2015
Lynda
Steve Wright
2:20
English

Practice your NUKE compositing skills while you build something truly out of this world: an alien portal. In this project, VFX compositing guru Steve Wright uses footage shot with a RED camera, a CG-rendered character, and a matte painting—assets included with the exercise files. He composites the character into the scene, and then uses camera tracking to create a solve for laying in the portal and portal rays—effects created from scratch with NUKE's Noise node. Finally, he shows how to color correct the shot and add interactive lighting effects.
Each step of the process is rich in valuable production techniques, but is best for artists who are already familiar with NUKE. For more training on the basics, see Nuke X Essential Training.

Introduction
Welcome
Using the exercise files
1. Mantis Layers
Compositing the mantis
Adding the mantis shadows
Pillar holdout matte
2. Camera Tracking
Camera tracking preparations
Camera tracking
Placing the line-up card
3. Portal Rays
Creating the portal ray animation
3D render of the portal rays
Adding gravity waves
4. Portal
Creating the inner ring animation
Creating the outer ring animation
Adding the portal city
3D render of the portal effect
Trimming the portal to the ground
5. Interactive Lighting
Creating a high-density point cloud
Lining up the pillar card
Creating a stabilized preview
Creating the pillar masks
Adding the pillar lighting
Adding the ground glow
6. Flashing Red Light
Creating the flashing light animation
Flashing light on the mantis
Animating the flashes
7. Finishing the Shot
Final mantis color and glow effects
Adding the blue ceiling light
Final touches

Download File Size:513.08 MB

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