Digital Compositing - Semester 2

Digital Compositing Tutorials & Assessments 




Motorbike Scene

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Digital Compositing - Semester 2 - Assessment 1 from Sion Campbell on Vimeo.

Introduction

As a part of our Digital Compositing Assessment, I decided to select Week 3’s tutorial. The aim of this tutorial was to remove any green from the foreground image of Michelle on her bike, and seamlessly apply to the background plate which included movement along a road, making it look as realistic as possible.

Objective :

The objectives for the task were…

* Using Keylight to remove the green background from the foreground image layer

* Using a lightwrap to ensure both foreground and background layers blend well.

* Manipulating the movement of the foreground layer to create a realistic scene.

* Adding my own twist/element to the video, giving the scene a distinctive look.

My Method:

1. I first began by ensuring that all layers and images used were in order and organized easily for a clean workspace.

2. I then applied the Keylight tool onto the foreground image of Michelle on the Bike, ensuring that as much green could be eliminated as possible. This was done by adjusting the White Clip and the Black Clip options.

3. After eliminating as much green as possible using the Keylight tool, I then went on to use the Screen Matte Mode so I could see if there were still elements of the background that needed to be removed. Looking closely, there were still parts of the background visible due to poor lighting, therefore I went on to paint on the alpha channels. The important element to painting the alpha channels was to ensure that I had the option of Duration to Single Frame. If I hadn’t selected this, it would have affected the entire composition rather than just each frame, and would have had a disastrous outcome.

4. Happy with the outcome of the green screen removal, I then went onto create a lightwrap around my composition. The reason for doing so, was to ensure that the foreground layer blended well and realistically against the background layer. This was also done by using the blur tools.

5. Having previously done the lightwrap, I realized that the movement of Michelle on her bike was incredibly static. I wanted to create a more realistic movement along the road, therefore using the Wiggle tool in the effects and presets menu, I was able to make the bike and Michelle move from side to side.

6. As the assessment wanted us to put our own creative flair onto the composition, I decided to add some form of explosion in the background and make It appear that Michelle was driving away from the incident. To do this, I used stock footage which I managed to get from http://www.videocopilot.net. By selecting carefully the stock footage in which I wanted to include, I had to then repeat the same process as before, using the keylight tool to get rid of any background information from these files. Successfully doing so, I went on to select the relevant blend modes, and scale the layers up to create a somewhat realistic image.

7. Taking into consideration that Michelle was driving away from the background, I had to try and make the explosion appear that it was disappearing further behind from the foreground. I attempted doing this by using the 3D Tracker. The 3D tracker allowed me to analyze the background footage, then select the relevant 3 points to then pair up with my other layers. Although having numerous attempts of this, I wasn’t able to create it correctly, which sadly affects the compositions realness.

Research

As a part of my research, I decided to look into how to use the 3D tracker to help create a realistic explosion movement for my composition. Although I didn’t give the desired effect I was hoping for, I definitely learnt from this, and understood the fundamental points of how to use the 3D tracker.

Outcome

On the whole I am rather pleased with the Outcome of this Compositon. It is by no means perfect, far from it, but considering up until this point I had never used After Effects before.

To improve this composition, I would definitely spend more time on the 3D tracker tool, ensuring that the explosion was in line and moving with the background image correctly, as I felt this ruined the composition realness.

References / Bibliography

Lynda . 2012. Adobe After Effects CS6: Learn by Video. [Online] Available at: https://www.video2brain.com/en/after-ef ... n-by-video.

Video Co Pilot. 2015. Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Proffesionals. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.videocopilot.net/.

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Digital Compositing - Semester 2 - Assesment 1 (Second Video) from Sion Campbell on Vimeo.

Assignment 1 – Hotel Death Scene

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Introduction

As a part of our Digital Compositing Assessment, I decided to select Week 4’s tutorial. The aim of this tutorial was to remove any green from the foreground image of the man holding the girl, and seamlessly apply it to the background plate which was a Photoshop composition of a hotel bedroom. As the clip contains camera movement, we also had to use the tracker tool to ensure that the background moves with the movement of the camera.

Objective :

* Using Keylight to remove the green background from the foreground image layer.

* Using a lightwrap to ensure the foreground and the background layers blend well.

* Manipulate the movement of the background layer, by using the Motion Tracker tool.

* Adding my own twist/element to the video, giving the scene a distinctive look.

My Method :

1. I first began by ensuring that all layers and images used were in order and organized easily for a clean workspace.

2. I then applied the Keylight tool onto the foreground image of the man holding the girl, ensuring that as much green could be eliminated as possible. This was done by adjusting the White Clip and the Black Clip options. The important factor during this process was to ensure that the white markers that were applied to the green screen were still visible, as this would be used as our tracking points to ensure that the background plate moved in time and motion with the camera movement.

3. Having successfully removing the green from the foreground layer, I then went on to use the Motion Tracker tool. I had to ensure that I used two tracking markers for this method, but also made sure that the foreground wouldn’t affect the markers. Because of the movement of the camera, all green screen markers were covered at somepoint by the foreground image. This would create a problem for the motion tracker to work.

4. Following this issue, I then went on to split the foreground image up into several clips according to the point of where the markers would disappear. This would then enable me to apply separate motion trackers, which would eventually make the background move in line with the movement of the camera.

5. I applied all the tracking motions to separate null layers, that would then be parented with the background layer in order of movement. I was able to do so by using the switches and modes toggle on the bottom of the panel.

6. After a long process of creating the motion tracking correct, I then had to get rid of all tracking markers that were seen in the original foreground layer. To do this, I had to paint out the markers using the paint brush tool, but making sure It was done on the alpha channels.

The important factor during this process was to ensure that I was painting on the correct layer, as I had split them up into four, otherwise it would not affect the final composition. Another important factor with this was to ensure that the duration was set to Single Frame.

7. As the assessment wanted us to put our own creative flair onto the composition, I decided to make it seem like the building was currently on fire with the roof falling apart . To do this, I used stock footage which I managed to get from http://www.videocopilot.net. By selecting carefully the stock footage in which I wanted to include, I had to then repeat the same process as before, using the keylight tool to get rid of any background information from these files. Successfully doing so, I went on to select the relevant blend modes, and scale the layers up to create a somewhat realistic image.

With these added effects, I made sure that I parented them up with the original tracking markers that I had made. Doing this would make the effects move in time and accordance to the background plate.

Reasearch

As this tutorial was heavily based on the Motion Tracker, I decided to watch several tutorials on after effects trackers, to get a better sense of how they work correctly, and the best way to use them.

Outcome :

On the whole I am rather pleased with the outcome of this composition. It’s again like the other, far from perfect, but it’s definitely a stepping stone for someone who has only just started using After Effects for the first time.

To improve this composition I would definitely spend more time on the alpha channel paining, getting rid of the tracking markers more accurately, which in turn would give a better and more realistic composition.

References / Bibliography

Lynda . 2012. Adobe After Effects CS6: Learn by Video. [Online] Available at: https://www.video2brain.com/en/after-ef ... n-by-video.

Video Co Pilot. 2015. Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Proffesionals. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.videocopilot.net/.

Other Completed Tutorials :

Week 1 Tutorial - Screen Tracking - Sion Campbell from Sion Campbell on Vimeo.

Week 2 Tutorial - Light Wrapping - Sion Campbell from Sion Campbell on Vimeo.