Project 3 for TECH 420
This post is dedicated for my process to create this project. Scroll down for each update.
- Update 7 - May 23, 2020
Here is the final render of my final project for TECH 420:
Screenshot of the final Nuke tree
- Challenges and Mistakes -
My biggest challenges in this project is to get the best texture so it would not feel very CG. I tried to render multiple texture to make it better.
- Update 6 - May 15, 2020
I changed the texture for all 3 characters. I added some pattern because I want to add more varieties to the composition.
Here is the still frame for the updated characters
- Update 5 - May 12, 2020
In this update, I combined all of the elements that I already rendered from Maya. I render the yellow character separately because it makes me easier to roto a part of the footage.
Below is the video of the foreground character, ambient occlusion and the comp
Video of the background characters, ambient occlusion, the roto, and the comp
There are multiple frames that makes roto quite difficult, that is the reason why I decided to render it individually. I merge all of those parts in Nuke.
Here is my first rough render
- Challenges and Mistakes -
Based on my classmates' feedback, all of the characters would be better if I add more varieties, which I agree with them. I would redo the shaders to make it more visually interesting.
- Update 4 - May 9, 2020
In this update, I textured the characters using Substance Painter. I assigned a color, added some rust and added a sticker to it.
The stickers are a bear, wolf, and a tiger, which are inspired by the film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.
- Challenges and Mistakes -
My first try assigning this texture to the aiStandardSurface was messed up because the textures were all swimming as the frame changes. I tried to use the Texture Reference Object but it was still not locked in the mesh. I decided to textured it before I baked the animation to cache and it seems to work well.
- Update 3 - May 6, 2020
After I have finished my first camera tracking, I tried to place them in the scene. All of the characters that I use in this project is from mixamo.com. I will paint my own texture using the UV layout that was included from the download.
Here is the pre-vis for the animation:
- Challenges and Mistakes -
I decided to change the characters to X and Y bot because I feel like it would fit more and can make visually interesting.
- Update 2 - May 2, 2020
In this update, I focused more on the camera tracking for the background plate using Nuke.
I masked out the tree behind because I feel like it could increase the solve number. I darkened the image plane so that the features could be seen easily.
Then, I solved it and it was a bit above one at first, but I changed the 'Max Track Error' and 'Max Error' which reduces the error score.
I comp-ed it using a card and cylinder in Nuke and rendered it out. Here is the result of the camera tracking.
- Challenges and Mistakes -
It's a challenge for me to get the tracking points that have good solves. I tried redo the tracking multiple times.
- Update 1 - April 29, 2020
For this project, I'm going to composite a CG animated character into a real life footage. I chose Adam Katzenberg footage because I feel like it could be challenging to integrate various animation into his footage. Below is the raw footage for the clean plate I will be using for this project.
I did the camera match for the footage and here are the results
I also rendered out the grey ball to match the reference. I cleaned up the reference sphere (below image, left side) to create the clean plate for my CG grey ball (below image, right side).
For the animations, I decided to download them from mixamo.com. I will pick various animations (sitting, running, and walking) that will fit the best with the background plate.