Wind and Atmosphere

The atmosphere and feeling of the shot is very important. In one particular shot (above) I have exterior air conditioners which I am using as extractor fans pumping steam into the environment.

However, it is clear that if steam is pumping out of these fans from different directions, combined with other areas of smoke within the composition (creating a smokey and mysterious feeling) the laws of physics begin to appear breached. This was made aware to me by Lead Director of Photography Michal Zagorski.

Therefore, that is why it is important to distinguish the general direction of the wind along with the force and direction of the fans. This creates a more harmonious moving image.

I do not hold footage of smoke and atmosphere which are affected by the wind, but I can use roto to simulate extinguished and parting smoke as if they were indeed affected.

Work in progress

Watching Water Vapour in The World

Seen as most of my visual effects shots consists of compositing smoke, I have been keeping my eye out for smoke and steam in every day life, eg. clouds, piping hot soup and my weekly shenanigans as an arsonist.

The clouds give you an idea of how light reacts, creating hot spots. The shots so far have no strong light source directly behind it which would give a high level of over exposure, but there are subtle effects needed. At the moment, I am using pre-shot archive footage of smoke, dust and atmospheres. This is pre-lit and therefore in order to give it the effect of being situated in the same environment as the footage, other techniques are required.

It may be obvious to point out, but in order to composite them best there are a few important measures: set the blend mode to 'screen', use a light wrap (generate light wrap only and merge, and premult for the roto to work properly) and colour correct it so it looks part of the scene more but still retains its grey opaque tone.

In order to get a more accurate consistency, along with the above examples, I have used a glow and luminance keyers to pull out values to be brighter. In more obvious areas I have roto'd areas I want to make brighter or darker and applied them on top of the full plane of smoke, adding to them.

Tracking and Smoke Comping Tests

That's it just beginning, but I had 2D tracked this shot as it is a simply a tilting shot.

I have cleaned up the rope from the original image as well as obviously composite smoke elements.

I will be doing these 2D tracking shots well before I attempt the main 3D tracking shot.

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:

Main Shots Update

'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.