All language subtitles for 02. Plate study and discussion

in this lesson

we will study our live action plate to determine what

if any issues might arise during the shot compositing

so the first step I want to do is bring in

via a readnote

our city background plate

and once we've done that

we will also set up our nuke script

for the beginning of the compositing

so we can either go about this a few steps

we can either hit the R key

and as a shortcut

when we're in the Node graph view

or you can hit the tab key and start typing in read

you'll see it brings up a

the read files window

and then you can just select

also you can bring it in the node drop down menus

on the left

but we'll go through this route

so you select that city footage sequence

hit open it now has brought it in via the read node

let's just view that

now you're going to see here in our properties

the color space is set to default srgb

that's fine

we want to work in srgb for this

for the shot

so I'm just gonna

instead of leaving at default on this hard code

2 srgb now what

before we study this

let's just quickly go into our shot properties

or project settings

and the way you can achieve that

if you're looking for the shortcut

is if you're in the no graph view

you can hit the s key

and that will bring up project settings

now what we're going to do is

we're going to change the full size format

so the project format

we want to set that to

the resolution of our background plate

which in this case

is 38 40 by 2160

so we just set that now

went typically

in a nuke comp

whenever you bring in a read node

the very first read node that you brought in

will automatically set your project settings

frame range

so in this case

we are working from frames 1 through 785

it's a bit of a long shot

but it's uh

that's that's fine for

for the purposes of

what this uh

this shot's going to require

so if we're viewing it

let's just full screen this

and you can see it's not full screen what

but if you hit the F shortcut key

when you're in the viewer

that will actually full screen

whatever that view is

also to go in and out

just as a refresher

to go in and out of any of your view ports

uh you just hit the space bar key

and that will full screen

whatever your mouse is actively clicking in

so in this case

the viewer one

so now we have the plate

so let's just take a quick study of this

it starts out viewing over this like

canal thing

with some railroad tracks

and if we start to scrub through

you can tell that it looks like the

camera does a bit of a whip pan

to the right there

overlooking

than downtown

cityscape here

and the the point of that is

we're just going for an effect of like

maybe there's a tourist

or somebody's just shooting some video

and with this nuclear explosion

suddenly they whip over

cause they hear and or see

and maybe even feel the uh

the explosion

that's going to happen downtown

so you can see here

it's just kind of going through their

sort of holding

it's very handheld

kind of a lot of movement going on in that

that's fine

not a big deal

we can solve that via camera tracking

and we just keep scrubbing through

scrubbing through

and we got a little bit more here

and then at the very end here

the camera then

is simulating the idea that

maybe at the end

the person viewing the camera

just drops the camera

and turns the run

so the camera just falls down on this

on its side

onto the concrete

now the things

I foreseeing

we're going to need to deal with

in this shot

so the first thing is

at the beginning

with this little bit of a whip pan here

I am willing to bet

that camera tracking

will have some issues

when it's trying to solve

for that whip

pan to the right there

now part of that

depending on where

the camera tracking issues arise um

we might not

we need to worry

about that just

simply because

the nuclear mushroom cloud

will be occurring

right here downtown

over all the main

downtown buildings

so it depending on where it if

if it does have any issues on that

uh whip pan

right there

we might not even need to worry about it

because it simply won't be needed

uh prior to the point

where you know

you can see

right about here

let's say frame 40 or so

where you start to reveal

uh downtown

right there

it's okay so

that's the first

thing that I foresee being

potentially

a bit of a challenge

in the comp

the second thing

will also then be

when the camera

begins to drop right here

where the tracking data will be happening

will obviously be

overlooking this

this sort of mid ground

I don't know

like this dirt

the dirt pile right here

some of the buildings

on the left

and obviously

will be tracking data

from the background

buildings as well

so that will require us to

uh it it'll

it'll be tracking

up to probably

about this point right here

I would force

say see it to

start to fail

just because

then the foreground uh

railing this

concrete railing

will then come into play

and will be

blocking any

tracking data

that would be able to

occur okay so

that's the second challenge

now the third thing that I see

is okay that

when this video was shot

unfortunately

and this will

come up a lot of times

when you're working

in your comp shots

uh you will find

that there will be

items that will

not be wanted

in the scene

so in this case

a very simple example

of that will be

there was a

monopod left

in the shot

we wanted we wanted

the camera to drop

and not see a monopod

right there

that just needs to be

the concrete

so what we're gonna have to do is

we're gonna have to go in

and paint that out

that will be a

one of the final steps

we won't deal with that

until we have

actually finished

our entire uh

compositing

of our nuclear

mushroom clad

and we'll save that sort of

as icing on the cake

so those are

the three kind of

challenge areas

the actual compositing of

the nuclear mushroom cloud

I am for seeing

as not being

a horribly difficult process

because we will be

basing it upon

a camera tracking data

that we will be

procuring uh

shortly in one of

the upcoming

lessons now

one of the other things

just to note

and it will

depend uh on

entirely on

whether you wanted to

take the shot

and composite it

from start to finish

and utilize it

for an actual uh

uh for for an

actual demo

real or whatever

but in that

in that realm

obviously there are steps

that have to be taken

you need to always

ensure that it

matches to the plate

because if it doesn't

then it won't

look correct

so one of the spots

that I'm seeing here

were getting

some areas where

suddenly as

the cameras

moving around

the camera goes

out of focus

so let's say

frame 4 90 and

surrounding frames

that's a perfect example of

you can see

suddenly the plate

has gone out of focus

so when we do composite

you need to

be aware that

you're going to

need to animate

some defocus

on that nuclear

mushroom cloud

to better and

properly integrate it

into the plate

so there's there's a

number of other

integration

related things

that we will

discuss as well

but these are

some things

that just go

into the shot

being fully aware of

as well as the

simple fact

that whenever

you do start

compositing

with a live

action shot

you're always

gonna want to

study your plate

to kind of prepare yourself

to know what

the challenges will be

in that shot

knowing like

I said you know

we might have

some camera

tracking issues

on this whippan

we might have

some camera

tracking issues

when the in fact

almost guarantee

there will be

camera tracking

issues when

this when the

when the camera

drops down and

obviously then

painting out

this monopod

is another example

of something that

that comes up

and that's that's

part of the job

as a compositor

we we take the

challenge and we

run with it

so at this point

let us take

a quick break

and we'll come back

to begin discussing

the actual nuclear

mushroom cloud

visual effect

do to do a quick recap

in this lesson

we have been

just discussing

the various challenges

that will be

required for

us to work with this

background plate

some of the

steps that will

we will need to take

to accomplish

our goals of

creating a nice

visual effect

of a downtown cityscape

exploding with

uh within a

nuclear mushroom cloud