This advanced three-hour course will give participants an overview of compositing by utilizing camera tracking from existing real footage, extracting the camera data and integrating into Maya. Adobe After Effects will do a great job creating camera tracking information which can be ported into Maya, allowing you the freedom to place any CG models within that video background plate. This course will teach students how to composite a 3D Model into a background plate using Adobe Autodesk Livelink to create a UFO flying over the city. The knowledge acquired will allow students to create their own believable composition using both CGI and a real-life background plate.

Students should have the necessary computer skills and knowledge of user interfaces to function within programs such as Maya and Adobe After Effects. Participants who don't have access to this software can download and install the free 7 day trial for this course.

TOPICS:

Files and Projects

• Saving After Effects projects
• Collect Comps by using Dependencies
• Folder Structure

Resources

• Instructions to install Adobe Autodesk Livelink - it’s free
• Four movie files that contain aerial footage of different cities

Camera Tracking

• Features
• Triangulate features to find the right orientation
• Set ground plane
• Create a null object within the 3D tracking space
• Create a solid layer within the 3D tracking space
• Create a 3D camera based on the tracking features

Adobe Autodesk Livelink to Maya

• Drag-and-drop camera tracking data into Livelink so that it will appear within the Maya environment
• Create a simple UFO and texture map it
• Create lighting in the right direction to match the city footage
• Render as in image sequence
• Imported to Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects

• Colour Correction
• Lumetri
• Curves
• Hue and Saturation
• Effects
• Blend Modes
• Render the file as QuickTime using the render queue for Media Encoder

INSTRUCTOR:

Jaime Torres has been an active visual effects artist since 1995, and co-founded GhostFX. Since 2000, the studio has been in charge of many different productions, and over the years has worked on films for Disney, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Global TV, Amazon Prime Invincible, James Cameron Atlantis Rising and over 500 commercials worldwide.

Jamie has an artistic background from life drawing to painting, and also has experience working with camera equipment for both film and motion capture. He has been using 3D applications right from their infancy 3D Studio Max, along with Maya, Substance Painter, ZBrush, Nuke, Adobe Creative Suite and many other proprietary software. He has worked as a technical director, VFX supervisor, director, 2D and 3D animation artist, and has used rigging, particle simulations and fluid dynamics.

He is a Visual Effects supervisor these days, a passionate artist by trade and enjoys teaching others. With 22 years of teaching experience, he has been a professor at George Brown College, Humber College, Fanshawe College, Academy of Design and Yorkville University. Over these years, he has also developed courses, and in 2007 he joined the advisory board committee for Fanshawe College. Although he works mainly with computer technology, Jaime also enjoys working with practical materials, finds great fulfilment in teamwork and takes pride in guiding his students creatively to success.

• www.imdb.com/name/nm5054014/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7
• www.ghostfx.ca