LIVE BRIEF
WEEK 1
During this week's Live Brief we were introduced to the module. In this session we discussed matte painting, and the different techniques in which we can make the art. In our first project we will integrate these techniques and create three images from the following themes:
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Blade runner
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James Bond: Skyfall
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Savannah landscape
Matte Painting
Matte painting is a technique that involves building a shot with a composite of painted and live-action elements.
Given its intended use, a matte painting is designed to be a work of photorealism; a landscape or set that can replace reality and trick the viewer's eye into believing it is real.
Series like Game of Thrones uses a fair amount of matte painting due to the difficult scenery, and fictional characters.
Complementary colors
Colors on opposite sides of the color wheel is
called complementary.
This combination provides a high contrast and high impact color combination - together, these colors will appear brighter and more prominent.
The color wheel is frequently used by artist to create a particular look or feel that is visually pleasing to the eye.
Blade Runner
Reference images
Sketch
Perspective and vanishing points
Final Image
Breakdown
Skyfall - Highland scene
Reference images
Work in progress
Final Image
Breakdown
Savannah landscape
Reference images
Work in progress
Final Image
Breakdown
WEEK 3
Wall-E Live Action
We got introduced to the new Live Brief this week. The project was to create a live reboot of the Pixar film: Wall-E, the shot created should match the feel and colors that appears in the beginning of the film.
Wall-E was a group project between Åsne, Vivian and I. We divided the different task among us; I was in charge of the matte painting, Vivian wanted to work in 3D and Åsne did the compositing.
What will be submitted:
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Mood board (researched imagery)
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Color palette
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Concept art
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Breakdown of shot
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Final shot
Moodboard
Color palette
Concept art
Concept art drawn in Procreate
Breakdown
Reference images
Work in progress
I worked primarily in Photoshop but switched between software's occasionally. The pictures found are mostly in the same color scheme, which made the process much easier and the result better. Buildings found are mainly illustrations, the sky and road are photographs.
I wanted a desaturated atmosphere with burnt- earthy colors to symbolize the characteristic feature that is dystopian. The growth on buildings and cars can imply the timespan that have past. Windows, doors and walls are broken which indicates that the streets are abandoned. I used many new digital tools, including Content Aware tool - to resize images to the canvas' scale, without changing important visual content. Lens blur, to add chromatic aberration along the edges of the buildings. I also used Sky Replacement to make the sky more dramatic and cinematic.
Final matte painting
Breakdown
Final shot
3D Room
WEEK 6
Masterclass With Matt Jacques
WEEK 7
Christmas Advert
This brief's goal is to create a Christmas advertising video for a brand. We get to choose the brand, the feel and mood of the advert. The project could be done individually or as a group, I chose to collaborate with my classmate Åsne on this project.
I will be in charge of Digital matte-painting, 2D animation and some simulations. Åsne will work on compositing, animation, 3D camera, and simulations. We will be using Nuke, Photoshop, Procreate, Maya, After Effects.
Our goal for this task is to get a better understanding of, and work primarily in Nuke.
Ideas
We would like to make an advert for a postal service, delivering mail to Santa Claus.
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Flying letter to Santa
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Winter mountain landscape
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Northern feels with characteristic Nordic climate ex. Northern lights
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Combination of 2D and 3D objects
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Letter: cartoonish style
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Cinematic look: use depth of field
Inspiration: The Norwegian Christmas calendar Snøfall
Moodboard
Sketches
Storyboards
Animatic
Digital Matte-Painting Progress
Reference images
Process
I used Procreate to cut out objects from all of the images, then I put them in their correct place to create an environment. Next, I made some adjustments like: matched the color of the northern lights to make a lightwrap covering the surfaces of the mountains. Afterwards, I imported the file into Photoshop as a PSD format.
Time-lapse Video
The finishing touches were done in Adobe Photoshop. To create the illusion of distance between each element and the camera, a field blur was added, and the settings was slightly heighten for every object to get some depth of field.
I tried to match the darkest black/white points in every photo with each other, which resulted in a more realistic look and feel. Lastly, I color graded and corrected the image.
Photoshop
Final Result
Image above is a darker version with some depth of field. I color graded the scene making it as if it was night and removed the bright blue tint. The trees is the foreground is clear whilst the mountains and village is unfocused giving the illusion that it is afar. The village is in a sharp warm orange-red, which is in contrast with the rest of the image. Due to the high difference in color, the village is made eye-catching to the viewer.
Breakdown
Letter Animation
We wanted the letter to be cartoonish, in high contrast to the realistic scenery. We took inspiration from A-ha's Take On Me - music video, and planned to do something similar. A combination of both 2D and 3D objects would make our advertising eye-catching and unique.
Tracing
Åsne made an animation in Maya which I afterwards traced over using Procreate.
This is the part of the animation where the letter crashes into the camera lens in the beginning.
Next step was to design the letters exterior. The idea was to have something childish and colorful, in contrast to the dark scene. Since the advert is mainly considered to appeal towards a young audience, we included the element of adding different color handwriting looking to be written in crayons on top of the letter.
Letter inspiration
Concept Art - Letter
Time-lapse Video
Work In Progress
After tracing over the Maya video the next step was to blend the traced footage with the concept art. I did so by copying the concept art and placing it over every frame, then using distort and warp to get the correct angle, bend and perspective.
Time-lapse Video
Warning: Flashing lights
This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.
Final Letter Design and Animation
Shot 2 - Letter Animation
Our inspiration was NRK- series Snøfall, in it's intro there is a cool flying bird movement from behind camera and into frame. I decided to trace the movement for our shot.
Final Letter Design and Animation
Particle Animation
Particles is a perfect way to make the scene more cinematic. I wanted pixie dust to surround the letter whilst it is flying, making the letter animation more magical. The look I went for was typical Disney fairy dust, as seen above.
Lens flare glow inspired by Aladdin
Santa's Village scene inspired by Christmas Impossible at 0:26
Originally, I wanted to create the pixie dust as a 3D simulation in Maya. Due to limited time, I decided to focus on a software I know, and made it in After Effects. Particle World is a plugin that allows us to create simulation following a path, and that's exactly what I did.
You start by creating a path using the pen tool, then attach a null object to the path. The null object will then follow the path movement you created.
Next, I created a solid which I then added the effect Particle World on top. I linked the particles to the path created with the use of expressions, changed the rate of birth to a larger number as well as the shape of the particles.
Changed the particle type to; faded sphere, for a circular and more cinematic feel. I adjusted the setting on the birth and death size to below 0.1, the size variation and max opacity I set to 100% to get a variation of random size of the particles.
The scenery in our shot is dark and cold, I made the particles' color a warm yellow in contrast to the scene which made them stand out.
Lastly, I added a lens flare effect which I animated, as well as the slogan text in the end.
Christmas Advert - Final Result
Christmas Advert - Breakdown
WEEK 12 - Challenge Brief
Compositing
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Nuke
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Live assets
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Video footage
Idea
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Make a dramatic night-scene with lightning
Free video from Pexel
ActionVFX offers free asset packs, including lighting
WEEK 13
Nuke script
Clouds - Noise
Progress