Wheels & Wires
So on Thursday I had my last lecture for 3 weeks - short summer holiday here we come! Aside from a dissertation to start, house move to commence, various paying jobs that need to be started and lots and lots of reading to catch up on there is also that tiny compositing project I have going on..
So over the past week I've managed to squeeze in a few hours of compositing for Dark Side Of The Earth, so I'll give a quick update as to the progress of the shot I have been focusing on (which is still very far from being 100% finished, but I will get there soon!)
This particular shot is a little trickier than the last shot I covered as it is roughly twice as long (at 113 frames) and the characters manage a 360 degree turn around eachother as they fight. But, the bigger the challenge the more satisfying the solution, take a look:
The Original Shot
Obviously a few things need to change - namely the puppeteers need to vanish, the ceiling element and ropes must be added in and the whole thing has to match up and play smooothly (to simplify!)
The Current Shot
So this is where the shot is now - puppeteers have been successfully removed (apart from in the spokes of the swordsman's wheels - barely visible here but a real issue when he turns sideways) and the ceiling element has been added into the background. Next I need to clean up the masks that have brought back in character elements (such as The Swordsman's shield and arms) so that they move a little smoother, and correct the edges of the ceiling element so that it seamlessly connects to the background. In order to finish the shot I'll need to add in some convincing rope elements and light them accordingly to make them fit the shot. At least its on its way!
Finally, take a look at the script behind this 113 frame (around 4.7 seconds) shot:
Node Tree
Put simply each 'node' is a single action, mask or object - when interconnected they can work together to mask out characters, bring objects back in and add entirely new elements to the scene. Quite a lot going on but its a lot of fun when things are working properly.
Next time I'll update with a rundown of a completely different shot, in which we had to almost entirely rebuild The Swordsman himself!
The Dark Side of The Earth
The Dark Side of The Earth is a fantasy sci-fi film in development by writer / director Neil Oseman. The website contains everything you need to know and a really cool journal chronicling the past few years that Neil has been developing the project.
Anyway, last year Neil shot a 3 1/2 minute pilot scene from the screenplay (on no less than the same cameras used for The Dark Knight) with the goal of using it to get funding to make the feature. The scene features a character called The Wooden Swordsman - the name says it all. This amazing scale puppet was operated by a team of 3 puppeteers during the shoot, and although they did their job incredibly well they inevitably do pop up in almost every single shot of the pilot!
My job, along with a friend from college (and under the supervision of a very knowledgable VFX supervisor from Double Negative) was to help the shots appear as if the puppeteers were never there; and although we weren't able to complete every shot 100% in time for the pilot's screening at the Sci-Fi London festival last Saturday (what with an intensive degree course on the go at the same time), we did manage to get a good 80 - 90% done on the majority of the shots.
Below are a few screenshots of the shot that is closest to being completed:
The original shot
Puppeteers removed
Swordsman added back in and a new left frame edge with better smoke element added in
Ropes and ceiling element added into shot
The only thing missing here is the colour grade, which really made most of the shots look fantastic at the screening. I'll post again when we are nearing completion and there is more to show, but so far it has been great fun and I have learnt a huge amount. Please spread the word of the project if you can, it will be a really unique and special film when it is made.