Demo reel WIP

[doen]

I've started working on my 2005/06 compositing reel, and so far I've collected all the stuff that I've done in the second half of 2005 (which was my first half a year as a professional compositor).

Critics and comments appreciated!

P.S.: You need Quicktime 7 to view the reel (H.264 encoded)

[doen]

That bad, huh?

[Whelkn]

Its great man--jsut wish it was bigger

[VFXTalkDotCom]

its really cool, very professional! And the chick is hot! Great work, what tools did you use on the shots, maybe you can break them down a bit for us?

Also how many different shots make up the reel before you edited it?

My only comment would be that i see the snowman a lot in it...

-jah

[doen]

Thanks to both of you!

@Whelkn: I'll try to make a bigger one and upload it

@Jah: Thanks! I've used mostly After Effects, except for the snowman shots; those were done in Fusion. I'll try to break them down.

-Shot #1 (done in AE):

• First I had to roto the chick and the couch, while the 3D guys prepared the bookcase.
• Next, when the bookcase was rendered, I composited and color-matched it, to fit.
• Using stock material of various dusts and particles, I've composited the smoke rising when the bookcase collapses. Stock footage was combined with some fancy fractal noise settings to make a nice twirling effect.
• Using stock footage dust, I've made the dust and particles falling from the ceiling.

-Shot #2 (done in Fusion):

• First of I had to prepare a 3D track in boujou, so the 3D department could put the snowman in.
• Next I used rotosplines and various keying techniques to get a matte of the guy and the computer table.
• Composited the rendered snowman (some masks here and there, so he reaches over the table).
• Final touches included adding the image in the computer screen and graining the snowman to match the film footage.

-Shot #3:

• Roto-ed the cups and the table
• Composited and color matched the new CG newspaper (for some reason we had to replace it)

-Shot #4:

• Roto (d0h )
• Placing CG snowman hands over the actors (some guy in a green suit)
• Cleaning out green-suit guy (while making these snowman commercials I really started to hate the guy )

-Shot #5:
again, mostly the same process as the other snowmans...roto, and graining...except for this one I also had to recreate the background to cover up the bastard in the green-suit, who was waaaaay to big to play a small snowman.

-Shot #6:
roto of the chick, table, chair, lamp...mostly every object had it's own layer... composited CG cracks and stock footage dust and particles, combined with fractal noise

-Shot #7:
this one was fun...first version was simply roto and compositing the cracks and dust in... then we needed to change a window (one of the windows had to be open) so I had to make it from scratch and tracked in. I also had to track all of the other windows since the 3D renders were "cracking" up the windows...
after a while the owners of the building complained and we had to "replace" the building...so it was up to me to re-color it. lots of tracking and masking. (and re-compositing cracks).

-Shot #8:
using some plugins for AE I've created the lightnings (this was my first job here) which I had to track to the CG clouds. then using some transfer modes and luma mattes (extracted from clouds) I managed to create the inside-the-clouds-lightning.

-Shot #9 & #10:
greenscreen keying and tracking in the background. I also had to create the appropriate light wrap.

-Shot #11 & #12:
roto, composited cracks + stock footage dust

-Shot #13:
lots of roto + grain and computer screen image

-Shot #14:
same as 9, 10

-Shot #15
drawn the buildings in photoshop and illustrator and animated in AE's 2.5D space. I got the dog character but broke up his design and animated him as needed.

-Shot #16:
This one was the most fun. The green-suit guy jumps on a table and pulls away the vase... A nearly impossible track in boujou (it was impossible to get the track of the parts near the camera since the table moved when he jumped on it...) rotoing out the vase, chair... compositing the snowman... Using still frames from various other shots to recreate the background which I then matchmoved back in using Fusion 5's 3D space, so I had a clean plate so I could remove the green bastard (he was literally all around the snowman).

-Shot #17:
animated in AE from a still image

-Shot #18 & #19:
roto of the guy in the chair. compositing cracks on the wall and floor. adding falling particles and dust. created light streaks through the dust.

-Shot #20,21,22:
roto, stock footage particles and dust

-Shot #23:
same as #15

-Shot #24:
some mask work to place the elements on the table (the footage was shot with always one more thing on the table...except for the one where the guy was in...there was only an egg on )

-Shot #25:
tracking and painting out the clock's brand that was above the digits

-Shot #26:
roto of the TV, created the snowmans shadow by duplicating the snowman layer, making it black and adjusting it's position and opacity

-Shot #27:
same as 9 and 10

-Shot #28:
3d track, roto, snowman shadow

-Shot #29:
an old shot I made for practice. photo of the wall, 3d animated spider and composited in.

-Shot #30:
created and animated the boxes in AE's 2.5D space, using expressions to create the appropriate reflections

-Shot #31:
simple composite...just added grain

-Shot #32:
the before and after of my attempt to "replace" the building. a lot of masking and tracking involved

-Shot #33:
same as 15 and 23

-Shot #34,35:
same as most of the other snowmen...

-Shot #36:
roto of the guy, composite and defocused background cracks, stock footage dust and particles in defocus

-Shot #37:
particles in the background. Tracked the logo on the remote (was not there before)

-Shot #38:
3d track, and covering up the green guy

-Shot #39:
composited the 3d render on the background+added and animated the titles

-Shot #40:
3d track+roto+snowman+grain...



damn... I didn't know there was so much of this...


umm...before editing there were:

• 1 insurance company commercial (cracks)
• 5 snowman commercials
• 1 animated cartoon commercial
• 1 music video
• 3 different commercials (formula, those boxes and the book with the pen)
• and of course my own spider animation/composite

I know there's a lot of the damn snowman in here... but the fact is that I only have the snowman, the cracks and those lightnings (and the woman) to show as compositing works... other than that it's mostly 2d animation and title animation... and I want to focus on compositing... that's why it so sucks to work at a firm where you mostly do adaptations of foreign commercials (mostly just adding local titles...)


Anyway...thanks for the comments!

[joaomineiro]

Nice reel, just the spider scene that I though a little strange, a lot of defocus animation and the web seems to be rotating...... I agree with Jah, it could be shortest or you could use different works.
Congratulations

[doen]

Thanks joaomineiro!

Yeah I know I screwed up with the spider scene (it really stands out) and I did force it in length (I need more diverse material). That's why I posted it in teh WiP forum. I'll work on it today and re-edit it a bit (I'm definetly throwing the spider bit out).

[majik]

Thats a good reel, a good starting point.

However the only crit I would have is that over the course of a minute or two it feels a bit repetitive. The work is good, but I think you need to pick the best 3 or 4 shots from each job and do a detailed layered breakdown. Then you will have less repetition and people will understand what you have done.

I must dig out a reel I have for Buzz Image in canada. They did work on Gondry's 'Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' Some really subtle stuff. The shots they did wouldn't usually stand out, but they did a very detailed breakdown in the reel and I'm just sitting there going WOW!

I'll try and upload a link to it, it give you and idea of what to do.

[sadrazam]

brate svaka ti cas

[Yossarian!]

Great reel, looks like you've done some terrific work over the past few months. I like the spider shot. Agree with Majik about trimming some of the shot from the second half. Very strong reel, hope it brings you plenty of work!

[doen]

Thanks all. I know I'll have to re-edit it and throw out half of the stuff. But I don't think I'll add breakdowns. First of I don't have access to the originals anymore. And also I think that breakdowns waste a lot of time in a reel (I know I wasted a lot of time with repetitive stuff instead of breakdowns, but I'd rather have more diverse stuff than breakdowns). Cause in my opinion, people in the industry that view your reel know what's going on, and don't need other than a breakdown sheet to know what you did.


Thanks for the comments

[modernprimitive]

You can always give them an accompanying breakdown on paper - almost like a portfolio, telling them you did this and that on that shot with a few still images - but it's got to look good (perhaps a little booklet that fits inside the DVD box)

[doen]

Yeah, that's also a better way of presenting breakdowns. But it really has to look good. But probably for most companies, even a credit sheet is enough (considering the reel itself is good enough )

[doen]

Okay... I've added some new stuff to the reel and cut out some of the old (repeating) shots. Hopefully this looks better now. It's still a WiP, so some c&c would be nice


Thanks

[dakula74]

odlicno brate posalji koji aep da i ja naucim nesto a mogao bi da napravis i koji trening vidim da rasturas
moj mail dakula74@gmail.com
pozdrav iz srbije