Hi everyone! I am working on a vampire movie and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make a vampire "dust." I was thinking a cloud of smoke or something. Does anyone have any experience in this?

What is vampire dust? What does it look like?

Titanium- on Buffy, it's common that after you've staked a vampire he turns into dust. The body's form is turned into dust and all that basically falls to the ground.

Here's what i'd do- I know someone into 3D graphics... you may be able to use some of that green screened smoke footage that can be found online too.

First shoot the scene with the character standing there being staked. Make it a static shot to make it easiest. Reshoot the same shot without hte character.

Than, whichever method works best:

With a 3D modeling program you can place the footage in front of your camera and than make a dummy model in the form of your character. Turn that to dust and add some sort of particle gravity effects and there you go.

The other method would be just getting some of that stock footage I was talking about... the kind with a green screen in the background, and resize that to your characters size. Figure it out from there whether it involves tranluscent dust and dissolving of the two scenes or involves covering up the whole character and letting the smoke dissolve itself until the missing character is revealed.

make a small model person out of dirt and then through careful precision have the explosives inside spark and destroy it.

or candle wax people

unfortunately, i dont have the kind of time to do 3d effects

What about a flash of light and then a cloud of smoke? Can anyone point my in the direction of good cloud of smoke i can key into my movie?

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