VISUAL EFFECTS SEM 1

STORYLINE

A university student still living with his parents spends most of his time tinkering with gadgets in the garage. He once dreamed of building a robot for space exploration, but after too many failures, he gave up.

One night, while watching TV, breaking news shakes the world. The moon landing was a hoax. No human or robot has ever set foot on the moon, and now, the race is on to claim it. His heart pounds. This is his chance.

He rushes to the garage to his robot. Its cold metal frame stares back at him, lifeless but full of potential. He remembers the late nights, the excitement, and the moment he gave up. But now, they have a second shot—together.

Determined, he works nonstop, fixing circuits, upgrading systems, and bringing the robot back to life. Days blur as he pushes forward, fueled by the dream he thought was dead. This isnt just a machine, it’s his creation, his partner, and now, his ticket to the moon.

The world is watching, and massive corporations are in the race, but they don’t have what he does—determination, creativity, and a bond with his robot that no one else can match. If he pulls this off, he won’t just make history, he will change his future forever.

Week 1

For my first class, we got thrown straight into the deep end began on the software, Nuke. We learnt about how to go about saving, naming, and creating files in a profesional setting. I found this part of the lecture very overwhelming, yet very interesting seeing as it was my first time ever understanding VFX in terms of its industry standard side of things. We were tasked to create a short VFX pull in class time where me and my group created a mircowave exploding. With our footage in Nuke, we were having some issues with exporting an image sequence of the VFX shot which pulled us to a stop with our mini project. My group and I decided on a story about a robot who is forgotten by its creator, but hope is not lost when the robot finds its purpose and makes his creator proud.

MOOD BOARDS AND COLOR PALETTE

I explored a range of different robots and design styles. A robot with a more organic body shape would feel more human-like, evoking stronger emotions from us. This would help the audience to create a stronger bond with the robot and for us to feel its emotions. I like the idea of having the robots head as a light display, this would be perfect to create some aestetic scenes utilizing the glowing of the robots face as a light source for some shots. I dived into several colours but decided that blue tones would evoke the sci-fi feeling the best. Green was another option on the table as people generally associate this colour to sci-fi elements although green I found to be too alien oriented and we were not diving into that side of sci-fi. On the other hand, blue demonstrated that sci-fi high-tech feeling. It also evokes a sad mood towards the audience as blue is commonly associated with depression and sadness, and the storyline follows this feeling. However, towards the end of the short film. 1. The boy achieves something impossible. 2. The robot finds a purpose and 3. Their connection grows stronger then ever. With so many positive outcomes, the robots head could go from a blue colour to a warm orange, showing his change and happiness.

Week 2

Week 2 we got thrown into the deep end again and got right into the software Nuke. I love that Nuke is such a challenge and hope that one day it becomes a software that I know the ins and outs of. We had a look at on set data capture and what necessary information we needed to make post production an easier job. I really enjoyed the class on Nuke as we got to learn how to replace a sign in a shot. This was very interesting for me as I have never really understood how this process worked so it was cool to finally get an inside glimpse of how it is done and do it for myself. What I found difficult to understand was the nodes workflow. It was hard to process what plugs into what and where each node needs to go.

DESIGN CONCEPTS FOR ROBOT

Week 3

Week 3 in class we got started on Zbrush. The software to me just feels really outdated and the interface seems very dull and needs refresher. I especially hated the keybinds for the software, its so difficult having to learn different keybinds for multiple different softwares. My group has made slow but assuring progress. This week was meant to be the week for filming but seeing as we cannot hire any camera gear we have to wait until next week. For now, I created a super rough animatic for our film, to help with understanding the story and getting our timing right. From now up until the filming is over, we will most likely come up with some additional shots that we think would work with the animatic or shots that we may alter from the animatic. We have planned to film next week Wednesday, so hopefully we get all our filming done and dusted so we can get into the post production.

Week 4

This week my group got onto filming for our project. We forgot to book a smaller lense as we assumed it came in the camera pack we hired. We had everything else sorted out like props such as the blue print, books, etc. Unfortunatly, we only had a larger lense which meant we could not film most of our footage. Depsite this, we still managed to get some good shots that I think will be used in the final take. It was a good learning lesson for us to be prepared for next time. It also gave us a heads up on what our next film day will be like, being in the location of filming and seeing what we have to work with etc.

Week 5

In class this week we had a look at taking an organic model in ZBrush and importing it into Maya to reptopologize the model. I have never seen this process done before so I was taken by suprise to see that you have to retopologize the entire model by hand, theres no AI function to automate this.

Filming this week for the second time went well. We managed to get all our shots done and dusted. This time, with the correct lens which made it alot more easier. Some shots went well and others not so much. We realised that some of our shots were pretty tricky to pull off, for example our end scene where the camera zooms out from the tv to reveal the main character and the robot. This shot was difficult because we had to film this hand held and there were obstacles like the bed making it tricky to pull off. Thankfully, in post production there is a good camera stabilization in Davinci that you can apply to the clip to make it smoother. We did have the gimbal for this, but we were having isses with it so it seemed better off just going hand held.

Week 6

With all our shots completed I took up the role in splicing all the clips together (editorial). I imported all the shots we took into davinci and went through them all to find the best takes. I then pulled up the animatic as a refrence and begun on the timeline sequence. I’ve made significant progress on the main sequence, but there are a few things to note. First, the 2 minute mark came up very quickly, so I had to condense the footage and cut some good material while keeping the storyline intact. Regarding transitions, I found that the panning-up shots we filmed didn’t flow well with the other clips, and it might confuse viewers since Owen appears distracted instead of looking at the garage. The first news video also ran too long, so I cut it down, but it still felt a bit drawn out. To fix this, I kept the news audio playing into the next scene (when Owen unrolls the blueprint). This not only helps fill the silence but also gives the full news speech without it dominating the screen.

The final model of the robot turned out incredible but at first glance for me I noticed that the robot seemed more like a mini figure, rather then a life sized robot (right robot in the image). This was due to the proportions of the robot, more specifically the legs. The legs were very short, where legs on the human body generally take up 45-50% of the body. I took the robot into photoshop and did a quick test on stretching out the legs a bit more (left robot in the image) and it turned out more human like which was the look we were going for. I proposed this idea to the group, then also Andrew, the one who made the robot, and he said it looked alot better and it shouldnt be a difficult fix thankfully.

Week 7

This week was quiet for me, there was not much work for me to do. Andrew offered to do the character rigging which was the goal for the week. To make use of my time, I decided to work towards other parts of the project that could be completed, despite the rigging stage not being finished yet. I 3D tracked one of our ending scenes where the robot and boy fist pump. For this, I utilized what we learnt in class, mixed in with a bit of youtube to jog my memory. One problem was that I had to mask out the entire screen, plus the character that appears in the corner of the shot, as they had their own motion in terms of the camera movement. The tv posed one of the main issues, as the tv was one of the largest features in the shot, meaning a chunck of the shot had to be masked, thus, less space for the trackers to pick up on. I did come across an issue, where the tracker points were not catching on the right side of the shot, as seen in the right image below. I think this was due to the curtains not having any distinct points that the software could pick up on. I tried retracking multiple times until I had something that sort of worked out. I did some research on the tracking points and it is preferred for a more accurate track that the points are scattered all over the shot rather then coming from one distinct area So, even if there's a solve error under one, it doesn't reflect the track's accuracy if all the points are coming from one side or area.

Finally having a track that had some strong points, and was under a solve error of one, I could then do a test of the track to see how well it holds. For the test, I dropped in a plane, applied a checker board texture to it, and placed it over the tv screen in the shot. I then played the shot to see if there was a noticable shift in the checkerboard in comparision to the camera movement. There was a faint slip in the checkerboard, but seeing that this shot is only short, and was somewhat tricky to track, it should hopefully be fine. If worst comes to worst, I can just retrack the shot from scratch until I get a better result..

Week 8/9

Having our character all rigged up, we could get onto the next stage- animating. I enjoyed the animating process, bringing a stale made-up character to life utilizing keyframes. My two scenes that I am working on are the scene in which the robot throws the ball at the boy, and the end scene, where the boy and robot fist pump eachother. These are the only two scenes in our short film where the robot and boy interact with one an other, so I had to be more attentive in making sure everything aligns up with the plate and animating process.

The first scene I decided to animate was the ball throwing scene. During the filming, I was behind the camera, and I got Andrew to throw a yellow ball at Owen, our actor. I had to ensure that the position in which Andrew was throwing the ball would align well with the "robot"throwing the ball. Of course we do not want Andrew in the background, so after they performed the shot, I got them to walk out of the camera so that I could have a clean plate to work with so that I could remove Andrew from the shot.

With the rigged robot, and filming, I created a new maya scene and dropped the shot in as an image sequence plate. This plate was attached to a camera so that I could align everything up. I created a shadow catcher floor so that the robot would cast shadows, alighed the floor up with the plate floor and dropped the rigged character into the scene. I did my best to align the robot up with the position of where Andrew was standing (throwing the ball). With everything in place, it was just a matter of animating. To ensure everything was lining up nicely, I switched between the persp cam and the main shot cam. I also created a new anim layer for each body part of the robot so I could easiy go back and edit, delete, or fix the keyframes without messing the whole animation up. I made the robots head follow the ball as it bounced along the ground, just to reinforce the idea of the robot actually being in the garage, making it feel more immersive. During the animating process, I had to ensure that where the robot released the ball was at the exact same point as where Andrew released the ball.

Seeing that the robot did not have a physical ball in his hand, I created a small sphere, applied a yellow material to it, and parented the yellow ball to the hand of the robot. Now when the robot goes to throw the ball there is a replica of the real life ball in his hand. As the ball is released from the hand, I keyframed the ball to hide, so it seems as if the robot had just thrown the ball that exists in real life.

Robot, standing on shadow catcher with the plate in the background and render in the bottom left.

Video Demonstrating the Robots throwing animation and position within the plate.

Video Demonstrating the yellow ball parented to the robots hand, that aligns with the real life ball and disappears after release.

With Frank working towards our simulation of the robot going through the roof. I still had alot of nuke compositing to do for my shots. I had alot of issues with getting the colours to look right after rendering out the robot animation as exrs in maya. Before rendering out the whole animation, I did a test render with one frame, to ensure everything was in tact. For example, ensuring the plate was not showing in the background, same with the HDRI. I also checked on the colour which posed a big issue for me. After rendering out a frame, I took the frame into nuke, ensured that all the settings I knew of were set correctly, but the render seemed under saturated. I messed around with the colour settings for hours going between Maya and Nuke but still nothing. In the below image, the robot in nuke, is alot more dull in comparison to the maya render view to the right.

After multiple hours of messing around with the colour settings, I found something that looked just about right. I utilized grade nodes, with a mix of colour settings to achieve a similar look to the arnold render view robot through Nuke.

3D Camera Track Scene - Fist Pump

With my earlier preperation of having my shot already tracked and ready to go, it was just a matter of animating and compositing the shot. Mistakenly, we forogt to take HDRI shots for the indoor scene. Without the HDRI, there was no way that I could accurately replicate a similar light to the scene. I began exploring on polyhavens free HDRI's to find something that had similar light qualities. Most importantly, I was in search of a darker HDRI, that had a strong light source coming from one direction, which would simulate the TV's bright screen. I did find this one HDRI that had a strong light source but still had a very light contrast look. To resolve this, I made some minor adjustments to the HDRI in maya such as adding a subtle hue to tone down the orange tinge, and darkened the exposure to bring down the lightness.

Adjusting the HDRI to suit the scene

I took advantage of a series of nodes in Maya to really intergrate my robot into the scene. Firstly, I created a roto mask and cut out the couch from the plate, and applied it overtop of the robot to make it seem as if the robot was sitting on the couch with Owen. I then applied multiple grade nodes to both the plate and the robot, adjusting colour and light balance. I decreased the blacks in the robot as well as increasing the whites to align with the scene. The robot was also too crisp for the shot, so I applied an edge blur and a grain node to further composite the robot. Because the robot arm crosses the path of the tv, I decided to apply a light warp node which allows some light from the tv to pass the arm taking it that little bit further. *shown below

Lastly, with all the different nodes and colour adjustments, I applied an overall colour correct and grade node to the entire scene, and tweaked some colours to help pull it all together.

This shot was alot more smooth sailing compared to the first shot, purely because I sort of knew what I was doing this time round and what I had to get done. This shot was really fun to composite, I loved utilizing all the different nodes to get the best result possible. I was really happy with the end result of this shot. Despite some of the difficulties I faced.

Left shot with no light warp, Right shot with Light warp.

Node tree for camera tracking + Grading.

Week 10

This week I took up the role in colour grading and sound editing for the final video. I got everyone to send me their final VFX shots for me to replace with the plates/unedited shots. I had to make a couple adjustments with the clips and moved some stuff around to make everything work together seamlessly. I spent about an two hours adjusting and gathering all the clips so that everything was in place, ready to grade. Getting onto the grading process, I did notice one issue I had. Everyone's VFX clips that they sent me where MP4 files whereas the rest of the clips were BRAW files so I could adjust the iso, grade and alot of other settings where I could not do so with the MP4 files. Yes, I could still adjust colour etc, but was very limited in comparison to the BRAW files. Because I have only done this a handful of times, I am unfamiliar with the work flow of grading everyones VFX shots which are all very disctinctly different in colour. Despite all this, I had to make it work and so I did. I went for a slightly green/blue tinge for alot of the shots as this is a very cinematic tone and used in alot of short films like our own. The blue tone also reminds me of space and the future, which are two significant themes in our film.

Grading and editing the clips in Davinci

Lastly, to finish off the project, sound. This was one part I was looking forward to. I really enjoy portraying a specifc mood or atmosphere through the use of audio. Sound makes up a significant portion of the moviegoing experience, with estimates ranging from 50% to as high as 80% of the audience's impact, according to some film industry professionals and articles. I utilized free audio assets online from pixabay who has a library of millions of sounds free to use. Because I am familiar with sound editing in Premier Pro, I exported the graded clip from Davinci and imported it into a new project in Premier. From there, I began to add in sound effects for various elements such as the garage door shutting, the robots arms whirring and even the paper rolling out on the desk. I personally think its well worth replacing all the digetic sound with non-digetic sound, as you then have full control of the decibels, placement of the sound, and increases the clearness of the audio in your film. I worked multiple hours searching through and adding in audio assets to get it sounding just right. With the audio all finished, the project was complete. I sent it through to my team, and asked for their honest opinions and adjusted accordingly.

Week 11

For the making of video, me and my group decided to split it up in 1/4s amongst us where we all dedicate an average of 30 seconds to make up our making of video. In mine, I included the 2 VFX shots that I worked on, as well as a small timelapse of me doing some colour grading etc.

FINAL REFLECTION

Overall, I am very proud of the work I have completed. Throughout the project, I encountered a range of challenges, some that were draining, others that were easy, slow, or fun. Despite the ups and downs, I’m happy with the final result that my group and I produced. We all contributed to turning our made up story into a reality.

One of the biggest difficulties I faced was getting the colours and settings right when converting between different software. Another challenge was working with the 3D camera tracking shot, which is usually a straightforward process turned into a frustrating one as I struggled to get a smooth, jitter-free track.

What I enjoyed most was learning how to place a made up character into a real world scene. I have always seen this kind of work in movies, so it was exciting to try it out for myself using industry standard software like Nuke and Maya. I also really enjoyed the sound editing, as it added the final touch and helps to immerse the audince into the film.

If I were to do this again, I would definitely focus more on organisation. Having my files properly named and stored in one place would have saved a lot of time. I’d also like to work on more shots where the robot interacts with real world objects like the yellow ball throwing scene which really challenges the audience’s perception of what’s real.

In conclusion, I’m proud of what my group and I achieved, and I’m looking forward to the next project to come.