Advanced VFX, in class assignments 2 & 3
Next on the docket was to become familiar with more complex scene compositing and utilizing OpenEXR files. The cool thing about .exr files (among other things) is that they can be multilayered. So. You can have 1 file in with all of your render passes (beauty, reflection, refraction, lighting, ambient occlusion, alpha channel, specular highlights, etc.) and each can still be manipulated independently within Nuke. That is so freaking cool. ANYWAY. I had to composite the exr footage of this Robot:
…into a moving pan on this city scene:
And for extra giggles, why not add a crashed ship in the parking lot? So, I dropped a hole in the ground, added some rubble and fire, and comped a ship in. Then. I set it on fire. Asset reveal!
Since the shot of the city was actually moving, I had to use motion tracking and the 3D scene elements in NukeX. Cameras and cards and nodes! Oh My! I was pretty proud of this for 3ish hours of work.
The next assignment was pretty similar, but was about simulating a building fire. I’m not going to break it down, because I’m sure you get the idea, but I’ll post the final video. I was pretty happy with the central fire, but not so convinced with the smoke coming out of the right window. If I knew then what I know now, I would just have used particle effects in Maya to custom make all my smoke and fire, but we’ll save that for the next ADV VFX installment.
Advanced VFX, in class assignment 1
One of our first in-class assignments was to take a green-screened actor and remove his arm. The footage was delivered as a TIF sequence, so basically instead of a .mov file, we got a folder of each movie frame as individual images. Like so…
This is actually pretty common and is easier for some programs to handle, especially the one we were using to composite: Nuke.
So here is the first frame up close:
As you can see, the floor was dirty and the green a little uneven. Several key nodes were used to knock out that green and masks, of course, to hide that equipment in the corner and disappear the arm. Now where to put our zombie?
I found this room that could pass as a storage-type space, but most importantly, it was very large and at a good perspective. And the lighting was pretty even so it wouldn’t fight with the zombie footage. Of course it’s awfully bright, but that is what post is for, amiright?
So I comped the zombie and the room together. Did some color grading to give the ambience more of a cold, sickly feel. Added some questionably placed blood splattering (hey this was all in class after all…). And BAM: zombie sequence.
pemberliegh's chaise 