Creating a Short Film: 09 VFX Environments

Introduction

• About this training series
• The Assurance
• Introduction to this course
• About the third-party plugins used
• Dealing with the exercise files

1. The World of VFX

• Understanding compositing
• An overview of creating computer-generated (CG) images
• Approximating believable realities
• Making things perfectly imperfect

2. Creating a Great Key

• Intro to keying: Keylight
• Intro to keying: Primatte
• Tips for pulling a great key
• Keying fine details
• Creating a luma key
• Keying impossible shots
• Getting perfect edges
• Painting the alpha channel

3. Motion Tracking and Other Core Skills

• Combining takes for the best performance
• Tracking in After Effects (AE)
• Tracking in Mocha
• Removing blemishes digitally
• Removing objects with After Effects, part 1
• Removing objects with After Effects, part 2
• Removing objects with Mocha Pro

4. Creating CG Worlds

• Making CG scenery
• An overview of VUE xStream
• Creating canyons in VUE xStream

5. Creating the Aerial Shot

• Creating a plan and shooting the footage
• Making the campfire elements
• Creating glowing embers
• Cleaning up the footage
• Combining the elements, part 1: Assembling
• Combining the elements, part 2: Compositing
• Making the smoke trail in Trapcode Particular
• Changing the time of day

6. Creating the Helmet Shot

• Why did we create this shot?
• Using normal maps on Golhatn's helmet
• Modeling the candlesticks
• Creating the melted candles
• Adding materials to the objects
• Lighting the scene
• Preparing the Cinema 4D file for AE compositing
• Creating flickering candlelight with Particular
• Adding depth of field in After Effects
• Enhancing the smoke in the scene
• Adjusting the mood by changing the color

7. Rotoscoping Out Characters

• Creating a strategy
• Finding or making a clean plate
• Rotoscoping out the characters
• Polishing the composite

8. Creating the Finale Scene

• Examining the plan for the scene
• Editing the VUE renders
• Creating matte paintings
• Art directing footage of clouds
• Understanding focal length and lens properties
• Compositing with smoke and fog
• Anatomy of shot 13
• Animating Golhatn in Cinema 4D and After Effects
• Animating subtle camera moves in post

9. Shooting Visual Effects (VFX) Shots

• Should you shoot VFX outdoors or indoors?
• Shooting an even green screen
• Using practical lights to supplement VFX
• Shooting with an awareness of post
• Using a VFX supervisor

Conclusion

• Getting better at visual effects
• Previewing the next course
• Final thoughts