Category: Nuke

3D tracking uses the 3 axes i.e X, Y and Z. X denotes the width, Y denotes the height and Z represents the depth, this helps us to establish a 3D point in the video. 

But first, to tack, the video needs to be distorted. To do this, we added the Lens Distortion node and the distorting can then be done in two ways: the automatic way is to go under analysis>grid detect>current frame>click detect> click solve under editing and drawing, the other way to do it is the manual method in the Lens Distortion node, under analysis>editing and drawing>click add lines> draw lines in width and height on a building or the horizon which will help the software to understand the distort in the video and fix it> click on solve it.

To track, we need to add a camera tracker node. The node will analyse the video and then place points, it is also better to mask out any reflective surfaces so the tacking will be perfect. Add a roto if there are any reflective surfaces> added to the mask input on the node. In the Camera Tracker, there are a lot of options. In Source there are 2 options one stills, and the other, sequins. Still is one frame and sequins are the whole video. In Mask, there are various options but if anything has been masked out the setting should be changed to Mask Alpha. The other option is for the camera and its settings. 

In the camera tracker setting, under features, the Number of Features is the number of tracking points and the preview features must be switched on so that the points can be viewed. Go back to Camera Tracker, click on Track then click Solve, the Error should not go over 1.0, then go to the Auto track and click on Delete unsolved and Delete Rejected.

After solving, the green lines will be visible, select any line and right-click it and there will be a toolbox opened. Select the ground plane>set origin, this will be the centre of the 3D world, now select a few points which are on the ground again go to ground plane>click on set to selected, this way the software will recognise the ground.

In the Camera Tracker, go to export in that Scene+ make sure you have switched on Link output.

In the Camera Tracker, select a point or more and right-click on create. There will be various options. If you want to add a 2d object in the face click on the card and place the card where you want the poster to be then add the image or video to the img input of the card. By pressing Tab on the viewer you can access the 3D view and move objects in 3D space. 

For our homework, we had to play around with the camera tracker and this is what I created.

My biggest take away from here, apart from 3D tracking is, to change the anchor point in the manual in Corner points. So Roos and I are working on a group project, and I wanted help with it aligning the video in the right perspective, so I asked Gonzalo for help, and he showed me this easy way.

In Corner points setting, unselect all the enable and move then according to your requirements, you can then go to From click on Copy ‘to’ go back then click on Copy ‘from’ then select all the enable. This will allow us to edit to the right alignment. 

The class started by reviewing our Balloon Festival work, which we all have been working on it for a long time. 

The class was more based on theory and less on using the software. Gonzalo was giving us some tips which will help us grow and understand the workflow of a VFX company. The first tip he gave us is to review our work before publishing the work, I felt it was the best advice because a lot of times I had not seen my work and given it to clients because they wanted it ASAP and later realised that there is jump cut or a black screen.

The stages in the production.

• Temps/Postviz: This team help to get the VFX in low quality to understand the tone of the movie.
• Trailers: For a movie to get good PR they have to publish trailers on youtube and IMDB. So this team tries to gather a shot clip which can be published.
• Finals: When the client is done with all the corrections and changes. This will be the final.
• QC: Is also known as quality control, VFX Supervisor looks at every pixel and makes sure that it looks good to publish.

Every company has its own way of commuting and organisation with their employers. Google docs and sheets, Ftrack, and Shotgun are the few software which VFX compy use to communicate, all of them have they’re pro and cons, but Shotgun is used for VFX solely.

They are a different way of reviewing dailies.

• Desk dailies review: this is a more friendly way of reviewing, there is a VFX supervisor, VFX producer, line producer and lead comp. 
• Small Cinema dailies: This is a little fancier, the line producer generally calls the meting. In this dailies, we will see the lead CG, lead comp VFX supervisor, VFX producer, line producer, lead comp and sometimes the client.
• Big Cinema dailies: lead CG, lead comp, VFX supervisor, VFX producer, line producer, lead comp, editorial, lighting lead, client producer, client VFX supervisor, client director and sometimes the client.

The class started off by talking about blur, so the right way to blur things is not by using the blur node but to use defocus. The difference between them is that defocus works like a lens when the object is not focused we get a bokeh effect that’s how defocus works but, blur on another hand just blurs out everything.

ZBlur with the help of the ramp give a gradient blur on a plate but it is only in a 2D space, but ZDefous works in a 3D space there is a small dot on the screen that says focal point that point can move and that can be dragged anywhere in the 3D space to make focused, and there is more potion in ZDefous like to add depth of feed. After changing the output setting to focal plane setup it will help you to identify which place is focused and which is not. I felt was really nice.

We later moved on to Roto Paint, this node is used to clean up and clone out objects in the plate. The Roto Paint is a blush tool for painting on a plate. There are different options you can change under roto paint like transform, motion blur, shape, stroke, clone, lifetime, tracking and node. We show a few potions under strokes like the brush size, spacing and write on start and end.

How to roto paint to clean up, first we will have to use the roto paint tool to clean up the area, then use a roto to draw a box around the clean up the area and then premult the patch, later add a frame hold to the same frame where clean up was done, add a tracker and create a transform match move so that the clean up can be seen throwout the video.

So for our homework, we had to clean up a video.

We also had to complete our balloon festivals project.

The class started with reviewing last week’s iPhone homework. Then we moved on to class, and Gonzalo started talking about different ways of reformating and how it affects the image. Then moved to Concatenation so it means is the ability to perform one single mathematical calculation across several tools in the Transform family. This single calculation (or filter) allows us to retain as much detail as possible basically if don’t use the transform tools family in the right way we will lose the quality of the footage.

The shuffle node is used when you liked to change the RGBA as a different output for example if you want to change your reds to blue you can do this by using shuffle. Using this node we can edit the layers or one layer in the EXR file. We can also calculate the depth of the image by using this. 

Tracking in 2.5D spaces, to achieve this we need to add a plant tracker, which is the same as the roto tool. We need to add 4 points so that we can track that space, then click on the display_grid_lines then move the grid to the perspective of the posters so we can cover it, click on the CornerPin2D (absolute) and add a merge A to the CornerPin2D (absolute) the B to the footage.

For the homework, we had to cover the old poster and add whichever poster we like.

We also had to work on our balloon festival.

In this class, we got to learn how to clean up the walls or any surface in 2D space and how to use the shuffle node and I feel it is beneficial for understanding the depth.

This week was all about tracking. We learned how to stabilize footage using a tracker and saw more options under track export and we tried to use these applications for our video.

This week’s homework is to complete tracking and animating the iPhone video and start working on our balloon festival project.

This week in Nuke we saw ways to colour grade and correct. Gonzalo also explained how different Logs work and how different company cameras make different log formats. How to import a flat video and give it the colour, then put it back to flat so the VFX and the video will have some colour range.

So this week our homework was to match the 3D jet to a sky and this is my shot at it.

This week in Gonzalo’s class, we started by reviewing last week’s roto which we all had to complete.

We then moved on to learn how to track an object and assign it to a roto. He also demonstrated to us the right and wrong ways to roto, by keeping the alpha less than 1 which can be done by clamping all your roto together and then adding a merge to keep operation to the screen. We were also shown what premutation is and guided on how to use it.

This week’s homework was to roto the bridge by using the tracker.

In week 4, we learnt how to use Nuke to rotoscope an object. Firstly, we saw how to use different channels while rotoscoping, like keeping only alpha or any of the RGB colours. Gonzalo had sent a file Nuke for us to download and keep it really for his class. It was a running man whom we had to roto.

This is my completed roto.

So we started the class by reviewing the last weeks assignment and Gonzalo told us about the chain line from pre-production to production and post-production, the primary department and their roles, which plays an important part in delivering the movie. We also spoke about the differences between node and layering softwares. Later, we delved into the software and did our first digital compositing and learnt about the interface of nuke and a few tools.

In week 2 of Nuke, we still didn’t use the software but we spoke about the meaning of cinematography, and the derivation of the word. We also discussed the camera, and the different elements involved in clicking or shooting a video or a picture.

We start with a triangle of exposure which consists of ISO shutter speed and aperture which helps us to get the right exposure image and Gonzalo explains all these elements. We also got to learn about depth of field, FPS and how your Shutterspeed should be double your FPS to avoid motion blur, and different angles and spoke about different lenses and also saw a few frames from the movie to analyse which lens it was shot from. We were also taught about file formats.

The homework was to take 3-5 video shots and edit them. I have attached mine below.

This video is from my hometown, located on the coast of Karnataka in India.

(I tried embedding the URL but it doesn’t work)