Sword in the stone brief. Concentrating on the sword, Excalibur, instead of Arthur. Set in a forest (possibly Hampstead) early morning, different shots, possibly on the last shot an actor (who will play Arthur) walking towards the stone.
Digital Matte Painting
For our first lesson of the year we started off in photoshop where we had the challenge to composite different images to make a DMP. We were given several images one of a house, a few images of mountains, a sky and fog. First we used the pen tool to select parts of the images we wanted. Then organised them to where we wanted them to fit in the scene. By using the blur tool on the images furthest away and turning the saturation down, we were able to give them the effect they were far away. Above is my final image.
Skyfall
Final Image
Challenge one out of three was to create a Skyfall theme image. Since some of Skyfall was filmed in Scotland, I made sure to choose images of Scotland's Highlands. I also wanted to bring some animals into it. I used Brown/blues/beige and yellows as my colour palette. I made the fog layer pretty heavy since Scotland is cold.
Modified
Savanna
Final Image
Modified
For challenge two out of three, we had to create a Savanna scene. Unlike the Skyfall scene, I wanted the colours to pop. So no fog was used. I used a lot more contrast in this one too, as the different parts in this photo are naturally large in real life. I used the brush tool instead of the pen tool in this image to merge everything together a lot better.
Bladerunner
Final Image
For the last image, the challenge was to recreate a Bladerunner scene. As it's set in a dystopian future, I went with a very neon vibe. Liam Wong's photos were excellent for this. I wanted to set the scene at the very bottom of the city in an alleyway/ old rail but where you can still feel the lights and power of the high skyscrapers. I didn't upload any workflow images as I used the brush tool and it was very messy.
Digital Matte Painting - Continued
WallE Brief
Pixar's WallE is basically the story of a little robot that cleans up after us humans who have left Earth as a wasteland and in the end finds a little boot with a plant growing which gives the viewers hope. Our clients gave this as our theme for our brief. Joining forces with Steve and Isabel we decided to go for a shot set in a street with rubbish towers in the back, and the boot as our "main character". Below is an example of what we would like to recreate.
Mood Board
Color Theme
As all vegetation is dead in the film, the main color theme is burnt reds, oranges, browns. We have decided to stick with this.
Tasks
Steve, Isabel and I decided to work with our strengths. Steve and Isabel will work mainly in Maya and constructing the main important objects of the scene. Steve will be working on everything that is highlighted in blue and Isabel will be working on everything that is in red. I shall be working mainly in photoshop and Nuke, creating the background/comping and grading.
3D Modelling
Steve and Isabel have been working hard on getting the 3D elements ready for the scene to be rendered. Here are some photos of the progress that has been done.
The Final Model
DMP/ Background/ Compositing
One of my jobs was to create the background for the street model. I added some rubbish towers which are iconic to Wall.E and piles of rubbish to fill the scene up a bit more. The colors I went with are to show the fact that there are no greens or vegetation. I added some heavy fog to show that it's a heavy dead environment, that is hard to breathe in.
Once the Maya scene was rendered, I brought both the scene and DMP background into Nuke and started to composite. I blurred and color graded the scene to make sure the scene matched the background. I tried to add particles and fog but came across multiple problems so instead I added a noise node and and added a fog card. The scene is very foggy and dry, again to represent the feeling of suffocating and being in a dead environment.
The Final Shot
Issues, Problems and Positives of Working in a Group
Time, a structured plan and communication were a major problem in this project, I believe being part of a team you need constant communication. Just to keep everyone updated just so if there are any problems with the project others can see where and how they can help, earlier on rather than last minute.
With the timing of our project we should have had a different approach. Everyone should have had a certain amount of time each and some extra days just in case the problems we did come across happened. Instead of taking a linear approach we should have took a "mesh" kind of approach. So some team members weren't waiting on the project to do their work.
The positives were being able to see how group projects work and see everyone's work come together.
I do want to add that Steve was the anchor of the project, making sure everything and everyone was okay. And taking extra time to help others.
Josh Parks Masterclass
Christmas AD
Idea 1:
For this brief, we had numerous ideas however we went with a Christmas ad to for a bike set in the 1950's. Steve and I did a lot of research on the era. Steve took care of everything to do with 3D and I took care of everything in Nuke. We wanted to start the scene in black and white and gradually with colour coming through and then the bike glowing as it was the hero object. To do this we decided to render out the scene with AOVS, which took over two days to render (and which we had issues due to other classes needing our computers). Once it was rendered I brought the scene into Nuke and learnt where to place each AOV (as if the order was wrong the scene looked wrong). I tracked the scene so I could add old footage onto the screen. Keyed each AOV so they would appear when I wanted them to, And graded. I tried adding fire into the fire place, but had issues. I also asked my housemate to add effects onto the music so it would have a more vintage sound to it.
The comments we had were to make the walls more dirty and more lived in. However, in the 1940's/1950's it is known that women were very house proud and due to society were mostly stuck at home and clean.
Open Brief: Plague Doctor
For our last brief of the module, it was completely open. Steve and I had 3 ideas, the first one being sci-fi (which we quickly decided not to do), the second a sword in the stone remake (which we our going to leave for our major project) and the last one a Horror scene including a plague doctor. Since Steve's nephew had a plague doctor costume we were set on that. Due to the covid situation and us being ill, Steve filmed his nephew at home with a green sheet. Without knowing till later, Nuke doesn't read MOV files. I had already screenshotted the video and brought it into photoshop to cut his nephew out and used that still in Nuke. Steve created these incredible rats and rendered them out and sent them to me so I could finish the project in Nuke. As Steves rats were the stronger object, I decided to edit around that and make them the hero object. To do that I slowly revealed the plague doctor but made sure there was more screen time on the rats. I also rotopainted the images on the wall from the te truman shot and composited in some grimey walls, also getting rid of the ceiling from the original footage. I then Graded it and added smoke.
ShowReel
