Chris Weingart • Flame Artist

Another shot breakdown from the Nissan Patrol commercial. It’s similar in nature as the previous post, but the clean-up work for this one was a bit more involved. As the first take is rarely the best one, this shot was full of tire tracks that needed to be removed. Very fine sand detail needed to be preserved (and restored). I created a single frame clean plate at 8K by stabilizing the plate, running it through RecursiveOps, and painting out the tire tracks. For this method to work, the stabilization needed to be 100% perfect. So once again, stabilization with camera projection on 3D geometry was the key to success. I created the geometry for the ground with an extended bicubic, snapping its vertices to the locators I received from Tracking. I projected the plate through the tracked camera and rendered a static camera from around the middle of the shot with 200% overscan, which was just enough to cover the whole movement of the car. With the help of RecursiveOps set to Max/Lighten, I created a single frame with the texture from the whole shot. With a bit of careful painting, utilizing frequency separation, the clean plate was done and could be reprojected through the tracked camera. For a credible night shot, the specular highlights on the car needed to be removed. Once again, projection baking came in handy. This way, I only needed to paint out the highlights in one frame, project that on the tracked car and combine it with the original. With a simple luma key for the highlights, the two versions could be nicely blended. For the headlights, I applied the same rig that I showed in the previous post: a combination of the actual LED geometry, multiple Action lights, and Action Rays. Ask me anything! Nissan Patrol “Intelligence With Attitude” directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign 3D by Celluloid VFX #vfx #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #vfxnews #makingofmovies #behindthescenes🎬 #compositing #3danimation #3dsmax #krakatoa #vray #wireframe #particles #dayfornight #setextension #matchmove #3dtracking #objecttracking #cameraprojection #droneshots #djiinspire2 #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #vfxartist #flameartist

A more in-depth look at one of the shots I did for the Nissan Patrol commercial, which required the removal of the leading car, day for night conversion and compositing of the “wireframe” 3D car. Once again, the car geometry and a good match move is the basis for almost everything I did. Projection baking/UV tracking is one of the many most welcome (and long overdue) additions to the Flame toolset in recent years. I projected a freeze frame, right before the sand swirls up in front of the car, on the moving car geo, which then allowed me to to a difference key for the sand. It was one of those moments where I was like “Holy s#*t, this works!!”, that working with Flame is all about for me. The headlights are a combination of the actual LED geometry (as the source for a few glows and glints), multiple Action lights (illuminating the ground geo), and Action Rays (for volumetric light beams). Once set up, this rig could easily be applied to a dozen other shots. I’m not showing it in the breakdown, but the reflection/light bounce from the 3D car was done by projecting the final comp back on the car geo and rendering Stingray Reflections. Yes, they’re pretty crappy, but sometimes they do come in handy. Too bad the technology was killed off by Autodesk, so it will probably never be improved. Ask me anything! Nissan Patrol “Intelligence With Attitude” directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign 3D by Celluloid VFX #visualeffects #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #vfxnews #makingofmovies #behindthescenes🎬 #cinematography #compositing #3dcompositing #3danimation #3dsmax #krakatoa #vray #wireframe #particles #dayfornight #setextension #matchmove #3dtracking #objecttracking #cameraprojection #arrialexamini #ultraprime #vfxfinishing #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #vfxartist #flameartist @autodesk_me

“Just remove the car”, they said. “It’ll be easy”, they said. (They didn’t actually say that. 😄) . Two cars were filmed racing each other. We turned one of them into a semi-transparent 3D wireframe. The removal of the car required multiple projections in each shot, on lots of planes and rough environment geometry. Also, being able to “bake” projections on the tracked car geo came in very handy. With this feature, which was brand new at the time, I could “freeze” a projected texture at a frame before (or after) the car moved behind the other car. Ask me anything! Nissan Patrol “Intelligence With Attitude” directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign 3D by Celluloid VFX #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #beforeandaftervfx #makingofmovies #compositing #3dcompositing #3danimation #3dsmax #krakatoa #vrayrender #wireframe #particles #desertshots #cityshots #nightshots #dayfornight #carbeauty #setextension #matchmove #cameratracking #objecttracking #cameraprojection #arrialexamini #ultraprime #vfxfinishing #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist @autodesk_me

Another nice use case for projection on tracked geometry. We needed more space in front of the car for the pedestrians and sensoring visualization, so I had to create a new camera, on top of the original matchmove. Having an object track along with the car geo, the car could be easily projected back into the scene. We got away with quite a bit of perspective change. I used the car geo also to pre-process Object ID, Normal and Position passes for any comp, color, relighting and projection work without having to carry the fairly heavy fbx through the iterations. Nissan Altima “My Path Is My Path”. directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #beforeandaftervfx #makingofmovies #compositing #3dcompositing #redshift #carbeauty #carretouching #matchmove #cameratracking #objecttracking #cameraprojection #trackingmarkers #arrialexamini #vfxfinishing #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist @autodesk_me

The luxury of having 3D geometry and a perfect matchmove. Next level stabilization for convenient clean-up work being only one of the countless possibilities for compositing. Nissan Altima “My Path Is My Path”. . post production @velvetmediendesign matchmove by Christoph Gaudl/Parallaxman . . . . . #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #beforeandaftervfx #compositing #carbeauty #carretouching #stabilization #matchmove #cameratracking #objecttracking #trackingmarkers #arrialexamini #vfxfinishing #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist

Nothing but LOVE for the Flame planar tracker! Inverted planar tracks are super powerful for clean-up work, as done here for Nissan Altima “My Path Is My Path”. . post production @velvetmediendesign . . . . . #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #beforeandaftervfx #compositing #carbeauty #carretouching #planartrack #planartracking #stabilization #arrialexamini #vfxfinishing #flamefinishing #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist

More practical water fun for Mizone “Tilted World” . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign 3D cactus by Stormborn Studios 3D bubbles by @nico.icecream . . . . . #commercial #beforeandafter #compositing #packshot #productshots #stabilization #rigremoval #motioncontrol #phantomcamera #liquidshoot #highspeedshoot #autodeskflame #finishing #compositingartist #flameartist

Planar tracker, 3D Shape, Substance PBR, Stingray Reflections, Distort tool and good old Extended Bicubics put to good use in this product shot for Mizone “Tilted World” . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign . . . . . #commercial #vfxbreakdown #compositing #packshot #productshots #stabilization #rigremoval #motioncontrol #phantomcamera #liquidshoot #highspeedshoot #autodeskflame #finishing #compositingartist #flameartist

Fun stabilization/projection/retime comp for Mizone “Tilted World” . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign additional clean-up work by Lene Martens . . . . . #commercial #vfxbreakdown #compositing #motioncontrol #cameratracking #cameraprojection #stabilization #skyreplacement #rigremoval #arrialexamini #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist

Another iconic comp shot for Lexus LX Black Vision - Bad Boys . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign . . . . . #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #compositing #dayfornight #monochromatic #mattepainting #skyreplacement #dramaticskies #timelapse #arrialexamini #anamorphiclens #hawkanamorphic #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist

Plenty of drama in these two comp shots for Lexus LX Black Vision - Bad Boys . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign . . . . . #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #compositing #dayfornight #monochromatic #cameratracking #mattepainting #setextension #skyreplacement #timelapse #anamorphiclens #hawkanamorphic #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist

Dark and moody composition for Lexus LX Black Vision - Bad Boys . directed by @matthias.zentner post production @velvetmediendesign . . . . . #carcommercial #vfxbreakdown #compositing #dayfornight #monochromatic #cameratracking #cameraprojection #mattepainting #setextension #skyreplacement #timelapse #anamorphiclens #hawkanamorphic #autodeskflame #compositingartist #flameartist