Polygon Shoe Nuke Compositing

For compositing the rendered shoe I used a NUKE workflow:

First thing was to 'Read' in all the images I had rendered out from Maya and arranged them in the Nuke node graph.

I started with the Ambient Occlusion pass, applied a 'Grade' to it to make the AO pass lighter:

AO pass

AO pass lightened with 'Grade' node

Used a Merge (Muliply) node to merge the DiffuseNoShadow with the AO:

DiffuseNoShadow pass

DiffuseNoShadow merged with AO

The next pass to add into the pipeline was the Shadow pass with a Merge(Minus) node:

Shadow pass

Shadow added to rest of the pipeline

For the Depth pass, a 'Shuffle' node was used to add the Depth map properties into the pipeline so that the 'ZDefocus' node would work:

Depth pass

Shuffle node added to pipeline

Adjusting the Shuffle settings

The area of focus could be adjusted in the ZDefocus node settings

I then decided to add the Lens Distortion back into the image, as I had removed the lens distortion from the original images that I had used as reference to model the shoe from:

Without Lens Distortion

With Lens Distortion

For the final pipeline I added 'Backdrop' nodes to label the pipeline. At the side of the pipeline I had a Master Beauty pass for referring back to during compositing. Lastly I added a 'Write' node to render out the final image:

Final pipeline

'Write' node settings

Final front shoe render:

I then followed the same pipeline for the back of the shoe render:

AO pass

AO pass graded

DiffuseNoShadow pass

Adjusting focus point for the depth

Depth applied

Without Lens Distortion

With Lens Distortion

Final Nuke workflow for the back of the shoe

Final back shoe render:

Shoes and lens distortions...

First task of the day was choosing a shoe. It needed to be an old, worn shoe as it would be more interesting to model using polygons. I was going to go for a pair of my old Keds shoes but then I found my Dad's gardening shoes by the door and thought they would be much more interesting to model and texture! Whether it will be more difficult I'll just have to find out as I go along...

Set up a tripod and camera in the conservatory as I thought the light would be a bit better in there.

Went into uni to the Maya lab to use NukeX, to remove the lens distortion from my photos.
Opened the image of the shoe, and an image of a grid I took a photo of at the same time, into NukeX:

Grid with lens distortion

Grid without lens distortion

When the 'lens distortion' node is working with the Grid image, transfer the node over to the Shoe image:

Image with lens distortion

Image without lens distortion

The only problem I encountered when writing the final image out as a .jpg, was I kept getting this message pop up:

"nukex write1: can't rename .tmp to final, File exists/Permission denied"

If the file still saved it was an unknown file type. I couldn't find a way for this not to happen, but I found that by opening the unknown file type in Paint and then saving it as a .jpg worked... 

Photo with lens distortion

Photo without lens distortion

Maya Polygon Modelling Introduction

On Friday 11th October we had a Polygon Modelling class with Jin. Here are my notes from the class:

There are 3 types of geometry in 3D applications:
- NURBS
- Polygons
- Subdivision

Remember:
- Reference images - take off lens distortion
- Take off lens distortion from default Maya cam (persp)
- Customize the Maya Shelf (ctrl + shift + LMB click to add tool to shelf)

35 to 80 for Focal length of default Maya camera.

NukeX (only 'X' has lens distortion tool):

- open images 'R', hit '1' to open in viewer
- hit 'tab' to find lens distortion node
- Grid analysis, Grid type - thin line, Analyze Grid
- 'w' to write, jpg, quality 0.75

To create image plane in Maya:

- Camera attributes in top view - environment - create image plane

- Select image plane and move down via attributes

- Do the same for top, front and side.

Creating a 3D shoe (example):

- Use 'create polygon tool' in "Mesh" menu to outline shoe in top view

- Use 'interactive split tool' in "Edit Mesh" menu to add lines across.

- There will be triangles at the top and bottom! Use interactive split tool to fix this.

- When deleting an edge, select the edge then delete Edge/Vertex from menu.

- Move side view plane up so it is in line with the object

- Extrude face up, hit 'G' to re-use tool

- Hold 'ctrl' to deselect faces

- In "Animation" menu - Create Deformers - Non linear - Bend

 Rotate the 'bend' and adjust the 'Curvature' in the attribute editor to add the bend in the shoe sole

- Build side of shoe

- Use 'Soft Modification Tool' to sculpt the polygons

- If Normals wrong?

 Normals - Reverse

- Make holes in the mesh by using the 'interactive split tool' to create a diamond shape, then delete the middle faces

 Use 'interactive split tool' again

 Move vertices to create a circle shape

- Add wrinkles - need triangular shapes, use the 'interactive split tool' and when object is smoothed the wrinkles will show

- Smooth, adjust in attributes, if wrong go back to '0' and delete history
- Duplicate side - with instance? So other side can be manipulated at the same time?

- Combine both sides - Mesh - Combine - Edit Mesh - Merge Vertex Tool

- Display - Polygons - Display Edges (to check vertex have merged)

before merge vertex tool

after merge vertex tool

- Insert edge loop tool - thinner spaces. sharper edge when smoothed

Remember to Freeze transformations!