Week 9: Harbor x SCAD

03/09/23:

Rendering:

• I began rendering the particles and I created separate render files adding AOVs for the bottle and ground reflections so they can be composited into the final renders.

• Adding the motion blur slowed down my renders a lot and I am getting a lot more failed frames than before. So a lot of re-rendering is going to be needed for the failed frames.

• I was able to get a majority of the particle-rendered frames up as well as about half of the bottle reflection frames up so Hailey can start compositing them.

• I am also rendering the reflections of the particles on the bottle as well as on the ground so Hailey can comp them in.

---

03/08/23:

Render to Comp Comparisons:

• A lot of the issues we were having were issues that could be fixed in comp or were not caused by the Houdini renders. To figure out exactly what needed to be fixed in comp versus what needed to be re-rendered. I asked Hailey if she could create comps of each shot before any post effects are added so we could make sure to only change things in render that needed to be changed. Below are the comps without any post-editing.

Shot 2:

Shot 3:

Shot 4:

• Based on these comps I was able to see that I do not need to edit the color or the lighting of the particles and that the same depth of field wasn't being applied to the particles as it was to the background flowers and that was one of the reasons it looked very disconnected in last weeks comp.

• For this week the only edits I am making to the particle render is I am adding motion blur and trails to the particles and creating reflection render layers for the bottle and the ground so the particles feel more integrated.

---

03/07/2023:

Today we had our final critique with our mentors before the final project is submitted and were able to receive a lot of great feedback.

Shot 2:

• Depth of field/ defocus feels off check distances and make center flowers more in focus, balance depth of field in between layers

• Maybe add a subtle vignette to bring the eye toward the center

• Pull-up contrast on flowers

• Add more depth of field ( foreground flowers very in focus, background flowers very out of focus)

• Add motion blur to the flowers that are moving

Shot 3:

• Check the rack focus, stay focused on the flowers for longer then rack them into the bottle once it is more in view

• Add more blooming animation to the flowers in the beginning, make more noticeable

• Cut ease in and ease out, making it a more fluid motion revealing more of the bottle in the end

• Add depth of field to the bottle

• Glint feels too hot and too static, as the camera moves the glint should change shape, (use a glint node in nuke, can use several glint nodes and mix them together) reference a sun peaking over the horizon

Shot 4:

• Particles need the same depth of field treatment as the flowers

• The particle's black levels/ contrast feel more intense than the flowers

• Particles need more trails/motion blur to feel more fluid, (time echo or trails node)

• The background flowers feel very muted in comparison to the first shot, carrying the same true white values, from shot 2 to shot 4

Logo:

• Cropping issue with blur overlay

• Add more graceful ease in and ease out