Short film: Greenscreen/MatchMover/LW/Vue/Poser

[Sekhar]

Folks, I'm almost done with a short film that has some interesting CG work; thought I'd get your feedback before finishing up.

Please check out http://allurefx.com/gallery/SekharR-Sep07-001/HMFinal2_240.html.

This is a short we shot against a greenscreen and everything other than the actors (and wheelchair) is CG.

The opening shot (which I'll extend to 30s or so) is Vue 6.5 environment with LW 9.2 house and Poser character animation.
The house interior and furniture is all LW 9.2 (Perspective cam with PR MB)
Matchmoving is with MatchMover, cam data imported to LW Layout
Keying is with Keylight (in AE Pro)

The video is balanced for DVD and might look a bit dark on the web - let me know and I'll create a different version. Please do give your comments/critiques! I hope to wind this up this month and post on YouTube.

[anim8r]

The motion tracking is spot on, but the opening shot looks like a miniature set. The camera shake seems like it's hand held and that you're only standing a few feet away for the set. I think softening the camera shake would help.

Also the wood grain on the set is enormous. I'm sure there are trees that large used for building and paneling, but it just compounded the "miniature" feel to the clip.

I like the lighting, the mood seems right to me, tho some may find it too dark on their computers. It seems to match the live action and studio lights that were used.

[Sekhar]

Thanks anim, great comments! Agree about the opening scene - I think the trees are too small. Will be redoing that scene anyhow (to make it longer), will fix it then. BTW, the cam shake is coming because I targeted the cam to the guy walking, I'll remove that in the next render. The scene is 100% CG.

And you're right, the wood grain is too large; but I guess I'll have to pass on fixing that (too many frames to re-render).

Saw your website BTW - neat! I especially liked the way you open up the 3D images for browsing (as menu pulldwon in LW), never saw a pull down like that before. FYI, the gaming link is broken.

[iDV8]

The compositing and motion tracking is well done. I agree about the wood grain but if fixing that is out then my suggestion probably is too. I suggest adding a slight blur to the back ground, it's very crisp almost sharper than the people. Giving it a slightly shallow depth of field will bring the focussed attention to the characters and not the set.

[Sekhar]

Thanks iDV. Actually, I should be able to apply the blur - I rendered everything as RPF sequences, and AE allows you to set DoF blur. Let me take another look.

In fact, I did try DoF blur in AE early on, but didn't like the results too much (and it didn't always work as expected). What I ended up doing however was to use the match grain filter in AE that essentially adds enough grain to the CG to match the live footage. Looks really good actually if you see it on the big screen.