Live Brief
Digital Matte Painting
Skyfall - Scottish Highlands Scene
Cyberpunk Scene - DMP
Final Image
Breakdown
Savannah Scene - DMP
Breakdown
Nuke Camera Projection Example
Cyberpunk DMP - Development
Working towards the final version of the Cyberpunk DMP I decided to bring it into Nuke to add some movement and life to the scene. I utilised the same camera projection technique as used in the example above. To add movement and maintain realism I had to create some moevment in the fire in the centre of the shot. To do this I used an animated noise to drive an IDistort node that distorts the fire element of the matte painting. I also recreated the smoke in Nuke so that it could be animated too, I did this by creating another animated noise, creating a roto shape in the form of a smoke column and using a multiply node to add some opacity. Finally I wanted to add some particles into the foreground of the shot, the clip below shows the first attempt at creating a particle system to achieve the effect I wanted. The Nuke script can be seen below.
I wasn't 100% happy with how the foreground particles were looking in the first attempt, after several variations I discovered that the particle system in Nuke doesn't support rotation for 2D sprites, which is how I was creating the particles. Upon learning this I changed the particles to a mixture of textured cylinders and spheres, this allowed the particles to have rotational forces applied to them, making the simulation seem much more dynamic and alive. I also changed the location of the particle emitter, offsetting the location to the bottom right hand side of the shot, this gives the impression that the particles are being blown infront of the camera from a location out of shot. The section of the Nuke script for the particles is below.
I then decided to add some embers and sparks being given off by the fire, I decided to do this to add some more life to the shot and also to destract from the flames themselves as they didn't look overly good being slightly animated still images. The embers are created using a particle system, this system utilises more of Nukes particle nodes. Using a directional force node to shoot the particles upwards as if they're being shot out of an intense fire, a vortex node is used to create a swirling effect as created by the heat and convection currents caused by a fire. The turbulence node is then used to add some noise to the motion of the particles creating a more realistic looking simulation.
Cyberpunk DMP - Final
Cyberpunk DMP - Breakdown
Savannah DMP - Development
For the Savannah DMP I also wanted to add some movement and life to the shot. I started by projecting the different layers of the comp in 3D space, this gives an illusion of movement by creating a parallax effect. I decided t recreate the sun inside of Nuke, I did this to give myself greater control of the look of the sun. Even with the added movement the shot still didn't feel alive enough, so I added an atmosphere effect using an animated noise node placed between the foreground and the mountain in 3D space. I also decided to add a heat haze effect, this was acheived using an iDistort node driven by another animated noise node. The Nuke script can be seen below.
Savannah DMP - Final
Savannah DMP - Breakdown
Highlands DMP - Development
For the Highlands DMP I didn't want to change too much of the original image, so only added some motion to the environment, fog and smoke. To do this I projected and arranged the parts of the DMP onto cards and animated a camera moving towards them. Both the smoke and fog were created using the same technique, starting with an animated noise node that is then shaped using a roto and the opacity is lowered using a multiply node, the resulting image is then projected onto a card and arranged in the correct 3D space. The Nuke script can be seen below.
Highlands DMP - Final
Highlands DMP - Breakdown
Highlands DMP - 30 Minute Remake
Original Images
Wall-E Live Action Remake
Wall-E Colour Pallette Extraction
Moodboard
Intial Ideas & Pre-Vis
Pre-Vis
Ground Material Concept
Production
Texturing
Scene Layout
Camera Animation Playblast
Test Render
Swing Test Animation
Animated Scene Test Playblast
Nuke and Grading Test
Current Nuke Script
Colour Palette Comparison
Remake
Original
nCloth Test
Layout Change
Improved Layout:
Old Layout:
CG Render with Nuke DoF & Motion Blur
3D Layout - AO Pass
Final Comp
Breakdown
Nuke Script Breakdown
Nuke Script - Sky
The sky section of this script uses a ramp node as a base. The ramp node is set to a colour ramp, changing from a light to a dark shade of blue moving upwards. The ramp node is then fed into a reformat node, this matches the resolution of the ramp image to the resolution of the project; 2048x858. A transform node then places the ramp in a desirable location, this is then fed into a series of grade nodes that shift the colour to a warmer, dustier colour to match the look of the final shot.
Nuke Script - Background
This section of the Nuke script was handled by my teammate; Cameron Scates. In this section he created a still 2D composite image to act as the background of the shot. This was later projcted onto 3D cards in order to track the background into the shot and too add parallax movement, creating an illusion of depth.
Nuke Script - Projection
This section of the script shows the setup for the 3D projection of the background composite. The background composite was split into three elements, these elements were then projected onto three different cards. These cards are then collected using a scene node and then positioned in 3D space at differing depths. The 3D camera from the Maya scene was exported as an FBX, this file was then read into Nuke. This camera was then connected to a scanline render node as the render camera. The same camera data is also used as a projection camera, the camera is fed into a framehold node, the framehold is set to the first frame of the animation.
Nuke Script - CG Plate
This section of the script houses the rendered CG plate. The beauty pass of the render is fed into a grade node, this grade node increases the temperature and changes the overall birghtness of the shot, matching the look that was aimed for. A Z-Depth render pass is then fed into the pipeline using a copy node. The copy node copies the red colour channel of the Z-Depth pass into the depth.Z channel of the CG render. This can then be fed into a ZDefocus node, this node uses the depth data to create a realistic depth of field (DoF) effect. This effect is animated throughout the shot, this it to imitate a focus pull.
Nuke Script - Dust
These sections of the script create a variety of dust effects. Both the far and close section use the same technique. A series of animated noise nodes are merged together, the noise nodes have varying animated speeds and noise sizes, this creates a good sense of depth in the effect. The alpha channel of these noise composites are then copied into a pipeline that is preceeded by a heavily blurred version of the script before it. This is then passed through a premult node, the resulting image is a dust effect that has the colours of the shot behind it. The small dust particles section uses the particle system built in to Nuke. A series of different shaped and sized 2D images are emmited from a card to the left of the camera, these particles then have various dynamic effects applied to them. The result of the simulation is rendered using a scanline render node, this node has a high sample setting, creating a lot of motion blur that distorts the shape of the particles, giving a more realistic look.
Nuke Script - Bench Roto
In this section of the script my teammate created an animated roto shape that followed the bench in the foreground of the CG plate. This was then fed into a copy node and premulted. This cuts the bench out of the CG plate, the cutout is then merged back over the shot, this means that none of the dust appears infront of the bench, this was done to retain the sense of depth created by the dust effects.
Post Nuke Grading
The final part of the production was to grade the Nuke output. This was done by taking the rendered output into Adobe Premiere Pro, then using the Lumetri grading package a basic colour correction was applied, this altered the overall brightness and contrast of the shot. Next a creative grade was appplied, using the CineSpace2383sRGB6Bit look preset toned down to 27.2%, the saturation was also slightly lowered. Finally a small black vignette was added, this draws and focuses the viewers eye towards the centre of the screen.
Christmas Advert
For this project I worked in a team with Alex Charilaou (https://alexcharilaou.wixsite.com/mysite) and Cameron Scates (https://cameronscates98.wixsite.com/portfolio). At the start of the project we decied how we would split the VFX pipeline into roles between eachother.
I would mainly work on compositing, Alex would mainly work on lighting and rendering( including fur) and Cameron would mainly work on Creature FX. All three of us also worked on different 3D assets. I created baubles and presents, Alex created the christmas tree and Cameron created the stockings.
Idea #1
Initial Ideas
Our initial idea was to create an advert with a fully CG character interacting in a live action plate. The main theme of the advert was to have a little monster that had broken into a living room at christmas, the monester eventually discovers a present that contains the product.
Monster Concept Art
We decided that the product we would advertise is Jack Daniels whiskey.
Advert Storyboard
Shot #1
Shot #2
Shot #3
Shot #4
Shot #5
Idea #2
The second idea we came up with utilised the drone shot of the cottage. The idea was to have a variety of large christmas decorations placed over the hillside in the background.
Concept Art
Idea #3
The final idea we came up with also utilised the drone shot. For this idea that shot would be turned into a winter scene, at the end of the shot Santa would fly across screen.
Concept Art
Moodboard & Colour Palette
Week 1 Progress
Creature Modelling
Asset Modelling
3D Tracking
Week 2 - Action Plan
Cameron - Finish creature modelling, rig creature and create blend shapes. Start christmas decorations (Tinsel etc).
Ryan - Reshoot live action footage, 3D track live action footage, comp single rendered frame. Create additional bauble designs.
Alex - Finish Christmas tree model, add fur to creature, recreate scene in 3D.
Week 2 Presentation Plan
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Playblast of final camera move in Maya, with pre-vis creature animation.
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One rendered and fully composited frame of final outcome.
Creature placement Pre-Vis
3D Tracking - Reshoot
Compositing - Tracking Marker Removal
Asset Modelling - DoF Test
Final Pixel Test Comp - 01
Final Pixel Test Comp - 01 Graded
Final Pixel Test Comp - 01
Final Pixel Test Comp - 01 Graded
Final Comp
Breakdown
Compositing Breakdown
Below you can see the Nuke script of the final comp. I will go into detail and breakdown each sectin of the pipeline below.
The first compositing task was to cleanup and remove the markes that had been used for 3D tracking the shot. Each tracking marker is covered by patch that were all created in the same way.
The patches are created by using a rotopaint node, once the marker has been painted out a framehold node is placed below. This creates a freezes the footage on a chosen frame. A combination of a roto, copy and premult nodes are then used to cutout a patch. These patches are then fed through a tracker node set to '1pt matchmove', this ensures that the patches follow the markers throught the shot. An animated grade node is also used to match the patches to the backplate due to chaningin lighting conditions throughout the shot.
When the monster had be rendered out and added to the comp I noticed the sock that had been used as a placeholder was visible above the monsters head. This section of the script was dedicated to removing the visible part of the sock.
A patch is created in the same way as the marker cleanup patches, however dud to the position of the patch tracking nodes never 100% tracked the positioning perfectly. So instead I used a hand animated transform node.
This part of the script is where the CG christmas tree was added. This was the first CG asset added as it is farthest back in the shot.
The beauty render is first passed through a retime node, this is because the backplate was trimmed by 50 frames at the start, so the CG footage had to be shifted to match. The pass is then graded and colour corrected to bring out the highlights, these enhanced highlights help when the exponential glow node is added.
The Z Depth pass is copied into the depth channel of the beauty pass using a copy node. An AO pass is then multiplied over this to add a more realistic self shadowing effect.
All of this is then passed into an expoential glow node, this makes the lights appear more real. A Zdefocus node is then used to simulate DoF and create the Bokeh effect. Finally a motion blur and grade node are added, this helps the CG blend with the backplate.
This section of the script is where the CG stockings were added. Like all of the other CG elements the renders had to first be retimed.
I duplicated the ZDefocus node used for the tree, this ensures a continuity throughout the shot in terms of DoF blurring. Motion blur and grading were again used to blend the CG with the backplate.
This section of the comp is where the CG character and presents were added. This is the last layer of CG as the objects were most in the foreground.
This section used the same techniques and nodes as the previous CG elements.
The final section of the comp is responsible for the compositing of the reflection pass rendered out of Maya.
The reflections are passed through a defocus node, this reduces how sharp the reflections appear on the various surfaces in the shot, a multiply node is also used to control the intensity of the reflections.
'Challenge' Brief - Wendigo Horror Shot
Initial Ideas
The main idea for this brief was to create a final shot of an indie horror film. The main focus of the shot is a Wendigo, a mythical creature that often resembles an extremely malnourished and lanky human. Our initial idea was to have a shot in a forest, however due to changes in covid-19 lockdown rules, we decided to change the location to a thin staircase.
Shot Cleanup & Look Dev
Wendigo Texturing
Wendigo Texturing Development
Compositing - Nuke Script
