You can read part 1 here.
Previously in week 6 and 7
In the first part we are left with the implementation of AO and AOV's in layer rendering. To better understand these concepts I was watching a couple of tutorials of people exporting with different settings, this video was one of my favorites.
Week 8: Rendering again, but with more effects
This week I had a couple of problems with Maya's image plane, it didn't appear in the background of the RenderView, as is usually the case, the solution was to delete the camera with the image and create a connected one.
With tons of things to do, we keep practicing with layer rendering, this time differentiating between Diffuse, Specular and Coat properties.
SUPER important to remember: since we are doing it with layer rendering, when we export we have to do it in render--> render sequence and have "All Render-Enabled Layers" enabled.
Since we are pro, and we configure our location of the project well, this will appear in "images" in two different files since we have two layers.
NUKE turn, we create our first tree for our .exr, the properties exist in our file but to separate them we will use node shuffle, where in "Input Layer" We will choose the property to edit, in this case diffuse, specular and coat. We change the name to make it easier to identify :)
BEAUTIFUL! to connect them we use Merge, but BEWARE! We do not want merge OVER, we want merge PLUS, since we need them to add to each other, not to pile up.
Let's not forget that we have to do the unpremult and premult sandwich and once this is done you can enjoy editing the colors with grades, color correction, etc.
Our little tree will look something like this:
Now, what about we add one more light, this time naming them, so we can differentiate between the attributes of both lights. For this we go to our light--> Arnold Area Light Attributes --> Visibility --> AOV Light Group, then we name them (for example Area and the skydome as HDR)
Once this is done, we return to our AOV rendering configuration and add customs, with the property followed by the name of the light, for example diffuse_Area, taking special care that the capital letters are in the same way as the name placed in the light.
Two lights, two configurations for each attribute, we export with the capable ones and this time we have to place a shuffle per attribute, a total of 6 shuffles, we follow the same previous procedure and we would have something like this:
Personal feedback:
- I have to be very careful with the temperature of the light in the skydome, I feel that it was too blue compared to the background, even though it was the same location the HDR was taken at a different time of day.
- Grades are magical.
- I have to see more tutorials about color correction at the end, as well as when I draw I place overlay and multiply to "tie" the background with the character, I have to imagine that there are similar tricks for Nuke.
- I MUST PRACTICE MORE.
Week 9: Jamie, Thank you for your service!
This week I was trying to get all my 3D assets tested, I’m going to be honest, there’s still a lot of stuff that confuses me in Nuke.
Hopefully we got a special guest, Jamie Bhalla who is already swimming like a pro in this ocean called Nuke! He showed us his Portfolio and a lot of recommendations for references and inspiration... in a short version here are my notes:
One of Jamie’s advice that really stuck with me was “Look for the assets and build the idea around that.“ In the beginning I made a list of ideas and then for frustated since I couldn’t find assets “good enough “ or I couldn’t afford them.
Then He touched the social media topic, I always think if I want to know about something I must follow hashtags related to that (I follow #bee #science #honduras in ALL my accounts haha) These are some hashtags and accounts for VFX!
- Jilrock1
- Voidzto
- vfxmaria
- Rek0de
- Brickspacer
- vernbestintheworld
- #vfx
- #vfxworld
- #visualeffects
- #compositing
- #nukecompositing
- #howiseedatworld
If you swim in this ocean, How can you catch the fish? (Horrible analogy, but you get the point)
Advices for finding jobs:
- Look at companies websites
- Show your breakdown
- Taaaaake your time
- UPDATE your showreel
- Make a moodboard of the companies work
- Cover letter aim for the company (and add words from their statement)
- Different showreels for different companies! But made one for your website.
Thank you for all your advices Jamie, lifesaver!
Week 10: Lens Distortion, Why do you hate me? (Also last class week!)
So... WEEKS ago I had this problem with my Lens Distortion node, just didn’t work at all, I made my lines and when I press solve... everything gets funky. Both my professor and Jamie helped me with this issue but not even then we could find out WHY this is happening.
If someone is experimenting something similar, let me tell you... try to use less lines!
yeah yeah I know, but this looks until now the only way to fix the issue.
Anyway, since is the last week, I took the opportunity to ask some questions I really want to understand from Nuke, for my own sanity.
”But Johana, this is so obvious” WELL NOT FOR ME >:[
Lens Distortion...why?
When we work with Lens Distortion and STMap, we understand that our len is causing some fish eye effect (even minimum, when we compare we notice) It’s like folding a piece of paper. My mistake was: I thought Lens Distortion was to fix the video and make it straight (but without distortion again in the end) now I understand that if we did that we could out in danger the quality of our video.
We undistort because we need a straight environment to work better with our 3D assets, and then distorted again so everything fits with the original video.
Here a interesting example of how it works, using a BlackOutside node
Colour Correction and Grading
Everytime we speak about CC and Grade, one button label as photoshop turns on in my head, I often work with Multiply for shadows and overlay for lights (or add and screen) Nuke has some similar options but the most use are these two, Jamie said in a few words “I use Primary Colour correction for Fixing the video, then a Secondary one to create the mood”.
This is also mentioned in this video recommended by my professor, here they talk about Color Correction node for fixing colours and then Grade node for create the mood, so like in photoshop people work with different workflows but same principles.
PROJECT WEEK 1: Let's get this done
Starting my project, I combined the list of elements I need and the creative process that Jamie showed us in his presentation, leaving this checklist:
- Colour Correction (firts and second)
- Lens Distortion
- MatchMove / Tracking Stabilize
- Planar Tracking
- Cloud Generator
- 3D enviroment NUKE / export camera
- Assets in Maya
- Application of PBR materials
- Render Layers & AOV's
- Render Settings
- Rendeeeer
- Merge & Shuffle nodes
- Colour correction fix
- Other nodes and final touches
Some of these points depend on what you want to do in the scene (for example, if I want to put a graffiti with planar tracking) so if your idea does not involve things like that, you do not need to do all the steps.
Due to the pandemic (2020-2021) we could not make our recordings, so the leader of the module provided pre-made videos with the necessary information for our project, after much thinking, I chose this video from a garage, with this configuration :
Focal length: 50mm
Film back preset: 5D Mark iii Video
I have named my idea ''Warthog in urban forest'' using the Truong CG Artist model (check the model there) as the main asset and animated by Le Phi Hung.
The idea is for the wild boar to walk around the scene, which will include other models of plants and rocks to make it more '' wild ''.
Colour Correction (Firts part)
First of all I started to fix the colors, after several tutorials and advice from Jamie, I have come to the conclusion that the Color Correction nodes are better for the artistic part, since you can modify by channel (for example, you only activate the red channel) but this is a personal choice.
Here is a comparison. (original is the gray one)
Lens Distortion
Since with the video they gave us some grids, I used them to create my video undistord, I made it PERFECT, and it did not work creating the same errors that I have previously presented, I created a new node and I made it less perfect, this time it did work.
Don't make it perfect >:(
Tracking - Stabilize
This was one of the points that took me later, in the first place I did not understand why my video did not stabilize after putting 5 trackers, but my error was that I had not checked all these boxes before exporting the baked.
Well, it was at this point that I started wondering which is better, having it BAKED or CONNECTED to my trackers, fortunately Jamie is giving sessions to answer questions of this type.
He said it really shouldn't matter, since connected gives you the ability to edit it later, but also taught me ANOTHER way to stabilize.
Jamie's method: when you have the trackers ready, you go to Transform and there in the one that says transform you change it to remove jitter.
Another wonderful advice he gave was: since your document becomes heavy, export your undistorted lens with the tracking and work the rest in another document, with this I did at least 7 tests of how my stabilizer was working, in the end export one with only 3 tracker, since the difference was minimal if it was those 3 or 5.
Undistorted without trackers
Undistorted with trackers (only 3)
With this I can start creating my 3D map in Nuke and work on the planar tracking part.
PROJECT WEEK 2: Creating a 3d world
Planar Tracking + Roto mask + Roto Paint
Before continuing with the 3D world, we are going to add a small graffiti on the doors, the planar works perfectly but I want to create some masks to remove the graffiti from the locks, I tried to follow this tutorial by Olly Tyler but it is not working, possibly something I did different.
Update: The solution was to add the Roto as a mark in the merge node, the mask work for ONE frame, but then is not tracking, in this case we spoke about two solutions, add a tracker and then put that between merge and roto, or create a planartracker and use rotos there, tried both and the best result is with tracker + Roto, but then the mask is not perfect...
ONE SOLUTION is to create key frames modifying roto's perspective, but it takes so much time and this effect is not a priority of the project, so for now I have only painted the padlocks with ROTOPAINT, so that they are not seen.
If in the end I have some extra time, I could try again, the important thing is that I learned how to do it :)
Camera Tracker
Creating my camera tracker was quite an odyssey, what I was most interested in was creating the environment of the wall, since I want my boar to come out from behind, and have the ground stabilized, but when I create the camera I generate it. .under the GROUND?
''Ugh, okay fine '' I tried to find different tutorials, but the generation was the same, so my virtual map is in decline, it can be better appreciated once I have put the cards...
I suppose it can work, I could modify the camera and try to stabilize everything, but I feel like that may cause problems for me in the future. :(
Update: It does cause some problems later on, SO I'm using the undistorted without stabilize footage, and It's working better that the previous one.
Anywaaaay... let's create a HDRI
In class they taught us how to create HDRI images for our skydome in Maya, for this we use Photoshop, here is a video from Ed Gregory that explains the process, the only thing that I think He does not mention, is we need to save as OpenEXR.
One big recommendation given by my teacher, check your colour info before exporting it, It should be higher than one in the most illuminated area (preferably not less than 7) IN THIS WAY the illumnation would look amazing in your assets.
