VFX
BA (HONS) MEDIA PRODUCTION
A collection of my various VFX projects. Here you’ll be able to see different skills i’ve learnt like CG Integration, Sky replacements and Set Extentions through softwares like Blender and After Effects.
SKY REPLACEMENT
(LUMA KEYING)
AFTER EFFECTS
We used Luma Keying to create a Luma Matte by converting the image's brightness (luminance) into an alpha channel, making white pixels fully white and dark pixels black. This allowed us to replace the sky, with the alpha channel guiding where the new sky would appear and where it would be transparent. To ensure the new elements tracked with the camera movement, we first tracked the motion using the Tracking Marker Tool, selecting a high-contrast pattern from the scene. This data was applied to a Null Object layer, ensuring the new sky followed the camera. We created the Luma Matte by isolating the blue channel with the Calculations effect, then fine-tuning it with a Colour Correction Curve to achieve the right contrast. A black layer was added to maintain fine edges without pushing them to black. We then placed the matte and new sky in a second composition and used a blending mode to make the black areas transparent. Finally, we applied all previous work to the final composition, adjusting contrast and edge softness to complete the shot.
CG INTEGRATION + MOTION TRACKING
BLENDER / AFTER EFFECTS
The first step to set up our Motion tracking scene was to set up tracker marks, this ensures that the camera followed the motion of the scene we imported into Blender. Once I had set up roughly 25 trackers, I made sure that their solve error was below 1 to ensure the camera followed the scene smoothly. Once that was all working, We were able to import the 3D environmental scan of the scene and ensure that we aligned it with the scene and the trackers. Once that was set up correctly I was able to import a pack of 3D modeled assets and build a scene around the footage. I wanted to design a rundown,shanty town on the edge of the beach as I feel it would be a good way to represent the issue in the UK of our seaside towns lacking jobs and funding inturn making them some of our poorest areas in the country.
SET EXTENSION
CHROMA KEYING
BLENDER
This project focused on using CHROMA keying in After Effects for set extensions. We began by applying Garbage Masking to remove everything in the shot that wasn't green, leaving Jon standing by the wall. By analyzing the color channels, we learned that the Alpha channel uses black and white to represent "off" and "on" states, with grey being transparent. We used the KEYLIGHT effect to remove the green background by setting it to black in the Alpha channel. After pre-composing the background, we could easily adjust it in the main composition. We then matched the LUMA values between the foreground and background using Curves (Plate Matching). To finalize the shot, we added camera lens blur for focus effects, applied KEYLIGHT's Screen Softness, and created a Lightwrap for the foreground.
3D MODELS
