RESEARCH - ARTEFACT 1 - GREEN SCREEN KEYING

( Excuse the watermarks on some of the images - Student version of NUKE)

Okay, so my 1st Artefact was to look at keying within NUKE. To do this I had to start with learning the basics of the software and then the fundamentals of keying a green screen image. Further to this, I did some reading on "How to light a green screen", as it was going to be a big part of the project. Thanks to the videos and reading at digitaltutors.com for this!!!

 So to make a start with the Artefact I began by travelling to Dovedale over the weekend to get some nice backgrounds for the comps! I got some great shots, but one of the first issues I faced when comping was the incongruent foregrounds. My two models were not dressed correctly and even once they had been colour corrected looked 'out of place'. - I used a few of them, but to get round this and for the sake of the artefact, I found some better backgrounds online.

If I am to continue with keying, next time I will know to make sure the two stills are congruent! - In this case the attire of the model must compliment the backgrounds.

As mentioned, once they initial keying had been done, I played around with the position, grade and colours of the images. The aim here was to "combine two or more images to create a single seamless whole".

Some of the problems I faced:

I hired out a D200 Nikon Camera, the Motion Capture Suite and two Lighting Kits. As you can see from the images, the lighting was one of the biggest problems. I began by attempting to get a clean single coloured lighting setup across the green screen. I played around with lights, angles and filters to eventually get the environment I was after. In addition to this, I had a third light at the back of the room to separately illuminate the subject.

3D vs 2D - Client Project Development

I wasnt happy with the storyboard and theme of my client project. I almost finished my planned animation over the holidays, and it just didnt look how I wanted it to. HENCE..new storyboard:

So with my client project, I am trying to move away from the typical look and feel of 3D work and try to avoid the harsh lines and strong contrast from a render. I did a few 'mess around' renders and PS effects last week, but particularly liked the old style painted effect. Therefore, to attempt something new and different from my usual, I have now also decided to merge the 3D with other 2D elements!

This also ties in quite nicely with my compositing research as I am building up layers to create my desired effect:

Client Materials

Found some images I would like my client work to resemble. I've just spent a whole night trying to replicate this...and no luck....I've got some serious material work to do / learn!

Feel Good Drinks

Messing around with the look of my Client Project:

NUKE Compositing

So I’ve been trolling through hours of NUKE tutorials on digitaltutors.com. – After learning the basics of the software, some rotoscoping, keying and colour correction I’ve compiled my first composite:

1. Background Plate
2. Green Screen Character
3. Keyed and Rotoscoped Merge
4. Colour Correction

It’s a great step in the right direction and some relevant material for my showreel =)
(The watermarks are courtesy of my student version)

The character doesn’t look the best, but it’s the concepts and workflow I’m impressed with more!