World's Edge Proof of Concept

Here's a first pass of setting up the "World's Edge" project. Now that I've finished the camera track, I wanted to have a temp version of the synthetic camera move coming towards the real footage. The transition is wonky and now that I've put in all the work, I'm not entirely stoked on the take that I chose. Why couldn't I film it with a level horizon? Maybe I should choose a different version.

I've also decided to start posting video with Vimeo since it gives me much better quality than what Blogger has to offer.

World's Edge Proof from Matt Broeska on Vimeo.

Footage

Alright. Here's what all 3 of you have been waiting for: the footage. I've uploaded an image to show the full resolution of the footage that we shot along with a nice, low res video to show the camera move. Hopefully I'll have a camera track of this in the next few days, as time permits. The start of the camera move lingers on the ground for about 8 seconds before booming up to show the full reveal. This is to have something as we do a synthetic camera move rushing along the ground before seeing our post-apocalyptic-Tom standing on the edge of a cliff. Our key light was placed for some strong rim light from a low sun. In the next week or so I'll head out to Garbage hill to shoot an HDRI of the setting sun and comp that in.

This is going to be so much better than Terminator Salvation.

Small Update

Shooting on Friday. I'll post video either this weekend or early next week.

New Project

Okay I know. I haven't finished my face tracking project and I'm starting a new one. There are a few reasons. Regarding the face tracking project, I don't have final concepts and I still haven't shot the new footage. Both are pretty crucial for me to even consider moving forward on that project. In the meantime, I have at least finished my face model (as shown in an earlier post). At the same time, that face model can't be done since I need to know how I'm going to break it apart and open it up.

Regarding the picture that I've posted here, those are tracking markers I made the other day for this new project. Tracking markers are SUPER neccessary in a greenscreen shoot to help tell tracking software like Boujou how the camera is moving. It knows how the camera is moving by analysing the paralax between foreground and background objects. When you shoot greenscreen though, all the software sees is solid colour. Detailed markers on the greenscreen and on stands or posts can help the software see specific areas of contrast and corners in space. We as viewers can look at that footage and know how the camera is moving, but imagine you're a piece of software that only sees a series of images made up of per-pixel colour information. How does it know that the camera is moving up and slightly forward? How does it know when the camera stops? The answer...

Maths.

I'm calling this new project "World's Edge". Was that a Pirate's of the Caribbean movie? Anyway, the idea is to have a person standing on a greenscreen stage and film a camera move, starting from ground level, until we're looking over the person's shoulder. The CG work will be to have the person standing on the edge of a cliff, looking over a canyon-esque, alien landscape. This project will end up being a large assignment for our 3D students next year. Of course, before they start it, I have to have it at least mostly done. My colleague Tom is going to be working on this with me too. We should be filming it in the next few days, perhaps early next week. Once we have it shot, I'll post the greenscreen footage and update this blog as I track and modify the footage.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more regular posts starting next week.