Datasheet

■ Compositing Examples 5
AILV for Spec Commercial
Figure 1.3 shows six steps of an After Effects composite created by the author and students
at the Art Institute of Las Vegas (AILV). The composite is one shot of a spec commercial
advertising a futuristic copier. (A spec is a demo used to show filmmaking or animation
skills.) The breakdown is as follows:
1. An actress is shot against bluescreen.
2. Stock footage of a city is defocused (that is,
blurred in an optically accurate way).
3. The bluescreen is removed from the footage of
the actress. A scaled and transformed copy is
given reduced opacity and a blur to emulate a
window reflection. A texture bitmap is added
with low opacity to create the illusion of dirt on
the same window.
4. A CG render of a pillar is imported.
5. A single frame of the bluescreen footage is iso-
lated. The frame is taken into Photoshop, color
graded, and touched up to remove the wrinkles
and seams on the tablecloth. The frame is
imported back into the composite and placed
on top of all the other layers.
6. The final composite combines the defocused
city, the CG pillar, the fake window reflection,
the actress, and the touched-up table. All the
elements are color graded so that they work
as a whole. A glow is added to create light
wrap along the edges of objects in front of the
window.
Tonya Smay for Westchester
Medical Center
Figure 1.4 shows two shots composited by Tonya
Smay in After Effects for the Westchester Medical
Center. Tonya works as a freelance compositor in the
New York area. (To read an interview with Tonya
Smay, see Chapter 12, "Advanced Techniques.") The
breakdown is as follows:
1. A CG render of a medical center grounds, cre-
ated in Maya, is brought into the composite as
separate render passes. The camera is moving
during the shot. The renders remain somewhat bare and are missing the sky.
2. A camera is exported out of Maya and imported into After Effects. In addition, sev-
eral nulls, indicating specific locations within the model, are imported. The composite
is converted to a 3D environment. Several 3D cards are set up with trees, bushes,
water spray, and a sky. Because the composite uses a camera exported from the 3D
program, the cards’ motion follows the 3D render perfectly. To prevent occlusion
Figure 1.3 Six compositing steps used by AILV to create a
spec commercial
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