Overview
-
Learn how to create compelling visual effects for your short film. Get insider tips on how to make CG scenery, add or remove objects from shots, and more.
Syllabus
-
Introduction
- About this training series
- The Assurance
- Introduction to this course
- About the third-party plugins used
- Dealing with the exercise files
- Understanding compositing
- An overview of creating computer-generated (CG) images
- Approximating believable realities
- Making things perfectly imperfect
- Intro to keying: Keylight
- Intro to keying: Primatte
- Tips for pulling a great key
- Keying fine details
- Creating a luma key
- Keying impossible shots
- Getting perfect edges
- Painting the alpha channel
- Combining takes for the best performance
- Tracking in After Effects (AE)
- Tracking in Mocha
- Removing blemishes digitally
- Removing objects with After Effects, part 1
- Removing objects with After Effects, part 2
- Removing objects with Mocha Pro
- Making CG scenery
- An overview of VUE xStream
- Creating canyons in VUE xStream
- Creating a plan and shooting the footage
- Making the campfire elements
- Creating glowing embers
- Cleaning up the footage
- Combining the elements, part 1: Assembling
- Combining the elements, part 2: Compositing
- Making the smoke trail in Trapcode Particular
- Changing the time of day
- Why did we create this shot?
- Using normal maps on Golhatn's helmet
- Modeling the candlesticks
- Creating the melted candles
- Adding materials to the objects
- Lighting the scene
- Preparing the Cinema 4D file for AE compositing
- Creating flickering candlelight with Particular
- Adding depth of field in After Effects
- Enhancing the smoke in the scene
- Adjusting the mood by changing the color
- Creating a strategy
- Finding or making a clean plate
- Rotoscoping out the characters
- Polishing the composite
- Examining the plan for the scene
- Editing the VUE renders
- Creating matte paintings
- Art directing footage of clouds
- Understanding focal length and lens properties
- Compositing with smoke and fog
- Anatomy of shot 13
- Animating Golhatn in Cinema 4D and After Effects
- Animating subtle camera moves in post
- Should you shoot VFX outdoors or indoors?
- Shooting an even green screen
- Using practical lights to supplement VFX
- Shooting with an awareness of post
- Using a VFX supervisor
- Getting better at visual effects
- Previewing the next course
- Final thoughts
