Category: Nuke

For this project we were tasked to incorporate a 3D model we built on Maya class into a composite and freely built a concept around the resources we were given.

Since the plate we were given was a shot of snowy mountains, I thought it would be a good idea to turn into a scorching volcanic scene, as it would be technically simple enough but it would also invert the aesthetic quality of the original completely.

I started out by using a luminance key to replace the sky:

After I added a volcano to the scene:

I found a free smoke effect online and added that as well:

Now I wanted to change the color of the snow to make it look like lava. However, none of the conventional methods I tried achieved the result I was after. After starting to experiment with different things I stumbled upon the dodge tool inside the RotoPaint node. I found that I could essentially burn the pixels into the color that I wanted.

I know this is far from the best method to achieve the desired result and I will continue looking into ways to do it properly.

A side effect of using an improper method like this was that my scene became almost impossible to work on as the render in the viewport was now taking ages for a single frame. To rectify this I rendered the scene and used it as a plate on a new script.

After this, I wanted to add a heat distortion tool. I found the IDistort node inside of Nuke to not provide a very realistic effect and therefore I followed this tutorial on how to create a proper heat distortion effect:

In addition to that I added the balloons and added depth of field by using the ramp and ZBlur combination Gonzalo showed in class, as well as text and a fire sound effect. This is the final result:

In conclusion, I recognize the end product is far from technically sound but it was a great exercise in adding new tools to our toolbox while also working with what we learned in class. Although my problems with rendering the file prevented me from adding more interesting things (for example balloons falling into the volcano causing an explosion) in order to create a small narrative, I am pleased that I achieved the visual theme I was aiming for.

Here we learned about rotopaint and regrain tools and how to use them to clean up a scene.

I decided two clean up the posting board and the side of the lockers as they were the most visually cluttered:

Then I used cornerpins to add new elements to the scene:

Here is the script:

Here we learned how to use the planar tracker to track things in multiple depth layers. For our homework we had to swap out the middle poster of this scene:

Script:

As part of our lesson on all the Nuke utilities relating to color and the process of color grading, we were tasked with color grading a 3D model to match our plate.

At first, I found myself quite overwhelmed by the number of different controls that are involved in the color grading process as well as the ways in which they interact or interfere with each other. But even after becoming more familiar with all the knobs and buttons I could not quite visualize the end product. I discovered that I had not been paying close enough attention to the importance of color in composition and especially in this case, how it affects verisimilitude. Adding to that the mathematical aspect of the process when working as a compositor, I realized that manipulating color is one of the most important skills of the job and one that cannot be mastered overnight.

I found this series of tutorials by the foundry very helpful in steering me in the right direction.

It became clear to me that the first thing that the most obvious first step was to lift the blue tones of our model as it is placed between two sources of blue light (the sky and the sea). I used the saturation node to roughly match the blues of the plate and the model.

I went through a lot of trial and error to come up with an acceptable result but I felt hindered by the fact that still I did not quite know what the ideal end product looks like.

I found this task unexpectedly challenging which has motivated me to research and learn more about this process and also to keep trying to develop a better eye for color.

Our first task when working directly in nuke is to use rotoscoping to create a matte. Other than training in this specific skill, this was also our first opportunity to get more familiar with Nuke workflows.

I found rotoscoping to be quite straightforward and intuitive yet time-consuming and tedious. I did not encounter a problem that I could not solve if I just dedicated more time and I did not have any trouble understanding the different tools and controls.

However, I did gain the following insights:

1. As Gonzalo instructed from the beginning, it is vital to take enough time to look at the plate thoroughly before starting to work and plan out your actions, especially when it comes to adding keyframes. Once I got a feel for how the software behaves I had a much easier time understanding motion and planning out my animation.

2. Intelligently splitting your rotos into as many basic geometrical shapes as possible is both time efficient and flexible. Initially, I was splitting my shapes based on body parts or whatever my human brain understood as a distinct part of a whole. I quickly understood that was not very smart as the software does not understand how a hand is supposed to move but if you simplify the geometry you make editing for yourself easier.

Moving from the photography-based project of the previous week to an exercise in cinematography and amateur filmmaking, we were tasked with creating a 15-second film around the concept of ‘the city’ and specifically the city of London.

Upon hearing the concept being explained, I was immediately reminded of this iconic montage from the movie Snatch (2000):

I had always found that to be a very innovative way of conveying the passage of time and change of location in a film and so I created my short film as a loose tribute.

I filmed various scenes from the London underground, sped them up, and joint them together with sharp cuts in order to convey the hectic, mundane and claustrophobic aspect of the big city. To juxtapose that with the grandeur and beauty which is also a part of life in London, I faded into white a wide shot of Westminster.

Similar to the mood board, I found this an apt exercise in combining concept and craft. This time, I tried to be more aware of how I used the lens, at least as much as filming outside with my phone allowed me.



REFERENCES
Snatch (2000)

Following the two frst weeks of the course, which were dedicated to learning the basics of cinematography and photography, we were tasked with creating a mood board around the theme of time.

I used photographs that I had taken in the past as well as some that I took for the purpose of this excercise. I tried to communicate the passage of time by creating a clockwise progression through these photographs. I chose a photograph of graffiti painted on my old high school wall as the starting point and the photograph of professionally drawn graffiti at the same place many years later as the endpoint. In between, I chose photographs of places that held some sort of visual association with my hometown but were located very far away from there.

I thought this was a very useful exercise in getting the class to think about the combination of the technical aspects of our work and the artistic end goal. Although I enjoyed coming up for the concept for mine, I recognize that I overlooked the more technical exercise in photography.