Day-for-Night Haunted House Effect from Film Riot

October 15, 2024

Film Riot walks you through how to create a horror vibe with a day-for-night haunted house shot. We love Halloween and below the tutorial, we have recommendations for other options for effects he brings up in the video. Plus, we list some sound design options!

In the tutorial, below, he starts with several examples of haunted houses from popular films, then uses After Effects to break up the photo into multiple mattes to add depth. He focuses on the details, like the highlights on the bushes. He explains compositing other plants, windows from another shot, and glowing lanterns. Then he dives into what you came here for, color grading the scene as day for night, and adding some sky effects.

Rotoscoping and Planar Tracking Options

There’s a lot of masking going on here so if you’re using a moving shot, you should consider a rotoscoping, tracking tool, and compositing such as:

Boris FX Mocha Pro brings world-renowned planar tracking, rotoscoping, object removal, image stabilization capabilities, and the groundbreaking PowerMesh organic warp tracking. Available as an annual subscription or a perpetual license.
Boris FX Silhouette, the industry’s leading rotoscoping and paint tool, has major compositing features. Silhouette delivers 400+ VFX nodes, including Boris FX Sapphire, Mocha Pro, and Particle Illusion. Available as an annual subscription or a perpetual license.

Add more Plants

In the tutorial, he mentions adding extra plants, so I want to share some options for adding plants to your shots. Below are several options.

AEJuice Plants Pack – 108 plains stocks in 4K resolution, with alpha channel!
Laubwerk Plants Kits – Laubwerk has hundreds of options for models of realistic 3D plants from all different climates.
iTooSoft 3dGarden Field Plants and Grasses Volume 2 – Field Plants and Grasses Volume 2 is a collection of thirteen species of various field plants and grasses, designed to be tightly integrated with Forest Pack. With 5 variations available for each species it is a comprehensive library of 65 models, plus 6 bonus Forest Pack presets. More iTooSoft Plant Collections, including the iTooSoft 3dGarden All Bushes and Flowers Bundle and the iTooSoft 3dGarden All Trees Bundle

Day for Night Effects and Night Sky and Moon Options

For the Day-for-Night Effect, he uses curves and tints on the house and adjusts the sky. Other cool options could be used for these effects too, such as:

Day for Night Plugins

Boris FX Continuum Unit: Film Style includes a fantastic Day for Night Plugin. This is also included in the full Continuum package, available as a Perpetual license or annual subscription.
NewBlue TotalFX includes a nice Day for Night filter. Available in NewBlue TotalFX 360 Subscription and NewBlue TotalFX 7 Suite – Perpetual
Another tool to consider is Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks, included in Maxon Red Giant. There are presets for Day for Night included.

Night Sky Plugins

Boris FX Sapphire includes a couple of super useful plugins for creating skies, including Night Sky, which generates accurate stars based on the time and location. Sapphire is available as a Perpetual license or an annual subscription.
Luna, also part of Sapphire, produces a beautiful moon based on time and location, with several options for the moon phase, color, and more. Again, Sapphire is available as a Perpetual license or an annual subscription.
If you’re a FCPX user, check out HY-FX HySky, a tool for Dramatic Sky effects.

Sound Effects and Sound Design

Krotos Audio has a lot of options for afforable sound design

Krotos Audio Dehumaniser II Plug-In is a great tool for creating creepy vocal effects instantly.
Krotos Studio – Create Hollywood sound in seconds with Krotos Studio. Stop spending hours searching, editing, and layering sound effects. Now you can effortlessly shape unique royalty-free sound effects from an ever-growing choice of scenarios.
Tutorial: Use Krotos Audio Reformer Pro to Design Sound for Haunted House Attractions

Boom Library has several sound effects packages that could be used in haunted house sound design:

There are several more packages from Boom Library that you may love in your production so be sure to check out their full offerings.

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Posted by Michele