Week 1

Introduction to compositing in Nuke

Assemble multiple assets and make them appear to have been filmed with the same camera, at the same time.

Throughout this module we will work with:

• Rotoscoping
• Keyers and Alpha Channel
• Transforms and 2D Tracking
• Distortion
• Color Science and Grading
• Cleanup and Patches

We did some exercises with the merge node.

For this image we were given layers out of order and we had to merge them in the correct order.

For this image we were given different key layers and had to merge them together to get a good keying of the FG image. 

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Week 2

Rotoscoping

This week we worked on rotoscoping. We did a few exercises with different shots and objects to rotoscope.

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Week 4

• • • Todays lesson is Keying

Luma Key

Exercise 1

 

Exercise 2

 

Keylight

Exercise 1

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Week 5

• • Grading and Color Correction

Exercise 1

How to color match FG to BG

 

Exercise 2

Grading a patch over time

 

Exercise 3

Masking the grade node

 

Exercise 4

Color matching multiple layers

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Week 6

• • 2D and 3D tracking

2D Tracking

1 point track (Transform)

The roto shape that the script came with didn’t show up as it was supposed to. I didn’t spend time trying to fix that issue as it wasn’t relevant for what we were learning today. To track the scene I firstly plugged the track node into the BG plate, then chose a high contrast area with a good pattern in the area I needed the track. When I got a nice track I just plugged it into the roto shapes and the shape was tracked.

 

2 point track (Transform and Rotation)

For this track there was rotation in the scene. So we tracked two points in roughly the same area to gather more data for the track since there is rotation. We checked the T and R on the trackers and then applied it to a simple roto node. Important to remember to change the transform to match move (or something else if that’s more relevant to the scene) and the reference frame.

 

Planar tracking

Exercise 1

 

 

Exercise 2

 

Fixing a broken script

Exercise

 

Week 7

• Cleanup and patches

RotoPaint

We learned about the rotopaint node. We played around with the paintbrush with settings such as opacity, color and hardness. In addition, we played around with reveal which is painting the background image into the image.

 

Exercise 

Marker removal

In this exercise we removed the markers on the green screen. We start by tracking our marker and set the settings to our reference frame and match move. Next we used the clone tool in RotoPaint node to mark over the marker at the reference frame we set earlier. Lastly we add the animated transform and center from the tracker to the transform and center on the clone in rotopaint. On two of the ones on the outer edges they disappeared from the screen at some point in the clip. What I did to fix that was track until it disappears, and then I adjusted the lifetime of the patch the rotopaint to a few frames after the track ends. The reason why there are two trackers is because the one out of frame on the left side I had to set a different reference frame, so I created a new tracker node for that.

 

Exercise

Creating a patch and removing person

Firstly I removed the man at the beginning of the shot. The first thing I did was create a framehold on the frame after he disappears, then created a patch with the roto node and copied that in. Then premult out the patch and add a track so it matches the scene.

Lastly, at the end of the scene the woman walks into the patch. I added a multiply node and used it as a switch for the patch. I used keyframes and set the multiply from 1-0 when she enters so the patch disappears.

 

Exercise

Grain and denoise

We started by denoising the image with a denoise node. Then we added a grain node to that. We then selected the grain node in one viewer and the original image in one viewer and used a wipe to have side by side comparison. We then adjusted the grain in the RGB channels to match the original image as much as possible.

After we were happy with the grain we added it into the pipeline for the patch and put on apply to alpha setting on grain node.

 

Week 8

• • Recap

Exercise 1

Creating a patch and tracking it to a plane

First thing we do is creating a roto shape for the logo. Then we use that roto to create a planar track. Then we create a framehold on your reference frame. We then use rotopaint to clean up the patch. Next we roto out the logo again with a basic shape. Use blur to blend it better. Then premult that patch out. Then added the tracking we did to that.

 

Exercise 2

Adding a logo

Used a transform and corner pin to adjust it to fit on the box. Then used grade and saturation node to blend the luminance, colors and saturation with the scene. Lastly a defocus node to get it blurred like in the scene.

 

Exercise 3

Cleanup and Keying

First step was to track the markers. Then we used rotopaint to clean them up. Roto to draw an outline of the markers. Then added the track to that so it moves with the scene.

The next step was the keying process. We use one keylight for the core key, so get the core alpha nice and opaque. Then we have the edge key which is getting nice edges, like around the hair. We then use the filter erode node to adjust between the two. Then add a despill to remove the green despill on the edges.

In the garbage matte we used a basic roto shape to remove the stuff around the character that you don’t need. Add the tracker here as well so it moves with the camera. Then a basic grade just to make it look nicer.

Lastly added a constant color as background.