VES Hand Book Contents

3...ABOUT THE VES
4...Foreword

6...Chapter 1......Introduction
6......Visual Effects and Special Effects
7.........Visual Effects
7.........Special Effects
7......Why Use Visual Effects?
8......The Creation of Visual Effects
9......A Bit of Visual Effects History
12.........Optical Printers
13.........Electronics for Camera Control
15.........The Digital Age
18....Unintended Consequences: Where Does Creativity End?
19..........Conclusion

21...Chapter 2......Pre-Production/Preparation
21......Overview
22......Breaking Down a Script—Budgeting
23.........Ballpark Budget
24..........More Detailed Budgets
24..........Bidding
25..........Plate Photography3
26..........Temp Screenings
26..........Reviewing Bids
27..........Contracts
27..........Rebidding during Shooting
27..........Rebidding in Post
27..........Monitoring the Budget and Schedule
27..........Keeping the Budget Down
29......Working With the Director and Producer
29..........Demo Reel
30..........The Meeting
30..........Moving Forward
32......Production Departments
32..........Production Design
33..........Camera

Camera Operator    33

Camera Assistant   33

Special Effects   34
Stunts特技        34
Wardrobe行头，戏装          35
Makeup 化妆      36
Production         36
Visual Effects     37

Planning      37
Testing        37
R&D            38
Reference Materials     38

Modeling       38

Editorial        38

Locations       39

Location Scout  39

Tech Scout        40

Production Meeting        41

Designing Visual Effects Shots  41

Guidelines for Directors  42

Storyboards 42

Previs           43

Objective of the Shot    44

Concept Art                 44

Continuity                    44

Photorealism                45

Original Concepts          45

Budget                        45

Reality and Magic          46

Camera Angles             46

Framing                       46

Scale                           47

Detail                             47

Speed                          47

Scaled Images              48

Sequence of Shots    48

Camera Motion            48

Less Is More          49

Action Pacing 49

CG Characters           49

Creatures and Character Design  50

Powers of 10 Shots                     50

Oner长镜头                                 50

Summary                                   51

Visual Effects Techniques                   51

Technique Considerations            51

Budget                                51

Time                               51

Number of Shots             52

Length of Shots            52

Complexity                      52

Flexibility and Time on a Live-Action Set            52

Flexibility in Post            52

Camera Motion            52

Look                           52

Additional Suggestions for Determining Techniques    53

The Actual Shot Requirements  53

Breaking It Down to the Simplest Requirements

Review Other Films and Alternative Techniques

Think Outside the Box

Think Pre-Digital

Budget Time and Money for Testing

Research and Development

Keep the End Result in Sight

Hand Versus Automated Work

Try Not to Solve Every Permutation

Balance Techniques

Cheating

Examples

What is Previs?            57

Pitchvis, Technical previs, On-set previs, Postvis, D-vis(design visualization)

Development of Previs Techniques    59

History and Background

The Aplications of Previs: Who Benefits From it and How?

Camera and Art Departments: A Special Case          63

Postvis                 66

Cautions and Suggestions for Good Practice   70

The Perils of Previs!

Passing the Work On

The Role of the VFX Supervisor in Previs

The Future of Previs: Advanced Techniques    76

Environment Input

Character Input

Camera Input

Gaming Techniques

On-Set Previs

Lighting Previs

3D Stereo Previs

Virtual Production

Camera Angle Projection           80

Drawing What the Lens Sees

Acquisition/Shooting                82

Working on Set

Typical Process

Common Types of Special Effects  88

What Are Special Effects?

The Special Effects Supervisor

Working with the Visual Effects

Visual Effects in Service to SFX

Special Effects Design and Planning

Storyboards and Previs

The Elements: Rain, Wind, and Snow and Ice   90

Mechanical Effects

Flying Wire Rigs and Stunts

Safety

Front and Rear Projection Systems for Visual Effects

Front Projection (Blue or Green Screens and Picture Imagery)

Rear Projection Equipment

Front Projection Equipment

Greenscreen and Bluescreen Photography

Function of the Backing—Green, Blue, or Red

Backing Uniformity and Screen Correction

Illuminators             103

Alternative Light Sources    105

Eye Protection

How to Expose a Greenscreen Shot and Why

Balancing Screen (Backing) Brightness to the Shooting Stop

(In fact, the optimum backing brightness depends only on the f-stop at which the scene is shot.)

Setting Screen Brightness

White Card Method for Screen Balancing     108

Levels for Digital Original Photography

Backing Types and Lighting

Backlit Backings

Frontlit Backings

Floor Shots, Virtual Sets

Floor Shots, Virtual Sets

Limitations of Floor Shots and Virtual Sets        114

Foreground Lighting

Creating the Illusion: Lighting to Match the Background

Environmental Bounce Light

Local Color

Shooting Aperture

Color Bias in Foreground Lighting

Illumination and Reflections from the Backing

Controlling Spill Light    119

Lighting Virtual Sets

Lighting to Eliminate the Shadow (Vlahos Technique)

Tracking Marks on the Screen

matchmoving

On-Set Preview                 121

Camera for Bluescreen or Greenscreen Photography     122
Film Photography: Choosing a Camera Negative

Choosing a Digital Camera

Spatial Resolution

Color Bandwidth and Compression

Edge Enhancement/Sharpening/Detail Settings

Recording

Filtration

Negative Scanning and Digital Conversion   125

Color Correction（Color correction at the scanning/conversion stage can be a major source of data loss.）

Software Functions

The Processed Foreground

Underwater Photography

Working with the Cinematographer    128

The Alpha Channel （matte channel）

Compositing Software

Keylight

Ultimatte

Primatte

The IBK (Image-Based Keyer)

On-Set Data Acquisition            130

Camera Report

Tracking Markers

Props for the Actors       136

Cyberscanning

Digital Photos

Lidar/Laser Scanning   140

Lens Distortion Charts

HDRI and Chrome Balls

Lidar Scanning and Acquisition

Lidar in Visual Effects

Previsualization

Art Department

Set Extension

3D CG Characters

Matchmoving

Collision Geometry

Lidar: Practical Realities

On-Set 3D Scanning Systems              148

On-Set Data Acquisition
How to Get the Most out of Your 3D Scanning Time on Set

3D Scanning Systems

Prepping the Actors for Scanning

Scanning Props or Cars

Review All That Has Been Scanned

3D Scanning Post-Production

Things to Help Speed the Delivery Cycle

Lighting Data       153

Gathering Lighting Data

Beware of False Savings!

Goals

Using Conventional Still Cameras

Shooting Considerations

Streamlining the Process

Choosing Other Times to Shoot the Photographs

Remember the Goals

Clean Plates

Shooting the Clean Plate

Locked-Off Camera

Moving Camera

Postprocess

Alternates without Clean Plates

Other Uses for Clean Plates

Monster Sticks

On-Set Animation Capture: Witness Cam             172

Wireless Nonvideo Motion Capture

Factors Affecting Witness Cameras

Position and Setup

Camera Synchronization and Phasing

Dealing with the Data in Post-Production

Real-Time MatchMoving and Camera-Tracking Data      175

Triangulation as a Method of Recording Camera Data   180

Tutorial: Camera/Subject Positional Information

Photographic Reference    198

Shooting Video as a Reference   200

Rules, Setup, and Testing

Do a Complete Test Shot!           204

Why Run Through Example or Test Shots?

Digital Cinematography      207

Dynamic Range

Highlight Headroom

Sensitivity and ASA Ratings

Color Space

Color Space As It Relates to Cinematography

The Calculus of Color Sampling

The Issues of Color Subsampling

Subsampling Schemes

Chip Size in Digital Cameras

CCD vs. CMOS

Frame Rates

Film Camera Aperture Sizes and HD Sensor Sizes

The Viewing System

The Recording System

Scene Files

On-Set Look Management

ASC Color Decision List (ASC CDL)

Filming Live-Action Plates to be Used in VFX

Camera Position (Station Point)

Angle of View
Lighting Considerations

Camera Tilt

Background Quality

Moving Plates

Scouting the Camera Positions

A Case Study

Camera Cars

Camera Car Safety Issues

Purpose-Built Crane Cars

Advantages of Crane Cars

Limitations of Crane Cars

Vibration and Camera Stabilization

Road Speed

Road Speed Related to Camera Angle

Precautions
Panoramic Rigs

On the Water

Air to Air

Cable Systems

Shooting Elements for Compositing

What Is an Element?

Backgrounds

Camera Format Considerations

Assorted Methods for Shooting Elements

Actors and Props

Explosions

Flames

Water Splashes, Swirls, and Streams

Underwater

Dust, Debris, and Breaking Glass

Clouds

Smoke and Fog

Goo and Lava

High-Speed Photography and Filming Elements   249

。。。

Supervising Motion Control    256

What Is Motion Control?

Multiple-Pass Photography

Scaling

Import and Export of Camera Move Data

The Data

Types of Motion Control Systems

Motion Control Software

Acquisition of Motion/Still Photographic Textures for Mapping onto CG   269

Panoramic Backgrounds

Tiled Stills

Stop-Motion                  276

Evolution of Stop-Motion Photography

The Time Required to Shoot in Stop-Motion

Preparation before Shooting

Setting Up a Shooting Space for Stop-Motion

Use of Motion Control in Stop-Motion

Useful Caveats

Evolution of a Shot

What are Miniatures?     287

.....

CH4 - PERFORMANCE and MOTION CAPTURE   338

CH9

Difference Between Visual Effects and Animation      742
    Production Pipelines

Production
    1. Pre-production: building of all the assets
    2. Production: creating the shots
        Layout
        Animation
        Cloth and Hair
        Effects Animation
        Lighting and Compositing(lighting keys)

A Survey and History of Animation Techniques
    Traditional Animation
        Breakdown artists and in-betweeners will fill in and finish the additional drawings. This operation is commonly referred to as cleanup.
    Stop-Motion
    Computer Graphic Technology

Considerations for a Full CG-Animated Feature Pipeline

However, because there are no photographic source
plates, scanning/input and matchmove are not the starting point
of an animation pipeline; rather camera layout in the 3D system
and blocking animation are the starting points.

Sequences are collections of shots that are conceptually
related by their role in the story.Assignments
are based on sequence delivery deadlines, and sequence deliveries
build into a reel lock in which a full reel of the film is fed from
final render (meaning the approved CG render prior to color
grading) into post-production and ultimately edited in to the reel,
color graded, and approved for film-out.

CG Feature Animation Pipeline
    Storyboard Animatics and Previs
    Production Design and Look Development
         Look development is the process of taking sample sequence(s) and pushing them through the entire pipeline (all the way to film-out) in order to find the right way to translate the production designs into a CG look.
    Layout and Set Dressing
    Modeling, Texturing, and Articulation (Rigging)
        In large feature animation pipelines, this may constitute as many as eight departments (one each of modeling, shading, texture painting, and rigging for characters and environments).
    Character Animation, Character Simulation, and Crowds
    Lighting and Compositing
        it is often a very precise and time-consuming process, Additionally, in animation, decomposition of shots into layers of elements, and subsequent compositing, is usually done in the lighting department.
    Effects Animation and Simulation
    Shot Finaling, Rendering, and Cleanup
    Post-Production    
    Production Management
    
    Technical Considerations:
        The need for end-to-end software pipeline integration
        A fast, high-capacity network.
        A large render farm.
        A large image storage farm.
        large model and shot storage farm.
        A sophisticated backup system.

Managing an Animated Film
    Film Management and Personal Style
    Business Affairs
    Production Finance
    Building the Core Creative Team
    Writing and Visual Development
        Storyboarding and Reels
        Research, Training, and Development
    Working with a Studio
    Completion Bonds
    Managing Expectations
    Facilities and Environment
    Production Management 101
    Using Subcontractors
    The Production Brain Trust
    Encouraging Iteration: Managing Change

The Production Process: An Animator’S Perspective
Working on CG-Animated Content in Live-Action Features

- DP: director of photography
- Special effects are sometimes referred to as practical effects or
mechanical effects.

- SFX: Special Effects

- 1st AD： the first assistant director

- DI：digital intermediate

- MoCap：Motion capture

- stand-in 替身

- gaffer (head of the electrical department)灯光指导，灯光师。

- close-up 特写镜头

- digitization： Video and data must be similarly converted into frames. This step is sometimes called ~

- Coordinator 协调者

- CCD：charge-coupled device

- CMOS (complementary metaloxide semiconductor)

- AAMs :Active Appearance Models

-The process of removing the head motion from the marker data is referred to as stabilization.

-DI: digital intermediate

- deep rasters.

it’s worth its weight in gold.