Video Test: Hugh Throwing a Bottle - Bright CGI Background

Now I'm testing to see the effects the brightness of background colour has. As expected a lighter background produces more noticable matte lines.




Here's a rough edit with a darker background - it looks a lot better.

Another video test

Poorest one of the lot...



Definitely too much lighting during that shoot.

Video Test: Hu Tomas

Here's the source footage...



Here's the edited version...



He seemed to receive a lot of spill around his hands which couldn't be removed. I was quite displeased and the result is unsatisfactory.

Video Test: Guy [Extended]

Video Tests: Guy

Here's a test I did on Friday with Guy who had some light blue dye in his hair which I was worried would cause problems, although it didn't really stand out once on video.




Now here's the edited video.



His blue hair hasn't caused too many problems, although it looks like blue spill - but its not!

The real problem is the quality of the source video, because once recompressed it looks even grainer and that ruins the effect. Overall I think its a passable effort however I'd really like a higher quality source of video to work with.

Also bare in mind this is the 5th version of this video, the other 4 versions were almost identical except the composite didn't look as good. I've been tweaking the settings over the past 4 versions to arrive at this.

First video test

On Thursday I filmed the first video tests.

Unfortunately I was appalled by the quality of the video that the E-Media studio produced. Nevertheless its provided me with material to work with so I must use it because this may be the best video I get to work with. On the other hand I may be fortunate enough to find a higher quality method of video recording.

Here's a simple test involving a white shelves with a dusk sky composited in the background.




This is only a rushed effort and I haven't adjusted the compositing plugin as the video progressing. What I dislike most is the black matte lines around the shelf but I'm especially pleased that the bottle retained its transparency.

A Menagerie of Monoliths

Today I thought I'd have a closer look at monoliths which have similarties with megaliths.

Wikipedia definies a monolith as:
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic rock.


Now lets take a look at the various types of monliths...

Obelisk

An obelisk (Greek obeliskos, diminutive of obelos, "needle") is a tall, thin, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramidal top. Ancient obelisks were made of a single piece of stone (a monolith). The term stele (plural: stelae) is generally used for other monumental standing inscribed sculpted stones not of classic obelisk form.

Stele

A stele (from Greek: στήλη, stēlē, IPA: [ˈstili]; plural: stelae, στῆλαι, stēlai, IPA: [ˈstilaɪ]; also found: Latinised singular stela and Anglicised plural steles) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerary or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living—inscribed, carved in relief (bas-relief, sunken-relief, high-relief, etc), or painted onto the slab.

Rune stone

Rune stones are stones with runic inscriptions dating from the early Middle Ages but are found to have been used most prominently during the Viking Age. Compared to western Europe, Scandinavia has poor written evidence for its early medieval history in favor of an oral skaldic tradition.

I think monoliths are a bit more interesting than megaliths...