Here is the tutorial I followed to accomplish this track. This tutorial covers how to set up the Maya camera to match the camera that took the photo, match perspective, basic geometry and projection.
And here’s my attempt.
It’s safe to say that everything within this from a forward glance looks good. The model geometry works well with the projected image. However, more can be added.
The chimney projects onto the rooftop too so I would need to chop up the image in photoshop to project the chimney separately.
I could potentially look more into being more accurate with the tools also adding objects for cones in the scene, or just removing them in photoshop to clean up the image.
Overall to improve this I think relies mostly on editing the image in Photoshop.
Maya 2017 – your first day in Maya is a brilliant tutorial that allowed me to transfer the little skills I had from blender across to Maya. Although he’s working on 3d text, seeing how he manipulates the models in differnet ways allows me to transfer those skills to other modelling techniques in Maya
Here is a list of software I could potentially use for my showreel.
After Effects
Premier
Maya
Blender
Nuke
Substance Painter
Adobe After Effects:
What can it do that I need:
Camera Tracking, 2d and 3d work compositing, easy to use am familiar with how to use
What is it no good for:
3D modelling, Camera mapping is too limited, not currently what the visual effects industry use, high accuracy tracking.
Notes:
After effects is a very easy and quick program to use but lacks the depth I would need to create industry-standard images. However, it works extremely well as a compositor for my final renders and potentially pricing my showreel together.
Adobe Premiere:
What can it do that I need:
Piecing together footage for the final showreel
What is it no good for:
Everything else
Notes:
Good for piecing every shot together at the end, not much else. Sometimes used within the visual effects industry, however, most likely nuke will be used.
Autodesk Maya:
What can it do that I need:
3D modelling, camera mapping, texturing
What is it no good for:
Tracking
Notes:
Maya is industry standard when it comes to its features. The camera mapping ability Maya has is relatively easy to use in comparison to other software. While I have used Blender I have not used Maya so I will have to learn the software.
Blender:
What can it do that I need:
Everything, Free to use.
What is it no good for:
It’s a jack of all trades master of some. Updates could potentially affect my work.
Notes:
Despite blender being able to do everything, it’s updates are constant and is not reliable enough to be used within the industry. However, blender has multiple features I want to use such as its camera tracking tools.
Nuke:
What can it do that I need:
Composite, create the final showreel, camera tracking.
What is it no good for:
Has a limited free trial version that may affect features I need, I have never used nuke and would have to learn the software.
Notes:
Will have to look into a lot of what it can do to decide if it’s worth my time learning it. The trial version could make it unusable in certain areas for me however as it is industry standard and can accomplish a lot of features i am needing it is still a potentially useful software to use.
Substance Painter:
What can it do that I need:
Texturing
What is it no good for:
Bringing the uncharted series gameplay back.
Notes:
I have used substance painter before and the detail of textures that can be created are extremely high quality.
Special Mention: Autodesk Matchmove
Due to this software being unreliable and no longer supported, it is too much of a risk to use for camera tracking.
The first Matchmove showreel by Jiuk Han Choi. Show his matchmove skills and composition skills with various different shots.
His showreel starts by showing his footage with cones of his tracking. To instantly get across his ability to track. through his breakdowns later he shows how he added 3D models and CGI elements into the shots he has track to bring about a realistic finish.
He uses Maya, Photoshop, After Effects and Nuke, which are all options i need to look into for my own project.
He also uses Autodesk Mudbox which is a sculpting and painting tool for 3d models.
3D equaliser which is a tracking software used within professional studios, especially as the cost
HDR shop, which is used for creating, viewing and manipulating high dynamic range manipulators
Mental Ray is a 3d Model Renderer
Jiuk is a Junior Matchmover/Junior VFX TD Generalist. And his shots show and incredible level of accuracy that i strive to have within my own work, the issue however is that I will not have access to the same software as him due to the cost of the software he uses.
The shot with the bridge most likely makes use of the HDR shop tools to allow it to accurately blend in with the environment.
The most amatuer shot out of all is the bottle break. This is mostly due to the animation and simulation of the bottle breaking not flowing well within the video. The end of the shot looks real when the glass settles but the bits in-between are obvious CG. The tracking however is spot on especially with little to work with.
The next Matchmove and compositing showreel by Mohanad Turman.
Compared to the first one this showreel is far more amateur in shot comparison. Every shot within this has a very CG feel and while technically photo realistic, this is the lowest standard i want to hold myself.
The shot with the bowl is tracked well but the lighting does not work with the environment
The city tracking is tracked well and grid placement is solid.
the shot inside the car is a bad track. The tracking markers on the rear view mirror shakes all over, the car can also been seen moving away from the wireframe he has made.
The best shot is of the 2 people infant of the window. The track is solid and the rotoscoping is seamless.
The final shot of the robot has a clean track thanks to the many tracking markers, but in my further research, did he use too many. The clean up for that many markers must have added much more time onto the development of the shot if more planning was used before hand.
This video shows the overall workflow for a Camera/projecting mapping shot.
It starts with the original image being isolated into serval layers depending on distance. Which is most likely why mountains are used the most within projection mapping.
In this video he adds some extra details into the image before building a 3d model of the image.
Finally the image is projected onto the 3d models as a texture that a camera can move around and through.
This person uses Nuke to do his projection mapping. While I will be most likely using Maya
The following two videos show similar workflows but with different software
Maya is used for the mapping and Nuke is used for the composition
This video shows a projection map that is very obvious because there is so much movement in the image you notice patterns stretching and moving away. Something I wish to avoid within my own work through the use of photoshop manipulations. This should help avoid seeing the image repeating through hills.
This is a compilation of student clips mostly taking films, tracking them, then overlaying a checkerboard grid to show the quality of the track.
