Week 42: Finishing Steadicam Comp

Compositing with Final Animation

                                                     Shuffling Character Passes.

Lens effects

Adding Shadows and Merging with Background




Layers and Passes

Character AO

Character Shadow

Depth

Diffuse

Diffuse

ENV Shadow

Ground Shadow

ID

Indirect

Final Still

Week 41: Compositing Steadicam

                                                        Steadicam Comp

Shuffling the character passes from the exr.

lens and integration effects e.g light wraps etc

                                            Merging the elements with the background.

Still 01
                                   

week 38: Setting up Composition for Lean

Compositing Lean

Compositing in Nuke

Shuffling the character passes

Compositing details: light wraps etc

Merging with BG



Still Frame

Week 33: Test Shot Final

The Completed Test shot for the Mastronauts project:

Still image.

Node Tree.

Shuffling elements from EXR.

Merging the elements on top of the footage.

Writing out the the composition.





Final Test.

Week 32: Semester 2 Presentation

The presentation, I believe, went much better this time round. I felt much more confident throughout and I felt that helped me in my delivery.

Basically I did a sum up of my progress throughout the semester.

I mentioned primarily the Going Live and the Mastronauts project.

For Going Live I focussed primarily on Texturing and Rendering.




Concept art I'd created for 'Concerning Dragons'.

Texturing/Concept tests for 'Concerning Dragons'.

Lighting tests using IBLs for 'Concerning Dragons'.

Rendering for 'Concerning Dragons'.



Throughout the Mastronauts Project, I will be honing in on the Lighting, rendering and compositing processes and I felt my roles in Going Live have really helped me to prepare for this. In the presentation I also described how Going Live has assisted me throughout this test:

Comping the character into the scene

Node Tree in Nuke

IBL for lighting the test

Week 31: Compositing the renders

I did eventually manage to find out the issue I was having with the shadow layers. Although the Final Gather was off, the IBL set up was still affecting the alpha, which I needed to get the shadows. After running through the possible factors causing the issues in my head, it became clear this was the culprit, and after a little connection breaking, the problem was resolved.

So I moved into Nuke to try compositing the shots together...I've been trying to get my head around the 'shuffle' and 'shuffle copy' nodes and trying to understand the most effective process to take when rendering for the compositing stage.

Clearly, I am still trying to get the hang of the node system and understanding exactly how each node affects the next. Although this rendering/comp stage is certainly a challenge, I am actually enjoying it. I just need to get the hang of Nuke, and then I can get the test finished. We need to start progress on actual production soon, but this has definitely put me in good stead for actual production and I am feeling a great deal more confident about the tasks I will be undertaking next semester.

Week 16: Mastronauts - Compositing Test

The festivities may have ended a while back, but the testing continues...

A bit bored of tracking, and really wanting to try my hand at Nuke, I decided to try a compositing test. It was suggested to me that I should try this simple Digital Tutors project as it really touches on a lot of compositing elements I will most definitely encounter in the production of our short film.

Again, using the student version of nuke (hence the watermark), I followed the tutorial to get to grips with nodal-based compositing.

The tutorial touched on subjects such as:
Tracking, rotoscoping, colour-correction, roto-painting, lens flare and simulating depth of field for example and I was looking at these basic compositing processes through node graphs/trees. It is, once you start getting used to it, a very organic way of working....however I feel once the graphs/trees start getting quite busy and the compositing becomes more intense, that the process will be a lot more complicated.

Week 13: Polygons

After trying to light and render in maya and finally comp in nuke I have realised I most definitely need to brush up more on these techniques. I need to know them and definitely need to familiarise myself with nuke, which at this stage seems like it will be a long and difficult journey based on the past few hours.

But I am happy enough with the outcome over-all.

Week 7: Project/Teams

The big meeting was had and Tom, Kieran and I came out of the wash as a team. 

Tom and Kieran already had a little idea in mind but it does contain most of the elements I am interested in working on, so it all worked out in the end.

The idea generally involves a man being turned into a CG character and many crazy antics ensue. This idea will fit perfectly for all our specialisms. Kieran and I will undertake the good number of fairly complex vfx and compositing elements and Tom will attack the 3D character with his mad animating skills.

This is a wee concept the boys put together before my addition to their team:

I am, rather looking forward to getting our project cleaned up and production started! :)

This concept of an animated character in a live action environment reminds me a great deal of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) . 

The 3D character will interact with objects in the environment and naturally the transformation scene will be one of the most taxing jobs in regards to vfx and compositing.