1 Seamless transition

It was not easy to start this project because I wanted to take a path that was probably too complicated according to my current vfx skills and knowledge.

My initial idea was to simulate aerial shots in several virtual environments, trying to combine each environment \ shot through seamless transition. I would have liked to recreate the environments in unreal engine using photorealistic assets from megascan, and then once realized I would have focused on the visual effect of the seamless transition. This below is an example of what I wanted to create.

Having said that, I don’t have the necessary skills and knowledge of unreal engine, I decided then to focus on the compositing aspect trying to recreate seamless transition of drone footage I have shot. In any case, Unreal engine will be a subject of study for my final project, I need more time to learn and be able to create something beautiful.

It may sound silly, but the “seamless transition” I’m talking about are the reason why I decided to embark on my path in vfx. I am a professional drone pilot and I have made many videos, I have always wanted to work on transitions between video and video because in my opinion they make aerial shots unique, dynamic and much more satisfying for the viewer.

Sam kolder is a content creator and youtuber and he is the one who inspired me for this project. The following videos are examples of what I am referring to when I talk about “seamless transition”

Of course sam kolder made these videos with the idea of ​​creating transitions already. He used videos that, despite being different locations, environments and times of day, have elements in common that allow them to create a transition with each other.

Once I understood more or less what my project would be, I began to select and look for aerial videos that could have elements in common so that I could recreate seamless transition between them.

The elements that can work well to create transitions are usually based on: same light, similar elements such as clouds or fog, reflections or mirrors (water), windows, cracks or holes where you can implement the next videos.

After running a series of tests I decided which videos to use and that’s where I wanted to add another element to the project …

I wanted the whole sequence to be a loop, repeating itself in a synchronized and realistic way

So as I was saying, the second video would have potential if and only if I did a lot of compositing.
I find the environment very interesting and suggestive, I thought about what could be the elements to add and so I decided to put several layers of fog, both on the ground and in the upper part. Once this was done, however, the element to be implemented in the following video was missing. Since I was working on the flame portals on the collaborative project I thought about using one of these.

The portal opens out of nowhere and the drone flies in the direction of it, crossing it and then finding itself in the next video.

An “impact” element that I had not considered is the shadow of the portal on the ground, once added everything seemed more realistic.

In order to achieve this I had to make a 3dtrack of the video, and then subsequently add all the cards and connect them to scene nodes and recreate the drone’s camera movement.

Once I made the first transition, I started working on the next one. The second transition is completely different from the previous one. I used the space between the two trees to create a seamless roto and add the following video. In the first video you can see a large mountain covered with trees while in the second there is a plateau with me standing, creating a roto and using transfrom node with key frames I aligned the two elements to create harmony in the transition

For the realization of the third and last transitions I created two different versions, in the first version the drone once crossed the two trees and heads towards the mountains climbing into the sky, during the flight a further flame portal appears bringing the drone back to the initial video, this creates the loop sequence I mentioned earlier.

I was not very satisfied with this because I did not want to repeat myself with the use of the same techniques: a portal was already enough.

So I thought about another type of transition, but what are the common elements that can help me create a new seamless transition?
Being the drone in the air quite high in the sky I thought I could use the clouds, especially since the next video starts in the fog.

I then recreated a camera movement that mirrored the movement of the drone, I 3d tracked the scene and I added some fog and clouds in the sky. Then I rotate a shape that was symmetrical with the next scene and add key frames in the roto, grade and transform node which slowly turned into the fog of the second video, completing the initial sequence.

For the whole realization I divided the whole process into several steps: I preferred to work individually on each video and then merge with the sequent, then save and export each transition and merge everything at the end.

After all I am happy with the final result although I was unable to do what I had in mind to achieve from the beginning. As I wrote at the beginning this type of transitions is the reason why I decided to learn the techniques of vfx, obviously discovering a world that I did not know at all before.

With this project I increased my skills with nuke, using nodes that I had not used before, such as all timing nodes: time offset, retime, framerange…but above all 3dtracking the scenes and rotoscoping

2nd project: ARMAMENTUM

Together with my classmate Antoni, we decided to create a short sequence using different techniques. The idea is to create a cyberpunk-style 3d environment, where, thanks to the green screen, we will insert one of us inside the scene. The real protagonist of the sequence, however, will not be us, but a sort of arm \ mechanical weapon that, in iron man style, will be raised and applied to the arm of the person shot with the green screen

MOODBOARDS:

The mechanical arm must be a real weapon, essential to defend oneself in the dark streets of a cyberpunk Tokyo.
For this reason the chosen references are a mixture of ideas: basically the fusion between a sword (katana) and the mechanical armed arm like iron man style.

Environment:

The scene will be set inside a room, characterized by a futuristic LED lighting and florescent neon that reflects the color tone of the external lights, visible through the large diamond-shaped window. The design is essential and futuristic.

The external environment reflects a futuristic tokyo, with florescent lights, flying cars and looped billboards:

GREEN SCREEN (Lights research and camera movement)

We spent our first day in the green studio using a black magic to reproduce the virtual camera movement of maya. Also, using the lights of the set by applying transparent colored panels (red and blue) and a portable light we tried to reproduce the color of the lighting within the 3d environment.

work in progress…