This week, I researched pictures that I would use for my matte paintings in Photoshop to then implement the m in Nuke for my final comp. I also rendered again my scene from Maya with motion blur added.
Motion blur added in Maya render
I was not convinced about the way the render of the scene was looking, so I asked Marianna for help and advice. I explained that the image look too sharp and neat, and it did not look realistic at all as it was missing depth of field and some blur. Then she explained to me that in Maya I could really easily apply motion blur in my render settings (literally just need to tick an option), and Maya would add the motion blur and depth of field for me.
Mayan environment with motion blur
Matte paintings in Photoshop
For the sky matte painting, I took a sunset sky picture and using the ‘offset’ and the ‘stamp’ tools in Photoshop, I made an ‘infinite’ picture so the edge of this is not visible if applied in a sphere or a cylinder to recreate the environment background. The background mountains were made like this too, however, in the rest of the matte paintings I only removed the the sky of the pictures.
In Nuke I added those matte paintings previously made in Photoshop. I added the sky as a sphere texture so it looks more realistic and has more sense of depth. The background mountains were added to a cylinder was they were going to surround the whole scene (as the camera movement rotates through all the scene, this needs to be visible from all the angles). The foreground mountain and the extra rainforest bits were added as projections to simple cards since they constitute small sections only so do not need curved surface. To give more depth to the scene, I added some highlights and shadows to the mountains using rotoscoping. Lastly, I decided to search a clip of a waterfall to add it to the back of the scene so the river position has sense and continuity. Since the cards of the waterfall were giving me problems as they would get in the middle of the camera movement and they would show were the should not, I set their lifetime until only farm 400 so they disappear after. I also had to colour correct the water if the waterfall to match the colour of the river and I also gave the sky an orange/yellow tone so it matches the sunset sky’s colour.
Sky added to a sphereBackground mountains added to a cylinder and rest of the elements to a cardAdding highlights and shadows to mountains with rotoAdding highlights and shadows to mountain with rotoWaterfall’s water and sky grading with rotoLimiting waterfall vidio lifetime till frame 400 so it does not get in front of the cameraFinal comp nodes graphFinal comp nodes graphFinal comp nodes graphFinal comp nodes graph
In these two weeks, we could dedicate the lectures to polish and finish the loop animation and to ask all the questions we had about it.
After I finally got to render all layers, I put them on together on Nuke. I order to do the shadows, I duplicated the main model and projected it on a card perpendicular to the first main model. Then, I colour corrected, desaturated, and blurred this projection to match the shadows from the background. Following on, I thought that the neon ring if the dome looked too flat, so I decided to add some fake neon effect by adding glow, filter erode, and edge blur to create this diffused yellow light, and then duplicated this to create the interior white light of the neon (just desaturated the colour so it looks white). Since this neon half ring is supposed to be reflected in the metallic edge of the model platform, I also added some fake reflections a radial node that has been rotoscoped and graded accordingly (also added some edge blur and blur to soften core and edges of reflection). Moreover, the space texture from the inside dome was not too visible, so I rotoscoped the area where this texture is supposed to appear and added the texture manually instead of exporting it again. I also graded it so it did not show too much detail (that was the previous problem I tried to correct in Maya but for some reason it did not render as it was supposed to). Lastly, I also considered that the background look too flat, so I added some more pronounced shadows on the sides by rotoscoping the sides I wanted the shadows and adding some edge blur, blur, and grade to get the shadows colour.
Final animation with extra lights and shadows in NukeFinal comp node graph in Nuke
Final comp without SFX
Since this was supposed to be an oddly satisfying loop animation, I also decided to include a relaxing background music to improve to the experience. The final looping videos were edited in After Effects.
Final video editing in After effects
Final Video with SFX
I enjoyed this project so much and I think I got more confident in my modelling and texturing skills with it. I also learnt the different ways to render a comp to then comp it by layers in Nuke, and After Effects, meaning that I do not need to finish everything in Maya, and I can take advantage of different programmes that are specialised on different aspects, to achieve better results. I also got more confident with node editing in Nuke as it has always been a bit challenging and intimidating for me, so I feel like this project has helped me expand my creative, technical, and project management skills in many areas.
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.
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).
Original sky video (Distill, 2016)Sky video with mountainsSky rotoSky nodes
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).
Smoke original video (Apisit Suwannaka)Purple fog final lookFog nodes
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.
Text transition with rotoText transition with rotoText nodes
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.
Original neon lights video (Mim Boon)Neon lightsNeon lights nodes
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.
Full compAudio editing in After Effects
Final result
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]
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.
