What
is a compositor? Compositors
are people who take various
elements, cut, warp, slice, edit, tranform, bend, stretch, color,
light, and integrate things into a cohesive single image , or number of
images for video or film. We are also the ones to blend
bluescreen/greenscreened people and
objects into live/cg plates.
Basically
we're
like garbage people who recycle and turn stuff into beautiful looking
things out of ordinary things! Think of
us also
as an animator, just not of characters.
We have to make
everything seem they fit with the real background (or CG), we have to
animate motion of objects, animate time, shadows, light, color, depth,
and perspective to mimic real life (or a stylized one), "composing" to
make it all work.
We are the last
stop before outputting to editors and to film, we fix other problems
that the 3D department, or the live action plate had before. We
have to get things right
because no one else after will. Fix it in Post! Yep that's us...
"After
defeating Illidan Stormrage before the steps of the Frozen Throne in
Northrend, and having broken the icy throne and donned the helmet of
the
Lich King, Arthas reawakens as almost a demi-god with the Lich King
possesing him. He stays there frozen in time gathering his hatred
and turning every part of his human soul into a nether evil, he
awakens, summoning the bones of the powerful blue dragon, Sindragosa,
and his legion of icy undead soldiers to lay waste to the lands of
Azertoth and all who dare defies him."
About
the Work:
I
worked on
the last cinematic, Starcraft 2's Building a Better Marine, as just a
compositor, working together with a great renderer and lighter, Taylor
Smith. Now this project, all of the finishers got to do all of
their own rendering, lighting, and compositing. I was also able
to do some of the matte paintings as well and try to keep all of the
skies in the same world.
At first it was just Sheng Jin (lead finisher on the project)
myself, the director Jeff Chamberlain, and Taylor R&Ding on the
finishing team. So as though I got to work on all of the shots,
and we tag teammed some of the shots amongst our selves, these were the
last three shots that I were to take to final in the crunch period.
We had just moved our entire pipeline from Brazil, 3DStudio Max,
and Fusion to Renderman, Maya, and Nuke. Lots of growing pains to
get things in order! But we were proud to come out with this
cinematic art piece while doing so. It was a phenomenal learning
experience for everyone involved.
All
Images from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King are copyrighted
2008 by Blizzard
Entertainment.
Blizzard
Cinematics are a team effort with each shot being worked on by
everyone. Use
without permission strictly prohibited.
"As the time arises in the time
of war, the troops are mustered...at any cost. Tychus Finley is
orderd to take suit, and to fight for the Humans and Arcturus Mengsk,
leader of the human race in this raging war against the aliens of the
universe. Tychus takes his leave of the convict pens and begins
to be "free" again, in a sense, but instead trades his freedom for
being improsined in a steel welded marine suit. Here we see how a
marine is built inside a barracks, where in the game usually takes
about 30 seconds to build a marine."
About
the Work:
My
first project at Blizzard, it was going to be the last of the
cinematics using the old pipeline that we've all grown to love in the
past award winning cinematics. We've hit the limits hard in
trying to be more complex and doing more ambitious shots.
3DStudio Max, Brazil, and Fusion just couldn't cut it anymore, and it
was exemplified in this project as things bogged down time after
time. There was no displacement in Max, and the 2GB memory
barrier made us break the marine in the pan up shot into 5+ pieces
which then need to be comped back together, making our composites much
bigger than it should be. Also Fusion, was slowing down at every
click, and every pan in our comp, I am so glad we switched to Nuke now!
The biggest comp challenges in this show were to match all of
the paint colors across all the shots. There was a real specific
blue that Nick Carpenter, the project's director, wanted, and while we
did hit it in some shots, we had to recreated it in each other
shot. Also adding in the atmosphere was a big thing for this show
too, it had to be damp, steamy, and smokey, but not dirty. The
metals on this show were also a challenge, and we had to deal with
surface crawling for a long time, but got it fixed right when we needed
it to.
Overall a very enduring project, but the look of it was just
really great, and we showed the whole world that Starcraft is back,
with this great cinematic piece to show for it.
All
Images from Starcraft 2 are copyrighted
2007 by Blizzard
Entertainment.
Blizzard
Cinematics are a team effort with each shot being worked on by
everyone. Use
without permission strictly prohibited.
A story about a
father, who has to find a good job to show his son he isn't as
disappointing as the father's wife makes him out to be. He
searches around jobs, and lands a security night shift gig at the
museum of natural history. He later finds out things turn to
"life" at night because of a mysterious tablet, and craziness
ensues. All of the animals, T-Rex, and statues come to life and
he's gatta keep it all under control. Much like Jumanji and
Zathura in a sense of adventure fun, plus Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson
comedy.
About the Work:
After Superman wrapped up, I got put on the Trailer team for early look
of how the FX will play out, and how T-Rex will be in shots.
There were alot of dirty greenscreens in this show, especially with
nasty monkey hair, and mayan/indian feathers, motion blur, and the case
of "jaundiceness" from pulling keys from their skin tones, as referred
to our sequence supe.
The biggest thing for this show comp wise, are the reflections
in the museum floor, and having to do cleanplates and use 3D
compositing to track them back. Then add the dust/scratches back
on top to make it look like the original real floor. So many
reflections...and also adding the correct interaction between the
animals/T-Rex to the surrounding plates and matte paintings. The
snow shots were all shot on practical set, then comped onto matte
paintings done by Chris Consani and Richard Mahon. The one with
all of the animals was much more daunting, with 4 animals, matte
painting, animated roto shape for the sled, reintroducing the shadows,
and having them interact with it all again.
All
Images from Night at the Museum are copyrighted 2006 by 20th Century
Fox. Use without permission strictly prohibited.
Superman comes back after being away for so long! He finds out Lois
Lane is in "love" with another guy, and has a kid, but who's kid? O my,
then Lex Luthor cons even his own mother into getting filthy rich,
using the money, to fund his evil deeds. He gets a yacht, and
goes out into the ocean, to spread a new kind of crystal that forms
landmasses that are life-threatening to Superman because of it's
kryptonian fusion. The crystals were stolen from Superman's
Fortress of Solitude. Superman thwarts his evil plan of making a new
real estate country, and saves the world from Lex Luthor.
About the Work:
I came in at the end of the project and help finish the composites that
were previously worked on because we were running out of time, or the
compositor was not available anymore. Working on alot of nasty
green/blue screens and digging in old composites, figuring them out and
then following the direction of the VFX Supervisor to get things the
way the client wants it. It was great to work on this project
even though it was short.
All
Images from Superman Returns are copyrighted 2006 by DC/Warner Bros
Pictures. Use without permission strictly prohibited.
Another sequel movie! This time it's about a lazy
cat...apparently it did so well over seas (not too well in the states),
it was greenlit for a second movie. R&H reprises as the main
vendor for Garfield, now using Aslan's Academy Award nominated fur
technology! He goes to London, and gets mistaken for the Prince
cat there, so Garfield gets swapped, living the royal life, while the
Prince lives with his owner.
About the Work:
Getting his fur, his nose, his paws, his eye caustics, and various spec
layers to all match to the scene was the challenge in this show.
Also his shadows to integrate well, and remove the specularity of the
object it is being casted on was another tricky aspect here. I
was also able to do the only green screen of our team here! The
bottom left image of Winston the Dog dancing with Garfield on the table
was the most challenging, as he was on a really ugly tri color
green/yellow screen. also lots of grainy motion blur issues,
roto'ing back the shadows, repositioning and scaling him to fit the
table, as the end of the shot he actually gets cut off, so there had to
be some digital paint magic as well.
We also used alot
of post 2D motion blur, to replace 3D blur because of the time needed
to render it. All in all, a pretty smooth show though with just a
few days past production deadline.
Couple of Selected
Videos:
- Garfield catches cheese as it grates!: Final Comp
- Winston dances with Garfield: Final
Comp
(All
in H.264 Quicktime compression)
All
Images from Garfield 2: A Tail of Two Kitties are copyrighted 2006 by
20th Century Fox Studios. Use without permission strictly prohibited.
The
sequel to 2003's Underworld, this movie is about vampires vs werewolves
(lycans). Directed by Len Wiseman, starring Kate
Beckinsdale. This time, Marcus, the most powerful vampire, is
after to dominate the human world by freeing his twin brother William,
but Selene must stop him before this happens, even if it means
destroying her own immortality.
About the Work:
Shots
almost never get filmed correctly, so it was my job, among others, to
fix them and make them work for the composite. As a Jr.
Compositor, I did lots of rotoscoping, digital paint, wire/rig removal,
and some composites for the movie. The shots above were all
prepared for another compositor who adding the wings, except for a
couple where I did the whole shot from start to finish on the 2D
side. The two most difficult shots was the dolly track floor
removal with all those closeup wires, and the greensock Marcus hand
with that big pole holding up his talons going through the background
and skirt.
Some
Selected Before and After Videos:
- Selene and Helicoptor: Before | After
- Marcus impales Selene: Before | After
- Marcus flying
with Dolly track floor: Before | After
(All
in H.264 Quicktime compression)
All
Images from Underworld Evolution are copyrighted 2005 by Sony Screen
Gems. Use without permission strictly prohibited.
"TNES: The Renewal"
Super Short Film
Camera Man: Isaac
Dietz Bringer of Hope:
Eloisa Honrada
Carrier of Auryn: Ron Coloma Super
Short VFX Animation Software used: Maya, Shake,
Photoshop
Spring 2005, VFX 4: Advanced Shake
** Nominated for Best
Visual Effects at AAUSpring Show 2005 **
Story/Concept:
"Fantasia,
the world of human imagination, is once again, in decline. It is
now up to the Bringer of Hope to receive the ancient necklace, Auryn,
by the Carrier of Auryn, to revive The Ivory Tower, beacon of hope.
Their world is at the brink of destruction if mankind's
imagination fails. Using Auryn, she must instill hope in us all,
and re-ignite the Ivory Tower.
The Nothing is strong, lack of imagination, but hope lies in us
all, to save their world by using our power of imagination."
Assignment:
- This was a
personal super short film with own ambitions, and to fulfill Advanced
Shake class final project. It started out as a matte painting of the
Ivory Tower (intro and ending shots), then became a full blown story
short with 15 greenscreen shots, 5 matte paintings, 9 hours of
shooting, and post audio/video effects all within a 2 month frame time
(4 weeks storyboards, 4 weeks shooting and post as well)
- My last ever academic project, next step, "real world" stuff ^^
Comments:
The
biggest
project I have ever done, spending much energy and time on it with a
tight schedule of almost one month for all of production/post
producion. It was pretty hectic! We did alot of composites in little
time by myself and with the help of additional composites by our
actors, Eloisa, and Ron, and post audio by Dean Paul DeLeon. Also
added level of difficulty with a new camera move! We recently got
access to a dolly track and so shot 11 utilized that, thus the tracking
markers.
The rush wasn't for finals, but for the Spring Show
2005 deadline at the university, which was a month ahead of finals, bad
timing I think.
I directed this short, also composited, did all the matte paintings and
dynamic effects, themes based on my beloved inspiring movie, The
Neverending Story. Hope you guys enjoy it!
Spring Show 2005
film premiere promotional poster (click to see SUPER
print version!)
Download
Video Animation
720x315 res.
Quicktime Mpeg4 compressed, 53mb
Music by Matoi
Sakuraba, "Revival"
from the game
Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube system
To view the
original, and the original matte paintings alone, please go
to the Digital Matte Painting
section.
Camera
Man: Isaac
Dietz Wanderlust Archer:
Chris Lalli Matte
Painting Composite Animation Software used: Maya, After
Effects, Photoshop
Fall 2004, CA418 VFX 3: Shake
** Winner of Best
Digital Matte Painting at AAU
Spring
Show 2005 **
Story/Concept:
"As
he
wanders through time, and the great dark forest, he
stumbles upon an ancient temple bathed in ageless light and
beauty.
He stands there awestruck for moments as the sun begins to set, as the
leaves rustle and fall down in a serendipitous moment of peace.
Profound knowledge is sure to be seen in that off shore temple,
and
much is to be discovered."
Assignment:
- Find
photos for
reference, and with painting and composite techniques,
make a non
culturally distinct temple. - Composite and use
tracking for the final project with complete
environment replacement.
Comments:
Combining my first matte
painting with blue screen, I've made
this for my Shake final project.
A few things
of note such as displacement map to get the water
looking right, keying hair off video footage (beta cam atleast whew),
and getting the leaves to fall right in the particles instancer.
Also rotoing the tree branches, and moving them with mesh
warp/keyframing was a CPU pain too lol. Water is always hard to
make look real, and that waterfall was no exception! It went through so
many iterations and changes.
Download
Video Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed, 6mb
Music by Howard Shore, "Twilight and Shadow"
from the movie LOTR: Return of the King
To view the original, and the original matte painting alone, please go
to the Digital Matte Painting
section.
"Fate
consumes all, and when it was her turn, she looked back
upon the world, now covered in a dark-blue moon glow haze in another
dimension, one last time, before descending into the nexus of
souls. A clothed figure stood at the doorway with a torch,
awaiting for all who have passed on from the world of the living.
Perhaps as a last consolation of human contact and conversation.
As she
becomes consumed by the murky darkness, the pyre of blue
flames
on top of the nexus dissolves her body and soul and fires it up into
the heavens for further judgement. Like a great war cannon, the
pylons sound thundered and wailed, heavy with the
indirect suffering it caused."
Assignment:
- Find
photos for
reference and paint/composite to make a
background replacement for your midterm project. Use Shake for
matte painting rotoscopting and paint work ( I used photoshop only a
little bit!), so it would be 99% built in Shake nodes. - Composite and try
to key hair using Keylight and Primatte.
Comments:
My first Shake project,
and it was tough! There are so
many things I can do in After Effects, or know how to do, that I don't
in Shake and it drove most of us in the class insane. Little
things like rotoscoping, cloning, tracking, we had to learn that all
over as if we knew nothing of compositing, save our techniques and the
art of it in previous classes. That was the main difficulty of
this project. I was really itching to use After Effects to make
the matte painting and camera moves, but I had to learn the powerful
program that Shake is, and so I resisted.
Also, we
only have access to beta cam footage for video.
Again this was an issue because trying to key hair was hard, but also
keying the edges of her was harder. Video footage left a really
really dark edge around people when they were semi close to the
bluescreen. I had to do a number of things to fix it , but in the
end it came out finally.
Ahh more
particles and matchmoving with the fog/pylon firing, it
was fun, but not so much of a problem as other new Shake stuff, as I
took a particles class before. I think the hardest thing was to
animate the motion and speed, to the sound of the LOTR: ROTK clip in
which gollum tries to stop Frodo to go into the home of the Witch King,
in Minas Morgul. It was a study to see if I can match the
movement and look of the supurb piece of particle work Weta Digital did.
Download
Video Animation
720x486 full video
res. DiVX compressed,
9mb
Music by James Horner, "3,200 years ago"
from the movie Troy
To view
the original, and the original
matte painting, please go
to the Digital Matte Painting
section.
