MS7 - Compositing Updates

February 14

I painted our HDR because the blue rim light was just too intense on the car and in our end renders it looked more like the light was coming from the bokeh in our plates because you don’t see the other light. So we decided to paint out the blue light and just add a blue rim in our 3d scene. So it will match up more with the plate and not blow out the truck.

February 15

Since we are painting out the HDR, I decided that just using the painted plate and and screening over our artificial rim light was the less efficient way to do it. So instead I am using the render layer that we have for the cover of the rim light as a mask to put the painted plate on top of the original plate. This way we still get the look of the original highlight that was on the plate. And I am able to get that little piece where the blue rim and the shadow over lap darker then the main shadow. It makes it match the original reference of the cube and grey sphere.

February 16

We have been rendering out the layers of shot 02, and I have just been putting together the new layers I have into my nuke script and going over all my connections to make sure they are all right and just color correcting somethings. Because I recreated my script the other day with putting in the rim light mask. The renders are taking pretty long because of the pyro, so it is something to remember in the future for our final renders. Will put visual updates as soon as possible.

February 17-18

Shot 01

Changes made:

Graded the backplate to make it match others more.
Adjusted the zdepth so that it was more intense so you focus more on the corner where the light is.
I used chromatic aberration to make the top left corner blend into the background lights.
Used expo glow on the new Headlight render layer to create a more realistic looking backlight.
current render layers used: truck beauty (with money bags), headlight beauty, pyro beauty

Adjustment to be made:

The zdepth is creating a haze around the money bags while they are falling.
There is a reflection on the truck that looks like a scratch, so figure out where that is coming from.
From this shot to the last one, it seems a lot brighter, but I like the color of this one.
There is some specular noise on both the truck and the moneybags that needs to be fixed.
The moneybag shader still looks odd in this shot. I was going to fix it, but we wanted to wait until we saw it with the shadows turned on.

Shot 02

Changes made:

Made the z depth more intense, especially when it is in the back corner.
Used expo glow on the new headlight layer.
Worked on getting the pass through of the blue rim light, I am now just using the plate that I painted the blue light out of as a mask with our blue rim render layer.
Used expo glow on the new Headlight render layer to create a more realistic looking headlight.
Tried to make the truck go back out of focus when exiting the frame.
Fixed the painted plate because there was still remanence of the blue highlight.
current render layers used: truck beauty (with money bags, money, and dice), headlight beauty, pyro beauty, shadow matte, occlusion, reflection, rim light mask

Adjustment to be made:

Keep working on the blue rim pass through. Looking at the reference it is more of a hard line then a blurry line like in the render; ours is really hazy right now because of the new position of the light and it cast this huge shadow which makes the car cover up the blue light earlier then I would think.
The back shadow is also more effected by the blue light. Right now it is a bit messed up because of the rim mask because the pyro is in that mask when it isn’t suppose to be.
The reflection for under the car gets a bit lost in this shot and needs to be more intense like in the reference.
When adjusting the DOP in this shot when the truck goes out of frame it becomes a bit crunchy looking, so I need to look into that.
The front wheels look disconnected to the ground.
The moneybag shader still looks odd in this shot, especially at the end.
Fix the bottom of the painted plate because the transition between the two is too noticable right now.
The rearlights look a bit dull.
Fixing the DOP when the truck goes off screen.

Shot 03

Changes made:

Color corrected the backplate to make it match others more. It was still too saturated and green.
Adjusted the zdepth so that it was more intense so you focus more on the corner where the light is.
Used expo glow on the new Headlight render layer to create a more realistic looking backlight.
Cropped in this shot so that the truck would take up more of the frame.
current render layers used: truck beauty, headlight beauty, and the old shadow matte, occlusion, and reflection

Adjustment to be made:

In the forground the zdepth was making the front left wheel disappear if I set it up higher for when the truck in in the background, so I am also using a blur with a roto in the back. So I need to look back into that.
The shadow and occlusion are really off for this shot. We thought they could work, but it was too late when we realized that they would not so I had to transform them.
The shadow is also really light in this scene and I need to look back at the reference again.
Same about the reflections they also need to be worked on.

Questions:

What would be the best way to create the blue reflection in the shadow that is behind the truck, like in the cube reference for shot 02?

Suggestions about the DOP, like with shot 02 and how it should go back out of focus, but the wheel gets crunchy.

If the lights have changed in our scene (with the rim light) should I still try to get it to match the reference we have?