3D process 01- where the magic happens but without the magic button

You hear this term “3D” all the time. You also might think that all the films with something impossible is all made in 3D. But what does 3D really mean? The easiest way to understand this is to think of a painting versus a sculpture. If you’re standing right in the front of a painting or a picture, you might think this looks really real. But once you look from the side or from the back, it’s just a flat piece of paper. A sculpture on the other hand, you can observe it from any angle. This is the same in the digital world. A 2D matte painting or projection technique is only good from the chosen angle. But a 3D object can be viewed from everywhere. So if a robot or dinosaur is needed in your film for several shots with different angles, it’s better to approach with 3D. But in the 3D world, there is no magic button to make this happened with one click. Quite the opposite, the artists will have to create every single detail that happens in the real world, such as reflections, shadows, and even the intensity of the shadow or the blurry edge of the shadow. Therefore before jumping in and doing everything with 3D, which needs a lot more time and budget, it’s better to consult with the VFX supervisor to make sure the 3D approach is necessary here. In this post, we are going to talk about a simplified 3D process to give you a rough concept of how 3D works.

Roto101 – How to separate what you want when you don’t have green screen

In the last post, we talked about when you have something/someone you want to keep but something you don’t want, you put a green/blue screen to cover what you don’t want. You have to keep what you want in the range of green/blue screen so the vfx artists can use some keying tools to get rid the green/blue screen and then replace it with something else. But what if for some reasons you didn’t use a green/blue screen when you shot and now you change your mind and want to replace something in the shot? Or what if the actor moved too big of a range and some part of him was out of the green/blue screen and you didn’t notice? This is where roto is needed.

VFX shots in your movie trailer can increase ticket sales

For all the filmmakers, the bottom line goal is get people to watch your film. Investors(production companies) make an investment in the films they think a lot of people will like to watch. People want to watch a film that everybody watched and talked about. The question now becomes how to get people to watch your film? Just try to think of few examples from your own experience, you can find out the reasons you go watch a film usually are: the actors, directors you like, the story sounds interesting, the images look cool. Where do you get the ideas about the actors, director, story and images? Most commonly from the trailer.

Why use a green/blue screen? The concept of “keying”.

For most people, when they think about shooting for visual effects, they think about green/blue screen. Why use a green/blue screen and how does it work? In this post, we are going to talk about the reasons for use green/blue screen and what visual effects artists have to do after receiving this green/blue screen footage. For this post we will give you just a basic concept of blue/green screen, and we’ll go further into detail in later posts.

The process of VFX in film

Find your crew, start shooting, finish editing, then comes visual effects, right? If you use this process, you’re not only putting yourself at risk of not being able to finish your vfx, but you might also be missing a lot opportunities for better vfx solutions for your film. Here we are going to talk about a good process for maximizing your VFX in film.

How VFX can save you time and money

Many filmmakers think visual effects are a luxury reserved only for those big budget blockbuster films. This is not the case, vfx is not just about robots and dinosaurs.(See the previous post on “What VFX can do?”) With various vfx techniques today, visual effects could be a great tool not only for telling the story but also for saving you time and money. Here I’m are going to list a few situations where vfx can save you time and money.

The benefits of having a VFX consultant early in development

People often think visual effects is part of post production and you don’t need vfx involved until after the editing is finished. The reality is quite the opposite, VFX should be one the first in and last out in the film process.
In this article, I’m going to explain why you should have a vfx consultant on board as early as you have the script and the benefits you will gain from doing this.

What VFX can do?-Part 4: compositing

Most people think that vfx is the same as 3D animation. But the truth is compositing, which is in the 2D department, is the most common vfx. This technique is applied in almost every film. If the shot has 3D objects, compositing is the last step to put all the elements together. In many cases, compositors have to key all the green/blue screen, sometimes do the tracking, get all the different 3D elements from other team members, put those together and do all the necessary fixing and adjustments. This article will discuss what compositing can do.