X-Ray
X-ray cinematography images through a surface as if denser structure were visible: bones, wiring, a body as diagram. Transmission, not reflectance, is the physics.
Narrative function
Skin becomes a veil. The interior is the subject.
Use it when the story needs to see through: a medical look, a machine's vision, a suitcase, a chest. It is the wrong tool for heat, and for foliage that glows in near-infrared.
If warmth is false color, you want thermal. If leaves go pale and skies go dark, you want infrared.
How it works
Render or photograph as transmission: denser parts (bone, metal) hold more of the beam and read as structure. Invert or not, but keep a graphic interior with little surface makeup.
A hard, even backlight through the subject helps. Keep one body readable as a diagram, not a smear of glow.
Prompt an x-ray view of the subject: interior structure, bones or wiring, a body as diagram.
When to use it
Use it for the beat of seeing through a person, a wall, or a device. Do not use it as a teal grade on ordinary skin.
Compared with similar shots
Thermal maps heat as false color. Infrared is near-IR reflectance, often odd foliage and skin, not a skeleton.
X-ray is transmission through the object, structure as diagram.
In film
The Abyss HUD and science films treat seeing-through as a device overlay or a laboratory plate. Superhero x-ray vision is the pop grammar of the same diagram.
Uses of interior structure, not frames to copy.
Prompt it
X-ray view of [Subject], interior structure, bones or wiring, a body as diagram. Demand transmission, a readable skeleton or circuit, and no thermal palette.
Ban glowing skin that is only a grade.
What usually goes wrong
The usual wrong cousins are Thermal and a ghostly double exposure. The tell is heat colors, or a transparent person with a normal room and no structure.
The fix is bones or wiring as the picture, graphic, transmitted.
Questions
What is x-ray in film?
An x-ray look images through surfaces so interior structure, bones, or wiring become the picture. It is a diagram of density, not a photograph of skin.
X-ray vs thermal
Thermal shows heat. X-ray shows transmission through matter. One is temperature as color. The other is structure as a plate.
When should I use x-ray?
Use it when the story must see through a body, a wall, or a machine. Skip it for night hunts (thermal) or for IR foliage looks.
How do I prompt x-ray for AI image or video?
Write X-ray view of [Subject], interior structure, bones or wiring, a body as diagram. Specify transmission and a readable interior. Do not ask for heat colors.
Melies can generate this X-Ray
Melies is the AI filmmaking workspace. This X-Ray opens with the optical prompt loaded, so the effect has a physical cause in the frame.