"Mars: Tabris" - teaser for our scifi space epic

R

ramador

New member
I've been using the DVX-100a since it came out, made a few dozen shorts here and there using it. I've never been to DVXuser.com but after being pushed by some of my peers, I finally checked it out.

I'm the VFX and post guy at our company and supervise shooting to that end, so if you have any questions for creating an effects-heavy project on DV, go ahead and ask. I've also done VFX on 10 or so other shorts that required it, primarily keying, compositing, and color grading. I've done color keying on about 8 DV projects, so I have a good amount of tricks and tips in getting good keys from mediocre footage. In looking around the site, it seems people have been pretty reluctant to try any effects-heavy projects, and I hope I can shed some light on how exactly to attack this. I'm usually also the DP, but on our most recent project I happily delegated to a good friend who was literally jumping with joy when we passed him the script.

MARS: TABRIS
The entire film was shot on a green screen stage, we built one two-wall cockpit set. We'd done green screen scenes with the DVX100 previously with some great results so this was an opportunity to push the camera probably more than anyone had ever before in this context.

Backgrounds have been created in 3DSMax or done as 2D stills (which I created). Editing was done in Vegas 6, most VFX in After Effects 6.5. I designed a pretty good pipeline that I can outline for people if they're interested.

Here is the film's page, there you can find behind the scene photos, the teaser trailer, and more info on the film. If you'd like to see some full res stills, I can supply them, just ask.

http://foodforthemoon.com/mars

Please also check out some of our other movies when you're there.


Rene Amador
Food for the Moon Productions
 
I am in the process of finishing a screen play for an effects intense si-fi. I will be using a dvx100. So when i saw this post I was very excited. I have shake, after effects 6.5, maya 6 unlimited and final cut pro. I have never used maya or shake before but am getting books to help learn. I noticed no trackers, what did you use for match-move? What settings or tricks didi you use for a good key especially with hair? This movie is going to be my first attempt at a serious high end feature. So any pointers would be helpful. I am going to take 3 or 4 scenes from the screenplay make them and try to raise funding that way. Any suggestions or input would be very appreciated. Great looking results !
 
STORYTELLER32 said:
Way cool. The set you built is sick! How do you find green screening in DV with the 4.1.1 color space?
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ive seen some programs around these boards that show it to be not so much a problem anymore as long as your lighting is set.

forget what the program is called though.
 
green screen in 4:1:1

green screen in 4:1:1

Thanks for all the compliments guys.

How do you find green screening in DV with the 4.1.1 color space?
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The 4:1:1 doesn't become that much of an issue except in cases where you're keying lowlight shots and you begin getting chroma-noise. It's important to maintain a specific range of acceptable stops for your green screen that is INDEPENDENT of the lighting scheme being used for the scene. This means you need to get as much space as possible between your greenscreen wall and your subject, I'd say at least 10 feet, not only to lessen greenspill on your subject, but also to achieve lighting independence. This way your gaffer/DP can get low and moody light on your subject without having to stop down or stop-up outside of the acceptable range allowed by your greenscreen.

The important thing to remember is that DV has the most trouble with stairstepping, that is, with diagonal edges. This becomes a particular problem when trying to key a diagonal edge on a noticeable area of a subject (for me this has notoriously been eyebrows and noses). When shooting, sometimes it can make a big difference to remove a diagonal line from the edge to be keyed, particularly in shots wider than a MCU where the relative pixel info just isn't there. Usually this means bringing a subject's face more on a 3/4 angle where their nose is tucked inside the outline of their face. If you absolutely have to use a profile shot or slight profile, I recommend making it at least a MCU, and if you can help it, get a nice cozy CU. This can really do wonders with your key when you backlight, it pops out the peachfuzz and eyelashes on a person's face to a level of detail you wouldn't normally expect from DV.

The second way I deal with this has to do with when the shot calls for many diagonal lines, either a dutch angle, or often a low-angle shot where the subject slices through diagonally. Usually I recommend shooting this shot either perfectly sideways or perfectly straight up and down and then tilting the subject in post. I've had many situations where people's backs/legs/necks are diagonal edges to be keyed and have stairstepping that I simply have to roto out. This usually only occurs a few times in a shoot so it's not that of a deal in any case.

The other thing about the 4:1:1 color space is that you should try as much as possible to separate your subject and green screen on a luminance scale, not just color. There is a tender spot between where your lowlight noise begins and your luminance midpoint, this is where your subject should be falling. At this luminance range (barring a lot of red), you can safely brighten your subject in post to the upper half of the luminance range without any noise. In contrast, your green screen luminance should be as bright as possible without blowing out, generally about 70-90% (you can use your zebras to test this). The only time this is not true is when you're backlighting to get a blown-out edge on your subject.

Generally, I like to let my edge highlights fall between 85-95% and don't let them blow out, but simply crush down with the Levels tool in post. There are two reasons for this. One is that a blown out edge locks me into a specific dynamic range for the scene, wherein I have to generally blow out something in the BG plate (which isn't always possible or desireable). The second reason is that the chroma-skewing/warping or whatever you want to call it that occurs at the upper 95% luminance range often goes yellow on skintones, which can cause real problems when keying green, as the pixels on the subject and greenscreen will then be both similar in luminance and color.

The main thing I think people need to learn though is that once you've keyed, the subject plate you've shot is NEVER ready out of camera. If you're doing it correctly, you will always need to remove greenspill (I can outline my method for doing this if necessary using simple tools in AE), expand your dynamic range, then color-correct, then composite, nest the composite and add what I call "marrying" filters that sell the composite (this usually includes slight glow targetting highlights, match grain, etc.
 
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I noticed no trackers, what did you use for match-move?
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It was decided early on that camera movement would be done in post as often as possible, and any shots with camera movement would be relegated to simple pans, and then augmented in post. Match-move was the biggest technical barrier as far as what high-end tools were available to our production, not only because of cost, but because the actual talent involved in doing a realistic complex match move is very involved and time-consuming, and nobody we knew had enough experience to be given the responsibility.

Getting around this barrier while still maintaining a kinetic camera was one of our biggest concerns. We fit our cinematography to work within these constraints, which actually worked in our favor because it meant constantly approaching and refining our visual style. Much more attention was put into blocking, composition, and editorial planning at the storyboard stage so that kineticism stayed on the screen. We watched a lot of anime (especially Gundam Wing and Cowboy Bebop), to figure out how to do this, since their restrictions are similar to ours. In many ways, our film is stylistically a live action anime. It was a style that fit our technical limitations.

mainframe311, if you're interested in getting more information, not only in the VFX side, but also regarding info on how to produce this type of picture (I produce all my pictures as well) email me at rene@foodforthemoon.com. I'd be interested in learning more about your project.
 
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