Week 9: Break Down

This is the break down of the shot with all of the components and layers to make the characters sit in the shot well.

Week 9: Final Comp

Blu: Shot 1




This is the final comp with the final look and grade. I am very happy with the final result but there are many bugs and tweaks that can be altered, such as the blue screen. this will need further work and may be rotoscoped to maintain high detail and remove the screen.

On an narrative feed back the shot can be developed further in a narrative way.

As the camera pans up, the camera can pass through clouds and then come up tight on the hippogriff creating a better revel of the character. Also the character performance on the girl could also be improved by making her move and bob her head as she tries to look though the clouds.

Week 9: Backgrounds and final finnish

The inspiration for the background came to me only a few days ago when I was on the train and I noticed some clouds that reminded me of my set. So I decided that clouds might be a good background solution as I can find many high resolution photos on the internet and they will integrate well with the cotton wool set.

To make the background I organised some of the frames into a layers pan the same way I did to map out the animation for the girl. Like this I can give myself a sense of scale and organise the layers in accordance with the foreground before the layers reach after effects.

Stage 1: 2D 'Camera Track'

Stage 2: Putting the clouds in place 

In this stage I edited the photos so that they have alphas and rearranged then to create a pleasing composition around the foreground. I also blurred the some of the background layers to help achieve a sense of depth even before the layers are converted into 2.5D layers. 

Stage 3: Colour correct

Here I changed the images from colour to black and white, added a deep yellow photo filter and colour corrected the images so that they matched in colour and tone with the cotton wool. 

Stage 4: Camera tracker and 2.5 D

To place the background in position so that it moves along with the footage I used the camera created by the 3D camera tracker and a 2.5D technique. I placed the clouds in position but also changing their size and varying their distance form the camera creating a greater sense of layering and distance. I also played around with the camera aperture to make the background more out of focus. 

To create some distinction between the foreground and background I Pre-Composed all of the background layers together and alter the Hue to make it a little pinker. This sublet change will hopefully make the whole picture easy to take in put not give it a feeling of disjointedness.

 Finishing touches:

I added a radial blur to the final comp which I animated to follow the object of the audience's focus. This I think will help emphasis the closeness of the camera which was already created by the macro lens.

I also added a light overlay of the cotton rag texture and a vignette to give the pice a final finishing touch and warmth.

Week 9: Final Blu Comp

To have an image to comp over Blu I rendered out one from of the mountain top form the base plate with alpha and masked this in veracious ways around Blu to make him look as if he was sitting in and compressing the cotton wool:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

There is a significant difference between the two images. Now he looks like he is sitting in the cotton wool while also creating shadows around him. I think it worked really well and didn't involve any extra tracking as I placed it in the Pre- Comp along with Blu who by this stage is already tracked.

I also added a mask to remove the plants of the mountain which where creating a noisy edge. this again was created using a tracked sold which was masked. 

Week 8: After Effect Animation and Composition of Blu

Blu didn't need so many alterations, masks and shadows as the girl; he doesn't move around the set so doesn't cast shadows over a range of surfaces and he was painted with the lighting already in mind. This meant that I didn't feel the need to add rim lights as I did with the girl.

I did add shadow to the wing, shadow onto the body cast onto the wing and on the front foot, as well adding a shadow rim to the tail. The shadow to the body from the wing was very important as I couldn't paint this on before as it was going to be a moving component.

Animated puppet, without alterations:

Animated puppet, with shadow alterations:

I then used the animated comp of Blu to create a shadow for him as he sits on the mountain. It is a very basic shadow but I feel that he needs more done to him to give the appearance of sitting on the cotton wool.

As you can see Blu doesn't sit well in his environment as well as the girl does. I received feed back from family members and they made me realises that he has no weight. He is sitting on a lot of cotton wool and isn't sinking into it. I need to add come cotton wool images in front of him and incorporate his shadow into those as well as the back plate. 

Another point of feed back form myself is there is a lot of noise causing the side of the mountain to flicker (from the blue screen). This may be because the blur channel contains more noise than the others. I will probably mask this out, using a tracker marker to track the mask layer. 

Week 8: After Effects Compositing continues

Girl Composting:

Adding shadows and highlights:

This is the girl with her fill effects, with adjustments, as she was in the previous post. I will be crating shadows and highlights using two layers, one cropping the other to either create a light or dark rim around the girl. These layers will be taken form the original fill animation and altered to be white or black and the second cropping it. I then blurred them to feather the edge and layers them together.

Highlights:

Highlights comped in:

Shadow rim:

Shadow rim comped: 

A second Shadow rim: 

Second Shadow rim comped:

Outline added on top:

Shadows:

The next part is to add shadows making her interact and effect the environment. 

The girl stops in the shadow of a large object meaning that her shadow doesn't have to be harsh or a silhouette. Here the shadow is created form ambient light not direction light. 

The achieve the shadow when she is standing I used a camera tracked solid, masked and comped using soft light and a second with low opacity. The camera tracking process was very easy and worked really well on default settings. This may be because the camera move was very simple and constant in lighting but it provided the trackers I needed. 

These tracked solids were created in 3D along with a 3D camera. This meant that I could reposition them and not have to worry about running the track.

Shadows cast by Environment:

To create like the girl was moving into a section of shadow I created another tracked solid format the 3D camera track and masked it so as the girl moved she enter the shadow convincingly 

Girl moving into shadow (mask not active):

Girl moving into shadow (mask active):

As you can see there is a difference in her tonnage as she moves through the mask and into the shadow. This really makes her sit well inside the environment as she interacts and is effected by it.

The girl in shadow:

Girl casting shadows: 

This was a little tricker as the shadows the girl was to cast are interacting with 3D (looking) objects so need to act accordingly. This deduced to do using mask and 3D layers.

First I created a mask layer for the tree and tracked for as long as the girl would be casting a shadow. This masked the shadow which was created form the fill animation which was feathered so that it matched the other shadows on the plate.

I then made the shadow layer 3D so that I could animate it to make it look like it was curving around the tree.

These shadows, along with a shadow the tree is casting on the girl, makes her sit in the shot, integrating her very well. 

Week 7: Basic After Effects Comp

After having render out the two sets of animation and the key light back plate I went into After Effects and started to replicate the test comp I did in Photoshop.

I used the fill animation to mask out the footage resulting in the shape of the girl filled with the footage.

I then added an Camera Lens Blur to make the background out of focus...

… this followed by adding the cotton rag texture at a low opacity…

…and finally topped with the outline animation with another cotton rag texture.

This is the first comp rendered out and as you can see it has a few bugs. The layers I have created in the fill animation are over exposing the footage so will need altering and toning down.

The next stage after that will be to work on lighting and shadows for the girl.

Week 7: Nuke Compositing

Original footage in Nuke:

Key light:

This proved very simple to use with very little problems resulting form the limited lighting from the filing process. the only problem is the small amount of blue left from the blue screen. Seeing as it is cotton wool and very fluffy it will be difficult to remove the colour without feathering away all the remaining detail. I have yet to decided on a back ground so I will address this again when I have the back plate sitting on a background. 

Camera tracker: 

This was a very important step as the last part of my animation didn't track with the camera. Once the girl stays still she isn't animated to stay with the camera so slides across the plate. So I camera tracked from the point when she needs to stay still onwards.

This camera tracker animation was then transferred to animation and I could see how she sat on the plate. The part of the plate that I tracked disappears off view as the camera pans up resulting in the girl overing in the bottom part of the frame.

To counter act this I created a second transform node and added extra animation to smoothly move her off the screen in accordance with the camera move.

This animation was then added to the animation filling in the line animation and render out so that the animation can then be placed again in front of the plate without any tracking necessary.

 Nuke Node tree:

Nuke basic render and comp:

This is a basic render form Nuke with a back ground added behind the plate (this is just a simple image which needs to be tracked to the camera) and the animation.

I have now worked with Nuke for my own work and find it very useful for this technical aspect of the compositing process. I am however going to use After Effects for the next stages of the compositing as I feel that After Effects is more suited to my needs and I am far more comfortable in After Effects in order to experiment. In regards to my future career I will most likely be using After Effects more than Nuke and having now covered the Nuke basics I can enter the software again and develop my skills when needed. 

Week 6: Photoshop Animation After Effects Puppetry

Girl Animation: 

For the girls animation i decided to use Photoshop as I know the software well and I can import footage easily as well as have the brushes I am comfortable with. To help me plan the animation I made this image using frames of the footage to recreate the set and map the girls exact movements through it.

Animating with out this would have been very difficult for me due to the camera move. The usual technique of ghosting would have been difficult as I will be trying to maintain the correct movement and spacing for the girl but also tracking her. So by doing this I could create her key frames and note where they occurred in accordance with the back plate. Once this had been established I could start animating happily.

Animation without back plate:

Girl test comp: 

While in photoshop I decide to experiment with the masks to create a look for the girl in the environment. I drew her out line and coloured her in a flat cloud. This was then used to create masks over the original footage which was then blurred (this will make her look transparent but still be semi opaque) and added a cotton rag texture. This and the blurred shadow I think she sits quite well in the environment. She is not photo real but in her stylistic way she don't stand out grossly.

Blu Animation:

For the hippogriff character I wanted him to be in full detail and his animation in the first shot would be very limited to simple movements of the head and tail, maybe the wings. So for this I decided to use the puppet pin tool.

To animate Blu using puppetry I would have to make him in separate pieces and then place him back together in order to animate separate limbs. I first created a rough sketch in photoshop made up of different layers and then arranged them so I could print them out and create the puppet parts by hand.

I created then using ink and ink pens on cotton rag paper and then scanned it into the computer to be edited in photoshop to be transferable to After Effects.

Once in After Effects I made a rough animation and tried comping it onto one frame of the filmed plate. I think the animation process will be simple enough but getting him to sit well in the shop will be harder. I made the back plate balck and white to try and emheisse his colour but I think it make it look quite dull and having the warmth of the lighting will contrast against the cooler blue colours

Week 6: Warp Stabiliser

The footage taken was using a hand held camera and needed to be stabilised to make it more appealing to the eye. I used this tutorial to get a better understanding of the tool.

Original footage:

Stabilised footage:

I decided to use the present smooth motion, with sunspace warp as it produced the best stabilising effect. I opted for the auto scale option rather than synthesise edges because even though I lost a little bit of resolution the edges won't need any clean up.