Matchmoving, Motion Graphics and Dubstep

Nuke’s Smooth Ramp Functions

Nuke’s Ramp node can produce linear and smooth gradients. Here are its formulas. I have reverse-engineered them by trial and error after reading up on interpolation formulas like smoothstep (nicely summed up on this website).

In these formulas, “x” denotes a value from 0 to 1. The result falls into the [0-1] range as well and needs to be scaled by the desired end color if you want an RGB ramp.

// linear
y = x
// plinear: perceptually linear in rec709
y = pow(x, 3)
// smooth: traditional smoothstep
y = x*x*(3 - 2*x)
// smooth0: Catmull-Rom spline, smooth start, linear end
y = x*x*(2 - x)
// smooth1: Catmull-Rom spline, linear start, smooth end
y = x*(1 + x*(1 - x))

Here’s a ramp macro for Fusion which allows you to draw ramps directly onto an image like in Nuke. Fusion’s own BG tool is of course much more flexible, but it requires you to merge its gradient manually and it has no easy switch for smoothstep gradients.

Ramp_v01.setting

Compositing Tutorial Part 2

Here’s part 2 of my compositing tutorial series. It’s still about tweaking the camera move of our turntable shot. This time, I’ll demonstrate some expressions to retime one camera move based on the angle of another one so the projection’s distortion is minimized. You can grab the comps and footage on my tutorial page.

Using these techniques, you can integrate matchmoved footage into modified camera moves. This may be necessary because there were problems with the camera move on set (bumpy, wrong pacing, …), the director changes his mind or the intended camera move wouldn’t have been possible in real life.

I have employed this technique on the EXPO project. The scene can also be found at the end of the tutorial video. The actor was shot on a turntable and the camera move went like this:

• pull camera away from actor
• rotate actor by 90 degrees
• dolly in

Of course this makes for a really crappy camera move if you add a CG environment since it’ll look nothing like what a real camera crane operator would perform. The final shot was designed in 3D so the plate that was shot had to be integrated somehow. I had to cut out a piece of the original plate, luckily for us the actor was sitting still. After a bit of additional 2D stabilization (the matchmove wasn’t that exact apparently) the plate matched perfectly.

Christmas Card Origami Animation

Excellent full-CG piece:

I suspected the snow globe to be CG but throughout the video I thought that the animals around it were stop-motion origami sculptures.

See more work from the artist at mono-motion.com or visit the flickr album for work-in-progress screenshots.

Python & Fusion Video Tutorial

I’ve finished another video tutorial for Fusion. It covers Python scripting and takes a look at the object oriented model of controlling Fusion’s tools, querying their attributes and setting keyframes.

Download the script that’s shown in the video.

Vertical Alignment

I’ve finished another quick video tutorial, this one is about vertical alignment in stereo shots. It’s done with Fusion but this technique requires no plugins and can even be done in Photoshop

• Download annotated comp and images (zip)

I have enabled Youtube’s automatic transcript just for the fun of it. It used speech recognition and it’s funny how some phrases are transcribed perfectly despite my German accent while others are jibberish. You can download the subtitle file though and it only takes a few minutes to edit the transcript and re-upload it again.

So enjoy the English captions on this tutorial! Here are some funny phrases that Google’s voice recognition software had produced initially:

0:00:09.809,0:00:14.019
as you probably know there are lots of things that can give the bureaucratic when it comes to stereoscopic footage

0:00:14.019,0:00:17.960
the most important one is spiritual alignment

0:01:05.239,0:01:07.340
the monogram version wants it

0:01:20.080,0:01:22.230
his foreign troops of the ride i

0:01:35.240,0:01:38.929
since the transform which is his offspring you have to hold down the
aisle to key while driving the mention of your porch

0:02:48.259,0:02:55.259
now zoom back into the top left corner and adjust the anglo french haitian

0:02:57.629,0:03:01.020
using the cursor keys left and right then
you can get justice in smaller steps

You tell 'em, Sly!

Multiple Camera Projections in Fusion

Made another video tutorial about combining projections from multiple cameras. Enjoy

eyeon Dimension

eyeon has finally shown a short teaser for “Dimension”, their “Occula-for-Fusion” plugin. Looks promising so far. Most importantly, the price tag undercuts Occula by thousands of dollars which makes it feasible for smaller production companies as well. Let’s wait and see – competition is good

And Generation is back from the dead (read: a year after it was end-of-lifed by eyeon without further explanation). It has gained a lot of asset management and workflow functionality (shot status, artist collaboration, reviews). Having worked with Shotgun recently, I have to say that Generation’s shot management from a player interface sounds intriguing. Shotgun is a slow browser-based behemoth with millions of clickable links that all look alike. I don’t know if it was built that way or if it was that company’s customization… But it seemed overkill for most problems that an artist has (might be a different story for project managers).

Fusion 6.3 will be half as expensive as before and if you add Dimension and Generation AM you’ll end up with the former price.

None of these tools is shipping yet though.

Compositing Tutorial Part 1

Hey, I’ve finally found the time to finish another video tutorial. Check out the new tutorial section on this site for the details. The first video is about fixing a jittery camera track in post by smoothing and tweaking the camera move. Videos are hosted on Youtube and all the footage and files are available for download.

• Download proxy footage and project files (4.3MB zip)

I’d like to make this the start of a series of advanced tutorials about actual compositing problems since most stuff out there either comes with a price tag (FXPHD) or shows off stuff where the “wow”-effect is due to excellent CGI and matte paintings while the compositing part is basically just “A over B” and some roto.

There’s always a problem of showing off stuff I’ve worked on because of legal issues. So I’ll demonstrate some techniques on footage I’ve created from scratch and hereby release under a creative commons license so you can play around with it yourself.

Wickie auf großer Fahrt

Ab kommenden Donnerstag läuft Wickie Teil 2 an, und ich komme gerade von der Premiere, denn neben Pirates war es der zweite Stereo-Film an dem ich dieses Jahr mitgearbeitet hatte.

Ich muss sagen, dass ich echt positiv überrascht war. Den ersten Film, das gebe ich gerne zu, hatte ich nach 10 Minuten ausgeschaltet, weil ich es nicht mehr ausgehalten hatte, als Halvar dann auch noch den Unterschied zwischen Männlein und Weiblein erklärt hatte (Frauen dürfen vor Wölfen Angst haben natürlich. Oder was dachtest du jetzt?) und auch Wickie’s Perücke ging mir auf den Keks.

Wickie 2 ist temporeich. Das 3D funktioniert größtenteils hervorragend (Wickie’s Ideen-Momente mit den fliegenden Sternchen leider nicht). Die übrigen VFX können sich sehen lassen. Die animierten Landkarten (ala Indiana Jones) von ARRI mit ihren – ich schätze mal – handgemalten Aquarellen sehen toll aus. Und in der Reihe hinter mir schwärmte ein kleines Mädchen “boah sieht das schön aus” bei einem von Scanline’s Matte Paintings.

Die Story ist ebenfalls ein Pluspunkt. Der Plot bleibt extrem geradlinig seinem Ziel treu – Wickie muss seinen Vater retten um dann den Schatz der Götter zu finden. Doch entlang dessen jagt die Story durch dutzende schöne Schauplätze die niemals überflüssig oder andererseits durchgaloppiert wirken. Und obwohl der Film ein Kinder-Klamauk-Film ist, enthält er eine Menge Moral. Klar, immer wenn Kinder die Helden sind, geht es um “tu was du selbst für richtig hältst”. Aber es finden sich auch viele Gedanken über Geschlechterklischees, starke Männer die Gefühle zeigen dürfen und Väter, die nicht merken, wie wichtig ihren Kindern ein bisschen mehr Lob und Anerkennung wären. Und das zum Glück ohne langatmiges Gelaber oder nicht auszuhaltende amerikanische Vater-Sohn-Filmklischees. Das Verhältnis von Wickie und Svenja und ihren verfeindeten Wickinger-Clans erinnert eher an Ronja Räubertochter als an Disney-Stories.

Ich glaube, dass Kinder den Film auf jeden Fall mögen werden, wenn der erste Teil schon so ein Erfolg war. Was mir aber auffiel, war wie häuft das Wort “Scheiße” fiel. Keine Ahnung wieso ich darauf geachtet habe