Nira's VFX Blog
A journey through my master

Tag: 3D Equaliser

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 4: Spaceship WIP 1 & Matchmove Task Reviews, & Spaceship WIP 2 Model Detailing

This week I focused on finishing the matchmove task with all corrections required and also tried to finish the spaceship model ready for texturing.

Matchmove task

I had a second 1-to-1 session with Dom and asked him about how to export from Maya to Nuke and how to correct camera alignment in 3D Equaliser or Maya. In 3D Equaliser, I missed to set the point of origin and to set the ground points. Also, I needed to align my camera horizon so everything is level to the footage. Once this was corrected, ,I exported it to Maya and realigned the cards and cones of 3D scene. Then, I exported cards, cones, and camera separately in .abc (alembic) as explained by Dom. As I already had the scene previously set before these corrections, I replaced the camera exported from Maya in the Nuke file exported from 3D Equaliser, then connected the cards and cones as geometry in the ‘Scene’ node, added a red constant and some lighting to give some colour and contrast to the cones, and finally redistorted everything together. I finally exported the final matchmove and uploaded it to FTrack for assessment.

Setting origin tracker point
Defining floor points
Correcting camera horizon – 3D view
Floor points looking flat at grid level
Horizon line adjusted – 2D view
Exporting cards, cones, and camera as alembic in Maya
Constant node added to colour cones in red in Nuke
Light spots added to give some volume and contrast to cones colour in Nuke
Final Nuke nodes graph
Final matchmove

Spaceship WIP 1 review and further modelling of WIP 2

This week I tried to finish the spaceship model to get it ready for texturing. I added more details such as windows on the sides (adding edge loops and extruding), two extra engines and wings in the sides, changed the bottom part and added extra details so it looks like a boat, and lastly, I added some extra details in the top of the spaceship so it looks like the top fin of a fish. Most of the more organic design ini this model was made using ‘Curves’ to make the shape I wanted and then with a disc, extruding following curve made. My main reference for the added features is the following:

Reference picture (Michal Matczak, 2012)

Once I finished with the model, I exported a 360° view and took some wireframes screenshots as requested in my first FTrack review of my first model version.

Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Spaceship wireframe view
Final model Maya renders
Final model 360° view – Maya render

References

Matczak, M. (2012). artwork, airships, steampunk airship, steampunk, aircraft, industrial, fantasy art, smoke, rocks, cave, Michal Matczak, concept art, lights, Zeppelin, HD phone wallpaper (online). Available at: https://www.peakpx.com/en/hd-wallpaper-desktop-kdvbs [Accessed 22 April 2023]

Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 3: Group Project Matchmove Practice & Spaceship WIP 1

This week, we received the group project live action footage so we could make the matchmove in 3D Equaliser, Maya, and Nuke. I also started modelling the spaceship for the group project.

Matchmove task

I started to track the live footage we were given in 3D Equaliser, trying to follow the steps we learnt last week. This was a bit challenging as the floor of the footage had a lot of reflections and it was difficult to keep the tracker on place. Also, before tracking, I denoised the plate in Nuke so I could get a clearer image for tracking. I only tracked the green marks added in the scene initially, however, after my 1-to-1 session with Dom, he clarified that the green marks were only references and that I could add more tracker points anywhere I needed (the more tracker points the better results I could get later on). Therefore, I added more tracker points to then reconstruct the scene in Maya and added red cones on every single tracker point.

Initial trackers on green marks only
First geometry generated from green trackers only
Addition of more tracker points, clean up of failed trackers, and addition of camera lens data
Points calculation
Points in 3D space
Generated mesh from tracker points
Generated mesh from tracker points
Export of mesh to Maya
Footage replaced for undistorted plate exported from Nuke to Maya (so tracker points match with footage)
3D scene reconstruction in Maya
Addition of cones on tracker points
Maya render view of cards and cones
Matchmove playlist in Maya – WIP

I was a bit confused on how are we supposed to export the geometry in Maya and the process after this in Nuke, so I will book another session with Dom for next week.

Spaceship WIP 1

For my spaceship model I made some sketches on Procreate app first and then some more hand-drawn sketches while discussing with my group the style approach we were going to follow.

Initial spaceship idea (sketch in Procreate)
Group brainstorming for further stylistic ideas (hand-drawn sketch)

After figuring out how the spaceship would look like, I start to 3D model it in Maya directly as I will also have a better idea of dimensions.

Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya
Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya
Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya

We were also asked to submit next week our first model WIP to FTrack so I put together some render views.

Spaceship version 1

Also, Roos created a group Padlet board where we will be adding the progress of each team member’s tasks and where we could give feedback and add notes too.

Padlet group board
Categories
Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 2: Matchmove Practice & Group Project Tasks Organisation

In this first lecture with Dom, we learnt how to use 3D Equaliser to track a scene’s camera movement and lens distortion, and then export it to recreate the 3D space of this shot. We also organised the assets and tasks of each member of our group and started to think about the components our scene needed.

3D Equaliser Lecture

A camera track is used to recreate the camera movement and lens distortion of a scene shot. This is then used for adding CG elements to it that will follow the same movement of the scene. There are different types of camera track such as:

  • Facial tracking. To track facial movements and expressions.
  • Object tracking. To track movement of objects in the scene.
  • Rotomation. To match movement of objects and actors, and then adding CG to live action.

It is also important to track the lens distortion of a scene so when adding CG elements to it, they look like part of the shot as if they were filmed with the same camera lens.

Types of lens distortion (Foundry)

In order to track our scene, we will use 3D Equaliser which is the standard camera tracking software used within the industry. The 3D tracking process is made following these steps:

  1. Set up camera and lens.
  2. Track scene.
  3. Lens distortion.
  4. 3D orientation.
  5. Check scene.
  6. Export.

This programme feels a bit more accurate than Nuke regarding the camera tracking as it has less errors when tracking and we can also add the exact points we want to track in the scene. First, we would have to import our footage to the programme, and then play around changing lighting, gamma, and contrast, to increase tracking accuracy depending of the point we want to track. Normally, when there is more contrast and there is a clear pattern to track, the programme would have less problems to track. After we have tracked our points, we do click on ‘Calculate All From Scratch’ or press ‘Alt+C’ so the programme can calculate the tracking points in 3D space.

Once we have our tracking points, we will start with the clean up process. This means to get rid of trackers that do not work that good, or smoothing the tracking lines in the ‘Deviation Browser’, or double checking the there are no tracking points outside the shot.

Then we can proceed to set the lens distortion by adding the type of camera lens details (can be found online at https://vfxcamdb.com), so then the programme can calculate the trackers in 3D space again but using the distortion details.

Following on, we can switch our view to 3D space (F6) and convert the tracking points into 3D models or mesh. This 3D model can then be exported to Maya, Nuke, and other 3D programmes, ready to be used as reference for our 3D scene.

I exported mine to Maya and added simple shapes to recreate the scene in 3D space. This would be then used as a reference for 3D artists to set their models positions and perspectives in the scene.

Tracker points in 3D Equaliser
Mesh generating from tracker points
Mesh look in 3D space
3D scene modelling in Maya
3D scene modelled in Maya using the trackers reference exported from 3D Equaliser

Steampunk project – Organising tasks and assets list

This week we decided on the assets we needed for our scene and how many assets each look dev artist was going to take care of. Since I love sci-fi and everything related with cosmos and spaceships, I decided to model the spaceship that is going to be seen from the window of the scene. Also, taking advantaged that in my collaborative unit from the last term I got to test some hologram effects in Maya using MASH, I also decided to try model the planets hologram. And lastly, I will also be taking care of design a radio which I find really interesting as I love classic 1800s radio models which are perfect for the steampunk look we are pursuing.

I then put together a moodboard of each model to see how the style of each one would be:

Spaceship moodboard
Planets hologram moodboard
Radio moodboard

References

Foundry. Camera Matching (online). Available at: https://learn.foundry.com/modo/14.1/content/help/pages/rendering/camera_matching.html [Accessed 23 April 2023]