FINAL COMPOSITING AND SOUND EDITING

FINAL COMPOSITING 

It has been quite a tough few days in compositing as we have twelve shots to finish and most of them requires loads of vfx.

LIFT SCENE

First of all this lift scene is a complete remake that I did using 2D layers because of the lack of tracking data as it opens.

I divided the 2D layers from one still frame of the raw footage. 2 for the lift doors and 1 BG layer. These layers have different distances in the z axis, the lift doors are slightly ahead from where my camera was positioned. Remembering my research on matte painting, I was able to apply it in this shot to save me a lot of time and i believe it provided more efficiency in handling my renders. I positioned my robot somewhere in between the BG and the FG (lift doors).

Note that every imported items in after effects have different interpretations, a problem I faced here is that when you import sequences, it usually sets to 30 fps, remember to interpret it and set it to 25.
How to do it:
Click on the imported item and press (Ctrl+Alt+G) and it will bring you to this box.

LENS BURST AND FLARE

 Initially, I wanted to do a JJ Abram's like Lens flare in his Star Trek films but then I decided to make one on my own. Let me briefly explain how I did it.

USING 2 solids

 1. make a solid in the color of your flare, mask them twice rectangularly  and feather them
2. make another white solid, this for the highlight of the flare later

 3. create a black solid adding a Lens Flare on it as stated and blur it, set the solid transfer mode as "Add"

 4. play with the Flare Brightness and center and see the how it intensifies the flare.

 5. Find a simple lens dust type texture and Screen it, you can tweak it with Curves to have some complexities too!

FOOT SCENE SPECULAR BREAKDOWN

 the shot is very still, with the camera laying on the floor. Originally there's a specular cast on the floor but since the foot was there, we have to activate it and deactivate it.

 PHOTOSHOP

 1. I made a copy of the BG layer and cone stamped it mimic the the normal floor without any specular

 2. I went to the channels of the original BG, select Magic wand, zoom in, right click select similar, and grow. Before you do this, first find the BLUE channel or any channels you find that exposes the specular out. use the selection as a mask and apply it above the BGS.

3. In AfterFx, just tweak the activation of this specular by using opacity or masking is such as that it mimics the shadow of the foot revealing it.

 MUZZLE FLASHES

With the help of Action Essentials 2, I'm able to composite it stock footages of muzzle flashes, and composite it in realistically.

1. First track the muzzle using afterfx tracking tools, target it to the null and then parent your muzzle flash in it!

2. After adjusting and tweaking your muzzle flash, duplicate it and scale it big and set Overlay as the transfer mode. Blur it. The reason for this is to set the lighting the area in sync with the flash. (illuminating)

3. For the other scene, I kept the scaled and blurred muzzle flash on the left side to show continuity

4. Apply the muzzle flashes you made, Ctrl+Shift+C it to Precompose and just duplicate it here but make sure it's out of sync from the muzzle flashes on the left!

5. Same goes for the Robot, explore on different stock footages you have and composite but make sure you credit in the end.

 BLOOD GUSH

1. Adjust and be creative on masking and timing of the blood as it squirts upon hit.

2. Make sure it's placed of where it should be, you might need to let it stay on the same spot as the man falls.

SPRAY

SOUND FX

Sound fx is the last phase of compositing i made, I made sure that the sounds really ets the mood and covers the backbone of our film. I took robot sounds from Luke's research and composited everything. There's just so much layer of sounds, I focused more on continuity, distance and depth. For example, a cut of the robot walking, the sound is evident, fairly loud but when it cuts on the henchmen, it's very faint. I want to make the kind of depth and spatial relation tot he viewer. If it's close, it's loud, if it's far, it's fairly fainter.

Another step I explored is the panning of the L R of the sound. This is about how the sound travels from your left ear to fair then to the right ear. I did this visually, to show an extended depth of just what you see or say that you are the camera; you are standing quite far in different cuts, which sound is dominant on your left ear? is it the gun fire? or the robot's mechanical turns? these are the things I considered to make it believable.