Author: Mahadev Vipin

This is my final version for the London City Destruction Assignment for Nuke. My focus was to use everything Gonzalo taught us from Term 1, everything from rotoscoping, masking, match moving, adding 3d assets to a scene and even adding fire and smoke and color grading. I’m pretty happy with the way this turned out. Gonzalo liked the work too but had some suggestions on how to make it next level. One suggestion was to add depth to the fire and smoke on the building in the left background as well as to add a bit more elements on the foreground. Overall, he was impressed with the idea of adding spaceships and the intro sequence with voice overs. So this was a fun project to work on and I gained tons of knowledge and experience from this work.

Seafloor Marvels

Title of the Project:

Selecting the title of the project was not a big task for us because our primary motive was to show the beautiful and intriguing creatures that exists at various depths of the ocean. So Seafloor Marvels was the perfect fit for the theme of the project. It further symbolizes how much of an importance marine organisms play in the existence of oceans and the world as such.

Summary of the Project:

We want to show the audience how intriguing and crazy the deep sea world is and at the same time create awareness of the various flora and fauna that can be found at extreme depths. We decided on including different fish which look both interesting and contribute to the important life cycles that occur in the ocean :

• Clownfish: are facing decline due to the decaying of coral reefs, which are where clownfish repopulate.
• Sea turtles: are essential in transporting organisms and nutrients around the ocean. their population has been declining due to human interference.
• Shark: encourage biodiversity and keeps the oceanic food chain in balance.
• Oarfish: interesting looking fish which is considered by myth as “the messenger of the sea”.
• Jellyfish: help maintain balance in the oceans ecosystem by controlling species’ population through feeding
• Whale: they are at the top of the food chain and are essential organisms that contribute to the overall health of ocean life.
• Coral reefs: are essential to marine life, acting as homes for fish underwater organisms. protect coastal areas by reducing the power of waves.
• Surgeonfish: play an important role within coral reefs by grazing on algae to keep it from spreading out of control.
• Anglerfish: bulb on the head to convey the message that ocean life is at risk.

Collaborators and Roles of the Project:

• MAHADEV VIPIN – I was initially tasked with the role of compositor and editor of the project. But further down the road, things changed a bit. I modelled the 3D assets in the opening scene of the project in Maya as well as did the Posters, Title Card, Credit sequence, Compositing and Final Editing of the project.
• CHAY CHOLPAT [MA VFX] – Chay was responsible for creating the opening sequence in Unreal Engine by combining the 3D assets I made. He was also my fellow compositor. He was also assigned with the soundtrack and color correction.
• KEVAN JACOB [MA 3D Animation] – He was tasked with the underwater 3D background.
• CHARBEL SAWAN [MA 2D Animation] – He was tasked with the storyboarding, the sketches and the animation for the fishes.
• AMAAN AHMED – [MA 2D Animation] – He was tasked with the sketches and the animation for the fishes.

PROCESS:

• IDEA:

Camera movement from the surface of the ocean all the way to the bottom in order to showcase the beauty of the flora and fauna. We then reach to the deepest depths of the ocean where we see an angler fish. The angler fish’s light goes out and a message to raise awareness shows up.

The below chart was sort of our reference picture going ahead with the conceptualization of the project.

• STORYBOARD:

The storyboard was done by Charbel from MA 2D Animation. We just wanted a pictorial representation as to which fish fishes or organisms would appear where and how. However some changes were eventually made during the way, we stuck with the basics of the storyboard.

• MEETINGS:

We kicked off our project really slow at the beginning, but we continued to have regular meeting at the end of every week to check the progress of our works. As our teammates had project submissions and proposals, we were unable to have discussions or meetings at the first 2 weeks. But later on, meetings occurred mostly online in a Discord channel, but updates, ideas or suggestions were also shared in our WhatsApp group. During the final stages of our project, we would have regular chats or discussions about changes or suggestions that need to be made in each of our works and then we would try to rectify that as soon as possible and upload the corrected versions. It was definitely an experience working with people of different departments.’

• MY WORK:

I was initially tasked with just the compositing work, but later on things changed. So I had to model the 3D assets on the opening sequence of the project. I modelled the ship in Maya and then shared the fbx export to Chay where he later textured it and added it to the Unreal Engine sequence. I was also in charge of the Project Poster, the Title Card, the Into Sequence and the Credits Sequence. I was also tasked with compositing the 2D and 3D elements together, so me and Chay separated the work amongst us so that it would be easier for both of us to work simultaneously.

This was our final day to submit the balloon festival. And this is my version of it!!

This was the assignment for week 9 of Gonzalos’ class. We had to add elements to the school room using every tool we learned over the past couple of weeks. So, I used Planar tracker node, RotoPaint node, Roto node, Tracker node, Cornerpins, ColorCorrect ode, Transform nodes,etc. I also used camera shake node which was new to me to add sort of a destructive kind of feel. It wasn’t that much of a trouble but due to time constraints (working on Jan project) I couldn’t do much with it.

This was the assignment for Week 8 in Gonzalo’s class. We had to remove the posters from section 1 and 2 and then Planar Track it and then place the pole above the layer. We also had to remove the plain wall and add some graffiti to it. So, I thought about covering the whole wall and place graffiti in it. And then I also added a 3rd poster just because it feels more completed. It was a tough task for me because I was totally confused about it. But the, I figured it out and this is what I came up with. It is not perfect as the background image is not really looking solid and moves around a bit but I think this is a good try and next time I think I can come up with something better for sure!!

This was the assignment for Week 6 in Gonzalo’s class. We had to remove the green screen in the mobile phone and then place images in a way that would move along with the swipe of the lady’s hands. It was a bit tricky doing this and while the output looked good in smaller screens (my phone and laptop), I think looking at the video in the monitor of LCC, there are flaws in it. I think the green spill is not completely removed and I need to work on it while I get any free time. I also used a motion blur node, so the transitions seem smooth to me. Overall, this was a good experiment, and I am starting to get the flow of using NUKE.

This assignment was for WEEK 5. We had to rotoscope the running man as well as track the bridge and then rotoscope it as well. Then we had to check it in alpha and color masked versions of it to deduct any errors. I think it was a fun task but time consuming to a large extent especially the arms, which took me the most time to complete. I did the ROTO in separate parts like Head, Chest, Arms (Left and Right separate) and then Legs (Left and Right separate). Overall, it was a fun task!

This was the second assignment for WEEK 5. We had to rotoscope the mountain. Then we had to check it in alpha and color masked versions of it to deduct any errors. This was easier compared to the running man. This is for the final project Balloon Festival.