Rene Magritte |  Green Screen-mid layer |  Background masked PNG |
Now that the background has been erased, the ghost image can be added between these two layers. The green screen app by Do Ink gives you 3 layers to work with:
TOP LAYER: Masked Image (becomes the foreground)
MIDDLE LAYER: The green screen video (looks like it behind the figure in painting)
BOTTOM LAYER: Original painting lined up exactly with the masked image above
TOP LAYER: Masked Image (becomes the foreground)
MIDDLE LAYER: The green screen video (looks like it behind the figure in painting)
BOTTOM LAYER: Original painting lined up exactly with the masked image above
The ghost of Rene Magritte’s son is known to have been taunting his father’s painting, “Son of Man.”
Add the frame and museum label
The visual arts national standards emphasize presenting artwork. This lesson could be a fun way to approach the topic by having students CURATE A HAUNTED MUSEUM. After they create their haunted animation, they could frame and label the piece with artist, title, and other information. We could set up a "virtual tour" with their narration presented as a class movie.
Viewing via AR
I picture having the art room set up with prints of masterpieces that people can scan with an AR app to learn of how it was haunted. This story about using AR to view stolen paintings is similar.
RSS Feed
