Grading Before The Grading

So, the process is nearing the end and assessments are only a yard ahead of us.

I have rendered the final shots out from Nuke, tweaking little parts still, and graded the full piece of 29 shots, flicking in between to make sure they synchronise.

Here is a breakdown of one shot:

This shows the grading process. First of of all cooling the image down by shifting the hue (HueShift, of all names) and screening this in. This washes the image as well a bit, so contrast is risen and gain is decreased. Then more measures using ColorCorrect and ColorLookup are taken in order to cool the image off to a blue - subtracting the red, and adding the blue.

A glow is also applied in some shots. This helps for the dreaminess of the scene, but also to soften some of the clipping in some of the alleyway shots. It also generally makes the image look a lot more attractive.

This can either be achieved with a Glow node, or by doing it manually. I have opted for the latter for more control to add more effects to the glow. One would isolate the areas to glow (highlights) by grading the black and white points. Because of the warm image, it needs desaturated using the ColorCorrect saturation slider. Then a simple blur across it (subtly), and merging this with a 'screen' function. A may also use the highlights from the grade to add a Glint effect which stretches the highlights - most often for keyed shots as this integrates the character much like a LightWrap but with a different shape (it is good to mix it with a light wrap at very low mixture levels in my opinion.)

Occasionally I would rotoscope areas which I desire to stay warm and merge this on top (mixed to a low level). This theoretically creates more depth or less, or least a little bit of variation in terms of colour.

Long Shot Test #2

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

Power of the comp.

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...

Curved Edges

In the environment I was given, the edges of the room are very hard-edged and in perfect right-angles. In reality, this is obviously very rare, only ever really seen in maths textbooks.

In my previous projects, this was one problem I hope to move on from.

I have thus far thought up three options of how to go about this:

• Merging objects and adding geometry to curve the edges of the room. However, this in theory would then create a perfect curve. Also unrealistic.

• So, the next option would be to use Mudbox to create rubble, bumps and imperfections. This would either entail sculpting and exporting a displacement map (and dealing with that in Maya), or re-importing the object with high subdivision levels - brave on the processing front.

• The third, and most convincing, option is to use photographs from the environment to inform the camera angles and composite the edges of the room into the render. This of course is up for testing to see if it can be roto'd and sync'd into the environment. But, I believe at this stage it will consist of making sure the textures and the compositing edge elements are similar and therefore easier to composite together. This of course fits much better into my Programme of Study which is based around high-end compositing.

3D Tracking Test

Up until now I have tracked shots with 2D (x and y) movements. Today, I have conducted a 3D tracking test (x, y and z) on the main handheld dolly shot.

This is because I see 3D tracking as a step up from 2D tracking and so I wanted to test my compositing workflow tracked to the Tracker node before the CameraTracker node.

In 2D tracking, you can manually pick one point that you think will track well. Then you copy the translate values to a Transform node on the trackable elements. In 3D tracking, the system picks the points. For this track I chose initially 300 tracking points. This is because the camera moves a real lot. After this, basically, you can export the camera information for rendering 3D elements to composite in 2D pipeline; composite 3D elements within Nuke; or composite 2D elements onto 'Cards' which are connected to the 'camera' in your 3D 'scene'... This give you an idea why I see 3D tracking as a progression up from 2D.

I have placed this 3D sphere into the plate:

(Bottom right)

The majority of work on this shot will consist of 2D roto cleanup and possible additions of subtle atmosphere and fog which are of 2D stock footage. So, I will see what this entails in regard to things looking correct or flat and odd.

Here is the track so far:

I am very pleased with the solve. I have achieved a low Solve Error and it looks good to the (my) eye. It follows the many movements of the camera convincingly. I am quite impressed by the Nuke workflow and output here.

More on this later.

Latest Pre-vis | 11.06.13

This is the latest for the Masters Show 2013 teaser:

There are certain rhythmic issues in the edit and obviously no finished CG elements as of yet. But, this gives one an update on how the edit looks and how some fully tested and colour corrected shots may look in the final teaser piece.

It is the peer review tomorrow.

More on this later..

Factory/Station Comp Testing

I have tweaked the roto of the beams of light, keyed the final character and composited them in place of the other, applying light wrap etc.

To Be Done:

• Modelling tweaked with Lina (more details and scaling issues fixed)
• Texturing (photos taken)
• Lighting (collaborations)
• Alternative camera angles tested
• More passes rendered
• More dust and live action elements composited

...

More up to date (lifting lighting values at the back wall and adding particles into beams:

Node Tree:

'Conjure' | Keying/Comp Test

'Conjure' | Teaser Edit

This is and example of the first draft edit for the Conjure teaser for the course outcome. It is somewhat a long version, but this is the plan at the moment.

It is the raw footage with no VFX. There requires tracking, cleanup, roto of character, chroma keying, colour correction and compositing atmosphere and or CG passes to fulfil these shots.

After speaking with Jin, we have agreed that there are a lot of worthwhile tasks in these shots in order to learn these skills.

Once completed, this should please people who want to see narrative, but also people who want to see creative and really good visual effects.

'Conjure' Colour Correction Test

In order for it to appear as though the factory interior in this dreamworld connects to the alleyway exterior (unexpectedly) I have made a start to test altering the colour correction to aid this transition.

I also believe that the fog needs to be synchronised to aid this transition, as well as perfecting this colour correction.

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.

Production Almost Complete

Here is a selection of photos from the production so far. We only have the green screen shoot to do at the end of the week.

AE Concept Sketch

This test is useful in testing my final footage and understanding where I will add atmosphere and fog into the shot. After looking at my references, with one having a lot of fog I feel I have overdone the fog/atmosphere in this sketch. The reference (in a previous post) from Scorsese's Hugo shows the use of particular areas of smoke and steam rather than the entire frame.

In the former reference from Jellyfish Pictures I believe they may have been using the smoke and atmosphere effect to detract the eye from the fact that the composited footage was shot at different places and times. The fact that I have a very beautiful shot to work with means I need to pick my areas which I want to add atmosphere into.

This test has helped, and I believe that the smoke should appear first of all from the extractor fan, and I think at the moment from the top left of the frame, with an overall atmosphere of fog applied.

Obviously, the execution of the effect isn't too realistic, if I have to explain it is a sketch and this will be 'perfected' for August.

There are such things as a light in shot which will be masked out with a cleanplate, beer company's names on cardboard boxes to paint out and using my photograph of a GRID in order to calculate lens distortion for these fog and other effects to work on first of all.

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:

Final Shoot

We are currently half way through our shoot for the film. So far hit all of our targets for each day and have already filmed in St Pauls Cathedral, the driveway, the alleyways and in Ninewells Hospital.

Thanks a lot to people providing locations for your support.

Storyboard Pages

These are near finals for the shoot. The shot lists just need a little tweak for the order we shall shoot it, and sync'd a little..