I have got to tell you, it has been hard finding good resources for match-moving tutorials, but there is one pretty good tutorial put out by an Australian man on YouTube. It is a 14 part series of 15 minute videos but if you put them on a playlist then they will play one after another and it isn't to bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OAU7Fs3glA
The steps that I need to take now include processing the footage, bringing it into matchmover, tracking the footage, exporting the cameras to Maya, then passing the scene files out the rest of the team and start on the compositing portion of the project.
A blog to help track the daily progress of our special effects project.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Footage
I got the footage from Ben last night. I watched through all of it, and it is REALLY good. It's all at 1080p and 720p, so it's all about 35 gigs. We definitely need some server space somewhere so that we have a large enough repository that everyone has access to. As soon as we figure it out, I'll let you guys know. I'll be working on the video edit this week (see timeline).
Time Management
I'm not sure if any of you have issues with personal time management, but I recently discovered this great tool called Slimtimer. You go to the website, http://slimtimer.com/, and you create a free account. You'll get a sidebar window that has a 'timer' for every task you spend a lot of time doing at your computer. When you sit down you can start a timer and keep track of how long you've been doing it. From the website you can get reports on how much time you've spent on each task in the past day, week or month.
For example, you could make a timer for 'Homework', 'Projects', and 'Play/Relax', and make sure that you're not spending too much time goofing off.
Try it out if you're interested. I made a timer for this special effects project, and I've clocked 49.28 hours in the past two and a half weeks!
For example, you could make a timer for 'Homework', 'Projects', and 'Play/Relax', and make sure that you're not spending too much time goofing off.
Try it out if you're interested. I made a timer for this special effects project, and I've clocked 49.28 hours in the past two and a half weeks!
Filming
Filming was amazing on Friday night!
I was completely blown away by the entire experience, everyone did an incredible job. It really reminded me that mediocrity really doesn't exist in our team. Every single member is an expert at their specialty.
FILMING:
When I arrived on set, Ben Disinger, our film maker from the School of Film and Animation, was with a crew of about five people that he assembled. They were in the middle of setting up for filming, which included a track for the camera, a huge black curtain for the background, four spotlights, two rim lights, a fill light, and a special HUGE light filter that they built themselves out of PVC pipe, some white flame retardant cloth, and a short black curtain. When it was all finished, the lighting looked amazing. I was very impressed that they were able to light the actors and their black uniforms such that they could be easily distinguished from the black background.
The first half of the final sequence is just the two actors fighting, and the second half of the final sequence is all special effects shots. I was concerned because our 3D team had camera angles laid out for the special effects portion, but no ideas for the rest of the sequence. I was very happy to find that Ben Disinger had some amazing ideas for opening shots, and his team had even already laid down some tracks for a dolly.
DIRECTING:
During the filming, Ben acted as a director. He kept his team organized and was great with guiding the talent to get the best shots possible. I did some directing of my own in the sense that I had a better idea of what we needed to capture than Ben. Occasionally I would ask the actors for specific poses, actions, or fighting speeds, and occasionally I would ask the film makers for certain camera angles.
ACTING/CHOREOGRAPHY:
The actors were among the last to arrive on set, though we still had plenty of time to rehearse before the film team was finished setting up. It's a little unfair to simply call these men 'actors', because that barely begins to describe their contribution to this project. These men are in their 30s and 40s, are black belts, have been doing Kuk Sool for a significant portion of their lives, and are instructors at a dojang in Webster. These men are amazing at martial arts, fun to work with, and very willing to help us to get the shots and style we're looking for.
A related anecdote regarding their skill that comes to mind is when Ben and his crew were pulling focus for a certain shot. Ben and his crew had set up marks for focusing when the actors move toward and away from the camera, but expected that the film crew would have to adjust the focus slightly as the actors would not likely land in the same exact places on each take. Ben was surprised to find that adjustments were never needed, and exclaimed "How do you do that?" with regards to the actor's precision.
The actors had a routine for set up for us, that we discussed when we met with them last week. Rachel invited a guy named Andrew (I don't know his last name), who's specialty is martial arts filming and editing. Andrew worked with the actors to help make their moves look more pronounced on camera. I will admit that I was not actually expecting him to be there, but was impressed with the quality that he added to the fight sequence.
COMPOSITING:
I am thrilled to see how invested Joel has become ever since he started on compositing work for the sequence. He did a lot of research and showed up very prepared for making sure that we're able to track the camera and actor's arm using tracking software. Throughout the filming Joel walked around with a tape measure and notepad taking various measurements. Under his direction, we set up tracking marks on the background for the camera tracking, and even filmed some shots with tracking marks on the actor's arm.
PRODUCTION:
Indirectly, none of this could have happened without Rachel. She spent a lot of the evening sitting in the background, so to some it may be easy to forget everything she's contributed so far, and I want to stress what she did for us. Rachel found us an excellent film maker, two great actors, and an experienced choreographer. All of these people had a significant impact on the look of the final sequence, and none of it would have been there without Rachel's help. She was also nice enough to split the cost of three pizzas with me for everyone on set.
MODELING:
There wasn't all that much that really needed to be done in terms of modeling, but it was still nice to see Evan show up and see what's going on. He was taking some reference photos and movies, which is great.
I was completely blown away by the entire experience, everyone did an incredible job. It really reminded me that mediocrity really doesn't exist in our team. Every single member is an expert at their specialty.
FILMING:
When I arrived on set, Ben Disinger, our film maker from the School of Film and Animation, was with a crew of about five people that he assembled. They were in the middle of setting up for filming, which included a track for the camera, a huge black curtain for the background, four spotlights, two rim lights, a fill light, and a special HUGE light filter that they built themselves out of PVC pipe, some white flame retardant cloth, and a short black curtain. When it was all finished, the lighting looked amazing. I was very impressed that they were able to light the actors and their black uniforms such that they could be easily distinguished from the black background.
The first half of the final sequence is just the two actors fighting, and the second half of the final sequence is all special effects shots. I was concerned because our 3D team had camera angles laid out for the special effects portion, but no ideas for the rest of the sequence. I was very happy to find that Ben Disinger had some amazing ideas for opening shots, and his team had even already laid down some tracks for a dolly.
DIRECTING:
During the filming, Ben acted as a director. He kept his team organized and was great with guiding the talent to get the best shots possible. I did some directing of my own in the sense that I had a better idea of what we needed to capture than Ben. Occasionally I would ask the actors for specific poses, actions, or fighting speeds, and occasionally I would ask the film makers for certain camera angles.
ACTING/CHOREOGRAPHY:
The actors were among the last to arrive on set, though we still had plenty of time to rehearse before the film team was finished setting up. It's a little unfair to simply call these men 'actors', because that barely begins to describe their contribution to this project. These men are in their 30s and 40s, are black belts, have been doing Kuk Sool for a significant portion of their lives, and are instructors at a dojang in Webster. These men are amazing at martial arts, fun to work with, and very willing to help us to get the shots and style we're looking for.
A related anecdote regarding their skill that comes to mind is when Ben and his crew were pulling focus for a certain shot. Ben and his crew had set up marks for focusing when the actors move toward and away from the camera, but expected that the film crew would have to adjust the focus slightly as the actors would not likely land in the same exact places on each take. Ben was surprised to find that adjustments were never needed, and exclaimed "How do you do that?" with regards to the actor's precision.
The actors had a routine for set up for us, that we discussed when we met with them last week. Rachel invited a guy named Andrew (I don't know his last name), who's specialty is martial arts filming and editing. Andrew worked with the actors to help make their moves look more pronounced on camera. I will admit that I was not actually expecting him to be there, but was impressed with the quality that he added to the fight sequence.
COMPOSITING:
I am thrilled to see how invested Joel has become ever since he started on compositing work for the sequence. He did a lot of research and showed up very prepared for making sure that we're able to track the camera and actor's arm using tracking software. Throughout the filming Joel walked around with a tape measure and notepad taking various measurements. Under his direction, we set up tracking marks on the background for the camera tracking, and even filmed some shots with tracking marks on the actor's arm.
PRODUCTION:
Indirectly, none of this could have happened without Rachel. She spent a lot of the evening sitting in the background, so to some it may be easy to forget everything she's contributed so far, and I want to stress what she did for us. Rachel found us an excellent film maker, two great actors, and an experienced choreographer. All of these people had a significant impact on the look of the final sequence, and none of it would have been there without Rachel's help. She was also nice enough to split the cost of three pizzas with me for everyone on set.
MODELING:
There wasn't all that much that really needed to be done in terms of modeling, but it was still nice to see Evan show up and see what's going on. He was taking some reference photos and movies, which is great.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Match Moving
Wow. This is certainly going to be a challenge. We have run into a number of problems that we seem to have found solutions to, however it is far to soon to make assumptions.
1.Tracking the Background
In order to be able to create a proper 3D environment to place the models in it will be necessary to have track points in that environment. Match Moving relies on taking points of contrast and then calculating how they change across the different frames, then using that data it is able to triangulate the location of the camera. Although using an all black background will allow us some freedom in the compositing, it makes it difficult to get points that will be a reference for the camera's movement. That is why we are going to use an array of Christmas lights arranged in the background. It will be dark enough where that is all that will be showing. In this way we can use the lights as track points. Later in the compositing phase we can simply mask them out.
2.Tracking the arm
In addition to the camera movement, an arm will also have to be tracked in some way to ensure that the 3D elements are properly matched as well as to act as a reference for the rotoscoped mask of the arm that will disappear. This will be done using the same camera and the same track, but with different tracking points that will then we imported into Maya as locators. In this way we can match the movement of the arm exactly and use it to project the texture onto the polygonal stand ins.
So there is certainly a lot ahead of us. I am sure that we will be able to pull it off though.
1.Tracking the Background
In order to be able to create a proper 3D environment to place the models in it will be necessary to have track points in that environment. Match Moving relies on taking points of contrast and then calculating how they change across the different frames, then using that data it is able to triangulate the location of the camera. Although using an all black background will allow us some freedom in the compositing, it makes it difficult to get points that will be a reference for the camera's movement. That is why we are going to use an array of Christmas lights arranged in the background. It will be dark enough where that is all that will be showing. In this way we can use the lights as track points. Later in the compositing phase we can simply mask them out.
2.Tracking the arm
In addition to the camera movement, an arm will also have to be tracked in some way to ensure that the 3D elements are properly matched as well as to act as a reference for the rotoscoped mask of the arm that will disappear. This will be done using the same camera and the same track, but with different tracking points that will then we imported into Maya as locators. In this way we can match the movement of the arm exactly and use it to project the texture onto the polygonal stand ins.
So there is certainly a lot ahead of us. I am sure that we will be able to pull it off though.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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