San Fran WIP

[DavidW]

Hi everyone!
I just want to start with saying that I really really like that you guys are starting up the challenges. Since I'm still a student it's a major push in the right direction. Now I get a kind of regular job order every month here on the site, and I think that really will raise everyone's skills/knowledge (who participate that is :) ).

OK, so here comes a still of today's work on the sequence. Haven't done the light reflections in the water yet, neither all the lights for the cars.
By the way, I'm using Shake.

So, if you feel like it, post a comment/question.
// David

[BlackKnight]

Hey David, good to have you on board. :) Great start with the lights. (I think the moon will be a popular one) ;)

[cascatino]

Nice work, David. I've just downloaded the original footage for the challenge and I'll try to do something showable as your work-in-progress.
Great! Ciao!

[Pipen]

i think this is the best so far!.. really like to moon, the water and the lights.. keep it up man!

[SalaTar]

hey David,
How did you get back mountains so promanant?

[Aruna]

Well done so far! Would love to see it in motion..

[DavidW]

Hi again!
I managed to get some time off to work on this nice project today too. :D
OK, to be honest I stole the time from my sleep quota, hrmm... (school will be tough tomorrow, but it's surely worth it because this is much more fun/rewarding, he, he).

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

SalaTar: If I get you right you mean the "mountain texture" that got lost in the bridge's cast shadow? Answear is I didn't, so I had to paint some new in Photoshop using primary the clone brush (with a lot of help from my wacom tablet :)). I did this as a separate layer on frame 1 from the sequence. Then I extracted an alpha channel and just comped it with a standard over-node (so it just covered the shadow I wanted to remove). I also added some grain so it wouldn't look so static when it's animated.

Aruna: You will, but not quite yet though... You have to make do with another updated still for a little more time. ;)

This one got light reflections in the water (from the moon and also the sailboats in the marina). Now I'm primary working on the cars' lights (I already got some of them in there, but obviously there are a lot of them to matchmove/keyframe).
I'm thinking of generating a very subtle shadow of the bridge on the ground from the moonlight. It'll be a pain to create a good looking one though because of the alternating terrain. What do you think, is the shadow necessary to sell the right feeling of realism?

Cheers!
// David

[DavidW]

By the way, a question: I just made the observation that the attached jpg was kind of dark. It isn't _that_ dark when I'm working in Shake, it seems to get it when rendered to the jpg format. The weird thing is that when I'm rendering a new Quicktime sequence it gets _brighter_!

Any thoughts/knowledge about this?

// David

[SalaTar]

jpg is darker on DF too

btw Aruna, isnt that shot about 20 miles to Oakland or Bezerkly?

[SalaTar]

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/ggscam.htm

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/realtime.htm

:jester:

[Aruna]

Yep! ~20 driving miles.

It was taken at the left red X. I live at the right red X.

http://www.vfxvancouver.com/images/vfxtalk/vfxphoto.jpg

[SalaTar]

lol... I just figured it

[SalaTar]

now that I know its north bay, my mind thinks more.....and photo ops come via search

[DSTYLE]

hey guys nice challange plaese help is this ntsc or pal cos i can not seem to see a jitter on the 3 frames

cars are jumping every 6 frames

[Legolas S.M.]

Hi David,
I really like it: good job.
I’ll wait for the animation.

[DavidW]

OK, here we go with an animation update! :D
http://brainspark.se/temp/SF_test-3.mov (13.2Mb)
I'm also attaching a still pic for the people with little bandwidth.
I nearly got all the cars' headlights in there now (there's a few of them...).

It would be great with some feedback on this one! :)
Things I want to add myself is some more dynamic light in the background so the shot doesn't look so static. I'm thinking of some alternating light in the city on the other side of the bay, maybe a flashing bouy in the water and also of an airplane with flashing lights in the upper left corner. Other ideas?

Ciao! // David

EDIT: The jpg still looks too dark , please check the quicktime if you can.

[SalaTar]

does shake have something simular to DF's highlight tool?

[Dietmar]

Hey that looks rearly good.
From my point of view the moon is to big! The light of the cars could be a little bit brighter and don't forget the street is iluminated by the streetlights
(hope that is the right term).
Nice job so far!

[arlen]

hi your work is so good

My puzzled is how do u composite the car lights on

[DavidW]

SalaTar: Hmm, I haven't used DF ever so I really don't know what that tool does. Highlight; is it for selection some region or is it for brightening up a specific region?

Dietmar: :thanks: :) I'll look into your critics and play around a bit with it. Thanks for the feedback.

Arlen: Thank you. It's actually no magic att all. I've tracked or keyframed all of them separately. The lights are just small pictures with alpha channels painted in photoshop. I attach a screenshot of the comp tree so you see the structure. The first big part is mainly color correction and the clouds. The cars are the big chunk to the right (running horizontally). After that all the lights are composited. :p

OK, time for breakfast... :coffee:
// David

[arlen]

thank u this really a great job. and my opinion that i think u can add some shadow of the bridge. everytime when i see ur reel i just feel that the ground under the bridge is not very comfortable. but i still like it especially the moonlight on the water

[ryantsmith]

Looks good davidw! My only comment is in that the lights in the building far far away are brighter than the headlights that are much closer.

[DavidW]

I think this is my final version. I really haven't got more time for experimenting, I just took an hour off to tweak some of it (cars' headlights for example).
OK, so here is the link: http://brainspark.se/temp/DavidW-VFX101.mov

I just been in Spain for a week giving a course in video streaming over the Internet. It's soo much nicer weather there...
Therefore I got really, really much to do in school now. We're actually doing a shortfilm that involves some compositing. :-) Maybe I'm posting some of the work later when it's in the pipeline...

Anyway, please feel free to do some commenting about the "Day for Night" piece!

Have a good day!
// David

[ShadowMaker SdR]

I like it a lot - a very natural look, while you can still see that a lot of effort was put into it. Really nice job.

[DavidW]

Hi again!
Arlen & Ryantsmith: I've listened to both of your critics and stole a little more time from schoolwork to finish my shot off. You now get both brighter headlights and a subtle shadow under the bridge (in the right direction relative to the moon). Head over to the submit area to watch the final version (plus a comptree with some descriptions).

Thanks for all the feedback! :)

Cheers, and have a great weekend!
// David