Silhouetting

Examples of silhouetting in photography

For one particular shot there is a very bright background. I have toyed with balancing this shot to make it believably shot from a camera.

This is the initial comp

Due to the bright source of light behind the character, it would be likely when the camera's ISO was set up that everything else would become dark.

This is the current balanced comp

This is why I have darkened the character Tyler and toyed with contrast and gamma to make areas darker.

This is an example of it not done quite as well

However, it is very easy to over-do it and lose the attention to the character which is very important from a storytelling point of view, obviously...

Other notes on comp:

Light seen through skin

- I have use the light wrap effect and graded it to an orange and roto'd it around the areas of skin which is directly in front of the light source. This enhances the effect of light travelling through the skin. I found this an important detail to synchronise the chroma keyed foreground and CG background.

Autodesk Smoke

- I plan to add some lens flare to this shot. I have looked into Autodesk Smoke's ability to composite and edit lens flares in 3D/2.5D but I do not have enough computing power to make this viable at this moment, so I will opt for images sourced from the internet.

Lens flare (this can be set to 'Screen' in comp)

Motion Vector | Motion Blur

I have utilised mental ray's pass mv2DToxik to create a motion blur in the shots.

The motion is mostly through camera movement.

The other option for this was to use After Effects CC Force Motion Blur effect as demonstrated by my classmate. However, I want to keep this all within Nuke, so it was important to get the pass to work.

The vector frame

It is a 32-bit (float) vector sequence which you use in Nuke to determine how much the image should blur in each frame by using the colours it provides. Shuffling out the image and setting it to 'forward' and then copying this into the comp in order to provide for the vectorBlur node allows this to work. In this node I set the method to 'forward' to sync this up and the shuffled UV channels to 'motion'.

The vector blur applied

Pulling Keys

I have used IB Keyer for this. It provides a lot more for the hair. I used the luminance match from the background as well as the chroma.......

The shirt area is roto'd and has and EdgeBlur which is brightened to give a soft and light outline....

Overall, pretty happy with this key.

The image will be properly colour corrected using other shots in the film as reference.

I am rendering most of the shots through the farm at the moment, and compositing some other final shots.

Another Ladder

This is another test comp for the Factory scene:

POV of Tyler looking for the exit..

The plan is to get as many of the test comps underway as soon as possible, and capture the feeling for the scene, then to do final renders with some more passes (eg. motion vector). Then the composites should be tweaked and finalised.

As I add more atmosphere to the alleyway shots in order to keep with the feeling of the scene, it is then important to make sure these are as consistent as possible in look. Afterwards, likely requiring dirtying up these CG shots to make them appear as being shot..

Comp-fu:

After getting the bulk of the compositing done, I found that the ladder just didn't stand out enough. This was primarily because of the colour correction washing it out to a blue tone like the rest of the image. In order to fix this I used the depth pass and graded it in order for it to give me a solid white isolation of the ladder. However, the foreground was also white, so I roto'd this area out. Once this re-painting was complete, I used a Keyer node the make the luminance into an alpha and used the Copy (alpha) node to isolate the ladder area of the composite to that point in to re-grade to a redder tone (even with a yellow glare and glow on the highlights - again by using the grade node which is very opaque) and Merge on top again. This brought the ladder to a better colour in the comp, and therefore stand out some more.

Vertigo

Here is a shot clearly inspired by the famous push-pull shot from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo':

Tyler is nervous and alone, and looks down the ladder of the factory as the only exit. We then see him walking down this ladder into an alleyway...

Keying and CG Character Comp Test

Keying

I have begun keying the character in some shots.

I began with Keylight and isolated separate areas, such as hair and body, and then merged them back together.

It was getting a little messy, and so I began again with IBK. Despite not having shot the blank green screen I was able to create a very smooth and consistent background using the IBK Colour node.

After tinkering with this process, I found it much more comfortable to work with. I tweaked the darks and lights for some time. Then using background luminance and chroma it gives the colours of the rendered background (or Constant in the meantime).

I also had to switch on 'autolevels' to pinch the whites in more and the 'luminance match' which needed the 'screen range' pulled down.

There were artefacts in the key, so it appeared that the red weight was too low, so this was pulled up to a value higher than 1.

For a better outline, I have premultiplied the key, then unpremultiplied it to get rid of the black outline, eroded the line, then blurred the edge (with a brightening effect.)

Lighting

When I rendered out the roughly keyed footage, I took it into Maya to match up the lighting. It was all very dark, so I created an area light with a warm colour to match the footage as much as possible.

Here is a test render:

After the test composite, this is what I have:

I have used light wrap, a glow and a glint (rotated 90 degrees) which really helps to tie the character into the scene using the lighting here. Of course along with a series of colour corrections and composited elements.

I have chosen to move the camera slightly to the right as the character leans forward.

More Tests

More in synch colour correction

Error at wall fixed by rubble geo (texture and lighting did not do enough)

Very rough comp, but risen 'values' for glowing effect

More feeling of fog and depth needed

Tested motion blur:

Using motion vector pass

Long Shot Test #2

Only master beauty, ambient occlusion and basic zDepth passes were rendered for this.

Power of the comp.

CG Comp Test

I have produced this test, by improving an original shot which looked a little bland.

I textured this with mia material x passes with a light fractal bump, and have lit it with a HDRI combined with directional light and an area light. I have rendered the beauty, specular, ambient occlusion and indirect passes, for example, at 32-bit (float) OpenEXR. This is composited in Nuke to create as nice an image as possible to sell this company.

Working with the depth pass and zBlur node was good practice. Making sure to use this pass and bring it in using the ShuffleCopy node setting the Z to Red and the drop down menu to 'depth'. This allows one to use the focal plane setup to adjust where the depth effects more.

I used the same depth pass to create a light fog by grading the image in the Grade node and merging it. This was tricky, but upping both the multiply and gain together (or exceeding the allowed amount as the effect is similar) allowed to get the right feeling. I also had to invert my depth pass. Instead of using the merge node to combine this, I used another Grade node (which I coloured slightly) and this went into the 'mask' of the node.

Factory Long Shot Lighting and Comp Test

A few things were suggested by cinematographer Michal Zagorski in our latest meeting.

One thing we agreed at first was in order to stick with the original concept, the foreground needed darkened. I have both tried to block light in CG and roughly used a vignette-type shape in that area of the comp.

He also suggested to draw attention to the back wall and door by casting light onto this. With the darkened foreground, this should draw attention to the door and the character there. In terms of source light, we thought a light could come from the left hand side tunnel - through a breakage.

The beams of light were also suggested to be cast over the doorway.

I think work needs done on how to spill light out from the door more efficiently..

Here is a comp I have produced quickly pretty close to the original concept:

It has new textures, which need some more synchronising or even dirtying up a bit more, and the new lighting. This also needs some extra details in regards to wires, which I hope Lina will begin to produce next week...

The comp also needs more of a foggy feeling and look.

Seemless Texture Development

I have been working on the edges and corners of the environment. After speaking to supervisor Dr Jin Zhi, due to the fact that the edges are far away from the camera, one can opt for dealing with the jarring edges through simply texturing. I was going to be doing this synchronising anyway, but it really does work. No need for compositing elements and tracking it anymore!

Here is the latest:

Direct your eyes toward the righthand side of the frame where the edge of the platform meets the wall.

More on this elsewhere, and then I am wanting to perfect the light fog and feeling through lighting and render passes. I think it needs some spotlights, then I'll deal with depth and compositing a 'thick' feeling of fog/atmosphere.

Also, in the alleyway scenes, it was suggested to make some of the fog thicker. Jin says this should keep with the original concept and feeling of the piece where atmosphere and mystery is key. So, going to revitalise this soon. And, make sure these two scene sync up nicely...

Shader Development

I have been working on the textures, shaders (mental ray mia material x presets and values) and the UVs.

Here is a comp test:

The next step, after completion of this, is the lighting and render setup (using passes and layers to aid lighting in the comp to create the best depth and light fog effects) and the final camera positions and animations...

Different lighting idea:

Long Shot - Texture View

This is the concept composite for the piece which was created a while ago now:

With new textures, here is the latest test composite:

Here is the simple diffuse texture:

For me, I can see progress with the textures, although I think it desires additional details in them. I will refine this obviously, and add dirt and stains onto more areas of wall (esp. in the tunnel.) However, I feel it also desires it in the modelling - wires, hanging wires, even oddly shaped wood, etc. I have tried my best to add these, but I may need extra help for this. The variations of colour isn't too interesting either - however I think this comes in the planned excessive colour grade as seen at the top.

The lighting obviously needs a lot of work as it appears to me that the concept comp is more 'interesting'. This can also come in vignettes and such in the final grade also.