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.

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:

Factory Preparation

I have received a version of the factory from Lina Ivanova of what she has achieved to model.

Since, I have been tweaking the scene by grouping and renaming within the Outliner for organisation and easier changes; UV mapping; converting everything to polygons; re-routing textures; fixing scaling issues; adding details such as rubble; setting up render settings; tweaking the layout; smoothing objects; setting up image based lighting and more...

The factory from a test extreme long shot. Many tweaks have been made.

Myself and Michal Zagorski have also been out photographing the Old Mills in Dundee for textures and source images to composite into the scene. This should add much more realism to the environment.

The issues so far with the environment, I feel. are there is are the scale isn't real enough, things aren't deteriorated enough, there needs to be more little details and things such as weeds composited. The texturing and lighting stages may take a bit of time, but I have experience and this shot is my focus from now.

Vertigo-esque shot of ladders

For the lighting, I have used a HDRI sourced from the internet with similar colours and time of day of which we shot the other shots and live action on green screen in. And I have added some spotlights in upon this.

A Smart IBL: http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

I have other options as well

For this type of shot I take a lot of inspiration from the visual effects industry, creating some very ultra-real work. For example, the work on The Great Gatsby (2013):

The Great Gatsby (2013)

So, if I take inspiration from this, I can use the modelling and the live action I have, and then texture, light and composite this in an interesting way and I can make something hopefully very beautiful.

So, it is my job to use the final stages of this development to make this look as real and interesting as possible. Lina has done a good job with the modelling, and now it is a foundation for me to really build on.

Much more on this soon...

Progress On Beginning of VFX Shots

They are very basic, and done in only a few hours, but they are underway.

 I painted out one of the lights and some advertisements. I roto'd the extractor fan and added it into another location on another wall for more sources of smoke. Added smoke from these two fans, and some general patches of smoke and atmosphere.

This is the beginnings of the final shot, just toying with a few ideas.

Generally, I want more atmosphere (without detracting from the good detail which is there) and for the composite to be more accurate and realistic. This is what I will spend a lot of my time over the coming months working on.

I have tested some spotlights with light fog in Lina's scene here, and done a few rotoPaints for some extra light fog. This is messy by all means, however it's a little test. There are clear issues with the lighting, and even the syncing up of the environment in regard to where light is coming from. I need a front-facing light from the door (it wouldn't just go at an angle like this) and some different ones coming from the ceiling windows and cracks. I think that the beams and light-fog should be kept to particular areas, for example, where there is a large gap in the ceiling where the main light source should come from. The light from the door needs work and the fill light from the front. Upon that, then there is a colossal amount of lighting and compositing improvements or additions to be made. This is also an unfinished model with basic textures. It currently, to my eyes, looks like a computer game - which is not a nice look. So, a few months still to go!

It's also encouraging that after some experience using Nuke, I am getting a lot handier at it.

Beginnings of alleyway shot.

The Two Main VFX Shots Underway

So, Lina is getting further on with the CG environment for me having a look at and me and the filming crew shoot the character later this week, while the shoot for the alleyway is complete.

Here are a couple of stills before things start to shape up: