Digital Composition by Micaiah

My final green screen scene! This shot is flipped in the final version to fit consistently with the rest of the film. I also did a proper Light Wrap this time as well. This whole scene was timed using a sequence of offsets in Nuke.

Currently Light Wrapping my Green Screen scene before I forget! It’s pretty close to submission time and I had almost forgotten. A minor thing I had learnt from watching this video is that you can hold the Command key on a Mac to create ‘ballpoints’ so that your pipes can remain straight as they go from node to node.

Success! I have completed the bulk of my effects scene. This was created using a combination of Nuke and After Effects. A fair amount of masking had to be done in order for the effects to look natural, and I suspect more finetuning may be involved as well before the final output. There is one more effects scene to go. With that completed I should be able to finally piece everything together.

CG over live-action never ceases to impress me!

Locating quality particle effects for the final scene of my compositing piece has been trickier than initially expected. There are several source files located here, however I was honestly hoping to find more to experiment with that would be relevant to my final piece. The RainMaker effect is a nice subtle touch though, will have to show an example of that.

I seem to have a habit of finding quality guides and tutorials too late into the semester. Nevertheless, this is an excellent reference point for learning how to do Tracking and Keying in Nuke. Just be mindful that the tutorial assets can be a little large in terms of file size (500mb+) if you plan on using them at home with the trial version of Nuke.

No annotations, subtitles or dialogues, but nonetheless an intriguing insight into the workflow of green screen primate and colour grading. The compositor here lays out a structure that can be followed along, though goes into a level of complexity that is beyond what is done in the course.

A forum post indicating some advice for compositing with red-green colourblindness. It appears as though working channel by channel is one solution, though the best is still to have somebody with correct colour accuracy to work with you.

Playing around with the trial version of NukeX, as the non-commercial version does not allow for the use of Primatte. Render times are significantly slower on my laptop, though it is better than nothing. It is likely now a matter of locating or shooting appropriate background footage for this scene.

A 17-minute video detailing the history and evolution of compositing with green screens, blue screens, and yellow screens. The latter of which has an advantage in its very specific wavelength used for compositing in technicolour film (it was extensively used by Disney of all places! Mary Poppins anyone?).

Well...that’s inconvenient. My original plan for trying out Primatte at home is definitely no longer going ahead. Back to the labs I suppose. Just a warning in case anybody else is planning on trying the same. :(

I definitely feel a little dumber now, as I have not experimented with the adjust lighting feature until just a while ago! This tutorial video shows just how convenient this option is for uneven green screen lighting.

A compositing reel by Fabian García that reveals the complexity of multiple passes in detail. Note worthy are how particular elements are roto’d out and replaced with others, amongst other cinematic elements and passes.

A relatively simple method of dealing with spill in green screen footage using Keylight in combination with the Saturation node, particularly that which has motion blur. Nuke is compared to Smoke here, though the general workflow is similar. A handy tutorial, especially if you want to ensure thoroughly that grain and skin tones are left untouched.

One of the green screen shots made yesterday! This was one of my favourites. Everything appears to be lit correctly, and it is now a matter of piecing it into Nuke for compositing.

An explanation of why exactly green spill happens, giving examples of particular instances where green spilling may occur. Good lighting when shooting is emphasised, of which I am glad to have done.

My own personal reference for exporting/writing to image sequence files (because I have a habit of consistently forgetting).