Short Film: Digital Glass & Set Extensions

#1

www.emilyslastchance.co.uk

Hi all, I am the editor/compositor on a short Super 16mm film titled Emily’s Last Chance currently being shot in various locations within the UK (Surrey, Worthing, Lake District).

I am looking for some help from Digital Matte Artists, Compositors, Modellers, Animators (or anyone else who is interested in helping). We need to do some set extensions, create digital glass, paint in some scenery/clouds and some other general touch-ups (rain etc) to give the film that extra quality.

EXAMPLE:
One shot is being filmed on set in a green screen studio, next week. We need to replace the green screen with a Panoramic view of the city (matte or stitched photos) and then add rain particles (I have some pre-made particle loops) and then cover both of them with some digital glass. We are shooting reverse shots so we can add in reflections and so on (the shots will be moving so motion tracking will be required at some stage).

AS WE ARE STILL SHOOTING I CANNOT POST STILLS FROM OUR FILMED PLATES BUT AS SOON AS WE ARE PROCESSED AND TELECINED (IN ABOUT 7-10 DAYS) I WILL ADD THESE TO THIS FORUM.

This is a collaboration ( no-pay :0( ) but our last film has been nominated on the festival circuit and we will be going international with this film upon completion early next year. You will recieve a credit as per usual and we will send you a copy of the completed DVD.

Thanks, look forward to hearing from you.
Darrell and the ELC Team

Visit Our (v.simple) Website :thumbsup:

#2

I’m a great chroma keyer, dont know if thats any use to you :slight_smile:

you see… its all about multiple passes…

#3

Hi RelaxoRy, your a better compositer than me, that’s for sure. All I can say is Welcome Aboard and Thanks. As I said before, I will post the plates from our green sceen shoot later this week after they have been processed and telecined (we shot them today). That way I can highlight what you will be doing once we recieve the other plates needed (Matte Painting of cityskape and CG Glass).

Cheers,
speak soon, get in touch if you need to know anything else. :thumbsup:

WE STILL NEED A MATTE ARTIST AND 3D ARTIST/S FOR THE CITYSKAPE AND GLASS!!! :hmm:

#4

Excellent :slight_smile: Looking forward to making a start!

#5

Hi R-Ry, I have just returned home from filming in The Lake District, it was excellent. The film has gone in for overnight processing and it is being telecined in the morning. (Stills will be up soon after). I just wanted to know if you had any previous compositing work I can have a look at (it’s not compulsory or anything, I’m just interested). :thumbsup:
(Green Screen Compositing, Rotoscoping, Motion Tracking etc…)

I have been looking around for a matte artist who can do some snow. Snow that we can layer on top of the mountain shots we filmed over the last couple of days. Have you done this sort of thing before, anything I should be aware of in terms of difficulty and what I should ask the matte artist/s to do once they are onboard?

Cheers… :bounce:

#6

Here are the green screen plates and a test background matte with rain particles. Our film camera was adapted for Super 16mm and we were told that it had been adapted for the wider lenses. It was apparent when we got the rushes back that it had not and so we have a bit of shadowing around the image that needs removing! :banghead:



WE STILL NEED SOME HELP FROM YOU 3D and MATTE ARTIST PEEPS OUT THERE !!! We need some 3D hobbyists/Genius’ to create a 3D Digital Set consisting of a basic 3D model of an office with photographs placed on the sides to act as walls. We also need some Digital Glass to place over the background (image link above). In return you will get a credit on the film and a copy of the DVD or/and VHS.

We now have a Compositor (RelaxoRy).
We also have a scenery/matte artist to add some snow to our Mountain shots (Lake District).

If you got any questions, post them! :thumbsup:
Cheers. Darrell and the ELC Crew

#7

I can’t promise anything, but if you want to get some plates to me I can do some keying, comping work.

#8

Thanks for replying Ross… Any help is welcome!

I’m just waiting on the reflection plates to be tackled by a matte/3D artist and then they will be ready to comp. When they are finished, how can I get the material to you (what’s best for you?).

Cheers Ross.:thumbsup:
Darrell

#9

Give me an indication of file size for the material and we’ll go from there…:slight_smile:

#10

Hi Ross, I have only just recieved the rushes back so I’m just beginning editing. This is the first sequence I am going to put together so I can pass it on to you and the other people helping out on the VFX side of things. As soon as I know the file size, I will get back to you and we can go from there. I haven’t used FTP before but I am a quick learner with anything computer related. As you are in the UK it may be better if I send it on a DVD instead?

Cheers. Darrell :thumbsup:

#11

If thats what you want to do then feel free… what format will you be delivering it in?

#12

Whatever you want or/and need. Will you be able to do the shots uncompressed (8-bit?). I could send an 8-bit uncompressed Quicktime (.mov) file. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Thanks again. D :bounce:

#13

Could you post full-resolution frames of the required composite as uncompressed TIFFs? Then at least we can tinker around with the thing without having to shuttle a massive amount of data around.

I too can not give any promises but I can give it a try.

#14

Sure thing Wizdoc, I’ll get them online for tomorrow morning. Solid Stone Promises are not expected in these forums, I understand that. - It is a collaboration rather than employment and so I understand I have to be flexible. If you have any problems, just let me know. I appreciate the contribution.

Cheers. Darrell :thumbsup:

#15

JAS (CGT Member) has done a little experimental composite for fun. He is not a compositor but he had a crack and I thought I would post it on this thread; just so u can see it… Click here to see the Composite by JAS

:thumbsup:

#16

Here we go Wizdoc, I finally managed to get some Uncompressed Tiffs online (THEY MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD)

I HAVE REMOVED THE UNCOMPRESSED FRAMES FROM THIS THREAD AS THEY WERE CAUSING PROBLEMS WITH DATA TRANSFER/BANDWIDTH. IF YOU NEED THESE UNCOMPRESSED FRAMES FOR EXPERIMENTATION THEN EMAIL/PM ME AND I WILL SEND THEM TO YOU BY EMAIL OR ON DVD.
Cheers.

Thanks everybody :thumbsup:

#17

Okay, I did a quick composite. It’s in the attachement. A couple of things:

  1. The room reflection is just a JPEG found on the Net, no any perspective corrections or anything. Just to give an indication.

  2. The keying on the hair looks a bit jaggy. Could be better, I think.

  3. The woman’s reflection on the glass is a bit off. I don’t think they’re the same frames from the footage (she seems to look up while her reflection seems to look down).

  4. No actual window or other created foreground elements.

#18

Thanks WizDoc, I really really like it. The reflection isn’t the same (I just grabbed frames without thinking really). I don’t think the (motion) reflection is too perfectly matched either, I asked the actress to rehearse any movements so we could do the two shots and match them together. I think it may need a bit of experimentation to get it right.

I love your composite though, any way I can get the uncompressed scene to you at some point (later this week?)

I will make sure I stitch together my own cityskape matte this week (from photos we have taken) and then i’ll create a photoshop matte of the office to use in the reflection. I can then send all the elements together (green screen footage, cityskape, office reflection matte and rain particles).

Cheers Wizdoc, i’ll say it again v.nice work! :bounce:

#19

Sure. I’ll give it a shot. This thing does look pretty interesting, so I’m intrigued. Just don’t hinge the entire project on me, though. :wink:

If possible, I’d like the elements as TIFFs (LZW compression is fine) each element in its own directory. And everything in a single zip file. I can work with .movs and .avis and whatever but tiffs probably have the best quality vs. size ratio. And any kind of lossy compression, even if it appears near perfect, usually raises all kinds of hell when trying to pull off a decent key off the footage.

I take that the whole thing will be a rather large file. So probably setting up an FTP site might probably be the best option. But whatever works you best.

Also, if possible, I’d like a several frames before and after this shot (compression doesn’t matter), just to get a picture of color balances and such. Don’t want to get wild with colors and whatnot - it should probably match well with the rest of the footage.

I should also note that while my quick comp might look pretty decent as a still image, it might look really crappy in motion. There’s all kinds of question marks like tracking and good keying that come up with the actual footage. Just saying, don’t get your hopes up. I’m not an experienced pro with a loads of credits under my belt.

#20

Too true to all the above comments.

Don’t worry about experience though (i’m not exactly a pro, either). That’s why projects like this are so cool, just keep banging our heads together and try to produce a good result, this all counts as experience. The important thing is to have fun with it too…

Is there any chance of getting a higher res version of your last composite?
Would it be better if I sent you a DVD with all the files on?

Cheers. Darrell

IT WOULD PROBABLY HELP IF WE SPLIT THE WORK BETWEEN US TOO.
*I’LL CREATE THE MATTES FROM A COMBINATION OF PHOTOS
*I CAN DO SOME KEYING AND MOTION TRACKING IF YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO JUGGLE ALL THE DIFFERENT PLATES