This week I composited the forest scene with the real shot of the characters. The first scene is a panorama with two people sitting in front of a forest talking. This is a reference image I found online.

I used C4D to simply build a rock pile as the base of the bonfire.

Then I found some flame footage on YouTube and used AE to combine everything.

Start by combining the flame with the base of the campfire.

The characters and background were added, and simple color matching was done.

Adding shadows to characters makes them look more realistic. This step is difficult to adjust. The size and angle of the shadow must be judged by the light source. I adjusted it for a long time, and the effect did not reach the best effect I expected.

This is the final effect.

Next week I’ll be compositing the rest of the scene with the characters.

My task is to create a forest scene this week. In the third week I have done a demo, and I am making changes based on this.

I used World Creator to create a new terrain, because the previous terrain was too flat, I wanted to create a terrain with a little undulation.

I added , lights and tents to the terrain. Added OC Sunshine. Also changed the tree model, the pine tree feels better.

Adjust the angle of the sun until it feels like dusk.

This is the one I’m most satisfied with! Since it’s a dynamic background with characters camping outdoors, I added a wind effect to make the picture move.

The forest scene is almost complete. Next week I will be compositing the forest and the real shot characters.

After screening by the director, more than 30 video clips were finally selected. My task this week is to process all the footage.

I used AE for cutout work. I searched for a lot of video tutorials on the Internet and finally chose to use the Primatte Keyer 6 plugin. It helped me with a quick cutout.

I also encountered a lot of trouble. For example, the actor’s hair is a bit messy, the actor is too close to the green screen to reflect green light, and the ISO is incorrect during recording, resulting in too much noise, etc., which will affect the post-cutting effect. I try my best to process every video material well.

I also worked on video footage for several action shots. This is cumbersome. Because of the many tracking points on the wall, I had to adjust the mask frame by frame. Although I had a lot of troubles, I also learned a lot of useful things from it, and I will avoid a lot of troubles and do better next time.

We’re doing a green screen shoot this week, and we went to the green screen venue a day early for the set. I put tracking points on the green screen for later motion tracking.

These are some stills. In this shooting mission, I was mainly responsible for shooting stills and raising the microphone, etc. At the same time, coordinate the work of the recording division for the post-production work.

To achieve better results, we had the actors record the lines again in the studio.

These are the script and shot list.

The filming is progressing smoothly, and we are looking forward to the next tasks and results!

This week the producer brought two actors, Katia Kapustin and Jon Mckenna. After we communicated, we decided to start shooting next week. My task this week is very simple, just find some references and make a demo of the scene.

I tried making a demo of the woods based on these references, but it doesn’t look very harmonious and needs to be changed. But don’t worry too much, this demo is just an experiment to confirm the size and distance between the characters and the scene. 🙂

This is the reference map of the laboratory

I made a modern laboratory according to the reference, which did not meet the director’s ideal expectations, so director handed it over to my partner Zhongyao Zhang to find another reference and model the laboratory.

We also went to the motion capture classroom and tried motion capture with Noma removing her arm.