As we have now completed the first term of our course, the projects we worked on have taught me a lot of new functions and abilities for working in the VFX industry. My main challenge was learning how to work with Nuke at least to a semi-beginner level and integrating assets created in 3D software to be composited amongst live action film. I slightly struggled with this challenge as Nuke works unlike any software I have used as it is almost purely node-based, so this was something I would have to adapt to. When we were handed tasks which involved colour-corrections and grading, I found the tools used in Nuke to be more familiar with other texturing programs, albeit with far greater effectiveness in composition.
We also learned many modelling and animation techniques, a fair few of which I was unaware of such as using Driven Keys. As I have a background in Maya and animation, the Maya module was something I felt I could quickly jump on board with, especially with lighting and texturing. The facial animation project was a bit difficult due to the combination of several techniques such as retopology, blendshapes, and lip-sync. The lip-sync part of the project was perhaps the most difficult area to get right as the nuances of Maya become very apparent when editing blendshapes and driven keys. If I were to change an area of my lip-sync, it would be to use a different line from a film. This is due to the lack of movement in the clip, and some shapes were visibly difficult to recreate as Morpheus is wearing sunglasses, which obfuscated blinking and subtles changes in expression. When I attempted to exaggerate these expressions, or to recreate what I couldn’t make out from the clip, these exaggerations seemed too forced. Otherwise, I would choose a very overly expressive short clip to accentuate the animations, and bring out the facial shapes.
Our project to create a hot-air balloon for a composition in Nuke was a task I went through several iterations of in order to get a result I was fairly happy with. This involved a short narrative, which I always find is essential to any composition with a basic theme of ‘Alien Abductions’. Effectively I wanted several parts to the composition to exist within the frame of the ‘suspension of disbelief’. That is to combine realistic movements and believable visuals alongside impossible scenarios. My first attempt was far too unrealistic, and was more of a showcase of tools I had learned in Nuke with a play on animation. The final result I felt combined fairly realistic physics and animation with the science-fiction element of a alien abduciton. As the major submission for our VFX fundamentals unit, this task combined the toolset of Maya and Nuke effectively, and for my Nuke capabilities at the time this seemed like a decent result
Other challenges laid ahead with relearning how to use the Adobe suite, as for some time I have always looked for free alternatives such as Krita and Blender for video production and image alteration. However these tools are generally used towards achieving the same final products, and I would have to re-familiarize myself to their workflows. Premier Pro was particularly effective in video creation and editing, as while Blender has fairly good ability when it comes to video creation, it truly pales in comparison with Premiere due to its intuitive workflow and production capabilities.
Another aspect which was enjoyable were the tasks to capture footage and images from real-life. The project to capture images which resembled ‘Time’ was quite interesting, as we could create our own interpretations of the concept and reveal them to others to get feedback. This was a good project to familiarize ourselves with the conceptualizations and meaning of imagery, and changed our surroundings from usually being behind a computer screen to being outdoors exploring in order to complete projects.
Overall I would consider the first term to be a great introduction to the world of visual effects, and I’m hoping my future assignments and projects are able to match the pace and progression of our VFX Fundamental Unit, and to a much greater degree.