Compositing and GraphicsNelson Zagalo, Universidade do Minho

Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, 7 May 2013

Bibliografia

Zagalo, N., (2011), Poétiques du Générique de Cinéma : l'Expressionnisme en Mouvement, Sociétés - Revue des sciences humaines et sociales, N°111, 2011, p.131-140, DE BOECK Universite. ISSN: 0765-3697. (JCR / ISI / AHCI)

Patti Bellantoni, (2012), If it’s purple,someone’s gonna die, The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling, Elsevier

Gombrich, E.H, (2005), A História da Arte, ed. Público, Lisboa, 1950

Jon Krasner, (2008), Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics, Focal Point, USA

Jan Kubasiewicz, (2008), Motion Literacy, in Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics, Focal Point, USA

Ron Brinkman, Art & Science of Digital Compositing, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008

1. Analogical Compositing Film

2. Digital Compositing Film

3. Film introduction to title design

4. Colour in Film

What do we use it for?

. to create special effects in visual arts;

. to help us connecting real images with artificially

created ones;

. to correct photographic mismatches (e.g. color);

. to change or substitute backgrounds;

. to change or substitute foregrounds;

. to create illusion of depth.

What is it?

Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene.

King Kong (1933) Superman (1978)

Film Compositing

Physical compositingMultiple exposure

Rear projectionMatting

Analogical Compositing

Physical - Glass, Statues, Paintings

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Multiple exposure

Multiple exposure of Alfred Hitchcock directing during rehearsals for Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Background projection

Sunset Boulevard, 1950

2001, Space Odyssey, 1968

North by Northwest, 1959

Matting

Blend Operations Keying

Alpha ChannelsMattes Masks

Digital Compositing

Omaha beach scene “making of”, belonging to the BBC series “Timewatch: Bloody Omaha”. Created by Colin Thornton, Neil Wilson and Steven Flynn from Compost Creative.

3 persons + 4 days + 1 camera + pop up greenscreen + after effects

Digital Advantages

Blend Operations

Multiply

Screen

Overlay

Darken

Lighten

Difference

Exclusion

Luminosity

Blend Operations

Keying

Edge Thin

Color Key

Matte Choker

Luma Key

Color Tolerance

The Chronicles of Narnia (2005)

King Kong (2005)

Keying

The Saint (1997)

Preservereflexes

Keying

32-bit image carries a fourth Alpha channel that stores transparency (or alpha) data. The alpha channel’s 8-bit data is reserved to give an image or video clip shape and transparency when composited.

Software as Photoshop creates content on transparent backgrounds retaining background transparency when imported into motion applications. This is because an alpha channel matte is automatically generated.

Object on transparency Alpha Channel Final composition

Alpha

Alpha

Luma Mattes

External image that is used to make portions of another image transparent. Luminance mattes should not be confused with alpha mattes, which are internal mattes that are derived from alpha channels.

Both alpha channel mattes and luminance mattes can be composed of solid shapes, feathered shapes, gradients, typography, entire images.

luma mattes

feathered mattes

solid mattes

Matte

video

Matte

Masks are defined by splines - paths that consist of interconnected points that form a line segment or curve, around the subject, an art also knoww as Rotoscoping. Masks can be animated.

Masks

Masks

Introduction to Title Design

Beginning

Rebirth

2000’s

Histórias do Title Designhttp://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/2013/04/historias-do-title-design.html

The beginning, 1950’s

“Seven” (1997), David Fincher, created by Kyle Cooper

+info http://www.empireonline.com/features/david-fincher-fight-club-opening-credits/

The rebirth in the 1990’s

Evolution of 3d and composition software

3ds MaxMayaSoftiamgeLighwaveCinema 4d

After EffectsCombustionNukePhotoshop

“300” (2006), Zack Snyder, created by Garson Yu

2000’s

Red

Yellow

Blue

Orange

Green

Purple

Colour in Film

RED“Bright red is like visual caffeine. It can activate your libido, or make you aggressive, anxious, or compulsive. In fact, red can activate whatever latent passions you might bring to the table, or to the movie. Red is power. But red doesn’t come with a moral imperative. Depending on the story’s needs, red can give power to a good guy or a bad guy. After all, both the Wicked Witch and Dorothy wore the ruby slippers.

Because we tend to see it first, red gives the illusion of advancing toward us. Due to this, it can manipulate our sense of space.

Because bright red has this visually aggressive quality, the space does indeed appear to come forward, and it looks shallower than it actually is.

Red can also make something appear to move faster.”

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Cor e StorytellingYELLOW“Yellow is a contrary color. That’s your first clue, or warning. One of the reasons yellow is the color used for caution signs is that it’s visually aggressive. It appears to come toward you. We’ve built it into our consciousness as a cautionary color. Venomous reptiles and amphibians often are yellow—a warning to all who come near, a big beware built into our genetic code.

It is also the color we identify with the sun. We associate yellow with powerful life energy exuberance itself. In whatever situation you find it, or wherever it is, bright yellow can be the scene-stealer, always clamoringfor attention.

“Yellow is the color longest remembered and most despised". This is an interesting parallel to the color associated with happiness.”

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Cor e StorytellingBLUE“Blue can be a tranquil 'lagoon' or a soft blanket of sadness. It is quiet and 'distant'. Year after year, our color investigations show that in a blue environment, people become passive and introspective. It’s a color tothink to, but not to act.

Blue is the quintessential color for powerlessness. Even a very pale blue has an amazing ability to influence our emotional reactions to what is happening on screen. Sadness, melancholy, harmony. Because of its tendency to effect inertia, blue is rarely used as a dominant color.

Blue can have seemingly contradictory traits because it’s the coldest color in the spectrum. The slightest change in that color, therefore, can completely alter how you respond to it. Perhaps blue, statistically, is everyone’sfavorite color because each person thinks of it in a different way. It is also why you need to make certain that the blue you choose will create the response you want. Don’t just describe it. Test it on your “audience” and then decide.”

The Cider House Rules (1999) de Lasse Hallström

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Cor e StorytellingORANGE“Orange manifests its influence in a different way from the other colors. While red says “I’m here!,” yellow is exuberant, and blue is laidback, our research revealed that orange is generically “nice”. Actually, of all our investigations, opaque orange was the most upbeat and least dramatic of the colors.

The color simply supported a warm and welcoming congeniality. How we feel at sunset is not just a romanticized cliché. Something actually happens to us physically when we watch the intense brightness of the near-white sun transform itself into a glowing rich orange in the sky. Glowing orangelight (and its associations with the sun) can take us on a visceral ride that warms and expands our emotional field.

Terra-cottas, siennas, ochres, and umbers have a kind of primal influence in how we react to them. We respond positively to the colors of the earth.”

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Cor e StorytellingGreen“Green is really a dichotomous color. It’s the color of fresh vegetables and spoiled meat. Perhaps its duplicity comes from our earliest times on this planet when green signaled both food and danger. Green can signal health and vitality or danger and decay.

We have strong aversion to green in liquid form (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); The Virgin Suicides (2000)). When associated with the human body, green’s clue is often illness or evil. How often have you heard, “Are you okay? You look green.” When we first see the Wicked Witch of the West as Miss Gulch in The Wizard of she is in black and white. We know she’s bad, but when the film turns to color and we see her in green, she becomes virulent.

Because of green’s ambivalent nature, it is important to base your decision on which green to use in a particular scene on how the audience is going to respond to it..”

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Cor e Storytelling

PURPLE“There have been times, particularly in romantic tales and poetry, when purple has been associated with sensuality. I suspect that may be because of the color’s association with imbibing the grape. However, during our more than twenty years of research into the effects of color on behavior, purple was not once associated with sensuality. In fact, there seemed to be no real evidence of purple’s having an effect in the physical realm at all. The color did, however, hold a powerful sway in the realm of the noncorporal, the mystical, and even the paranormal.

The association with the royal and regal comes from the fact that violet is the most difficult color to come by in nature. Its very scarcity associates it with the rare trappings of emperors, kings, and queens.”

(Bellantoni, 2012)

Compositing Techniques

Nelson Zagalo, Universidade do Minho

E-mail: nzagalo@ics.uminho.pt

WWW: nelsonzagalo.googlepages.com

Blog: virtual-illusion.blogspot.com

Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, 7 May 2013