Author: Vitus Lasrado

Week 4: Editing and Colouring.

Post author By Vitus Lasrado
Post date 9th May 2023
No Comments on Week 4: Editing and Colouring.

This week, I was planning to match move the footage in 3dequalizer and start with the compositing of the footage. I had some problems with the 3dequalizer when I was using it from home and the footage wouldn’t read. I tried exporting the footage in EXR format and Tiff format, but it still couldn’t read the footage, so I moved on to the editing and colouring instead.

To edit and colour the video, I used DaVinci Resolve because this was free and the industry has started using this software for editing and colouring. I have used Premier Pro in the past and I am comfortable with it, but I wanted to challenge myself to learn something new.

I watched a few videos and learnt the software. It took some time to get used. I saw another video on how to edit faster by cheating a few of the key shortcuts.

I started off by cutting down the video and keeping only the part which was relevant to me. Next, because I shot the video by hand, I needed to add stabilizing for the footage so that the video would look smooth. After that, I slowed down the video to give it a dreamy feel. For the colour, I wanted to go with the Instax or Polaroid film hue.

Final Video

Peter McKinnon (2023), 10 Tips To Get You Started with DaVinci Resolve! [Online Video]. Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq0AUM8Mv78&ab_channel=PeterMcKinnon [ 4th May 2023].

Justin Brown – Primal Video (2020), DaVinci Resolve – COMPLETE Tutorial for Beginners! [Online Video]. Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Ln33O4p4c&ab_channel=JustinBrown-PrimalVideo [ 4th May 2023].

Group

Week 4: Clean up.

I started working on cleaning up my plate. Gonzalo always said that there are different ways to do the same thing on nuke but we need to find the best and easy way. This week’s task was to find that way. I started off with a 3D projection but this didn’t match up with the plate. Next, I tried 2D tracking which worked the best. Later, I thought of using the smart vector but even this failed. For now, I am sticking to 2D tracking, till I meet with Gonzalo, because I have a feeling that there is a better way to do this.

I have removed a few tracks from the wall and the floor. It’s not the best and I am not happy with the work. I am planning to do a rough clean-up and later work on it and make it better.

Personal

Week 3: Shooting.

This week, for my personal project I worked on all the shots needed to complete my project. I wanted my book cover to be like a traditional travel catalogue. I looked up places to shoot near Bedford, the town where I live, but was unable to find anything that caught my eye. With some research, I came across a tulip field, which opens for 2 weeks, once a year, and this looked like something which would work for me, even though it was a 2-hour drive from where I live. It was certainly worth the drive- these are a few shots.

All these shots are screenshots of videos I shot. For the shoot, I used a Canon 6D with Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 for wide and 50mm f1.8. for close-up. I am not happy with the quality of the shots I shot at 1080p with 60 fps. I wanted to get a better camera like 5D Mark III or even 6D Mark II, and I also wanted a gimbal these were not available to rent out till next week, and I had tickets to enter for a specific date, as this tulip field was quite in demand at the time. I got the DJI OSMO for mobile phones to take some tracking shoots, but the one they gave me was not working and I had to give it back. They didn’t have any spares to replace it, so I had to shoot the whole thing by hand.

By the looks of it, I will need to do some cleanup of the plate, there are few food tracks and people walking around. I also have to stabilize the shot so it looks more natural and smooth.

For the book shot, I used the same equipment. To track the video I used a sticky note and pasted it on the corner of the book, so I can track it in 3D equalizer.

Group

Week 3: Tracking.

This week, we got the plate for the project and started to camera track using a 3D equalizer. This plate was fun to work with because this plate had tracking points and helped to make the footage smoother. At the end of the tracking, I had a problem with the export. When I was exporting the 3D camera to Maya to see if it was fine it had a bad shack. I tried to fix it, by changing the FPS and the film back.

Tracking problem

On the same day, we had a class with Dom and I asked him about it and even he had the same problem. Later that day he said that when rendering it out we should start from frame 0 not from frame 1.

After doing the changes I couldn’t render the camera and tracker to Maya or Nuke. I tried to fix it by watching YouTube videos and reading up about it on Reddit but I couldn’t fix the problem. I asked for help from Marianna and we both tried to fix it for 3 hours and failed.

3DE

On the other side, I started cleaning up the reference frame so that next week when I clean things will go more smoothly while tracking. I broke it into 3 parts so it’s easy to clean up.

Thesis

Week 2: Thesis Proposal.

My thesis is going to shine a light on how the consumption of movies and tv-shows has evolved significantly over the years. Fewer people go to movie theatres and turn to watch streaming services instead. What has caused this trend? How does this affect the VFX industry?

Recently, I went to the cinema to watch Black Panther Wakanda Forever, and when I looked around only a handful of people were there. This got me thinking about what has changed over time because a few years ago with a similar movie, there would be a full house and the tickets for the show would be sold out fairly quickly.

We know that the VFX industry’s main source of income is the movies and if there are fewer people showing up to the movies now, how will this impact the VFX industry and what are the recent developments taking place in this new age?

Why it is important to research this subject?

I sense the study of content consumption and its impact on the VFX industry is crucial to understand the changes in content consumption of the masses. I feel that this has a direct effect on the VFX industry. It also has an impact on the cultural, technological and economic world. This may also help in understanding future trends.

Keywords.

Content Consumption, Trends, Technological, Economic, Commercialisation, VFX Industry, Covid.

Sources.

This paper provides how the use of VFX in Hollywood films has changed over time, and how advancements in digital technology have influenced the creative process.

Natalie Powel. (2019) “Hollywood’s Relationship with VFX: The Role of Digital Technology in Film Production” [ 28th April 2023].

This paper talks about how the rise of digital media has affected the film industry, including the increased use of VFX.

Shao-Kang Lo and Wei-Ying Huang. (2013). “The Impact of Digital Media on the Film Industry”. [ 20th April 2023]

This paper explores the changing landscape of film distribution, from the dominance of blockbuster releases to the rise of streaming services.

Scott Timcke and Katya Johanson. (2018). “The Evolution of Film Distribution: From Blockbuster to Streaming Services” [23rd April 2023]

This paper explores the growing trend of mobile movie consumption and how it is transforming the movie industry.

Vinicius Navarro (2017) “Mobile Media and the Transformation of Movies” [ 28th April 2023]

Personal

Week 1 & 2: Planning and Research.

Post author By Vitus Lasrado
Post date 30th April 2023
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I wanted to base my project on compositing, but I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do. A few days ago, when I was walking to the train station, I saw a library and there were a few books on the table. Being dyslexic, I tend to try and understand images more than actual text, so the first thing I do is look at the image and I interpret the image before attempting to read the title of the book. This got me thinking: What if there were books with covers which can move and tell more about the place or emotion of the person depicted on the book cover?

Now that I’d come up with the idea, I needed a few references. I had seen something like this in the movie Harry Potter. The Daily Prophet is a wizarding newspaper based in London and it was the primary source of news for British and Irish wizards. When I was going through LinkedIn I saw a video from The Mill VFX team’s work for eBay, for their ‘Everyone Deserves Real’ campaign. This video was slightly different than what I had visualised, but I like the way it went through different screens.

References

For the storyboarding, I have planned to start with a table with piles of books and then track the screen then go into the book and then a few shots in there which make it look like I have entered the scene depicted in the book followed by me coming out of the book and back to the same scene. I am planning to loop the video if I can.

In the two references, I didn’t quite like the title of the video being shown throughout the video. I am planning to track the plate and then add the 3D title.

Storyboarding

Personal-Project-1-compressed Download

eBay (2023), eBay Authenticity Guarantee | Everyone Deserves Real [Online Video]. Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v8hL8mkfVc&ab_channel=ebay [22nd April 2023].

John Guille Agustin (2016), Harry Potter Newspaper Scene [Online Video]. Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPtubly5siQ&ab_channel=JohnGuilleAgustin [22nd April 2023].

Group

Week 2: 3D Equalizer.

This week was interesting because we were going to start learning new software – 3D equalizer. 3D equalizer is a match-moving software. This software will be useful for me as a compositor in this project and in my future career. Using 3d equalizer felt somewhat therapeutic and I enjoyed the experience. The goal of this software is to track different areas of the plate and then create a fake camera. Later, this camera can be used to import software like Nuke and Maya.

Dom gave us footage taken in Camden market and we had to track it using different tools he taught us. He also gave us tips on how to find an ideal spot to put the trackers on and what kind of pattern to keep a lookout for while using the software.

After we tracked the plate we moved the camera and the legacy (which we created using the points) to Maya to build a 3D model of the plate. This is what mine looks like.

In our group project, we have completed the asset list and all the team members have picked the asset which they want to work on. In the image below, I have attached the list of the team members and their roles in the project. There is also an asset list to specify each person’s role. A few of the team members have not picked a role yet because they were added to the team later.

Group

Week 1: Mood Board.

This week’s class was an introduction to our group project. We started off with getting familiar with Ftrack. Ftrack is a software that helps track our work and is easily assessed by our group and the teachers in charge.

In this project, I am taking up the role of a compositor. I wanted to take up a role as a look dev artist, but I want to be a compositor in the future, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice the skill while doing the group project.

Next, our team slowly started to fill up the mood board on Padlet and this is what it looks like.

https://artslondon.padlet.org/rstolk0320221/moodboard-steampunk-xdzegqc9h6haeove

These are a few references which I liked and I felt that it would be a good place to gain inspiration from to start building models.

Nuke Term II

Week 9: Devil Man.

I had difficulty thinking about what I should add to the video. Then I went with the flow and added one effect following which things just started unfolding.

First, I added the snake texture to the face, I had some problems with the texture because it was stretching when the character was moving. I fixed it by roto keying the texture. For the texture, I didn’t add a frame hole. One more problem that I faced was that when the face was moving, underneath the texture, light would pass through it and I didn’t quite know how to fix it.

Next, I moved on to tattoos and Jacket patches. These were fairly easy. While merging with the main plate I used the operation stencil and this helped and the light didn’t go behind the tattoos. The only downside is that the image becomes black.

Maya Term II

Week 9: Oddly Satisfying.

Post author By Vitus Lasrado
Post date 11th April 2023
No Comments on Week 9: Oddly Satisfying.

I was done with my Satisfying animation and added some sound effects. Nick gave feedback saying that the water didn’t have depth and he said that the motion of the water didn’t quite appear natural. t

I fixed the depth problem by changing the scale of the Ocean attribute. To loop the video Nick told me to dissolve the two motions together with video editing software.

This is how it looks.