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The CGI and VFX thread!
  • Anybody here do any work in Maya or C4d? Has anyone used GH2 footage for composting yet?

    Here's a concept I'm putting together for a CG intensive short I'm doing... anyone want to share experiences with this stuff? Anyone used Nuke for composting and VFX?

    Any GH2 aerial footage I could "barrow"? ;)

    Anyone else have any work they'd like to share?

  • 106 Replies sorted by
  • Nuke is one of the hottest softwares out there right now. A lot of interest in it in Hollywood. Unlike After Effects, it's node based and most people find it easier to work with.
  • Yea, I really want to get into Nuke. I've been hearing nothing but good things and their demo was really great at NAB this year.

    Is it basically like a suped-up version of Shake or something?
  • Did you design that spacecraft? - It looks really cool ;-)
  • I work in Maya, Cinema 4D and little Houdini...also interesting compositing of the footage shot on gh2, perhaps for the short film.
  • "Did you design that spacecraft? - It looks really cool ;-) "

    Yep! It's going to be the "hero" craft of my next project... I wanted something that looks futuristic, but not dystopian futuristic. Kind of like something that Nissan would build 500 years from now.

    Hopefully I'll get some driving footage of with my GH2 and glidecam out of a car to do some test compositing soon.
  • Something like a commercial ? or or a narrative, like short film..
  • Probably a mock commercial for now... to make sure the composting look right. And then maybe a narrative... I just need to raise funds to build an interior cabin, so actors can "drive" it.
  • I mostly doing character modeling, texture, and rigs, sometimes animate.
  • yeah, I recently used nuke to comp some CG (a car plus some smaller stuff done in maya/vray) over GH13 footage. Now I'm starting my own pretty CG heavy project with GH2.

    As for the workflow, I output mts files as 16 bit exrs. All CG was in 16/32 bit (depends on passes) exr as well. Now I will most likely use an intermediate codec for the plates (cineform or free 5dtorgb).
  • I use Fusion,premier somtimes AE and for 3D i use max.
    Ihave used GH 2 footages in post, and they work just fine.
    Sample from time before GH 2 you vill find from

    http://zigma.fi/page11.html

    Just clik Brainstorm image

    T:OT
  • Fusion is like Nuke. Werry similar (better) i do not know. I just start to use it and have not seen point why to change.
  • @Rerberg "I mostly doing character modeling, texture, and rigs, sometimes animate. "

    Nice! I've done a few characters... but rigging scares me... it's another skill set on it's own! I'm more of a mechanical/vehicle/architecture guy...
  • mechanisms, vehicles scare me))
  • One of my older works for commercial .

    image
  • in Сinema 4d
  • Last weekend shot with a GH1 for the presentation of the cinema festival in Margarita island, Venezuela.

    The pelican from the middle is CG later it fly away. Done in Maya and After effects.
    Pelican_01.jpg
    720 x 480 - 148K
  • I use the gh2 all the time for vfx. I run an animation and vfx company. Here is a short film I shot with the gh2 and a 2Xanamorphic lens. I use 3ds max and after effects.


  • Really like this topic :-)
  • just fast test:) using 3dsmax and Voodoo camera tracker, full automatic mode
  • @grego
    man that is some awesome stuff. Really really great little film. The photography was excellent, excellent compositions especially. I digged the music a lot too (sound design was a bit weak though). Great VFX for low-budget. Great location scouting-production design. Nice and simple little story. Thumbs up.
  • Love this thread:)
  • @stefanos

    Thanks for the compliments! The sound design is not final, just firstpass, I haven't given it to an engineer yet. Glad you picked that up though, means you really watched it close.

    Some things about the project that might help others.

    Using Hdr is essential. I use a large chrome ball method to get my hdr image for the environment. For rendering, I used vray, but I started in mental ray. I normally use mental ray for projects due to its speed and it comes with max and maya. I actually rendered the entire short in mental ray then went back and rendered it using vray. Only one shot remains in mental ray. Render times are about twice as slow depending on your settings in vray but the realism is twice as good too. The tweaking and post work to get mental ray half as good as vray was not worth it. Vray handles reflections and Hdr so much better and more realistic.

    The gh2 looks and feels like film to me more than the canons. We have a 5d but to me the 5d looks too magenta and I hate battling the narrow depth of field due to the large sensor. If you notice in the film I rarely employ narrow DOF. Most the times it's a hinderence and doesn't help push the story along. If I need close ups and seperation then I will open up the camera. But that being said I could have told the story with any camera.

    I think I will stick with the gh2 along with 60p cams (eventually 120p fps cams) for film type work with fx. Right now the cameras are so powerful it really depends on the user to make stories and not worry about what the cam, they are all capable of producing narratives and docs.

    The only other issue I have seen with cmos dslrs is the jello for tracking and that has been well documented. We use syntheyes and mocha for AE. We didnt have tracking issues out of the ordinary with the GH2 on this film. Most tracking issues arise out of motion blur and having enough clear points to track. We tracked the yellow tablet in the film if anyone was wondering.

    I am happy to answer any questions or advice on a 3d pipeline. I am no means an export but as far as 3d animation I have been doing it since 1995, so I could help some I am sure.

  • Yes, I liked the location too. Where was that place? Cool houses.
  • @brianluce

    The location is in Austin, Texas. There is a neighborhood that is all modern homes called Agave. It's a like a pre-made set:). I had to clean up the plates, take cars out, randomn signs and general stuff in the yards to make it cleaner. I did that in photoshop and AE. I might do one more pass with that and add some things in the background.