A Split Second
For the concept of the story we decided to follow the theme of sustainability to raise awarness of how people should be more considerate of the environent.
Creation of the initial moodboard and look for the film.
Making a list of what was going to be needed to be done in vfx such as CG elements and what was going to be live action.
For the location we actually did multiple location scouts until we finally found the spot we decided to use which had a bench that was perfect for our idea.
We had a shared google drive and miro board with everything in regards to the project which was updated regurarly.
Personal Contribution
As a group we wanted to split the work in a way that we all got a chance to work in different stages in VFX.
First thing that needed to be finished from my end was the editing of the film, we went through multiple versions of the cuts until we reached the picture lock to start working on the CG comping.
Rough Draft Editing
Initially we each chose a tree to model so that we use them in our film, but in the end we only ended up using one tree as it was too crowded in the frame to include all our trees. I modelled the tree on Blender and textured it on Substance Painter using textures provided by my teammate for the base of the tree. For the tree leaves i created the texture on Photoshop.
After finishing the tree I created a tree simulation on Houdini for the movement of the tree with the wind.
Research about the tree species and references taken on location
Houdini Simulation, Blender Tree
Creating a fire material that is controlled by a spline on Blender, which can be drawn to make a fire trail.
This was made to be used in the scene after the cigarette is dropped on the ground and then a fire trail would be initiated from it.
Looking at the renders from blender and how the fire looked, it was good but after the renders came out and I comped it with the clean plates on nuke, it looked very hollow and and not as realistic as we would have wanted. I tried to work around it and make it look good and have it in our final project but in the end we made the decision to remove it and not use it as we were not satisfied with the final look.
Creating the Fire Material in Blender
Initial Look of the Fire Material
Testing the trail from Blender to Nuke with the cleaned plate
Comp in NUKE
I worked on two different shots the introduction wide angle shots of our character an the trail shot.
Personal Comp Breakdown
For the wide angle shot of the character sitting on the bench i had to comp the CG Tree into the background, I first got the reference image from my teammate on where she had placed our simulated tree on fire in the last shot of the film before i started working on my shot so that continuity would be taken in consideration.
I first did the 3D Camera Track and placed down cards and a cylinder for reference of where the tree and it’s shadow should be, I shared that GEO with my teammate so that she would start rendering the CG Tree.
After I got the render i placed the tree in it’s correct location and color graded it to match the original plate.
Since the tree was placed in that location it needed to blend in with the foliage so i used projections to project the foliage back ontop of the tree with RotoPaint to make it look realistic.
Node Structure
For the trail shot, I also started with the 3D tracking as that was crucial for this shot since there was movement that we wanted to follow with our CG elements.
3D Camera Track
Original Plate
Cleaned Plate
For the cleaned plate I removed all the leaves and the Cigarette with RotoPaint which was projected on cards with the use of the 3D track that was done. I color graded the projections that needed to match the color of the dirt in different frames.
After having the cleaned plate I started placing the CG elements starting with the Cigarette (The Roto of the foot was done by one of my teammates). For the Cigarette i comped over it smoke and fire which was also animated for certain frames in nuke. I also added back a shadow for the Cigarette which can be seen on the ground, Everything was projected on cards in layers.
Node Structure
Since the fire trail material i made on blender didnt look the way we wanted it to i comped fire towards the end of the shot
Critical Reflection
Since I come from a film background that was a really helpful thing for us it helped shape the storyline in creating something that is meaningful and relevant to our chosen theme which was sustainability. Even though we were only a team of three people we got along really well. We were always communicating with each other and updating each other on progress and how things are going. We created communal boards that helped us keep track of who was doing what and the progress of things and since everyone could see what was being uploaded if someone had a problem we were able to help each other out in finding a solution.
When modelling the tree using blender that was my first time using that software it was definitely challenging trying to use the interface when I was used to using Maya, at some point I did switch between different stages when working because sometimes it was easier to do things on Maya, like the UV unwrapping, in the end I did bring everything back into blender. After having the final tree I took it into Houdini which was also one of my first times using Houdini to create a simulation for the movement of the tree. I had everything ready if we wanted to use that tree but in the end we decided to only use one tree and create a fire simulation which was done by one of my teammates. Deciding to only use one tree was made creatively because the framing of the shot looked too crowded if we added three different CG trees. It was an interesting experience to work with blender and Houdini together to create that CG tree in the future. If I ever needed to use a tree in a film again that would be the way that I would do it again.
It would have been nice if the fire trail that I created would have looked better than the way it looked since it was fully customizable and controlled by us that would have gave us a unique look of a fire trail I was having issues with blender when I was trying to fix the look of the fire another thing that kept on happening was that I wasn’t able to animate to match the tilt up of the live footage.
Using Nuke to comp the CG elements and the live footage was really interesting. It wasn’t as hard as I would have anticipated but I do think that if I had more time I would have done things differently to make it look more realistic, especially with the fire.
Overall I think my team and I were able to tackle a lot of our issues and solve them but if we had more time than we would have been able to create something even better.
We plan to revisit this project later when we get a chance and continue refining it to our best knowledge. (Word Count 497)