Sofa scene
This first part that Karl had modelled up was the toes of the trainer which was emerging from underneath the sofa. To make it easier to view the changes I’m just going to keep adding stills to this post so the progression is easier to see.
This first image has so many problems with it it’s unbelievable. Most obvious of all the character is in the shadows of the sofa yet he is perfectly lit up. I have placed a cube to represent the sofa but because the light isn’t in the right place it means that he is lit up like a lamp post at the moment. Also the floor looks much too dark to be a true match to the original footage but I have a feeling this has more to do with the amount of reflection on the plane beneath. It is much too reflective and the reflection needs to be decreased considerably. I need to imagine how the lighting was in the room where we filmed to get a true judge.
This second image is much closer to what I want it to look like I have actually managed to get him in shadow which is a big jump forward compared to the first attempt. Where as before i had a light quite close this time I moved it way above and positioned it to where i imagined the center of the room was when we filmed. Again I still feel like the floor is slightly too reflective even though its done to 5%. This time though the composting plane is visible and has created a very distinct line within the shadow. I need to make sure I align the compositing plane with the shadow exactly so there is no overlap.
This time he is almost perfect the only major thing this time around is instead of overlapping the compositing plane with the shadow it doesn’t quite meet the shadow resulting in a very thin line intersecting the shadow of the characters as he runs out from underneath. Also I think that even at 2% the reflection is still slightly too much hopefully 1% will be the perfect setting.
I think I have finally managed to get it as perfect as I am possibly going to get it. I managed to finally get the plane aligned with the shadow meaning there are no interruptions to the characters shadow or any distinct lines through the existing shadows. Also I think that having the reflection at 1% is the best it looks seeing as laminate flooring only has a slight reflection to it.
May 15th, 2008 - Posted in SFX | | 0 Comments
Arduino Board ooo
We were sitting up in the common room with the Captain today when we started looking through the old boxes from when the year before still did the module Maverick Machines. Inside was a whole host of wonders including arduino boards and there wasn’t just a arduino board inside but everything else i would need to have a go with one. Mark had showed us the capabilities of these babies before so I was quite interested in having a go with one. However the play will have to wait until after I have finished because right now i have far too much on to be experimenting with yet more new things.
May 7th, 2008 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments
PF Hoe
We had originally hoped to do our SFX shot as one continuous shot with the sped up footage between shoe parts appearing and then a very slow pan while the pieces emerged from their hiding place. We went off and shot our footage in HD wanting to get the highest quality look for it. However after capturing our footage we started looking into PF Hoe and were about to start to experiment we realised that PF Hoe didn’t support HD footage only DV. Because of our error it has now been decided for us that our footage will have to be split into scenes and we will have to composite onto still frames instead. It’s now too late in the day really to go back and get additional footage so we are going to grab stills from the original footage.
May 2nd, 2008 - Posted in SFX | | 0 Comments
Multiple Keypresses
Well I have relentlessly been hunting the internet for a way to have multiple keypresses I am just about to start pulling hair out. The only thing I can find was a way to press the control key and the up key at the same time but that severely limits me and also means I would have to reprogram my IPAC board. I just don’t think it is going to be possible because a keyboard doesn’t have the capabilities to remember what key was last pressed. If you keep your finger on say for example the A key then with your other hand press the P key the A no longer shows up on screen. I think it might be time to admit defeat and go back to the drawing board.
May 2nd, 2008 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments
Scenes for Compositing
Even though there are 4 parts to the trainer I’m only going to be working on the compositing for 3 of those parts because the fourth has a camera movement to it which means it’s going to be easier for Karl to work on this one himself with his animation.
All 3 are going to be a challenge to achieve as unlike the shadow catcher tutorial these all need multiple elements to the scene composited out. The lace and sofa scene are both going to need elements above the animation to create the illusion of the characters emerging from darkness. With the frame scene I am going to have to create another plane to represent the frame the character is emerging from behind.
May 1st, 2008 - Posted in SFX | | 0 Comments
Shadow Catcher
In preparation for Karl finishing with the 3D elements Andy showed me this incredibly useful tutorial online for Shadow Catchers. I have a feeling that it will come in very useful when I start to composite.
May 1st, 2008 - Posted in SFX | | 0 Comments
