Art of Darkness
Subtle compositing touches help to sell effects shots. Follow the 3D World guide to adding realistic shadows and reflections to the scene
Things can get a bit complicated if you want to place your 3D character in a real-world situation. When there’s glass in your background plate, you’ll need a realistic reflection. And if you want a dynamic shot with handheld camera movement, motion tracking will lock your character into place.
Fortunately, the challenges of compositing, such as re. ections and handheld background plates, are also its strengths. This example of a clay man sitting in a car – a shot from a commercial video release called The Dream Sequence – wouldn’t look as good if the camera was locked off: the handheld motion makes the shot seem realistic. Equally, an angle could have been chosen with no glass reflections but, by choosing to show a reflection, you can sell the shot. Adding a believable shadow to your scene is almost impossible, but you can add one that will be perceived by your audience as being realistic: the shadow itself will be so subtle it won’t be noticed, but it helps create the illusion that the clay man is actually positioned in the car.
This tutorial shows you how to composite your 3D character into background footage, with realistic motion and motion blur, plus a moving background. You can create these shots by videoing your car in your garage. Even if you’ve no intention of doing your own compositing, the information contained with in it will still prove useful when it comes to lighting and outputting characters for clients or compositors.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
The supporting resources contain the Poser animation files for the clay man and his reflection, as well as a 3DS single-frame file. To save time, we’ve also included the completed output footage. Carshot.mov is the handheld shot used as a background plate, and TreeBG.mov is a blurred background plate created in Vue 5.0. The files ClayModel.mov and Reflection.mov were output as Animation, complete with Alpha channels. You can see the finished shot in ClayManFinal.mov.
Click here to download support files and hi-res screenshots
Fortunately, the challenges of compositing, such as re. ections and handheld background plates, are also its strengths. This example of a clay man sitting in a car – a shot from a commercial video release called The Dream Sequence – wouldn’t look as good if the camera was locked off: the handheld motion makes the shot seem realistic. Equally, an angle could have been chosen with no glass reflections but, by choosing to show a reflection, you can sell the shot. Adding a believable shadow to your scene is almost impossible, but you can add one that will be perceived by your audience as being realistic: the shadow itself will be so subtle it won’t be noticed, but it helps create the illusion that the clay man is actually positioned in the car.
This tutorial shows you how to composite your 3D character into background footage, with realistic motion and motion blur, plus a moving background. You can create these shots by videoing your car in your garage. Even if you’ve no intention of doing your own compositing, the information contained with in it will still prove useful when it comes to lighting and outputting characters for clients or compositors.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES
The supporting resources contain the Poser animation files for the clay man and his reflection, as well as a 3DS single-frame file. To save time, we’ve also included the completed output footage. Carshot.mov is the handheld shot used as a background plate, and TreeBG.mov is a blurred background plate created in Vue 5.0. The files ClayModel.mov and Reflection.mov were output as Animation, complete with Alpha channels. You can see the finished shot in ClayManFinal.mov.
Click here to download support files and hi-res screenshots
Click here to download the tutorial for free
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