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View Full Version : My first attempt at VFX

Dragons0088
03-24-2008, 07:44 PM
Hey guys, I aspire to be a VFX artist. I'm currently in school for it. This is my first attempt at a VFX shot. I shot myself acting infront of the green screen and then got a shot of the local train at the light rail. From what alot of people told me the background looks really flat. I should've shot it at an angle. I tried to add some birds in the sky and a fake camera wobble (it was shot on a tripod) to make it look a bit more dynamic. Critiques and comments welcomed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYHFeKhpShc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZlvmrnHXSI)

P.S. The YouTube compression is terrible. I'm not sure where to upload a higher res version.

EDIT: Corrected link.
Rickmeister
03-25-2008, 05:05 PM
Well, considering this is some sort of a Showreel I want to say its all going way too slow. You have to speed things up, and only leave your best work in it. I would make it one minute or even less.
Dragons0088
03-25-2008, 06:53 PM
Opps my mistake! Thanks for the cirt on that. I meant to put the link of just me getting hit by a train. Here is the correct link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYHFeKhpShc

That other video was for a motion graphics class final. It had to be 3 minutes long so it was slow paced because i dont have a great deal of work to put on ther for 3 minutes.
thundering1
03-31-2008, 01:15 PM
The trouble looks to be in how you shot yourself - the lighting. The stronger key light clearly comes from the right, and the sunlight you're trying to emulate comes from the left (either that or they're the same strength, but the left side stands out because it's just too bright).

Have your key light come from the left (and soften it a bit - too harsh will also stand out), and have a softer lower-powered light souce for fill from the right - and put it more 45 degrees in front rather than directly from the side - to avoid having a core shadow line that will not match anything else in your footage. Make the fill light SOFT - shoot through some form of good diffusion screen, or make it bounced.

The shot of you also has more contrast - looking more crisp - than the train. One of 2 things you would generally need to do:
1 - adjust the levels of you to match the lower contrast train footage - gonna need duller highlights and lighter darks - or
2 - adjust the levels of the train footage to match YOU - gonna need richer darks.

They're not matched to each other - by both contrast and direction and quality of lighting.

Hope this helps-
-Lew ;-)
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03-31-2008, 01:15 PM
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