Compositing for newbies

# 1 20-09-2003 , 08:39 PM

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Join Date: Sep 2003

Posts: 8

Hi guys, recently got Maya and recently found this site. Really nice place. I'm into making short films and i want to clear a few things up about VFX and compositing. For instance, lets say i have a scene in a short film i would like to add some VFX to like a bullet, a spaceshit, or somethign liek that how would i go bout setting it up in maya. I know i need after effects to composite it, but how would i go about doing it in maya liek refernce points and what not. Would i just take a guess and do the effect then composite on and see if it works or is there a more technical way; maybe a feature that maya has. I've been trying to figure this out sinc ei got Maya; i'm still anewbie. It's been driving me crazy and i would really appreciate some hwlp. Thanks

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# 2 20-09-2003 , 08:44 PM

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Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: union city, ca

Posts: 390

Theres a couple of videos here on SM which are free. They are called Basic Compositing part 1 and 2..You should download it, all questions will be answered user added image

But heres a quickie how to:
You have to model the stuff in your scene, IN maya but they are just for reference, just so you know where your VFX stuff comes from and when you render it with a mask, you can composite all that in after effects and based on how realisticly you made your maya scene compared to your real scene (lighting, dynamics, and whatever), you can make it look really dope.

<a href="https://forums.simplymaya.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16675">May/June 2005 Challenge Entry</a>

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# 3 20-09-2003 , 09:01 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2003

Location: Great Britain

Posts: 1,336

i'm not sure but i think maya has a way of taking your video and working out where the camera is, but you'll have to ask someone who knows more than me.

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# 4 20-09-2003 , 11:04 PM

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Join Date: Sep 2003

Posts: 8

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thanks for replying guys. I downloaded teh videos and watched them yesterday and they did'nt really shed any light on what i wanted to know. they were discussing compositing and put it together. Furthermore they discussed still images and i anted to know about film. I wanted to know how you setup a video shot for composition. Like if i wanted teh bullet to come out of the gun do i just a bullet zipping by in maya and place it over teh footage with teh gun and move it around, resize, e.t.c. to make it fit or what.

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# 5 21-09-2003 , 07:06 PM

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Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: Minnesota, USA

Posts: 3,709

Well, another way to achive what you are talking about with the bullet, would be to:

1. Import your footage into Maya mapped onto a plane.
(if it is not stabalized, you would do that in AE, or another compositor/tracker)
2. animate your bullet starting from the gun tip to wherever you want it to go.
3. Depending on the angle of the gun in relation to the bullet/camera you might need to make a basic cylinder for your bullet to come out of and apply the "Use Background" shader to it to occlude the bullet to make it look like it is being fired out of your footage gun.

4. Match the cylinder animation to the gun in your footage either by tracking data and/or hand keyframing its' position based on your footage.

5. Render it out, and compositie it into your footage in your compositor of choice.

This whole process is a science unto its' own, and there is one site I know of that can help you learn more about compositing, (vfxtalk.com) as this is a Maya forum, and not a compositing forum.

Good luck!

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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Compositing for newbies

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