In real life teleportation just isn't that easy... but on TV it can be done without too much difficulty.

To create a simple shot of one person magically appearing is quite simple, so we will start with that. First, as with many of the methods described in these tutorials, you will need to set up your camera and lock it in position so that it does not move. Film the location without your actor first, to give you a shot for him/her to teleport into. Now film the actor standing still for a short time then doing whatever it is they do after appearing. In edit, simply fade from the first of these shots to the second. Obviously, after the actor has appeared you are free to move the camera as much as required. Just remember to film the still shot again before each take.

To make our teleporting effect more impressive there are a few things we can do. First of all, the teleporting actor could appear in a shot which includes other people who are not teleporting. This cannot be achieved by simply following the method above, but can be done in one of two ways depending on your requirements.

One way is to use the method above and then chromakey the other actors into the foreground. Alternatively, you can film the other actors on location and then chromakey the teleporting person into the foreground. This second way is edited by fading in the chromakeyed video track at the appropriate time. Either way, it is difficult to react to an actor who is not there and has not been filmed yet, so try not to get too ambitious in this camera shot unless you are prepared for some difficult editing.

To add a little sparkle to our teleporting effect, we could...um...add a little sparkle. Animating an appropriate glowing swirly thing to go over the top of our teleporting people is quite tricky, although some kind of lens flare effect may prove adequate. For some reason, these things usually seem to be blue, or occasionally green. Whatever you come up with, the easiest way to combine it with your footage is to use After Effects, or a similar effects package. Probably the hardest and most time consuming would be to export the footage as a series of still images and add the effects by hand in Microsoft Paint. It's best to avoid that option if you ever want to finish this film and get your life back (or a job or something).

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