MAJOR PROJECT
Note: Because I ran out of memory on wix, I put each image/video on my youtube channel, and embedded it.
For the major project, I decided to work in a team with Dong.
Project Brief:
Adventure Film Trailer: This adventure trailer film showcases a blend of live-action and computer-generated (CG) shots to create a surreal world behind a magic portal, that a character is going to explore.
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We will create under 30 second short film. (5sec each scene).
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We will film some of scenes in green screen studio and composite the footages using Nuke.
Reference:
I made a video in Premiere with some of the references we used for the project.
Shot list:
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Shot 1: The character is seen in her living room, standing before a magic portal. The camera moves towards her, and she looks at the magic portal. She is heading to the portal.
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Shot 2: Close-up with actor looking at the portal
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Shot 3: Wide shot of the dreamy world that's inside the portal
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Shot 5: The actor is stepping into the portal, then she's disappearing into the other world.
MAJOR PROJECT POWERPOINT PRESENTATION:
SHOOTING OUR OWN GREENSCREEN FOOTAGE AND PUTTING THE SHOTS TOGETHER
First, we used the university's studio to shoot our shots. We placed some markers, that I am going to use when tracking, later on. Only one shot has camera movement, while in the rest of them, the camera is still.
Then, we both put the shots together.
TIMETABLE
We put together a timetable to help us manage the time. We worked on each shot together, while one of us was doing the cleaning up, the other one was doing the keying. For the 1st and 2nd shot, Dong put everything together, and for the 3rd and 4th one, I did. At the end, we both worked on the final adjustments, such as grading, adding grain, and creating a cinematic effect. At the end, we worked on the breakdown.
SHOT 1
CLEANING UP SHOT 1
I started by cleaning up the first shot. Since we had camera movement, I had to track every marker and to paint it out. I did this by using the method we learnt in our last Nuke masterclass.
I tracked the marker, I created a roto shape around it, and connect it to an edgeblur node.
Then, I used Kemix node to connect the original footage (B pipe) with a Transform node (A pipe) over my roto shape. Then, I masked it out, by connecting the mask pipe from Kemix to my tracked marker. I did this for every marker, and I made sure to set the boundingbox of the Kemix to 'B Side'.
Because our actor was walking, she was covering some markers while moving around. In order to sort this out, I used multiply node.
Process:
Original Footage:
Cleanplate:
TRACKING SHOT 1
I was also responsible for tracking the first shot. I used 3DEqualizer, where I first added the camera information that we used: Sony FS5, focal length (18 mm), pixel aspect.
Lens distortion: 3DE Classic LD Model; Lens Distortion: Static. By checking the deviation browser, I ensured the final number was low.
Getting a low deviation:
To get a solid track, I used the lineup view to make sure that the points were in the center of the green crosses.
Then, I added the focal length adjustments (I changed it from ''fixed'' to ''adjust'' and I used adaptive in the parameter adjustment window to get a lower deviation. Next, in lens distortion, I clicked the adjust box for distortion and quartic distortion and I used again the adaptive method.
Aligning the scene:
I selected three points on the ground and then clicked "Edit/Align 3 Points To/ XZ Plane". I picked one point on the ground and clicked "Edit/Move 1 Point To/Origin".
Adding locators to test the stability of solve
I also added locators: "Geo/Create/Locators" to test the tracking
Exporting camera, LD data, to Nuke and undistort lens + reformat.
I baked the scene and then I imported all of the data that was needed from 3DE. I put them into backdrop nodes.
Setting up the lens distortion of the video:
I used BlackOutside to add a border to the image sequence because the LD data added after is cutting the edges of the image. The reformat nodes allow the conversion of the footage to undistorted and distorted.
Then, I sent my files to Dong, who was responsible for keying and comping.
Josh's feedback on Shot 1
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use heatwave on the portal in 1st shot, since I added it in 4th shot already
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fix the edge of the character when she is heading to the portal
Because Dong was dealing with the renders of the living room, I fixed the keying on his script.
I did this by adding a Primatte node and Filter Erode to get rid of the white edge, and I blurred with Edgeblur. I merged them with the previous key lights, Dong created, by using Keymix and Setting BBox to B Side.
Process:
SHOT 2
CLEANING UP SHOT 2
For the second shot, I did cleaning up as well. This time, I did it only by using RotoPaint (Paint, and Smear) and Edgeblur.
Original Footage:
Cleanplate:
Pre-vis video
Dong created a CG living room environment in Maya, by using Megascans. We put everything together, and composited the CG environment with the live-action footage to create a pre-vis video.
SHOT 3
MATTE PAINTING
For the matte painting that's behind the magic portal, I decided to use Photoshop and Nuke.
I created a simple matte painting in Photoshop, then I imported into Nuke and applied a card on every element. By using card projections, I then applied more elements, such as tree, birds, and a deer.
To create the light, I used volume rays node and I animated the volume rays against a fog element. I started by using radial node which represented the starting point of my light (the source) that I merged it with a black constant, and then I added the volume rays. Finally, I merged everything with fog footage.
In the video below, you can see my process explained with screenshots:
Tutorial I used to create the volume rays:
BREAKDOWN:
SHOT 4
CLEANING UP SHOT 4
Because the character was not moving too much, I did the cleaning up by using RotoPaint (Paint, and Smear) and Edgeblur.
Original Footage:
Cleanplate:
KEYING SHOT 4
I did the keying using the method we learned in Matt's masterclass.
Because I used HairKey node, I had to render the green plate as well to connect it to 'CleanPlate' input. I did this by applying multiple ibkColor nodes.
Process:
PORTAL HEATWAVE, AND BACKGROUND DISTORTION
I applied a heatwave gizmo on the portal to make it more surrealistic. I adjusted settings such as global distortion, blur, turbulence speed, and strength.
In order to distort the background, I applied IDistort.
ROTO OUT WHEN SHE'S STEPPING THROUGH THE PORTAL AND BLUE REFLECTIONS
I had to roto out some parts of her body when she was stepping through the portal and when she was swallowed by the magic portal. I did this by applying the roto node and I merged it with stencil operation. Then, I added a transform node to move the character in the portal.
After Josh's feedback, I also added some reflections on her body when she is watching the portal.