Using Fusion to create tear drops.

[Robert Zeltsch]

I think this is possible without the particle module.

Try the following:

1. Track the eye to "stick" additional layers on it
2. In a BG with white color, create some Polyline mask and animate it`s shape. You may use multiple masks. Try different soft edge and level values
3. Blend it into your footage using a merge tool. Screen mode should work fine. Adjust the color of the BG.
4. Define some "wet" areas in your footage with some Polymasks. You can support this effect with some color correction. Try using a premade mask painted in Photoshop. Animate this with the tracker result and "blend" it into your footage with a polyline or rectangluar mask.
5. Create some refraction effects on the eye with the Displace or Deform nodes.

Hope this helps...:)

[Robert Zeltsch]

An additional idea:

Take your camera and try to film some waterdrops running down a clean single colored surface.
Then adjust the contrast and the colors. Use this as a mask or blend it directly on your footage. :)

[nt65]

Wow that was quick.
Thanks a million Robert. It all makes perfect sense.
I will send you an email if I get stuck.

thanks again.

[Wizdoc]

I read at eyeon site that Digital Dimension did similar effect for The Last Samurai. Here's a picture of the blood trickle:

http://www.eyeonline.com/Web/EyeonWeb/Community/gallery/dimension/samurai/dimension0008.jpg

They apparently used Grid Warping and particles.

[nt65]

thanks Wizdoc.
I wonder if the special features on the DVD explains it?

[nt65]

thanks Wizdoc.
I wonder if the special features on the DVD explains it?

[nt65]

Robert Zeltsch,
Thanks heaps for your input for the guidelines in creating a teardrop.
The clients were wrapped with the result.

I have just starting using DFX+ with modules 1 and 4, thinking I didn't have all the tools to create what I wanted, but you gave me the confidence to use what I have.

A valuable lesson for all of us. :)

I had no idea that multiple masks and a few tools can do.

Also, DFX+ is an amazing piece of software. I have amazed myself what can be done. You can do things hundreds of ways, and knowing which is the best and efficient way to do a composite will obviously take time.

I am hanging out for DF5, and cant wait to see what can be done with it.

Anyway got to go and learn more DFX+.

[EricD]

I read at eyeon site that Digital Dimension did similar effect for The Last Samurai.

They apparently used Grid Warping and particles.

Isaac did a breakdown of this shot at a tradeshow last year. They did use grid warp but no particles. It was actually tobasco sauce shot trickling down a white card, keyed and used as a mask on a CC node.

Cheers,

Eric

[nt65]

EricD, thanks for that. Its amazing the number of ways a comp can be done.

[Dutchman]

Interesting to read that you'd solve it in this way... When I read your interpretation of this composit, I'm amazed! I'd simply track it in 3D and so, but doing it with masks and so sounds so incredibly challenging!

Maybe I'll try something with it in a while...

BTW: I also really like Digital Fusion... Well in my case it was just as next:
1) learning some AFX basics
2) using them in some very simple projects
3) using & learning Digital Fusion
4) fallin' in love with it :love:(especially the mask system :) )
5) using AFX in a more complex project
6) finding out AFX in fact has the very same features as DF :eek: :)

So now I'm in love with two....! ;)

NT65; I'm curious about the final.... Could you post it or a still of it? :thumbsup:

[nt65]

Hi Dutchman,

All I had was the frog and no other footage. It would have been easier if I had extra water drop footage - but not the case. I had four hours to do this.
As I said earlier there are a myriad of ways to do the same thing in fusion, and knowing the most efficient and best visual impact is going to take time.

What I did was use animated polygons with masks and some filters. The footage contains a slow zoom into the head. I was using tracking but wasnt too sure what I was doing. So I dropped the tracking and instead created a polyline at the start of the shot for the "welling" under the lower eyelid and moved to the end of the shot and modified/stretched, added more points etc., to the polyline to what I wanted and then tweaked in the middle till it looked right.

Again, I am new to this so I am still very much in learing curve mode.
I can send you some stills if you like?

Hope this explanation helps.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.