In this revised scene, I wanted to have the balloon move more realistically, whilst still maintaining a sci-fi aesthetic and style. I changed the background of the scene to a night sky which slightly rotates. I used colour grading throughout to try and make different elements either stand out or blend in. I used an exr file to create the ray which expands from the ship, and I used rotoscoping to change the opacity of the balloon as it gets “absorbed” by the UFO. I also rendered a separate pass from the balloon model with an ‘X-Ray’ material applied as the balloon dissipates. I also added some sound effects from YouTube and slight dynamic glow to the x-ray plate.
This was inspired by several science-fiction films, namely Star Trek, Star Wars, and Independence Day. The contrast between a sci-fi scene and a 1900’s hot air balloon may have been slightly difficult to achieve, I attempted to balance the colour grading by keeping the UFO and its movements to the top half of the frame, and the hot air balloons to the lower, mountainous region with a dulled hue.
I generally wanted this project to be comprised of as many original assets as possible. To this effect, I did use a video clip from YouTube for the rotational stars, but other than the original plate and what was given to us to create this sequece I developed several key elements based on the genre of science-fiction for the final render. The portal and firing particles, the UFO, and of course the balloon.
I wanted to change the scene to make it more interesting and realistic. I created a portal effect in Maya using particles and 3D fluid containers, to simulate an alien beam ray which absorbs the balloon.
For this (unfinished) short sequence, I used several different nodes such as colour correction & grading, rotoscoping, keyframe transforms, OFlow time adjustment and other time adjustment nodes. I also used Maya and Substance Painter to model and texture a quick UFO, and I also used Maya’s fluid and particles system to render a fire simulation.
Initially, I wanted to create a fast-moving animation so I could utilize some of the nodes I had learned to use. As well as the tools, I also wanted to incorporate some of what I had studied in 3D Animation just with general transforms and keyframing. Despite this version being unrealistic due to the speed of the balloon, this short sequence taught me a fair amount about how to use merge nodes, the general layer-stacking in Nuke, how to animate and sequence different plates, and further knowledge of rotoscoping.