Artefact six from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

This being the last artefact I wanted to combine all the techniques I have learnt in the past 10 weeks. My first idea was to model a tram and then have it derailing and crashing. I realised this was a little ambitious so I came up with another idea. I wanted to show a concept of what the future may hold in the way of 3D monitors and operating systems.

So to create this I first had to get some footage of a screen. Below is what my set up usually looks like. This was far to messy for what I wanted so I cleaned it all up to make it look as futuristic as possible.

Here’s the modified set..

I did some test pans and realised that trying to shoot this free hand was going to be a problem. When I came to tracking it in Boujou it was evident that there was too much camera shake. So I went about creating my own DIY dolly came out of a tripod and skateboard. This worked really well, I was able to get a fairly smooth camera pan.

I displayed red on the screen which enabled me to key it out allowing for the 3D replacement to be inserted. I used the tracking data produced from Boujou to create a 3D space within Ae and a camera track for the 3D modelled balls.

For the shots of the web browser I used Photoshop to create the layers then in Ae I simply put the layers on different Z values then with the tracking data applied it gives the allusion that its coming out the screen.

Over all I’m pretty pleased with the results I think as a concept its pretty unique. I would like to have spent more time on this may be tracking some more shots and more animation of the operating system but time is always an issue unfortunately.

Comments and feedback welcomed :)

Artefact Five from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

Music by:
Netsky – Secret Agent

The penultimate artefact is here! with only one week to go I thought it was time to get artefact 5 and six done!! this time I looked more closely at chroma keying. My original plan was to use the green screen at uni, but I thought it would be more fun to do it all my self. I brought various green things I could experiment with.

Spray paint, socks, body paint and card

I first tested out some juggling with the green socks on in the hope that I could remove my arms and leave my hands floating. This proved to be quite hard because the holes left by the green were too difficult to fill.

I then had the idea of adding a real life object to a 3D scene. So I set up a mini studio in the loft and tried to light the balls as good as I could with out creating shadows. I added Blu-tack dots so it would make it easier to track in Boujou.

I also wanted to see what it would look like to create a window in an object, In this case the wall. I simply stuck the card to the wall then keyed and tracked it.

I used my D90 to shoot the video. The lack of control you have over video with the D90 made getting the right shot difficult. I got about 20 shots for the scenes so I could choose the one where the lighting and movement was correct.

If I had more time I would like to have sprayed a skateboard or bike green and keyed it out. I think I will do this as a personal project some time!

So here it is..

Artefact Four from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

So its been a while since I completed Artefact three, been busy completing the client project then the ski trip and lots of other things that have been going on. However its now done! I still feel I could add some more to it but I am quickly running out of time so something is better than nothing at the moment!

This time round I looked at HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images and how they are used to make a 3D scene much more realistic.

Here’s the completed video..

Here’s a high res still from the video. I’ve added a slight depth of field to the shot too.

There are two ways to create a HDR image ready for a 3D package like 3Dsmax. One way is to take photos of a completely reflective chrome ball. This is the easiest method because it requires photos to be taken from one place at one angle. But there are many problems with this method. The resolutions will not be very high, If there are scratches on the ball that will effect the quality of the image, it’s hard to get rid of yourself and the camera out of the reflection and most importantly you don’t get the full 360 degrees of the environment.

Here’s an example of a chrome ball HDR.

So the method I was interested in is the used of a full 360 degree image called an Equirectangular (ek-u-rec-tang-u-lar) panorama.

This method involves taking photos from multiple angles and then stitching them together with software called Hugin. I’m familiar with this software because I use a similar technique to create the stereographic images on my site.

Below are the Multiple exposures of the skate park panorama I had to take then stitch together. I was using my Nikon D90 with the Falcon 8mm fisheye lens. Exposures were

-1 = Shutter Speed 1/3200s, F stop 5.6, Iso 250

0 =  Shutter Speed 1/800s, F stop 5.6, Iso 250

+1 = Shutter Speed 1/200s, F stop 5.6, Iso 250

Below is the stitched Equirectangular image I used for the living room shots. Getting a good stitch inside is always difficult. Usually you can get the Hugin to find the matching points between the photos automatically but with this photo I had to manually add about 40 points for the Hugin to know how the images go together. There’s a small parallax error on the right hand side of the wall next to the TV. Errors like this are usually quite simple to fix in Photoshop, this one just slipped my attention.

Now that I have my Equirectangular image I then used this as an environment map in 3Ds Max. Finding tutorials on how to set up this scene properly with Mental Ray as the renderer was really hard. I had to adapt what various tutorials said to get the results I wanted. I rendered out the scenes in layers and also exported the Z-depth so I could add depth of field to the CG balls. I could have added different shapes in the scene but I felt spheres worked well for the purpose of showing off the HDRs.

I also tried adding some objects to photos and then using the HDR map as a reflection. This was quite hard to get right and I abandoned that idea because it was taking up far to much time. It is something Ill look in to in the future.

Below are the results I got.

1.Chrome balls – no casting shadow.

2.Chrome balls – Casting crappy shadows (Getting shadows to match was a real mission so I gave up before I went crazy!)

3.Chrome balls and glass box – testing out the glass to see how it would refract the background.

So that’s about it. if there’s anything you would like to know just stick a comment in below.

Any comments or suggestions are welcomed :)

Artefact Three from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

Third instalment of a ongoing Uni project looking into the key techniques of compositing. This time I looked at 3D camera tracking aka match moving.

This is something that I am fairly familiar with as I did some camera tracking last year for a personal project. This time round I managed to get much better track results probably due to the fact that the shots are clearer.

First part of the video shows the examples of successful camera tracks, second part is a brief run through of the tracking process.

Note that this project was focused on getting a good track and not realism of the final composite, artefact four will focus more on the realism of a composite with the use of HDR maps, texturing etc..

Music by:

The Flashbulb – Sangari 7

Artefact Two from Rob Antill on Vimeo.

This is the second (of six) mini projects I’ve set myself that involve the key techniques of compositing.

The first Artefact was focusing on layers and how to manipulate sill imagery.

This time I’ve looked at 2D motion tracking and stabilization. I’ve also briefly looked at Keying and masking, but i will go into those in more detail in future projects.