Smuggler's Ransom- OFFICIAL THREAD

Some new CG shot WIP stuff!

Some new CG shot WIP stuff!

Here's some WIP stuff for the final CG shot in the film. It's always so fascinating to see this unfold... Here's the stuff... with a little blurb from Mark Johnson, explaining each image...

CameraTracking.jpg



Here are a couple screen shots from within Bojou 3.1. The top two show the software in "feature track" mode where the yellow trails represent individual elements within the footage that the software is able to identify over time. The resulting trails show that the shot is a vertical pan. The bottom frame shows the individual "predictors" generated by Boujou. These will be exported into my 3D program as physical points so that your footage can be seen in 3D space and the helicopter can fly through the scene accurately.


WireVolumes.jpg


SolidVolumes.jpg



Here are a wire and solid version of the simple volume masses that will be used for the FX work. We're going to use these simple solids in a process called "camera projection mapping." Basically, we will be projecting the footage onto these surfaces. The frame will look EXACTLY the way it does in the original footage because it is simply being mapped onto the 3D surfaces. It's similar to using a slide projector to project a photograph on a wall. HOWEVER, what this will allow me to do is add the helicopter spotlight in 3D space so that it can throw shadows as the light hits these 3D objects. We don't have to build the scene precisely and can use these simple solids because we're only interested in the shadow casting. Similarly, when I add a couple yard lights to the 3D scene these surfaces will catch the light spill and generate shadows appropriately.

Because I have tracked the camera motion in Boujou we will be able to have all of these shadows and light spills track the motion of your panning camera precisely. If all goes well, we should be able to transform this scene into a very realistic looking night version that allows the helicopter to fly through it and throw shadows from its spotlight realistically.


Awesome work again Mark.. can't wait to see the shot!
 
From the description of the technique:

Basically, we will be projecting the footage onto these surfaces. The frame will look EXACTLY the way it does in the original footage because it is simply being mapped onto the 3D surfaces. It's similar to using a slide projector to project a photograph on a wall. HOWEVER, what this will allow me to do is add the helicopter spotlight in 3D space so that it can throw shadows as the light hits these 3D objects.

The solids you see are ONLY there to allow the computer to calculate shadows. The surfaces themselves will have the actual "map" of the original frame. This way when we do the final comp the frame will be dark but the spotlight will illuminate the surfaces and also throw appropriate shadows. It should look pretty cool.

Mark
 
Thanks for explaining it more Mark :) Things are looking really cool, we should have a little more stuff on the CG tomorrow to show.
 
We'll be getting some more rough CG stuff up today I hope. It's all coming together fantastic! We're meeting with a writer for the Washington Post tonight and we'll be chatting about various things, including Smuggler's Ransom.
 
Looks good but I think you could take out some of the shots that look like its 2 seconds after the shot before and save bandwidth. Also a lot of the thumbnails dont match the image that gets shown.
 
Sat down and talked with a woman from the Washington Post tonight, who is working on a book about young Christians in society... one of the parts of her book focuses on the arts... including films. She loved the trailer, and we gave her a copy of the trailer on DVD! :)
 
Brandon Rice said:
Sat down and talked with a woman from the Washington Post tonight, who is working on a book about young Christians in society... one of the parts of her book focuses on the arts... including films. She loved the trailer, and we gave her a copy of the trailer on DVD! :)


let us know when the article comes out
 
Will do.

Mark (Vislaw) and I are working on some of the CG stuff today, I should be able to post some stuff up later.
 
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