Green-screen Matchmove Test (100% opacity)

This is a shot on a chromakey stage we did for a test in class, so we could track the markers and accurately place something in 3D space. Seeing as how I'm a matchmover/compositor, this is where my job ends, and a 3D modeler, animator, Technical Director would take over from here - once this was approved by the Matchmove Supervisor.

I know there's a fraction of a second where it appears to "slip," but this clip was shot with a Canon 7D, and the infamous "rolling shutter jell-o" effect is present. I did not remove the jello-vision, it was not part of this assignment. Had this been a production shot, yes, we would have interpolated the frames to prevent skewing.

I know it looks funky/silly/stupid, but in the compositing stage, the actor would be rotoscoped/keyed here. Seeing as how that's much further down the work pipeline, it looks like the block is "covering" or overlapping him; but it's not "off," it is accurate. The checkerboard texture is to ensure the matchmove isn't slipping and sliding all over the place.

Now just how accurate do we have to be? We must be accurate LITERALLY down to 1 pixel! Anything less, and they eye will pick it up when it's blown up HUGE onto a screen. However, the software is sophisticated enough to track down to 1/64 of a pixel!

Without matchmoving, EVERY time there was a visual effects shot, the camera would never be allowed to move, otherwise one would see the matte lines. Now we can move the camera however we want, and it adds that much more to selling the illusion that whatever is placed into the shot, really "looks like it's there." A good example of a nearly ALL matchmove feature would be "Cloverfield." All hand-held shaky camera shots!

In this case, my instructor was the man who LITERALLY wrote the book on the subject, Mr. Tim Dobbert (very nice guy, helpful, cool, great teacher):
http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/0782144039/mockerybird/ref=nosim

You can see his amazing resume on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1657296/

Thanks for watching, and I'll be posting more stuff soon as I get grilled through my M.F.A. process!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• greenscreen
• matchmove
• digital
• visual
• effects
• alejandro
• lugo
• franceschi
• post
• production
• artist
• tim
• dobbert
• instructor
• ilm
• industrial
• light
• and
• magic
• canon
• 7d
• jello
• vision
• rolling
• shutter

[CreativeChronicles]

@thechrisj Autodesk Matchmover for the matchmoving, and Maya for the 3D to create the box he's sitting on (of course, it could be anything). Lastly, just a quick slap composition in After Effects for the box onto the green cube the actor sat on.

A little roto, drop shadow, relighting, etc. would be used if you were trying to really integrate the two.

[CreativeChronicles]

@kudjo24 I realize that it may be expensive but you can download most of Autodesk's products, including this one, as a PLE: Personal Learning Edition. You can use it long enough to learn it. You can even render out, it will just have a watermark or resize command to it. Also, there are less expensive but just as good solutions. I have used "Syntheyes" & "PFTrack." Syntheyes for example, can even do tracking for stereoscopic 3D, and it's around $300. The book is still applicable to any software.

[kudjo24]

avatar!? thats crazy, that is one special man. too bad this software is too expensive to use

[CreativeChronicles]

@thechrisj Hello, for this, I used Autodesk's "Matchmover" software. It's not as daunting as you might think. My instructor, ILM Layout Supervisor Mr. Tim Dobbert, wrote the book on it (literally). If you'd like to learn to matchmove, as well as do object tracking and 3D modeling of objects via images (photogrammetry) for projected matte paintings, you should pick up his book: Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking

[thechrisj]

What progams did you use. Particularly what matchmoving software?