VFX Homework Blog: September 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The use of technology, imagination, and live action combined has been able to bring to life films in ways that we have never seen before. In 2010 Disney released the live action film Alice in Wonderland, directed by the dark and eccentric director Tim Burton. The film was a storybook brought to life by the magic of Hollywood's visual effects, producing an artistic masterpiece that lived and breathed. However, even though the film created a seductive treat for the eyes, another noticeable fact is that the film lacked story and majority of the time was weakened by its overload of CGI.
The story of Alice in Wonderland began in the 1800s, when author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, told the story to young Alice Liddell and her two sisters while rowing down the river. The story enchanted Alice Liddell so much that she asked, Lewis Carroll to write the story down in book form, after nearly two years Carroll made good on his promise and delivered a handwritten manuscript. During those two years, Lewis Carroll was preparing to have Alice published, he added more text in the form of episodes that introduced the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea Party. The book was finally released in 1865 titles Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with illustrations done by John Tenniel. Lewis Carroll's story became an instant favorite among children as well as adults, including Queen Victoria who went as far as to suggest that Carroll should dedicate hos next book to her.
Since 1865, Alice in Wonderland has remained as one of the most beloved pieces of literature and has never gone out of print. The book has inspired several film and theatrical adaptions, the most popular being Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature which combined both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass into a colorful musical cartoon. In 2010, Disney has once again brought the memorable story to the big screen with a whole new artistic style and director. Tim Burton's vision of Wonderland is a far cry from the animated version that people know and love,

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Rotoscoping Notes

Constant = Solid
Connect to viewer

R= 1, G=0, B=0 is Pure Red

Click on the screen where solid is hit R to turn white.
Hit R key 2x to turn to Red

Alpha channel is a stencil

Make another Constant in Blue

MERGE Blue & Red, makes purple

Shuffle= Allows you to shuffle channels

Click shuffle, then MERGE, Shift-click, X

Solids are 2048x 1556, standard film size 2K_Super

Select ROTO
-Make sure same format as clip you want to roto
-CTRL-Click on the shape to get the Pen Tool

Right click on point
-Select smooth to make it curve
-CUSP makes angles

Plug in MERGE to VIEWER
Take Mask arrow over to ROTO so you can see the blue is on top

IMPORTANT FOR ROTOSCOPING
1. Want to make an acturate map. Try to break down like a 3-D model
2. Use few points as possible
3. 10 Frames in beginning and end

Trace out head
Don't move the points if you don't need to.
Move points as a group

Group ROTO together
-Then do COLOR CORRECT
-Drop SATURATION TO .025

"A" Alpha Channel
Pre Multipy Alpha against Black