Oliver Cooke - Compositing
Compositing
I have composited using software including Adobe After Effects on the live action/animated show The Makery. Compositing is a skill that I have developed to bring animations to life in live action settings. I have learnt other skills to help with my this such as rendering animations in efferent passes as well as shadow capture and motion tracking.
Behind the Scenes
Shadow Capture
I used a specially shaded plane on a separate render layer to render out the shadow of the squid and the added it with the main render layer and footage in the compositing. I did the shadow on a separate layer so that I could make edits and changes to it such as colour balance and brightness without effecting the squid.
Light and Colour
I make use of my extensive knowledge of light and colour that I have developed from my photography work to edit layers in Adobe After Effects so that animated elements appear grounded in their footage. I use editing techniques such as curves adjustements and adjustment layers to finely tune the exact colours and lighting of the animated layer to perfectly match that of the footage, ensuring that things like the white balance, hue and tone of the layers are consistent. I also make sure to match the footage by referencing the frame-rate and focal length used when recording to make sure the animated elements match the recording. I also will sometimes match footage by slightly blurring or pixelating the animated parts to make them appear properly embedded in the original footage.
As well as compositing in Adobe After Effects, I also have developed an efficient workflow to be used to within 3D software such as Blender, this node based system can be used within the program to efficiently produce composited animation onto footage, this is good for fast concept work and coming up with ideas /shots before fine tuning a final version in programs such as Adobe After Effcects.
Adobe After Effects
I mainly use Adobe After effects to composite my scenes together, adding render layers of the animation with layers for shadow capture and more for image correction of light and colours as well as effects layers e.g smoke, debris. I also make use of the programs's vast array of tools for example the ability to keyframe masks which i used to create an expanding cracking effect in the road in one of the clips as well as by adding camera shake and blur.
Motion Tracking
I use motion tracking to make sure that animations follow the camera movements in the footage. As I have been working in 3D I have done motion tracking within the 3D program to create a fast and efficient worklflow straight into the scene. But I am looking into learning how to extrapolate the motion tracking data in Adobe After Effects and then bring this in to the camera settings withing Maya/Blender's 3D space.
