I found these good rotoscoping tips while searching the internet. When I go back to do corrections for my project 2, hopefully this will make the whole process a little less daunting.
1) There is no such thing as a perfect matte. Rotoscoping is an art form that takes into account the background image, the movement of the object, and the new elements to be composited in the background.
2) Try to start your shape at its most complex point in time, where it will need the most control points.
3) Break a complex shape into multiple simple shapes. If you are rotoscoping a humanoid form and an arm becomes visible, consider rotoscoping the arm as its own element, rather than adding extra points on the body that will serve no purpose when the arm is obscured.
4) Imagine you are the animator who created the shot. What would your dope sheet look like? No matter the medium, whether CG, live action or otherwise, most movements are rarely linear. They normally move in arcs; they normally accelerate in and out of stopped positions. Try and understand the mechanics behind how things are moving in your shot. This will help you to minimize keyframes.
5) Watch and study the shot before you start working. Where are the changes in directions? These will normally have keyframes. Where are the starts and stops? Are there camera moves that can be stabilized to make your work easier?
6) Don’t be afraid to trash your work and start over. Beginning roto artists often make the mistake of trying to fix a flawed approach by adding more and more keyframes. Experienced roto artists learn to quickly identify an inferior approach and are unashamed to trash their work and start over, often many, many times. It is very difficult to get a good matte without a conscious effort to keep the keyframes to a minimum.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Entry 66 - Project 3 Keying
I found this list of things to keep in mind when using the greenscreen. If i do need to refilm greenscreen aspects of my project 3, this list will come in handy so I don't have the same issues I had before.
Top 10 Tips for Better Greenscreen & Bluescreen Chroma Keying
General Specialist recently posted some excellent advice for better chromakeying. Read on for our Top 10 Quick Tips culled from those suggestions, as well as a tutorial on chromakeying in Adobe After Effects.
1. Keep It Blurry
Turn off all in-camera sharpening and skin detail settings. Seperate the talent from the screen and strive for a shallow DOF. Seperation also helps control light spill.
2. Resolution and Framing
Shoot as high rez as you can afford. Disregard TV safe areas and framing, you need that extra 10%. Tilt the camera 90 degrees for shots of standing people and flop the image in your comp during post-production.
3. Blue or Green Screens?
It depends. Green is a brighter color channel with less noise than blue. Blue is better for blonde hair. Blue light spill is also less sickly looking than a green cast.
4. Don’t Depend on Imagination
Don’t assume that the talent or crew understands what you are after. Good storyboards will save you time and frustration. It’s hard to act in a vacuum, so give the talent something to look at and interact with.
5. Garment and Costume Colors
Greens, browns and khaki are all no-no’s for greenscreen work. Jeans and blue colors are just as uncool for bluescreen.
6. Proper Props
Ensure that shiny props don’t reflect the color of your screens. Or don’t use shiny props.
7. Lighting is Key
Get a crew that knows how to light if you are unable to, proper lighting is more critical than ever for chromakey work. You cannot fix the lighting in post, don’t bother trying. Get it right the first time.
8. Preview On Set
Provide some method of previewing at least a rough version of each comp as you shoot. Your talent and lighting crew will thank you and hopefully reward you with better performances.
9. Chroma Sampling and Codecs
If you can afford it, capture a 4:4:4 image without color compression into a codec that doesn’t discard any of that info. For DV keys, blur the U and V channels before pulling a key, or use software that does this for you.
10. Progressive Frames, not Fields
Shoot progressive instead of interlaced if at all possible. If you are forced to shoot interlaced, properly deinterlace the footage before keying it.
Turn off all in-camera sharpening and skin detail settings. Seperate the talent from the screen and strive for a shallow DOF. Seperation also helps control light spill.
2. Resolution and Framing
Shoot as high rez as you can afford. Disregard TV safe areas and framing, you need that extra 10%. Tilt the camera 90 degrees for shots of standing people and flop the image in your comp during post-production.
3. Blue or Green Screens?
It depends. Green is a brighter color channel with less noise than blue. Blue is better for blonde hair. Blue light spill is also less sickly looking than a green cast.
4. Don’t Depend on Imagination
Don’t assume that the talent or crew understands what you are after. Good storyboards will save you time and frustration. It’s hard to act in a vacuum, so give the talent something to look at and interact with.
5. Garment and Costume Colors
Greens, browns and khaki are all no-no’s for greenscreen work. Jeans and blue colors are just as uncool for bluescreen.
6. Proper Props
Ensure that shiny props don’t reflect the color of your screens. Or don’t use shiny props.
7. Lighting is Key
Get a crew that knows how to light if you are unable to, proper lighting is more critical than ever for chromakey work. You cannot fix the lighting in post, don’t bother trying. Get it right the first time.
8. Preview On Set
Provide some method of previewing at least a rough version of each comp as you shoot. Your talent and lighting crew will thank you and hopefully reward you with better performances.
9. Chroma Sampling and Codecs
If you can afford it, capture a 4:4:4 image without color compression into a codec that doesn’t discard any of that info. For DV keys, blur the U and V channels before pulling a key, or use software that does this for you.
10. Progressive Frames, not Fields
Shoot progressive instead of interlaced if at all possible. If you are forced to shoot interlaced, properly deinterlace the footage before keying it.
Entry 65 - Face Type 2
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| "Type Face 2" |
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| "Type Face 3" |
Type face 3 actually conveys a concept I hope to incorporate into my type face: shading.
Since the words are being piled up, they create darker areas, which can simulate shading. This would give my type face a good amount of needed depth, and it would make the overall video a little better.
Since the words are being piled up, they create darker areas, which can simulate shading. This would give my type face a good amount of needed depth, and it would make the overall video a little better.
Type Face 2 uses alot of different fonts for the image, and that might help as well. New shapes can be found by using that practice.
I'll likely experiment with different fonts for my Type Face.
I'll likely experiment with different fonts for my Type Face.
Entry 64 - Face Type 1
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| "Type Face" |
For my video, I want to make my face out of the words I pull out of the word cloud. This seems like the right way to go for the project.
Though, I feel my version will be a bit more simplified since I'll only have certain words to warp and work with.
Entry 63 - Self Portrait Research 3
These 2 videos were odd, but interesting in their own right. They don't do everything right, but they're nice. I've included them below:
I will admit though, the 1st video wasn't really structured. It just seemed really random.
Then again, that could represent what type of person made that video.
Then again, that could represent what type of person made that video.
Entry 62 - Text Clouds 2
I found this version of the text cloud shortly after I found the first 2. I feel for the video I'm doing, this actually is better for the scope of my project. The original 2 were linear, but very bland. This one takes my original idea, but makes it more plausible. Because of this, I'll most likely go with this design for the text cloud.
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| "Text Cloud 3" |
I found this version of the text cloud shortly after I found the first 2. I feel for the video I'm doing, this actually is better for the scope of my project. The original 2 were linear, but very bland. This one takes my original idea, but makes it more plausible. Because of this, I'll most likely go with this design for the text cloud.
Entry 61 - Text Clouds 1
I was able to come up with a decent idea for my video. I want my video to go into my mind and show the formulation of thoughts for my video. I had an idea for a book with a text cloud floating above the book. I'd then pick out the words that describe me. I'd expect it to look something like this:
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| "Word Cloud 1" |
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| "Word Cloud 2" |
My original cloud was going to be a bit more cluttered, but I'm thinking this might be the route to go.
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