Doorway Lighting Test

I have tested some of the lighting for the doorway of the factory. This needs good spill light.

I wasn't sure how I was going to go about this. I am still not totally 100%, however after speaking to Julian Laing it was suggested to use an ambient light in the doorframe and a spotlight shining in. The spotlight didn't work. But, I opted for using the bounce light with a directional light off of a plane (for now.)

Here is how it looks at the moment:

CG-LiveAction Comp Test

I have tested the idea of compositing live action elements into the CG environment.

Here is the sketch:

This example has partially been textured with the wall on the right being composited from a photograph as well as the roughly roto'd circuit box on the far wall.

I think this is the best option if the tracking process goes well. I see the plan of action being exporting the camera from Maya and bringing that into Nuke for the slight pan to work nicely.

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...

Location Scout

Myself, Jeppe Nielsen and Michal Zagorski set out to have a look at some locations we had in mind for the film.

We need:

A living room -  my family home, with CG alterations

A hospital - the Clinical Skills Centre at Ninewells, with CG alterations

A church/cathedral - we have had a look at The Steeple, but are set to contact St Pauls

Two alleyways - We have found two in the Nethergate, with some created in CG

A factory - this will be CG with live action smoke, for example.

We have all but one location locked, and I feel the progress is very encouraging and the way everything has been conducted has been very professional by the experienced team.

Warehouse For Test Progress

This is Lina Ivanova's environment so far for the test (which we shall shoot for next week.)

The lighting will be a little different, based on film noir, and the textures shall be touched up in terms of resolution.

I will do a multi-pass render and create an atmosphere in the place in the composite. Then, I might composite the beautiful Alona Kiricenko into the the environment after the live action (green screen) shoot next Wednesday with Michal Zagorski (if the chroma keying goes well enough...), and follow the storyboard presented in a previous post.

Environment For Test So Far

I am doing a test this semester for compositing an environment in Nuke.

For this, I am working with classmate Lina Ivanova.

So, here is a render with physical sun and sky lighting.

Once a few more objects are modeled and placed into the environment, as well as some simple textures are applied, I will set up the camera, lighting, render layers and then add elements, other styles and correct everything and generally composite in Nuke (I might even add a live action character if all goes exceptionally well)...

Here is Lina's full post on this.

References For Test

Myself and Lina are starting up on a test of an environment, so I can try out the type of composite I'd like to achieve this year as she works on her experience in 3D environment modelling.

I have taken inspiration from derelict buildings in Dundee. However, I could not get inside, where are are basing our environment, but I still managed to get some interior shots.

Particular films explore the types of imagery I'd like to create:

'Red' Particularly good style in this exterior shot.

'Station Park'

Orson Welles' 'The Trial' (1962)

These materials should be relevant for the final piece. Even though I do not have a character locked yet, I will look to create a similar setting based on these, and other, influences. Then I want to explore a variety of shots to explore not only compositing in Nuke but the variety within filmmaking further.

Silhouetted City..

RED (supinfocom 2011 short film) from RED the moviemakers on Vimeo.

The shapes in the silhouettes, lighting and fog are very appealing for me here. Also, considering the character in there, makes me think about the integration of a live action character in such a texture-less environment, very similar to film noir which I have great interest in..