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THE BAG CHOICE
VFX Breakdown (Mahadev Vipin)- The Bag Choice
Synopsis:
Two friends, Minghan and Mahadev, sit at a coffee shop discussing the use of plastic vs. reusable bags. Minghan prefers the convenience of plastic, while Mahadev stresses the environmental benefits of reusable bags. Mahadev imagines two contrasting futures: a dystopian city overrun with plastic waste and a beautiful, thriving forest resulting from sustainable choices. Inspired by Mahadev’s vision, Minghan decides to switch to reusable bags. The story highlights the importance of small, eco-friendly choices in preserving the planet.
Motive:
The primary motive of the story “The Bag Choice” is to promote environmental awareness and responsibility. The narrative encourages individuals to consider the broader impact of their everyday choices, particularly the use of plastic versus reusable bags. It seeks to illustrate the significant environmental benefits of making small, sustainable choices.
Moral of the Story:
The story’s moral is that individual actions collectively have a substantial impact on the environment, no matter how small they seem. By choosing reusable bags over plastic ones, people can contribute to reducing pollution, protecting wildlife, and preserving the planet for future generations. The story emphasizes that mindful, environmentally friendly choices are crucial for a sustainable future.
*Submitted on 4th of July, 10:15 am
Critical Reflection and Project Outcome
Overview
The VFX project aimed to create a realistic, high-impact visual sequence by integrating live-action footage with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Our goal was to push the boundaries of realism while keeping the story and visuals consistent and engaging.
Challenges and Solutions
- Technical Challenges:
- Complex CGI Integration: Combining live-action footage with CGI was difficult, especially when trying to achieve smooth transitions and matching lighting.
- Solution: I used Nuke for 3D camera tracking and high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) to capture real-world lighting, ensuring CGI elements blended perfectly with the live footage, without having any lighting issues.
- Heavy Nodes and Script Bloat: The use of several nodes made the Nuke script very large and complex, which led to severe lags in it. The use of a simple node took twice the time to load.
- Solution: For my portions, I created a separate Nuke file and did my works separately as my computer could not bear the load Nuke was taking. If I used the same files, my computer would have burst into flames leaving me at a standstill. So, at least something is better than nothing, thus I worked separately on my portions and then zipped them up to share them with Sakshi for the final composition.
- Complex CGI Integration: Combining live-action footage with CGI was difficult, especially when trying to achieve smooth transitions and matching lighting.
- Inconsistent File Naming Conventions
- Inconsistent file naming conventions led to difficulty in managing and locating assets, especially when dealing with numerous files and iterations.
- Impact:
- Time Wastage: Team members spent extra time searching for specific files.
- Organizational Chaos: Files were often misplaced or duplicated, causing disorganization and confusion.
- Solution: We established a standardized file naming convention and organizational structure. This ensured that all files were named and stored consistently, making them easier to find and manage.
- Impact:
- Inconsistent file naming conventions led to difficulty in managing and locating assets, especially when dealing with numerous files and iterations.
Learning Outcomes
- Technical Skills: I feel like the constant use of software like Nuke and Maya has increased my familiarity to the software and its features, especially the nodes in Nuke. Nuke was a fairly new software for me because I’ve worked with Maya in the past. So, learning Nuke was a bit challenging for me at first, because it was the first time I’ve used a node-based software. But after working for a while now, I feel confident in using Nuke.
- Problem-Solving: The project has definitely enhanced my ability to troubleshoot technical issues and come up with creative solutions for it.
- Project Management: The importance of detailed planning and effective resource management was reinforced, highlighting the need for strong project management practices in future projects.
Future Applications
Looking ahead, the skills and experiences gained from this project will be invaluable for my future endeavors in VFX. The advanced compositing techniques, especially 3D camera tracking and match moving, have significantly broadened my technical capabilities, allowing me to tackle more complex projects with confidence. I now have a better understanding of how to effectively integrate CGI with live-action footage, which will be crucial in creating more immersive and visually stunning sequences. Additionally, the lessons learned about the importance of clear communication and thorough pre-production planning will guide me in managing future projects more efficiently, ensuring that objectives are aligned and workflows are streamlined. With these enhanced skills and insights, I am well-equipped to take on more ambitious projects, push the boundaries of what can be achieved with visual effects, and deliver high-quality, cohesive final products.
Personal Reflection
Overall, I am somewhat disappointed with the way the project turned out. The initial idea and the final composition ended up being quite different. I feel we could have included more VFX to enhance the project. There was also some communication gap between team members, which might have contributed to the issues we faced.
On the positive side, this project has significantly improved my skills in compositing techniques, especially 3D camera tracking and match moving. It has also helped me understand my abilities better, revealing what I am good at and areas where I need improvement.
I believe that with better communication and a clearer vision, we could have produced an even better final product. This experience has taught me the importance of clear communication and having a well-defined picture of the project goals from the start.
Post-Production:
My Part of VFX Work:
So the next part was the main part of this project, dividing the VFX work between the four of us. For the VFX part of our script, we had to create two separate looks; one was a polluted, destroyed, uninhabitable city and the other was a green, sustainable, vibrant and pleasant city. Since our group had 4 people, we decided to split into 2 groups of 2 people. Me and Yifang were responsible for the polluted city and Minghan and Sakshi for the green city. Yifang took initiative to create a simulation of a building being destroyed with smoke particles and I took initiative to 3D track the scene, create 3D models of plastic bags and garbage, match-move the 3D models, add them to the scene along with color correction, grading and adding shadows and then sending the my work to Sakshi, who would then composite everything together. I planned to download the 3D models of the garbage from Sketchfab and then I took initiative to edit the final video and add sound effects and color grade them.
3D Tracking the scene – NUKE:
For the 3D Tracking of the scene, I used Nuke. I thought it was easier to track in Nuke and since we have had classes from Gonzalo on it as well as my experience using 3D camera Tracker in Nuke for my assignments, I was confident in doing it. So I used the CameraTracker [3D] node in Nuke to track the footage, then checked the points and then deleted the unsolved and rejected track points to create a clean 3D Tracker output. Then I created a Scene from those tracked points along with a camera. I used a WriteGeo nod to export the .fbx format output for the render.
3D Match Moving – MAYA:
I used Maya to match move the 3D models with the footage. I downloaded the 3D models of garbage bags and plastic bottles from Sketchfab. After that I imported the .FXB export of the tracked data into Maya. I created an image plane and then imported the image sequence of the footage that had to be match-moved. To be really honest, I love match-moving 3D models into a live action footage. I placed the 3D models where it needed to be. To add depth and shadows, I added a normal plane under the 3D models to make it look realistic. I also added an Arnold SkyDome light and then added an HDRI downloaded from PolyHaven. The HDRI was of a sunny park environment which sort of matched the whole lighting setup of our footage. I then proceeded to render the whole thing. I used Arnold Render to render the scene. The settings were changed up a bit. I set the format to .exr and then adjusted the start frame and end frame to match our footage. I shifted the renderable camera from Perspective to Camera1 which was the exported camera from Nuke. Then I changed the resolution from preset HD_540 to HD_1080. Finally I set the location for my export and then rendered the whole sequence. The whole export took a bit of time, but I was quite happy with the result and the output.
3D Models Credit:
- https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/garbage-bag-white-lowpoly-77d0b3be9e2d4f7db60c5bdef05188b2
- https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/trash-bags-scan-47f19fd492fc4707bf3222c697dcbaca
- https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/bottle-of-water-48fd4f6e90d84d89b5740ee78587d0ff
Compositing – NUKE:
My next task was to composite everything together, i.e., add my 3D models to the scene along with Yifang’s rendering of destruction of building simulation. Once I started doing it, I realized that Yifang’s render had some problems which I couldn’t do anything with. The main problem was the texture of the building. The building was grey in color whereas the rest of the buildings in the live action footage were red or orange-ish. As I didn’t know how to change color of an entire render in comp, I consulted Minghan also who suggested to tell Yifang to re-render the building with texture matching the scene as that would be much easier for all of us. So I told Yifang to re-render the simulation. Also I noted the smoke render had some problems as well, for example, the smoke looked a bit too flat and the edges had some glitches. Yifang told me she would correct the mistakes and re-render them as soon as she can. Meanwhile I worked on color-grading and color-correcting the 3D models to match the colors of the scene.
After some discussions with my team members, we decided that I would be tasked with creating fire, smoke and destruction elements to the rest of the buildings in the scene and then I would hand over my export of 3D models of the garbage and the additions to Sakshi, who would be responsible for the final comp. So my task was to work on adding the fire and other assets to the scene. For this, I thought of using the assets Gonzalo shared with us for our London Destruction assignment.
I finished up my work which involved 3D tracking the scene in Nuke, adding the 3D models to Maya, match moving them and then exporting them from Maya and importing them to Nuke to color grade them. I also took liberty to composite some Png of cracks to the walls by tracking them manually and also added a smoke and fire simulation from one of Gonzalos’ file. But unfortunately, they did not make the final composition. They were discarded.
My work that came in the final output
My work that was discarded
Rough Edit:
After wrapping up our shoot, Minghan shared the footages that same night. So since I was a bit too curious to see how the final product would look like, I made a really quick and rough edit the same night in Premiere Pro. For the voice-over, I added he recorded clip from iPhone Voice Memo. The voice was a bit too hazy and clouded and the dialogues were not audible. So, I added some audio effects and controls and reduced background noise and increased the voice of dialogues and that made a great improvement. But eliminating background noise completely made it look really fake and artificial, so I downloaded some sound effects of city noise and ambiences along with honking horns effects and footsteps and edited them to the footage. I also made some really rough color corrections, as the footages were a bit over saturated and bright, so I corrected them and also graded them minutely. The rough draft, to be honest, looked much better than what I was expecting, including our acting and dialogue delivery.
Production:
Shoot:
After our somewhat lengthy pre-production phase, we decided to kickstart our production. So the primary thing to do is to shoot the footage. So, for that, we had to find a location that was a café which our script demanded. I had researched a couple of cafes in Central London to shoot, and our primary choice was Nonos near King’s Cross. The time for shoot was planned in the morning around 10-10.30 am. The weather was too cold and cloudy which was a gift from heaven as we’re potentially showing something related to a bad or dark theme, so a cloudy weather was a pretty good setup. We arrived one by one and after all four of us arrived, Minghan was too hungry and we had some food, which, again I would consider a good thing because we got to interact with the staff and manager who were really friendly. We asked them for permission if we could have an hour or so to shoot our project and they were quite happy to help anyway possible. After having our food, we kickstarted our production.
The camera we had was a Canon 6D that Minghan had rented from LCC for shooting his personal project. We did not use any tripods for our shoot nor any microphones. Me and Minghan were the actors and the dialogues were too lengthy to shoot the entire thing in one take. Minghan suggested to take separate shots involving one dialogue and then cut them in post, but Sakshi suggested that we try to take the whole thing in one take to ensure continuity in movements and emotions. So, we decided to take it in one shot. First, we captured Minghan’s portions by keeping the camera positioned Over my shoulder with a dirty frame and then my portions with another Over The Shoulder of Minghan with a clean frame. Although we had several takes to eventually get hold of it, we somehow managed to finish our dialogues and portions well. For the first shot, I thought we could sort of capture a scene where I walk with a paper bag and Minghan with a plastic bag and then sort of shoot it like the camera focusing on our hands, the bags and our legs with a Medium Close up type of shot. And for the next shot, we wanted to establish our location, so we captured a long shot of the café Nonos from opposite the street. The dialogues were recorded in an iPhone using the Voice Memo app. The initial idea was to give voice over in the post-production phase.
Overall, I think the shoot went pretty well and since we were all inexperienced in shooting an actual film, we did find some difficulties initially. But teamwork makes dreamwork!!
Screen Grabs From our Footage
The Crew
Pre-Production:
Idea:
The Bag Choice is the title we have given for our group project for Term 2- Explorative Practice. The team includes my classmates Minghan, Sakshi and Yifang. We had to choose from 3 themes : Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusivity. As soon as we formed a group, we had decided to do something related to sustainability, yet we didn’t know what to focus on. After several discussions, ideas and brainstorming sessions, we decided to do a video related to the harmful impact of plastic and plastic-related products(Bags, cans, bottles) and how our world may potentially react to it further down the road.
Motive: The primary motive of the story “The Bag Choice” is to promote environmental awareness and responsibility. The narrative aims to encourage individuals to consider the broader impact of their everyday choices, particularly the use of plastic versus reusable bags. It seeks to illustrate the significant environmental benefits of making small, sustainable choices.
Moral: The moral of the story is that individual actions, no matter how small they seem, collectively have a substantial impact on the environment. By choosing reusable bags over plastic ones, people can contribute to reducing pollution, protecting wildlife, and preserving the planet for future generations. The story emphasizes that mindful, environmentally-friendly choices are crucial for a sustainable future.
Storyboard and Draft Idea:
My Idea 2: (Rejected)
The video is an extract from the movie 2040, a 2019 Australian documentary film directed by and starring Damon Gameau. The film looks at the effects of climate change over the next 20 years and what technologies that exist today can reverse the effects. So I had planned something similar to do as I really loved the film’s use of VFX and CGI. This is something Minghan also was planning to do, something more FX related. But unfortunately, we could not come up with a story that could involve the use of VFX and convey Sustainability under the timeframe of 1 minute. So after several discussions, this idea was eventually dropped too.
My Initial Idea: (Rejected)
This was my initial idea to showcase something related to Inclusivity. The idea was to shoot the environments as live footage and then animate a 3D character and add it to the scene. But after several discussions with teammates and Manos, this idea was dropped.