Major Project
Major Project idea
This project is a 20-30 second post-apocalyptic/time travel genre video, combining live-action footage with 2D and 3D elements. The video features a POV camera that walks through a forest and enters a magic portal. After experiencing strange events, the camera falls into a dystopian future era and sees robots running on the roads in the distance. The camera's POV captures the ruined and burning street, conveying a sense of terror and confusion. The project focuses on compositing techniques, but it also incorporates modelling, texturing, rigging, and animation.
Mood board (Forest scene)
Mood board (Post-apocalyptic street )
Major Project Proposal (Presentation)
Colour palettes
Scene 1: Forest
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Scene 2: Post-Apocalyptic Street
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Major Project Previs
I created a pre-vis video for my major project to visually showcase and communicate my ideas effectively. In addition, the pre-vis video serves as a blueprint that helps me plan, experiment and make informed decisions regarding the narrative, composition, camera angles and movement, and other aspects of the project. It also allows me to identify potential issues and make necessary adjustments before moving on to the actual production phase.
Narrative
+The camera, which serves as the point of view (POV) of the viewer, starts by walking through a dense forest. Suddenly, it spots a strange object that appears to be a magic portal. The camera approaches the portal, and as it enters, it encounters strange and terrifying things such as a spiral tunnel, lightning, smoke, and a magnetic field. The portal resembles a black hole or a glowing circle similar to the one in Dr Strange.
+The camera then falls through the portal and finds itself in a dystopian future era. It lands in the middle of a ruined, post-apocalyptic street with burning buildings and smoke. The camera sees robots running on the roads in the distance.
+The camera is shocked and confused, trying to figure out what happened and where it is. The robot's presence is mysterious and threatening, making the camera feel terrified. The camera's POV captures the scene of the destroyed world in detail, including the rubble, the chaos, and the remnants of a life that once was.
+The video ends here, and the viewer is left with the feeling of a dystopian future, and the horrors that it can bring.
Shot list
Scene 1 – Forest
Camera walks through a dense forest
Camera notices a magic portal
Camera walks towards the portal
Camera enters the portal
Spiral tunnel / Lightning / Smoke / Magnetic field shot
Scene 2 - Post-Apocalyptic Street
Camera falls into the street
Shot of the camera looking around confused
Shot of the burning ruins
Shot of robots running in the distance
Timetable
Week 2 - Concept development and storyboard
Week 3 - Pre-production planning (location scouting, equipment rental, props, etc.)
Week 4 - Live-action shooting of forest & street scene – Project pre-vis
Week 5 -6 - Compositing and 2D element creation for forest scene
Week 7 -8 - Compositing and 2D/3D element creation for street scene
Week 9 - Modelling, texturing, and rigging of 3D assets
Week 10 - Animation of 3D assets
Week 11 - Final compositing and editing
Week 12 – VFX breakdown
Week 13 - Final review and submission
Scene #1
I have successfully shot the live-action footage for the first scene of my post-apocalyptic/time travel genre video and tracked it manually in 3DEqualiser to accurately capture the camera movement and lens distortion. With this information, I have started compositing the first scene in Nuke and placed a lineup card in the subway for future reference, ensuring a seamless integration of 2D and 3D elements. The progress so far is promising, and I am excited to continue working on this project.
Footage
Tracked Footage
Light rays for the portal
Magic Portal - Research
I have done some research on magic (time travel) portals and tried to explore some examples of films and videos that feature magic portals. Portals are typically depicted as a glowing, shimmering gateway or doorway that characters can step through to enter a different realm or time period.
Scene #1 Development
Some things I've done:
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Light rays
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IDistort
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Ground glow
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Subway walls glow
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Dark parts glow
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Colour correction and grading
Sound design and audio required for my project
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Walking sounds: As the camera moves through the park, I may want to add the sound of footsteps or leaves crunching underfoot to create a sense of immersion.
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Environmental sounds: To make the park feel more alive, I might add sounds such as birds chirping or the wind rustling through the trees.
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Portal sounds: When the camera approaches the portal, I could add a low hum or whooshing sound to emphasize the portal's power.
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Dystopian sounds: To create a sense of a ruined world, I could add sounds such as crumbling buildings, distant explosions, and gunfire.
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Robot sounds: As the camera encounters robots, I might want to add metallic or electronic sounds to give them a sense of mechanical menace.
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Foley sounds: I might want to add foley sounds such as debris falling, glass breaking, or the camera's movements as it tries to escape.
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Ambient noise: Finally, adding ambient noise, such as the sound of wind and thunder, could enhance the feeling of chaos and confusion in the dystopian world.
Magic portal sound effects ideas:
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Whirring sound: I could add a whirring sound to the portal to convey the idea that it is opening and closing.
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Whooshing sound: I could also add a whooshing sound as the camera enters the portal to give the impression of movement.
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Magical chimes: Adding magical chimes or bells to the sound effect could enhance the sense of wonder and otherworldliness.
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Electricity sounds: Incorporating electrical sounds like buzzing, crackling or humming could create the impression that the portal is powered by electricity or some other form of energy.
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Glittering sound: Adding a glittering sound could emphasize the idea of the portal as a magical gateway.
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Ambient noises: I may want to add some ambient noises, such as bird chirping, wind rustling or distant water flowing, to emphasize the contrast between the park and the dystopian future.
Scene #2
I started working on the second scene by shooting the live-action footage and taking it into Nuke. I then tracked the footage and exported the undistorted plate for Maya's use. Then, in Maya, I started working on my robots, adding motion capture movement to them and rendering my CG scene. Finally, back in Nuke, I integrated my CG and live-action, comped everything, added portals, replaced the sky using various keying techniques and played around with ground glow and reflections, light groups and AOVs, etc.
Footage
Tracked footage
Night shot + Sky replacement
Slapcomp + Lightgroups + AOVs
Scene #2 development
Some things I've done:
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Making the scene brighter
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Creating animated red laser beam
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Fixing the problems with shadows
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Fixing the alpha masks and mattes problems
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Bringing in a 3D model for the car and applying texture to it inside Nuke
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Creating fake shadow for the car
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Using several 2D stock footage such as fire, smoke, burn mark, etc.
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Camera shake
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Colour correction and grading
Scene #2: 3D workflows
Robots' animation and my 3D scene
I used the mech character I had already modelled and textured. I applied motion capture to the characters and put them in their correct position within the 3D scene. Mocap data was refined/manipulated by the animation layers I made. The markers and tracked camera were brought into Maya from Nuke so that I could put the characters, lights and the ground floor in their position.
Render settings and passes
Above shows how I prepared the scene for the rendering process.
Render layers
I made use of render layers to divide my scene renders into layers. Layers are populated via collections and contain the objects that I want to include in my render. To serve my render needs, I created two layers: Robots and Shadow. Thanks to this render layers workflow, I can manipulate these layers separately in flow.
Light AOVs
I tried to add lights into my scene in a way that they match the light sources of my 2D plate. I also set up the AOV light groups so that I could assign any specific light to a render pass.
Laser rifle movement
I used parenting and constraining (point constraint) techniques to move the rifle along with the character's hands.
Scene #1 development
I changed the portal and put the first frame of the next scene in the middle of the portal's inner ring. Also, I started to play around with colour correction and grading techniques. First, I paid close attention to the contrast and blacks and whites. Then I analysed colour balance and tones and tried to remove unwanted colour casts. Next, I played around with the saturation. Finally, I tried to create a colour tone for my image to give it a specific mood and feeling.
Scene #1: Some techniques and workflows I used
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Scene #2 development
Some of the things I've changed/improved/added in this development:
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I put different stock footage in the centre of the portals.
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I changed the sky and colour-grade it, trying to create a reddish tone to give my shot a post-apocalyptic and dystopian feel.
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Several cards were added to the scene, with stock footage such as fire, smoke, burn texture, etc.
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AOVs and light groups were manipulated again to match CG with the scene's red colour cast and dusky lighting.
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Lens dirt, dust and vignetting were added.
Scene #2 development
Some of the things I've changed/improved/added in this development:
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I made the design and appearance of all the portals the same.
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Portals were colour-graded, giving them a bright blue tone in contrast with the reddish tone of the entire scene.
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Blue light reflections were put on the characters walking through the portals.
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AOVs and light groups were manipulated again to match CG with the scene lighting and colour.
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Finally, I tweaked various parts of my Nuke script and added flying birds to the scene in the background.
Scene #2: Some techniques and workflows I used
Scene#2: Breakdown
Major project - First Draft
Things I changed in this development:
1- I refined the appearance and design of the portals, trying to break up the edges and add more depth and complexity to them.
2- I played around with the brightness and glow of the portals and the fire, trying to make them more eye-catching and vibrant.
3- I matched all portals I used in different scenes.
4- I shot the footage for the last scene and combined all the scenes using Premiere Pro.
5- I also tried to match the clips in Premiere, paying particular attention to tonal values (luminance), colour tones (hues) and saturation.
Portal tweaks - node graph
Major Project Development
Things I changed in this development:
1- I improved the appearance and design of the portals, trying to add more complexity.
2- I added heat haze to the mech characters and animated the amount of haze as mech characters enter or exit the portals.
3- The car and the fire were moved to the faraway background.
4- I used exponential glow for the fires and portals.
Workflows
Below are some other workflows I made use of to develop my project.
Major Project - 2nd Draft
Things I changed in this development:
1- The appearance of the portals was improved.
2- Mech characters' heat haze effect was improved.
3- I added a large waste bin to the second scene. The 3D model was downloaded from the internet, and then I played around with lighting/colour-grading of the asset to match it to the entire set.
4- Smoke was added to the second scene.
Audio - first draft
The video contains sounds that the Audio Tech students are still working on. This is the first draft of the audio track students have made.
The park ambient sound effect for the third scene, footstep sound for robots and POV, birds sound, etc., are some of the things the Audio Tech students are working on.
Audio - second draft
Audio students have finished making the footsteps sound for the first scene, the sound of birds, smoke, footsteps in the second scene, and the footsteps and ambient sound effect in the third scene.
We were closely in contact, and I enjoyed working with them on this project.
There have been a few things that I have shared with them to improve the sound effects made for this project. They will send me the final draft with the discussed changes. Below is the last draft they sent me.
Audio - final draft
Audio Tech students have changed and put every element that I discussed about. For instance, there was a bird chirping sound in the second scene, which was like a robin bird singing sound; I thought it did not fit the eeriness and darkness of the second scene, so students have removed the sound. They have also added a deep breath sound (like panting and gasping) to the first part of the third scene when the POV enters the last scene after a run through the portal.