In this lesson we analysed the different scenarios we can face in production as a VFX compositor and then we reviewed the final composition of our Balloon Festival project.
In production for film, the stages followed are:
- Temps/Postviz. The temps are the preview of how the movie is going to look in low quality and the postviz is the preview of the movie but with higher quality (even there are specialized companies in this).
- Trailers. It shows the several shots of the movie that are finished at a good level of quality.
- Finals. Final product of the film. Usually it is exported to EXR., and two different Quick Times with specific settings ready for being reviewed.
- QC. The quality control of the final product is done by the VFX Supervisor, and they decide which one is the best product to send to the client.
There is specific software for the project management that improves the organisation and communication between the team, such us Google docs and sheets, Ftrack, and Shotgun. They are useful to publish the final scenes that are ready for review, to request tasks, to agree meetings, etc.
The production roles existing in a film are:
- Line Producer. The person that is below the Producer and is in touch or checking in with the VFX supervisor, director, editor, internal producers, producers, and artists. They manage the client, the timing, and the budget.
- VFX Producer. This person makes sure that the studio completes the project, that they comply with the deadline agreed with the client, and that it is completed within the budget set.
A way to share and review a project development is to set VFX dailies. This is an important meeting to see that everyone is in the same direction and to receive the feedback of the film director, the client, the producer, and/or supervisor. It is usually written and recorded, and what it is agreed there cannot be changed later outside that meeting.
Once we have finished the scene we were assigned to, we will publish it so the lead or VFX supervisor reviews it. A good habit to develop is to make sure that what we are publishing is final and it does not have any errors that makes the review difficult as the schedules and deadlines in films use to be tight. Before publishing a scene, it is good practice to follow this tech check process:
- Check notes for the shot
- Compare new version with old one
- Check editorial (shot that editor sent to take as a reference with the original)
- Check if there is any retime in the shot
- Check that our shot has the latest ‘Match move’
- Write in the comments if we have any personal notes
- If we have any alternatives for one shot, inform the line producer before adding this to our published scene.
Balloon Festival Comp
Once, we analysed the different scenarios in VFX production, we proceeded to review the final compositing of the balloon festival project.
For this project I modelled my air balloon in Maya (as shown in Week 3: Maya Modelling Tools Overview Part 2 – Air Balloon and Week 4: UV Set Up & Texturing in Maya).
During Maya lectures, we learnt how to model a 3D hot air balloon and animate it with a simple 360° spin animation. Then, using this and a mountain shot provided by the professor, we were asked to composite a short sequence for a ‘Balloon Festival’. There was no rules, just to put in practice all that we learnt and to have fun with the compositing.
Since I really enjoy designs with an 80s neon style with a dark background that highly contrasts with neon colours, I decided to focus in this thematic. I started trying to colour correct the scene as I wanted a night ambience and the scene was shot in plain daylight.
I tried colour correcting the scene following a tip the professor taught to us in class about separating the colour correction process in primary colours, secondary colours, and shadows. I rotoscoped some sections of the mountains and colour corrected them separately to create a bit more depth and tying to avoid a ‘flat’ look. Then I checked how it would look like with a grey background an refined the roto.
I reformatted the video to fit the size of the main comp, and then I retimed it because, since it was a time lapse video originally, it was playing way too fast. Then I linked it to one of the trackers previously created so it follows the movement of the main plate. Also, I colour corrected it slightly to make it look a bit darker, and also created a roto so it did not overlap with the mountains (created an alpha of the roto with ‘shuffle’ node and copied it in the sky nodes trail).
I did not look the look of the grass in the foreground as it had some gold colour from the original lighting so I decided to add some coloured fog in front to disguise this. So I found a fog video online and added to the comp. I also colour corrected it and made it purple so it matched the palette of colours I wanted to achieved (black, blue/green, and purple).
Following on, I added my 3D air balloon model to the comp. I added four air balloons with different scale position and movement, and also I colour corrected them adding some purple and blue highlights and making them a bit darker. To make the comp a bit more interesting, I also added like magical and colourful trails to two of the air balloons, again, with purple and blue tones.
Then I wanted to add the text ‘Balloon Festival’ like if this were the promotion video of an actual festival. I created a neon effect adding a ‘Glow’ node so the middle of the type is white and the borders have a blue glow. I also used ‘Neon 80’ font to make it look more realistic. Then I added a roto mask to the text to create the transition of the air balloon passing and the text appearing behind it.
Moreover, I added a frame of blue and purple animated neon lights with a foggy texture that I found online. Like I did with the fog and the colour trails, I merged them to the main plate using ‘screen’ option in the ‘merge’ node so the black background is not visible and it only shows the neon lights.
Since Nuke is not very good working with sound, I exported the final sequence with the write node and imported it to After Effects to add the sound. I could also have done it with Premiere Pro, but I was having some problems with my version of the programme so I decided to use After Effects as a quicker solution. I found an 80s style royalty free music ironically called ‘stranger things’ (Music Unlimited, 2022), so I imported it to After Effects and just added a fade out at the end.
The final result has a funny and eye catching look and the 80s music sets the ambiance suitable for the style. It has been a long and hard process for me as I was struggling a bit with the order of the nodes and when to add certain nodes like ‘premult’, ‘shuffle’, ‘copy’, and when to link nodes using the ‘roto’ mask link or regular link. At the end of the day, with practice everything started to make sense and now I can say that I feel comfortable with Nuke’s compositing process and structure.
References
Apisit Suwannaka. Drifting Smoke Motion Design on Black Background Free Video [online]. Available at https://www.vecteezy.com/video/2973097-drifting-smoke-motion-design-on-black-background [Accessed 19 November 2022]
Distill, 2016. Time Lapse Video Of Aurora Borealis [online]. Available at https://www.pexels.com/video/time-lapse-video-of-aurora-borealis-852435/ [Accessed 19 November 2022]
John Studio. Beautiful colorful particles or smoke abstract background Free Video [online]. Available at https://www.vecteezy.com/video/3052087-beautiful-colorful-particles-or-smoke-abstract-background [Accessed 19 November 2022]
Mim Boon. Neon frame background animation Free Video [online]. Available at https://www.vecteezy.com/video/12276978-neon-frame-background-animation [Accessed 19 November 2022]
Music Unlimited, 2022. Stranger Things [online]. Available at https://pixabay.com/music/synthwave-stranger-things-124008/ [Accessed 27 November 2022]