23/05/2012

Innovations project

Charlie Minnion

For this project I will be showing how I have composited a shot of a polluted cityscape using elements being exported out of Maya. Before

After

This shot combines 3 main elements

-The buildings from maya - incorporating a Beauty, ZDepth amd Motion Vector pass. -The dynamic smog from Maya. -A 2D matte painting (as a seperate plate from Maya.)

Stage one: Nuke - Motion Blur

My first move is to create a motion blur just to the maya buildings. For this I use a VectorBlur node in Nuke. This works by assigning the motion vector pass to UV channels in Nuke. The UV channels convert information from the motion vector pass into usable motion blur by converting each pixel into a straight line. The VectorBlur node offers different ways in which you can alter the motion blur.

In this particular example I set the following values: Multiply: 1.5 (This value multiplies the UV channels subsequently affecting the amount of blur.) Offset: -0.5 (This determines when the shutter opens allowing you to change whether the blur precedes or follows the action.) Method: Forward Mark the alpha box in this case so the UV channels only operate on what is visible (or premultiplied by the Alpha channel) and avoids affecting any transparent areas. After this I rendered out the motion blurred maya buildings.

Stage two: Nuke - Colour Correction

Normally on this project I have colour corrected in After Effects but with this particular example I deemed it necessary to use Nuke as the colours looked in need of drastic manipulation, and Nukes interface and handling of colour offers easier use and more versatility. I bought in all the main elements into Nuke so I could colour correct it in the appropriate context. Here are the before and after shots of the Nuke colour correction process:

Here is a run down on the nodes I have used:

ColorCorrect This offers the most amount of versatility colour correction wise. Here you can tweak the contrast, saturation, gamma, gain and offset functions for the whole image, or more specifically limit the adjustments to either shadows, midtones or highlights. In each one of these functions there are sliders where you can adjust the hue, saturation, value, red, green and blue channels individually. Grade This node offers a simpler set of controls to adjust the whole image. You can also specify what is the darkest and lightest point of the image. This feature allows one to get the widest array of tones/ values possible. RolloffContrast This is where you can adjust the contrast. It also allows you to specify the center value. The center value shifts which part of the dynamic range of tones are being utilised for the contrast. ColorLookup This presents you with a curve where you can intuitively map your input values to your output values. On the x axis are the values of colours going in. On the y axis are the values of colours going out. The advantage this has over the other nodes is that it allows you to use curves to define the tonal output. Ramp This allows for the creation of a gradient. In this case I used it to gradiate the sky darkening at the top of the frame. Unpremult and Premult These nodes allow you to state whether the RGB channels are multiplied by the Alpha channel or not. The rule is for accurate colour correction of any kind you should unpremultiply before the colour correction then premultiply afterwards. This keeps the RGB values accurate. If youre going to use a filter node such as blur then it should be premultiplied beforehand. Shuffle This allows for the shuffling of channels. In this particular example I shuffled the blue channel into the RGB so I could create a matte that would allow for the adjustments of solely the bright pink highlights on some of the buildings. Keyer I used this node to apply the luminance of the matte I created (see above in shuffle) to a colour correct node in order to bring down the pink highlights.

Below is a screen shot of the node tree which shows the extent of color correction that was required. After completing the colour correction in Nuke, I rendered out the smog, background and buildings seperately to allow for a greater degree of control in After Effects.

Stage three: After Effects - compositing

Here, I import the sequences previously rendered out of Nuke, as well as the original EXR sequence that came out of Maya (for the buildings.) This EXR sequence is used to extract the depth pass in a pre-comp. In this pre-comp I place a white solid behind the depth pass. The purpose of this pre comp is to allow for the creation of depth of field and atmospherics. Here are the before and after shots of this stage:

I applied the following effects in the following order:

1) A dark grey ramp multiplied over the background 2) Atmospherics City. Here I apply the Set Matte node to a dark grey solid. The matte is set to the luminance of the pre comped Depth pass and inverted. I then add Levels to this layer to adjust the dynamic range appropriately and CC Toner to apply 3 shades of blue to the shadows, midtones and highlights of this layer. The opacity is set to 70%. 3) Atmospherics Sky. As just described only the matte is not inverted. No Levels are required.

4) Billboard mask. I created a mask of the billboard on the city layer, copied it above the atmospherics so it stays light and animated it following the billboard. I also brought it out with curves, exposure, brightness and contrast. 5) Lights (used for the blue light on the billboard). This is a pre comped layer. I use a ramp to make a black to bright blue gradient and track it to the moving billboard (Tracked using Mocha). I feather the ramp, then track a second black solid on top to give it a hard bottom edge. As it is all on a black backdrop, I can apply the Add mode to the pre comped layer in the main comp and all the black disappears leaving a bright blue gradiating into transparency. 6) Depth of field. Here I apply Frischlufts Depth of Field to an adjustment layer. This utilises the luminance of the pre comped Depth pass to ascertain what stays in focus. Here, I changed the focus point to the billboard and animated it staying fixed on the billboard. Changing the radius changes the amount that stays in focus. In this case it is set to 4.5. 7) God rays. This is a pre comped layer. I desaturated the background and city EXRs and applied a high contrast. Next, I apply a CC Light Burst 2.5 effect to an adjustment layer above. This effect utilises anything left white to form the rays. The black forms of the city act like a mask in front of the rays. In the main comp, I set this layer to 50% opacity. 8) Glow. I added a glow then a horizontal glow to an adjustment layer. This has really bought out the light on the billboard. I animated the glow to stop the billboard whiting out as it gets closer and larger. I also use masks to hide areas where the glow is inappropriate. 9)Post Processing. In this adjustment layer I applied Noise (4%), desaturated the image (-55), applied chromatic abberation by slightly rotating the RGB channels seperately (using the Gutsblow Separate RGB plug in), and adjusted the colour balance slightly to make it all a little bluer. 10) Levels. On this final adjustment layer, I have applied Curves (like ColorLookup described earlier), Levels and Brightness and Contrast. Using these I have adjusted the dynamic range, bringing back out the darks and lights and making it look as effective as possible.

Here are frames taken from the pre comped layers - God Rays and Lights:

Here is a sceenshot showing the layers in the After Effects main composition

Working in 32-bit float colour

In this project we have been working at 32 bit colour depth. This is useful in compositing as the images retain a vast amount of colour information that 8 bit images disregard. This allows for more accurate calculations of operations and ultimately smoother results. Float refers to an image being able to store super whites and sub blacks. i.e. whites that are whiter then white and blacks that are blacker then black. This allows for the ability to better represent objects. In an 8 bit image, colour correcting a white piece of paper and the centre of a light bulb could lead to colours being clipped and the two both looking the same. In a 32 bit image, you would be able to retain a more accurate real-world colour differentiation between the two. Below is an issue I stumbled on whilst analysing a compostion that demonstrates the presense of 32 bit colour information. This has already been uploaded to my blog but I thought it would be relevant here as well.

I was stumped by this for a little while so it was quite nice to figure out why this was happening. This brings me to the end of my innovations project.