Librería Portfolio

Bringing concrete examples from industry to light, this book explains how to use Blender to create visual effects for video/film production. It supplies readers with a practical way to learn how to use Blender's tools across a wide range of scenarios in video/film production, including setting up cameras on a stage, lighting, and other production processes.

Maintaining a focus on composition, the book not only explains how to use the most common tools, such as tracking, rendering, and compositing, but also explains how to deal with software limitations and sort out problems.

Since the best way to learn something is with a practical example, this book follows one of the author's own projects, starting with how to prepare the elements that will be needed later on. The example illustrates how to use Blender tools and features for scene tracking, setup, rendering, masking, and other post-production functions-from start to finish in a professional workflow.

The book examines all the compositing nodes that can be used in Blender. It details time-saving tips, features such as the motion tracker, and rendering techniques so readers will have enough information to accomplish the most common tasks encountered in the creation of a professional visual effects composition.

By following the example project presented in the book, you will gain the practical understanding required to use Blender's tools in the most common scenarios in video/film production. You will also gain industry insights into the limitations of the software and how to sort out the problematic scenarios that may come up through the various stages of your project.



Problem Definition

Introduction

Approaching the Task

Additional Materials

Summary

Preparation

Getting Ready

Setting up Blender

Shooting

Calibration

Summary

Tracking

Basics of Tracking

Preparing the Footage

Working with the Tracker

Calibration inside Blender

Placing the Marks

Solving the Tracking

Applying the Solved Camera

Plane Track

Summary

Scene Setup

World Creation

Setting up Elements

Lighting

Summary

Rendering

Internal Render vs. Cycles Render

Internal Render Pros and Cons

Cycles Render Pros and Cons

Rendering with Layers

Understanding the Render Passes

Combined (RGBA)

Depth (Z)

Ambient Occlusion (AO)

Shadow

Vector

Normal

Object Index

Material Index

UV

Formats

Basic Channel Format

Multichannel Format

Render Settings

Render Device

Dimensions

Sampling

Light Paths

Film

Overscan

Summary

Masking

Starting to Mask

Clean Plate Preview

Refining the Mask

Tracking the Mask

Frame-by-Frame Painting

Summary

Compositing

First Steps

Nodes Overview

Inputs

Render Layers

Image

Texture

Value

RGB

Time

Movie Clip

Bokeh Image

Mask

Track Position

Outputs

Composite

Viewer

Split Viewer

File Output

Levels

Layout

Frame

Reroute

Switch

Group

Distort

Translate

Rotate

Scale

Flip

Crop

Transform

Displace

Lens Distortion

Map UV

Stabilize 2D

Movie Distortion

Plane Track Deform

Corner Pin

Matte

Difference Key

Color Spill

Distance Key, Chroma Key, Color Key, and Channel Key

Keying

Luminance Key

Double Edge Mask

Keying Screen

Box Mask and Ellipse Mask

Converter

Combine and Separate (RGBA, HSVA, YUVA, YCbCr)

Alpha Convert

Math

ID Mask

Set Alpha

RGB to BW

ColorRamp

Filter

Filter

Blur

Directional Blur

Bilateral Blur

Vector Blur

Dilate/Erode

Inpaint

Despeckle

Defocus

Glare

Bokeh Blur

Pixelate

Sun Beams

Vector

Normal

Vector Curves

Normalize

Map Value

Map Range

Color

RGB Curves

Mix

Hue Saturation Value

Bright/Contrast

Gamma

Invert

AlphaOver

Z Combine

Color Balance

Hue Correct

Tonemap

Color Correction

Compositing the Scene

Film Grain

Fake Grain

Real Grain

Vignetting

Preview

Rendering Limitations

Depth Pass

ID Passes

Final Notes

Summary

Index