Creating a Short Film: 09 VFX Environments

Course details

In the 13-part Creating a Short Film series, filmmaker Chad Perkins showcases what it actually takes to create a short film—from the brainstorming stage, all the way until opening night. In this installment of the series, Chad focuses on VFX, detailing how to use key tools like After Effects (AE) and Mocha Pro to create a compelling, believable world for your film. He covers the basics of compositing and keying, goes over how to remove objects with both AE and Mocha Pro, and discusses how to make CG scenery. Plus, learn how to create an aerial shot, rotoscope your characters, shoot with an awareness of post, and more.

Learning objectives
Approximating believable realities
Creating a great key
Keying impossible shots
Tracking in After Effects (AE)
Removing objects with AE and Mocha Pro
Making CG scenery
Creating an aerial shot
Preparing a Cinema 4D file for AE compositing
Rotoscoping characters
Shooting VFX shots

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - About this training series
02 - The Assurance
03 - Introduction to this course
04 - About the third-party plugins used
05 - Dealing with the exercise files

1. The World of VFX

06 - Understanding compositing
07 - An overview of creating computer-generated (CG) images
08 - Approximating believable realities
09 - Making things perfectly imperfect

2. Creating a Great Key

10 - Intro to keying - Keylight
11 - Intro to keying - Primatte
12 - Tips for pulling a great key
13 - Keying fine details
14 - Creating a luma key
15 - Keying impossible shots
16 - Getting perfect edges
17 - Painting the alpha channel

3. Motion Tracking and Other Core Skills

18 - Combining takes for the best performance
19 - Tracking in After Effects (AE)
20 - Tracking in Mocha
21 - Removing blemishes digitally
22 - Removing objects with After Effects, part 1
23 - Removing objects with After Effects, part 2
24 - Removing objects with Mocha Pro

4. Creating CG Worlds

25 - Making CG scenery
26 - An overview of VUE xStream
27 - Creating canyons in VUE xStream

5. Creating the Aerial Shot

28 - Creating a plan and shooting the footage
29 - Making the campfire elements
30 - Creating glowing embers
31 - Cleaning up the footage
32 - Combining the elements, part 1 - Assembling
33 - Combining the elements, part 2 - Compositing
34 - Making the smoke trail in Trapcode Particular
35 - Changing the time of day

6. Creating the Helmet Shot

36 - Why did we create this shot
37 - Using normal maps on Golhatn's helmet
38 - Modeling the candlesticks
39 - Creating the melted candles
40 - Adding materials to the objects
41 - Lighting the scene
42 - Preparing the Cinema 4D file for AE compositing
43 - Creating flickering candlelight with Particular
44 - Adding depth of field in After Effects
45 - Enhancing the smoke in the scene
46 - Adjusting the mood by changing the color

7. Rotoscoping Out Characters

47 - Creating a strategy
48 - Finding or making a clean plate
49 - Rotoscoping out the characters
50 - Polishing the composite

8. Creating the Finale Scene

51 - Examining the plan for the scene
52 - Editing the VUE renders
53 - Creating matte paintings
54 - Art directing footage of clouds
55 - Understanding focal length and lens properties
56 - Compositing with smoke and fog
57 - Anatomy of shot 13
58 - Animating Golhatn in Cinema 4D and After Effects
59 - Animating subtle camera moves in post

9. Shooting Visual Effects (VFX) Shots

60 - Should you shoot VFX outdoors or indoors
61 - Shooting an even green screen
62 - Using practical lights to supplement VFX
63 - Shooting with an awareness of post
64 - Using a VFX supervisor

Conclusion

65 - Getting better at visual effects
66 - Previewing the next course
67 - Final thoughts