Nuke, GodRays and Macro focus

Our first composition using NUKE!

Matt Cameron took us through this step by step, using the render passes that we achieved over night.

(The render of this sequence, about 77 frames in total, took about 2 hours, using 5 computers)

Matt then showed us different nodes to apply to these render passes in Nuke.

The focus depth on the ZDepth was adjusted, to show the trolls in the background out of focus. I found this staggering to watch, as it completed adjusted the scene, as if we were viewing it through a macro lens; making the toys really shrink down in size...

My favourite node label today.

God Rays! 

I cannot wait to apply these to the reverse shot of He-Man as he is backlit by sunshing pouring through the windows...

I would definitely like to test some GodRays for my final film, and the backlit ice figures!!

Lighting in Maya

Creating the lighting for shots 00, 04 and 05; using a selection of direction, point and spot lights, plus an AO volume plane which gives some glow....

These images show us all using Maya, which will then be imported into NUKE for some magic!

Nuke Compositing, inteface and concealing tracking markers

Nuke tutorial and training with Matt Cameron!

Wow, Nuke is brilliant and I love the interface....very simple, flow diagrams, that develop a tree of nodes...and nothing at all buried or hidden.

We were given a sample of footage from 'Ratking'. The footage was of a hysterical pregnant woman, whose belly was full of writhing rats, pushing and moving under her skin.

Creepy.

This effect was achieved by placing a  'plastic' pregnant stomach on the actress.

A shadow map of moving rat feet was created, by placing real live rats on top of lycra stretchy fabric, and filming them running around from the underside.

Nuke was used to composite both the live action and shadow map sequences and included the use of tracking markers.

Our task today was to get to know the Nuke interface and to mask out the tracking markers (black dots)

 1. The Nuke Interface.
Showing imported 'read' live action footage (already including the shadow map of the running rats). The 'A' output of the 'read' footage is then connected onto a 'Tracker' node (peach rectangle ringed by the smaller red circle)
The 'A' output from the 'Tracker' node is then connected to the 'Viewer' node below.

2. We then created a 'constant' node (thin red circle with grip points), to cover the black tracker. There is the simple option of creating just a plain colour, or a cloned colour, which completely matches to the varying pixel colours. The areas ringed in yellow, show a keyframe on the timeline (left) and where it appears in the properties box on the right.

3. Using a  'background' node (as shown as a lilac rectangle) to collectively present all items clearly, that belong in a certain part of the script. This is brilliantly simple and what a great tool, especially when working in a team. The importance of labeling, and being clear when passing on the job to the next person is crucial.

 4. Adding a 'grain' node (circled in yellow below the lilac rectangle) and showing the sliding values on the right (also circled in yellow) for the RGB channels. B (Blue) seemed to show the most grain...

Nuke Tutorials - and the logic of node based compositing

Well from the tutorials I've watched so far, the logic of node based compositing seems pretty straightforward; much like the rigging hierarchy in the outliner in Maya... very satisfying and clear cut...and I really like that it's very visual...

I am intrigued to know more about the merging of A and B inputs, and why there are additional 'A' input options, such as A1, A2, A3 etc...rather than just utilising the alphabet in chronological order...

Really looking forward to the Nuke class tomorrow, where more will be revealed! In the meantime I discovered that Nuke came out in the early 1990's and was the 'New Compositing' software...hence the name 'Nuke'

Shot 32 - animation and Axis update

Fun today doing some simple animation for 'Dean and his cheating girlfriend!'

We've had some very constructive feedback from Axis about the lighting; so we need to have a look at what dramatic shadows and sunlight we can introduce, so we can capture the feel of our original concept artwork

Always good to keep going back to see what the original intention was...to make sure we are keeping in line with the original concept and proposed deliverables....

                     

Henry Moore Institute Leeds - John Latham 'A lesson in Sculpture' exhibition - Critical Review

Here is an extract from the outline of the John Latham  'A lesson in Sculpture' exhibition, currently on show at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

"A Lesson in Sculpture with John Latham addresses his visionary contribution to the study of sculpture, bringing sixteen works by Latham, spanning 1958 to 2005, into conversation with sixteen sculptures by artists working across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."


I find it interesting to note, that I needed to look up some information, after I had attended the exhibition, to discover what exactly it was about; and what I had been looking at...(it reminds me of the time that I stood for some time, pondering the 'meaning' of  an 'installation of ever decreasing white circles' at a Damien Hirst exhibition at the Saatchi gallery in London...only to discover that I was staring at the building's air conditioning vents).

Had I been asked this weekend - what was the exhibition about? I would have answered. Assorted 3D studies and installations of carbon based materials; such as books, coal, paint, planet earth.

I really didn't pick up any idea (apart from the fact that the gallery was named after Henry Moore) that there may be a link towards sculpture.

The most interesting thing was an obscure quote on the wall - applied in vinyl - making a reference to God. And also a glimpse of Yves Klein blue, that appeared in a scientific study....I did rather like the books that were jammed between two vertical panes of glass; and suppose that this was representative, on some level, of sculpture....

The best part, for me, was a pendant light fitting. which shone in the starkness of it all. However, on reflection, this, like my Saatchi experience, could have been part of the furniture

Revised shot sequence for shots 00 & 01; now combined. Going Live!

More practice with Premiere and inserting some opening titles (png text files,  roughed out in Photoshop); to give us an idea of the pacing of the opening sequence.

The final graphics are in the process of being created, but this will give us a good indication in the meantime, of placing, size, timing etc....

The idea of revisiting the Previs file, was to see if the opening frame, showing the toys in a heap, would still work well as a static shot. The original drawn story boards showed two shots; one wide and one close up. This new idea incorporated both shots and could be edited into one static shot that lasts a couple of seconds.

The advantage being, that we only need to render out one frame and can then repeat this for the remainder of the sequence; saving us a lot of time with the render for his particular shot.

I then played around with moving the audio and associated images closer together, to snap up the timing...

Original establishing shot (00), on the drawn storyboards.

 Original shot 01

New sequence, showing the bew static rendered frame 00, which incorporates both shots