Multiple Camera Projections in Fusion
Made another video tutorial about combining projections from multiple cameras. Enjoy 🙂
Also, check out my script to quickly align image planes to points in a point cloud and my latest tutorial about camera projection workflows.
eyeon Dimension
eyeon has finally shown a short teaser for “Dimension”, their “Occula-for-Fusion” plugin. Looks promising so far. Most importantly, the price tag undercuts Occula by thousands of dollars which makes it feasible for smaller production companies as well. Let’s wait and see – competition is good 🙂
And Generation is back from the dead (read: a year after it was end-of-lifed by eyeon without further explanation). It has gained a lot of asset management and workflow functionality (shot status, artist collaboration, reviews). Having worked with Shotgun recently, I have to say that Generation’s shot management from a player interface sounds intriguing. Shotgun is a slow browser-based behemoth with millions of clickable links that all look alike. I don’t know if it was built that way or if it was that company’s customization… But it seemed overkill for most problems that an artist has (might be a different story for project managers).
Fusion 6.3 will be half as expensive as before and if you add Dimension and Generation AM you’ll end up with the former price.
None of these tools is shipping yet though.
Compositing Tutorial Part 1
Hey, I’ve finally found the time to finish another video tutorial. Check out the new tutorial section on this site for the details. The first video is about fixing a jittery camera track in post by smoothing and tweaking the camera move. Videos are hosted on Youtube and all the footage and files are available for download.
I’d like to make this the start of a series of advanced tutorials about actual compositing problems since most stuff out there either comes with a price tag (FXPHD) or shows off stuff where the “wow”-effect is due to excellent CGI and matte paintings while the compositing part is basically just “A over B” and some roto.
There’s always a problem of showing off stuff I’ve worked on because of legal issues. So I’ll demonstrate some techniques on footage I’ve created from scratch and hereby release under a creative commons license so you can play around with it yourself.
Limitless Zoom Quilt
Das ist die coole Titelsequenz von “Limitless” (dt. “Ohne Limit”).
NatĂĽrlich ist nichts jemals neu, deshalb gibt es – wie schon beim Tilt-Shift-Hype vor einem Jahr – auch hier Vorlagen. Ein bisschen VFX-Archäologie:
Das Intro von “Limitless” ist eine ziemlich ausgefeilte Version eines sogenannten “Zoom Quilt“, einem kolaborativen Projekt aus der Internet-KĂĽnstlerszene, bei dem das Werk herumgereicht wird und jeder sein Gemälde in das des Vorgängers integriert. Hier eine Version bei Youtube:
Auf der Suche nach ähnlichen Videos stößt man schnell auf diese aktuelle Werbung für die Bank of Scotland, die ebenfalls einen Endlos-Zoom enthält:
Und letztenendes ist alles doch nur Mathematik 🙂
Cool Guys Don’t Look At Explosions
Seeed’s cover of “Wonderful Life” isn’t really that catchy, but it’s a perfect reference footage for the massive light spill that happens when the picture is exposed for the main talent while all hell breaks loose.
So next time, don’t just add a dodgy glow or tiny light wrap. Spend some more time on getting the integration right, even if it means fogging and overexposing the whole picture. The dynamic range of an explosion is too large to allow details inside such a big fireball to be visible while the foreground is exposed normally.
If you’re working in linear color space, the reddish light that scatters all across the lens is easy to create. Simply add a red slate on top (or lift the blacks).
