In this lecture, we saw the technique used to track the camera movement in a scene and how to combine or premultiply several sequences.
In order to track the movement of a scene, we can add tracking points in Nuke that will detect the camera movement. This is a useful tool for rotoscoping since we will not have to adjust the roto in every single frame because of the camera shake. Sometimes it is important to add several tracking points as the camera movement will be different in the foreground, middleground, and background because of the motion parallax.
In another note, we can also combine several elements like rotos together in Nuke with a ‘merge’ node. However, it is important to keep in mind that the alpha channel value always has to be between 0.0 and 1.0. This can be sorted changing the way that the layers interact with each other, with settings like ‘screen’, ‘over’, ‘max’, etc. ‘Channel merge’ nods can also be used for this but they are not as reliable as the ‘merge’ nods.
When layering scenes, there is a tool that it is used in most of the cases called ‘Premult’. This tool premultiplies the RGB values by the alpha so the two layers are visible at the same time. It is also important to combine ‘Premult’ node with ‘Copy’ to add the alpha to the background.
The assignment this week was to rotoscope the bridge from the running man’s video and the mountain from the air balloon project using tracking points.
Tracker pointTranslate values of tracker transferred to rotoFinal rotoFinal set up
Running man final rotoMountain roto3 tracker points added to take in consideration depthQC with grey backgroundQC with green overlayFinal set up
In this lecture, we discovered the basics of organic modelling using Quad Draw modelling workflow to created a Head model.
First, we downloaded a head model from wiki.polycount.com to use it as reference. Then in Maya, we imported our head and set it up to make it a ‘sticky’ surface. Once this feature is live, we used the Quad Draw tool to create a mask with the only half of the shape of the head. Then we refined the eyes, mouth, nostrils, ears and rest of the head traits. Once the half of the face was fully set up, we used ‘Duplicate Special’ to create the other side of the face. We also created the eye balls and mirrored one of them so any changes made in one side it is reflected in the other side too (also used topology feature to change some of the face features).
The following sequence of screenshots shows my process to develop my 3D head model:
Face mask made with Quad Draw toolMaking sure have of the face is well shaped to have good symmetryAddition of the neck mask tooFirst stage of the face in different perspective viewsFirst stage of the face wireframeEarCheek bone, eye bags, and expression lines to give more realismNostrils cavitiesTop view to see shadowed detailsPerspectives of retouches previously mentioned
The most challenging part of the model were the ears as their are pretty irregular, however, I think I achieved a good result at the end. I also refined the face and gave it more angular features so the model had a more characteristic look.
In this class we discovered the basics of rotoscoping in Nuke.
Rotoscoping is used to create alpha channels ‘matte’ to match the footage motion. With this, we can change the subjects background or create different effects with layering.
In Nuke, we learnt the basic rotoscoping using ‘Beziers’ to create the alpha channel and feathering to soften the edges of it.
This is the matte I created of the running man video the professor sent to us. It is made by parts, starting from the head of the running man down till the legs.
Head rotoRight arm rotoLeft arm rotoBody rotoRight leg rotoLeft leg rotoQuality Check
Final roto
Rotoscoping can be a tedious job in my opinion but with practice and experience it could result in a more quick and pleasant job, as well as in a rewarding experience with the final result achieved.
This week we finished up our air balloon adding UV textures.
We learnt how to set up a UV map with the ‘UV Editor’ from an object so the texture looks realistic when added. Later on, we downloaded some textures and added them the the UV map created on each part of the balloon. We also changed their appearance playing around with ‘colour’, ‘specular’, ‘transmission’, ‘geometry’, etc. As these images look too flat and no too realistic, we created a ‘bump map’ using the ‘hypershade’ editor to add more detail to the texture. In the ‘hypershade’ editor we also saw how to join different nods to create different texture effects. Lastly, we created a short animation of the model, spinning the air balloon 360 degrees and showing only the object and not the background, and then rendered it in EXR. This would be used in our Nuke class as alpha matte to make a composite with it.
Final texture close up of ropes and top balloonBurners texture close upBasket texture
Final 360 spin render
Since I am interested in focusing on modelling and texturing in Maya, this was a good practice to improve my knowledge on this. I look forward to explore more organic modelling and all its possibilities.
In this session, we discovered the different roles of a digital compositor within a production or VFX company, along with the production stages to follow to create a film, video game, commercial, etc. We also saw the different compositing programmes available nowadays and we also had our first Nuke overview.
A Digital Compositor’s role is to create the final composition of a frame, shot or sequence (including animation, background, graphics, and SFX). The several rolls or stages that a digital compositor can opt to are the following:
Roto Artist – focused in rotoscoping (beginner position)
Prep Artist – rotoscoping and patching
Junior/Junior-mid/senior Digital Compositor – they usually put the parts together in a scene and support and help Roto and Prep Artists
Sequence Lead or Lead Compositor – in charge of a sequence
2D Supervisor – organises sequences, meets with final clients, etc
VFX Supervisor – organises artists, clients and production
On another note, we also learnt that there are three stages to produce a film:
Pre-production – starting from the initial idea that is shaped into a story which is organised in a storyboard, with animatic, and design.
Production – after the film is organised, in this stage it is prepared the layout, R&D, modelling, texturing, rigging/setup, animation, VFX, lighting, and rendering.
Post-production – in this third stage is when it is taking place the compositing, 2D VFX and/or motion graphics, colour correction, which will result in the final output.
Lastly, we saw the different compositing programmes available such as After Effects, Davinci Resolve ‘Fusion’, and Nuke 13. In this class, we will be focusing in Nuke so we had an overview of the very basic tools of the programme and created our first composition. As this programme is based in nods and layers, which I have seen before in programmes such as Photoshop, After Effects, and Blender, it was easy for me to learn how nods were connected to work together. I played around a bit with the programme at home later on and created a little animation based on the instructions the professor gave to us. I could not export it as I’m still not sure how to do this but I took some screenshots of how it looked at the end.
My first comp in NukeComp animation outcome – center spinComp animation outcome – centrer spin
My first impression of Nuke is that this is complex programme and I will need to dedicate a good amount of practice time to get use to the node’s work space, as I am more use to layered programmes like Photoshop and After Effects.
In this lesson, we learnt further modelling tools more focused on starting our model with a drawn line that will evolve into a 3D shape with revolve tool, some extrusion, and some UV and texturing. We also modelled an air balloon that we will use next week in our Nuke’s session.
We started modelling a simple line using the EP Curve tool. This shape had to be kind of a slice of the final object we were going to model, in this first case a wine glass and a wine bottle. After our curve shape was drawn, we used ‘Revolve’ to transform it into a 3D shape. In addition, we reshaped our 3D object repositioning the control points of the curve shape until we were happy with out design. We also learnt how to create a glass effect adding a glass material and finished the scene adding lighting and choosing a background.
Bottled and wine glasses wireframeFinal scene with texture
Using the same EP Curve tool, we continued to build up our air balloon. Then we played with extrude, duplicate special, deform (bend tool to warp the object), and used the UV editor to add texture to the model (used cloth, brushed metal, and rubber textures).
Top balloon model and texture
Building up burnerBuilding up burnerBurners wireframesGas bottleBasket TextureFinal model medium shotFinal model closeup with girl model from MayaFinal model long shotFinal model shots sequence with HDR background dowloaded from polyhaven.com
I really enjoyed this assignment as I realised I love 3D modelling in Maya so I would love to further my knowledge in this aspect.
In this session, we went through the basic modelling tools of Maya in order to shape a Lego Man.
We started shaping the head out of a cylinder primitive, and using subdivisions and the bevel tool to model the top and bottom features of the Lego Man. Then we continued with cube primitives. Using subdivisions, extrude, edge loops, and transform and position tools, we managed to shape them into the main body and legs.The hip of the Lego Man was a challenge since we started with a cylinder which was flattened and then picking the top vertex of this, we extruded them both sides and shaped them into a rectangle. The arms were made out of a cylinder and then shaped the shoulder part with the sculpting tools to pull and soften the mesh. The hands were sculpted using a cylinder with a centre circle and cut in half, then shaped it adding edge loops and transform and position tools.
Model wireframe view showing different shapes and polygons used
Afterward, I wanted to colour it so I added a new material (‘Standard Surface’) to each part of the Lego Man and picked the colours.
In the face of the Lego Man, I wanted to add their smily face. I thought of adding a picture of the smily face to the mesh but since I wasn’t totally sure how to do this, I researched a tutorial on YouTube. It was actually simpler than I thought, I just had to add a new material – ‘Lambert’, and then in ‘colour’ select to add a ‘file’ to it. So I downloaded a Lego smiley face from internet and adjusted it to the Lego Man’s face.
Face added using a royalty free picture of a lego face downloaded from internetFront viewSide viewBack view
And lastly, using a ‘Sky Dome Light’, I added a nice background, lighting and a cast shadow with a plane as I learnt last week and this is my final result:
Final model
A few weeks later, I also made a short animation of this model to make a nice presentation to be added in my term 1 showreel.
This week we continued with cinematography basics but this time more focused on video (moving picture).
A movie is a story told in pictures (moving images) which consists in capturing the light reflected or produced by a subject (exposure). In order to capture the amount of light desired, we will need to take care of the type of lens/optics of the camera (focus), the lens aperture (amount of light let through), the camera shutter (speed of aperture and closing of the lens’ blades), and the digital sensor of the camera that captures and process the light to store it in a digital file.
Depending of the exposure set, the image can be brighter or darker. Generally, the image should be balanced by the mid-tones. If there are too many highlights or whites the image will be over exposed and if there are too many shadows or blacks, the image will be under exposed.
In order to reach the desired exposure value (EV), we will need to take care of the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. With the ISO, we can change the sensitivity to light and can be measured from 25-6400 or more. The more sensitivity added, the more noise in the picture, so this only should be increased if really necessary. With the aperture of the lens (f), we can add more or less light as well as depth of field (DOF – focal point of an image). If the aperture of the lens is wide, the DOF will decrease (shallow) and more light will come through, whereas if the lens opening is small, the DOF will increase (deep) but the light that comes through will be low. With the shutter speed (how long takes to the blades of the lens to open and close, measured in fractions and seconds), we can expose the sensor to more time of light or less. With a fast shutter speed we can freeze motion in the scene, but with a slow shutter speed we will capture blurred motion instead (more light comes through). In cinema, this is measured in frames per second (fps – frame rate) and depending of how smooth we want the movement to be or more realistic we can make it higher or lower. Shutter angle is used to describe the relation between shutter speed and frame rate in cinema (cinematic motion blur), which has a golden rule that says that shutter speed should be set to double the frame rate.
Another important aspect to take in consideration is the type of focal lens used (distance between top of the lens and image sensor and measured in mm). The shorter focal length, the wider the angle of view and vice versa. Also, the digital file in which we export our video (MP4, MOV, AVI, ProRes, etc), will also determine the quality desired depending on where do we want to reproduce the final video (social media, TV, cinema, etc).
The assignment of this week is to shot 2 to 3 seconds videos from the city (using our personal phone cameras) and put them together in a short video (can add music too). As I live in Cambridge, I decided to show the life in this city which has a slower pace and it is not as big and noisy as it is London.
City life in Cambridge – Week 2 video assignment
Most of the scenery has been filmed with a long shot, since my phone’s zoom has a really low quality and it doesn’t look as neat. However, I tried to add a zoom in and I also used some pans following subjects in movement to give more dynamic to the video. I tried to use diagonals and leading lines in the composition of the frame to add some depth to the frame. Finally, I put it together in Adobe Premier Pro and colour-corrected it to have a consistent style.
In the first session with Gonzalo, we learnt the basics of cinematography such as what is visual story telling and the components needed to simulate an emotional experience.
The professor made clear since the beginning that every shot or take in a movie counts. Also, the director’s requirements need to be met regardless of what style or preference we have and each frame needs to be cohesive with the thematic and style of the movie.
The composition of a scene has to be carefully crafted taking in consideration:
Aspect ratio – proportions of the frames depending on what type of screen the film is going to be on.
Positioning – where the subjects are placed in the scene, taking in consideration rule of thirds, diagonals, focal points, hierarchy, etc.
Lighting – this is possibly one of the most important points to take care in a scene, since if there is no light, there is no scene. It needs to be considered the intensity (brightness), quality (soft or hard light), size of source (for example, small sources have softer light), distance from the subject (the further away from the subject, the harder light obtained), filtering (through diffuser or bouncing), and angle and positioning of the light (key light, fill light and back light are the three basic lights). We could use natural light (from the sun for example) or artificial light (with spotlights for example).
Colour – it needs to follow the style of the movie with warmer colours or colder colours (colour temperature measured in Kelvin units). Cameras in general are usually set for tungsten (3200K) or daylight (5600K).
Angle of the camera – this can defined the mood of the scene and can give the subject more or less importance. When a high angle is used (camera placed above the eye line), we can transmit weakness, less importance of the subject; and when a low angle is used (camera placed below the eye line), the subject becomes more important and powerful.
Camera shots – there are several type of framing that can be used to show the subject on camera: extreme close up, close up, loose close up, tight medium shot, medium shot, medium full shot, and full shot. A closer shot is used to show more detail or intimacy. A wider shot is usually used to situate the audience in the time and place.
In order to put in practice all these concepts, the task for this week is to take a maximum of 9 pictures that show or transmit the concept of ‘time’.
The speed of time
In these pictures I thought in how the time passes throughout the day depending on what are we doing and were we are. For example, when we go to work and we are in a rush or when we are doing an activity that we enjoy, usually time seems to go faster. Therefore, with my DSLR camera, I took several photographies using a closed aperture (f11 in most of the photos), a low ISO (to catch the night contrast and to don’t have much noise in the dark spots) and long exposure (slow shutter speed) in order to catch the light trails of the cars and bicycles passing down the road. I consider that the light trails show the rush of time and they also give movement to a still picture directing the viewer’s eye from one point to another.
In contrast with the rush of time, I also took photos of the stillness of time. For example when we are at home chilling at night time after a long day, time goes slower. I also used long exposure for the building and the lamp’s pictures with a low ISO and closed aperture to keep the contrast between light and shadows. However, for the picture of the moon between the plant leaves, I used a much higher shutter speed since the moon is quite bright and long exposure would result in a more than over exposed picture.
Thirdly, I took several photographies of the moon rising in the sky and put these pictures together in Photoshop to show the pass of time during night time.
Lastly, I also took several pictures of the view in front of my house throughout the day (from sunrise to sunset). In Photoshop, I put them together, showing only a triangular portion of each picture, and creating like this the effect of time passing during the day in the same scene.
First day and we are already diving into Maya. In this session, we started with Maya basic controls, shortcuts and modelling tools.
A good mousse and shortcuts knowledge are key to speed up the process of creating in Maya, so we learnt the main controls with the mousse (to zoom in/out and to change view position) and shortcuts to move the object position (W), rotate it (E) and scale it (R). From there on, more shortcuts were coming up along the session depending on what we wanted to find or what little accidents we had that made us (and the professor) discover new ways to use the programme.
First model practice with Maya – textured cube
Secondly, we created a cube to practice with the ‘Extrude’ tool (as shown in the above picture, my 3D modelling skills are very basic but improving with practise and time). We created subdivisions to the mesh and smooth them to don’t have too sharp edges.
Lighting is an important part of a 3D scene as it pronounces the bright and dark spaces giving that 3D depth and texture to the object. Therefore, in the ‘Arnold’ section, we created a ‘Physical Sky’ and rendered it to preview the final result. Adding a plane to the composition at the bottom of the main object and assigning an ‘aiShadowMatte’ material, created the effect of the objects shadow that is casted depending were the point of light is positioned.
Alternatively, we removed the ‘Physical Sky’ and added a ‘SkyDome Light’ instead to add a background to our scene. We downloaded an HDRI from polyhaven.com, saving it in our ‘source images’ folder and linking it to a new material’s colour of our light. This would determine the direction of light and how the shadow would cast and would add that background to our object.
After playing around with a simple object, we give it a go to try model a Tesla Truck car. We followed the instructions that Nick was giving us step by step and could (kind of) would something similar to a triangular ‘car’ (as seen in the pictures below).
Model of the car showing wireframeWheels wireframeFirst attempt at Tesla truck modelling
Since I wasn’t really happy with my first attempt to model a ‘Tesla Truck’, I decided to try again. It took me quite a bit to design the second version, but I realised that my skills with Maya were improving and I got used to the shortcuts and controls.
Top part of the model wireframeFront part of the model wireframeBack part of the model wireframeFinal model
At the end, my Tesla Truck is not perfect, but I’m pretty satisfied with the result and the basic skills that I developed in only the first week of the Master’s. I also developed later on a short animation to make a nice presentation of this model for my term 1 showreel.
