Daniel Broadway 2013 Demo Reel

It's been a very long time since I updated this blog.  However, I have a new demo reel, so check it out.

Daniel Broadway 2013 Visual Effects and Motion Graphics Reel from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.

A Lonely Place For Dying released on VODO. Watch it now!

The film I worked on as visual effects supervisor last year, A Lonely Place for Dying, will be released in 5 parts via VODO and BitTorrent. Please, if you are so inclined, check it out! Let me know what you think of the VFX especially. :)

Check it out below!

http://www.vodo.net/alpfd

FXWARS! Tribute: Race To The Future

Alright, it's been about 5 years since I've participated in a FXWARS! challenge, and I just had to be a part of this one. I'm doing the Race to the Future/Clock Tower in "Back To The Future". My home town square is strikingly similar to the Hill Valley Clock Tower and Square, so I figured I'd use that for background plates to place my CG DeLorean.

This weekend I went out and shot some background plates to run a test to see if I could use our courthouse "clock tower" as a stand in. After the effects test was done, I decided to go ahead and make a little teaser out of it. You can view it below. Please view in HD. Thanks.

Daniel Broadway Compositor Reel 2010

Just finished up my compositor reel. Check it out!

Daniel Broadway Compositor Reel 2010 from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.

A Lonely Place For Dying Theatrical Trailer

After working on this film off and on for over a year, we've finally finished it. Here is full trailer for "A Lonely Place For Dying".

A Lonely Place For Dying - Theatrical Trailer from Justin Evans on Vimeo.

A LONELY PLACE FOR DYING VFX BREAKDOWNS

Last year I was contacted by Justin Eugene Evans to finish some visual effects work on A Lonely Place For Dying. The shots I did for the film required me to push my skillset further than I had ever done before.

Since I was brought on to the film late in post production, the relatively high number of VFX shots for an independent film had to be completed in a span of just 5 months. Two computer generated shots of the bombing of Vientiane, and 26 greenscreen shots of James Cromwell in a phone booth on the corner of a street in Washington DC. I also had some other minor VFX shots sprinkled through out the film, but most of my work was concentrated in the prologue.

So those shots were the first I worked on. The shots were to depict the historic bombing of Vientiane, Laos by a squadron of B52s in 1972. So with that in mind, I began finding reference of B52s from that era, and also watching old bombing footage to get an idea of the look for the explosions.

Because of the tight schedule, I downloaded a mid-poly model of a B52 from Turbosquid for these two shots instead of creating it myself. Once I got the model, I realized it wouldn't cut it as is. So I spent an entire weekend from Friday-Sunday tweaking the model and completely texturing it from scratch. While the model would not hold up in close ups, it would work fine for the camera angles chosen for the shots.

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Then I moved on to creating the explosions for the bombing sequence. I started by attempting to use stock footage explosions, but most stock is filmed from the side, and not from above as these shots required. Stock elements also didn't produce the gritty and dirty look of bombs from the 1970s era. I then began experimenting with using particles for creating the explosions, but this did not produce convincing photorealism. The shaders looked good, but the particles did not move in a natural boiling way that explosions do.

So with those two options shot down, I turned to my good buddy Tom Miller who is a very good effects TD who happens to have a lot of experience with particles and fluid dynamics. I was not fully convinced that fluids were up to the task of such large scale explosions, as rarely have I seen large scale fluid explosions look good. They usually have a strange oily appearance to their movement, much like dropping ink into water.

However, I had Tom do some tests to convince me it was possible to do the explosions convincingly with fluids and some additional particles. He sent me back a test that looked fantastic, and so I brought him on as effects TD for the bombing shots. He went on and created about 5 or 6 fantastic fluid explosions that looked and moved wonderfully and felt just like the reference footage I had seen of old war bombings. They even had nice little debris trails shooting out, which was a very nice touch. I did some work on the fluid shaders, but Tom was the real magician with the explosions.

Another thing of note in these shots are the clouds. I had originally thought I was going to make CG volumetic clouds, but deadlines were looming, and there was no time for that. So instead, I went outside and photographed real clouds against the blue sky. I keyed the clouds off the blue sky, and placed them on 2D "cards" within in 3D space in order to get a fake parallax with the clouds. The effect is very convincing, and the clouds do indeed look 3D, even though they are not. The second bombing shot in particular benefits from this technique. You can view the cloud elements effect alone in the video below....

Also, you can view complete breakdowns of both bombing shots..





After I had finished most of the rest of the VFX for the film, I came back and concentrated on the shots of Howard Simons (James Cromwell) in a phone booth in Washington DC. Unlike the bombing shots, which were obviously VFX, these shots had to not draw attention to themselves as being effects shots. If the audience was aware that Cromwell was on a greenscreen stage in New Mexico, instead of on a D.C. street corner, it might pull them out of the scene.

I was given a 4K still shot of the Washington locale, which I then painted out all the modern technology and vehicles. Then I had to populate the streets with moving 1970s era vehicles. For this, I used a combination of CG vehicles, as well as some 1:18 scale die cast "miniatures". I used the miniatures only in the close-ups of Cromwell, as I couldn't figure out a way to convincingly have them line up with the perspective of the back plate, as well as drive on their own.

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To get the minatures in the shots, my buddy Jonathan and I simply photographed stills of the models against green or blue posterboard depending on the model's color. We shot outdoors in natural sunlight to make sure it matched the natural light of the plate. We put the cars on a lazy susan so that we could move the models around to get the angle we wanted, instead of having to move the camera around. Some people might be wary of using such a low-tech solution in a film, but if you can get away with it, and it looks good, then there's no reason not to. It saved us countless hours of having to render CG cars for the number of shots, and no one would be any the wiser if I had not mentioned it here. To complete the illusion, I photographed friends and co-workers on greenscreen and put them in the miniature cars as drivers. Then I simply animated the stills of the models across the screen, then added motion blur. Due to the background being defocused, I could get away with using this simple method.

For the wide and medium shots of D.C., I used a library of CG cars I downloaded. Again, the cars were not up to spec for feature film use, so I modifed them, and gave them all new shaders. I rendered them with reflections of the D.C. location in order to integrate them into the plate better.

Hopefully, most audiences won't even know there are any VFX involved in those shots.

You can view a breakdown of a D.C. shot below...

A Lonely Place For Dying has not yet been released in the U.S., but I will update the blog as soon as it is. I just got my screener last week, and believe me, it's a great film.

Understanding Linear Workflow

Hey folks. AeTutsPlus has hosted my newest video tutorial "Understanding Linear Workflow". This is a subject that is confusing to many people, and I hope this tutorial will help to clear up some of the misunderstandings. Head over and check it out!

A Lonely Place For Dying

I know it's been a long time since I've updated my blog, but my life has been crazy busy with freelance work, normal work, and other such things. Free time is scarce.

My current freelance work is as a visual effects artist (along with some supervising) on a new independent film called "A Lonely Place For Dying." The opening shot of the film is actually a fully CG shot composited and featuring CGI B-52s by myself, and featuring CG explosions from my good buddy, Tom Miller.

Here is a little sneak peak at that shot...

Click to view larger

When I get some free time, I'll be writing new tips and tutorials, so stay tuned.

"Star Trek: The Beginning" Teaser Trailer VFX Breakdown

A year or so ago, after watching the first teaser trailer for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, I was excited about the reinvigoration of the of the Star Trek franchise.

Being a CG artist, I am also always looking for ways to practice and increase my skills. I thought, "What if I was in charge of reinvigorating Star Trek?" What would my first teaser trailer look like?

So, I decided to find out. During my down time, I began to work on CG assets, some loaned to me by very generous and talented CG artists from across the web. Below, I present a look at the creation of the VFX in this fan created Star Trek: The Beginning Teaser Trailer.

In the first shot, we see two starfleet officers riding a turbolift up a launch tower, similar to one you would see at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This shot is a combination of CGI and of live action plates. The two actors scene in it are actually two of my coworkers. They were shot on a green chroma key wall where I work at separate times.

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The background turbolift and launch tower are fully CG creations. The far background of the San Francisco skyline is a stock photo acquired from www.sxc.hu, an excellent free stock photography site. As a matter of fact, all San Francisco skylines featured were aquired from there.

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The next shot, we see some metal doors opening to reveal a gantry hallway leading up to a launching pad. Like the previous shot, both of my coworkers were shot on greenscreen, and placed into a fully CG shot. The only other real element is the steam coming out of the end of the gantry to the left, and that was aquired at www.detonationfilms.com

The shot after that, we see the newly designed Enterprise sitting in the shipyard in San Francisco Bay. This shot is fully CG except for the background skyline and some of the steam elements, again, from Detonation Films.

Next, we see a shot of the Enterprise's secondary hull, which has not yet been attached to the primary hull, undergoing some zero-g plate welding. This shot is once again fully digital except for the earth in the background which is a NASA image obtained at spaceflight.nasa.gov.

This next shot should be interesting to some Trekkies. It depects the saucer being launched from San Francisco Bay into space. For this, I wanted to evoke a very NASA like feel to the launch, complete with smoking billows to each side. However, I could not create a convicning scale and look with CG volumetric smoke. Instead, I choose to use images I found of huge volcanic pyroclastic flows, cut out the smoke, rotate into position, and animate their billowing using After Effect's Mesh Warp tool. This is a techinique I learned from Mark Christiansen's Adobe After Effects CS4 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techinques. Whew, that's a mouthful.

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Also, the water in the still shot was perfectly still, so I replaced the water in the bay with CG water so that the water would have movement.

Original Plate
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CG Water
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Next up is the teaser reveal of the Enterprise from the rear in drydock, while in orbit around Earth. For this shot, I used the wonderful CG models of Dan Uyeno (Enterprise/Drydock) and Rafael Dominguez Estrada (Galileo 7 shuttlecraft). Again, the Earth is an image from NASA composited into this otherwise fully digital shot.

Of particular interest to me personally in this shot, is the digital recreation of the anamorphic lens flare seen in this shot. It is made of highly custom compositing operations using luma matte tricks and various other filters such as Knoll Light Factory.

Anamorphic Lens Flare
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The final shot in the trailer is the reveal of the Enterprise fully from the front, and its subsequent jump to warp. This shot is simple, but also offered room to learn about new techniques. One thing I did, was create a 2D matte painting of Jupiter in Photoshop using a Cassini image as base. The streaking light of the ship during the warp jump were achieved using Mental Ray and 32-bit rendering that allowed me to create of the overbrights required for this effect.

Enteprise leaving the Solar System (Jupiter and moons in background)
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Well, that's a quick rundown of the shots. I hope this has been informative. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. The link is in the upper right hand corner of my blog. You can also watch this trailer below, but please go to YouTube and click the HD button to watch it in it's HD glory.

VFX Tip #3 - Compositing Fog or Mist

Compositing fog elements seems like a pretty straightforward thing to do in After Effects. Shoot or render your fog element against black, and then Add or Screen it on top of your footage, right? Wrong. This method is incorrect. Let's go over why.

The Add transfer mode should only be used when compositing light passes, or something that is made up of light, such as fire, lasers, or lens flares. However, fog, as we know, is not made up of light, but rather tiny particles of moisture suspended in the air. They may reflect, refract, and diffuse light, but they do not emit it. Therefore, we must not composite fog elements with Add or Screen because it is an incorrect representation of real life. This holds true of smoke elements as well.

On a simple compositing level, fog elements should occlude their background plate, not Add to it. The following is a technique I use for compositing fog elements into background plates using After Effects. This method can apply to other compositing programs as well, so if you use Shake, Combustion, Nuke, Fusion, or other such program, please continue to read on.

First, let's look at our original background plate...

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As you can see, this image provides a good reference for a starting point to add more fog. Notice how the fog completely obsures the top of the bridge tower. The fog is not see through as an Add operation would be. Now, let's take a look at our fog element...

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I purchased this fog element from http://www.detfilmshd.com/, which is a great resource for low cost elements that composite nicely into VFX shots. I highly recommend them. If you do not have a filmed element of fog, Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise can be used as a decent substitute.

Now, we can't just put this element over the background plate using Add, because we get this result...

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That doesn't look very natural when we compare it with our original plate. It's blowing out the bridge details and the sky, because it seems to be adding light. This is not what we are going for. Remember, we want occlusion, not addition.

A better alternative, is to create a new soild layer, and use the color eyedropper tool to select an appropriate gray color to use for our fog. I generally try to use a color near the horizon.

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Now all we have to do, is use the fog footage's luminance as a mask on the new gray solid we just created. To do this, simply layer the fog element footage over the solid, and set the solid's track matte to "Luma Matte." That's all their is to it. Your composite will now look much more natural.

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Finally, we can add one more last touch to this composite. Select your background plate layer (in this case, the bridge) and add a Compound Blur. This will look strange at first, so we need to make a couple of adjustments. Set to Blur layer in the Compound Blur controls menu to be the fog footage element. This will use the fog element's luminance as a mask for blurring the background plate. This simulates the way fog in the real world diffracts light behind it. The blur by default, though, will be 20, which is too high for fog, so set it to be around 0.5-1.0.

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A little extra work than using transfer modes to be sure, but it will greatly help the realism of your shots. And here is our finished composite...

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Car Shader Tests

So, this is my first attempt at doing a photorealisitc studio car rendering. I used mental ray for 3ds max for this image. The car is using shaders from the Arch & Design materials, as well as a Car Paint material build with mental ray.

A little post work, such as film grain and softening, and I think it's starting to take on a realistic appearance.

Click to view full resolution image

Click to view full resolution image

Tutorial : Filmic Fades and Dissolves

Some of you may or may not be aware, that when you fade or dissolve film optically, it produces slightly different results than when you do the same operations in computer software.

In non-linear video editing, a dissolve or fade is done in software, by interpolating gradually between the RGB values of each pixel of the image. In this tutorial example here, which is a fade, it is done by interpolating the RGB values of the image with black.

In film however, this effect is created by controlled double exposure from frame to frame; transiting from the end of one clip to the beginning of another, or by fading to black. Doing it in this way, in essence, causes lighter parts of the image to win out over the darker parts of the next clip.

The difference is very subtle, but the difference can be detected almost subconsciously, and most people prefer a filmic or optical dissolve.

In this tutorial, I choose to illustrate a fade to and from black, because it is seen often in movie trailers, and you can view more examples readily by going to Apple Trailers.

This tutorial is made using Adobe After Effects, however, any software package that allows processing of images using a Gamma 1.0 color space should work as well.

So first, here is a video example of the differences between the two dissolve types...


Filmic Fade Comparison from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.


After watching it, you can see the difference is subtle like I said it would be. Here are a couple of frames to illustrate the fade better. Notice how the light parts of the image win out over the dark in the filmic version, and the non filmic version looks kind of muddy....

Ok, so how do we do it?

In After Effects, load your footage into the timeline. Then create a new black solid by going to Layer>New>Solid... Put this solid over your footage in the timeline. Now to get the filmic look, we have to make sure our project is set to blend using 1.0 gamma. You do this by going to File>Project Settings... Then all you do, is click the checkmark box next to "Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma."


Now you will be able to create a filmic fade by simply animating the opacity of the black solid layer. It's that simple.


Well, that's basically all there is to it. Like I said, this can also be done with dissolves, just use another piece of footage instead of the black solid, and you will have a filmic dissolve as well.

Star Trek Trailer 2 Online

The second trailer for the new Star Trek movie is now online. Even if you are not a Star Trek fan, you just might like the look of this new one. They've gone to the roots to start over it seems.

You can now view the new Star Trek trailer online at apple.com here...

STAR TREK TRAILER 2

OpenEXR

I'm very late jumping onto the bandwagon of OpenEXR, or the .EXR format for images. My recent conversion to a completely linear workflow has coaxed me into making the jump. I must say however, that I wish I had been using EXR ever since it came out to the public.

For those of you who don't know, EXR is a image format written at Industrial Light and Magic for storing scanned film images or renders. It is a very sophisticated format, allowing you many options for compression, bit depths, and the ability to store high dynamic range values.

I won't go into all the technical information, but just a couple of suggestions I learned.


1.When storing a render without film grain , compress using ZIP lossless compression.

2. When storing a scanned film frame, or digital video with noise, compress using PIZ lossless compression.


For more techinical details on EXR, see these two sites...

http://www.openexr.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openexr

The main reason for me posting this entry is this: USE EXR, IT ROCKS.

Essential Reading For Every Visual Effects Artist

I have been meaning to write a new VFX tip for weeks now, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Life's been busy...or I've been lazy, I don't know which. Perhaps a little of both, skewing toward lazy.

However, while this is not a VFX tip or tutorial of my own, I hope it is helpful nonetheless. I learned CG by spending hours at the local Barnes and Noble reading books on graphics and visual effects. Today, there is a wealth of knowledge and reference out there regarding these subjects. Here is a list of three books, that are at the top of my list of essential reading for visual effects artists.

1. Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen

This is my favorite book of all time. Never before I have seen so much information about visual effects crammed into one book. None of the material is wasteful, and it includes great tips on compositing, along with explainations on why photographed elements look the way they do. While this book is specifically for Adobe After Effects, the information can be used across almost any compositing package, as it also includes general theory along with detailed examples of how to perform the effects in After Effects. Pick this book up.

2.Digital Lighting and Rendering (2nd Edition) by Jeremy Birn

I know I said number one was my favorite book of all time, but I think this book has to be tied. It's fantastic, but in a different way. While AE Studio Techniques covers a wide array of compositing techniques, this book covers 3D lighting, texturing, and compositing. The first edition of this book almost single handedly taught me how to light CG shots. When I was a visual effects noob way back in 2000-2001, I spent many weekends at my local Barnes & Noble reading that book. The second edition is the latest one, and it covers everything from old school techniques, to the newest of lighting and compositing. This is the best book on CG lighting that has ever been written, period.

3. The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap by Stu Maschwitz

I included this book in the list because not only is it clever, informative, and well written, it's just plain fun. This book excited me the first time I thumbed through it. Stu explains ways to get big budget looks on a not so big budget. He covers almost all aspects of filmmaking from your first script idea all the way to the finished product. There is a chapter on effects, which even covers miniatures, along with digital effects. The information in this book is fantastic. Pick it up, and be on your way to shooting a low budget action flick.

Stan Winston Passes Away

It is with great sadness I make this post. Legendary make up and creature effects artist Stan Winston has passed away at age 62. He was one of Hollywood's top talent. Throughout his career, he won three Academy Awards. His loss is a great one to the effects industry, and to Hollywood as a whole.

Some of you might not know his name, but you most certainly know his work. He and his team of talented artist brought us the likes of the Terminator, the Jurassic Park dinosaurs, Alien, Predator, and many more. His most recent work was creating the practical suit for Iron Man.

His death hits kind of close to home for me, because I am an aspiring effects artist. Even though I aspire to be a CG artist, and not a physical effects artist as Stan was, he is still an inspiration to me. His animatronic work on Jurassic Park, along with ILM's CG effects, is what inspired me originally to want to be an effects artist.

So next time you watch one of the classic movies he worked on, remember all the hard work and genius behind the effects that he and his team created. A truly talented man, and a great loss to be sure.

CG Water Splashes

This afternoon I played around with creating large scale CG water splashes using compositing tricks. The results are below...

Background Plate

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CG Splash Element

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Final Composite

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For a more in depth rundown of how I created this effect, head over to the CGTalk Particle Flow Discussion Thread

As a side note, today is my 3rd wedding anniversary to my wonderful wife Sarah. I love her very much, and I look forward to the many more years we will spend together.

VFX Tip #2 - Lightwrap: Less is More

Light wrapping is a useful technique for making a blue/greenscreen subject or CG object really set in the background it is being composited into. It creates the illusion of the light from the background plate appear to bleed over the foreground, which helps the element blend naturally with its background.

However, this technique should be used subtly. A common mistake I see often in composites is using too much lightwrap. If you just leave the lightwrap effects at 100% opacity, most of the time, it will be too much. In fact, I try not to go above about 50% opacity. Look at the example below to see what I mean.

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Clearly, the default 100% is far too much lightwrap, which looks unnatural, and gives away the composite. However, on the right, the lightwrap is only at 25% and feels far more natural.

BMW Spec Commercial - Directed By Me.

Some of you may know, about 3 weeks ago I purchased a Canon HV20 HD Camcorder. I wanted to test it's full video quality, so Jonathan and I set out to film some footage of his BMW M3. I shot the video at a full 1080p at 24fps and edited together a little spec commercial for fun. It was not my original intention to make a commercial out of it, but I thought I might as well turn the footage into something useful. Take a look, and let me know that you think.

I hope you enjoy my choice of music. *wink*

You can view the YouTube Version here...



And the Vimeo HD version here (Better Quality...Click Link Below Video to watch in HD)...


BMW Spec Commerical - Directed By Daniel Broadway from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.

VFX Tip #1 - Hunk Of Burning Love

No, I'm not the hunk of burning love. However, you may love me after this easy tip. In addition, you'll most certainly love the power of blending fire elements using 1.0 gamma.

This is the first of what I hope to be a continued series of visual effects tips. Sometimes they will be quick tips, and sometimes a bit more involved.

For my first tip, I thought I would share the benefits of compositing using a gamma blending of 1.0 in Adobe After Effects. Without going into a detailed explanation, blending with a gamma of 1.0 allows a more natural looking blend of light inside of a composite. This is especially true of elements shot against black such as fire or explosions.

In After Effects, you can enable 1.0 gamma blending by going to File>Project Settings and put a check mark next to "Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma." Below is an image example. All settings are identical, except for the gamma blending change. Both fire elements are composited using the "Add" transfer mode.

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Notice how the fire on the left is quite blown out, and has lost much of it's orange color, which was in the original plate. After enabling blending, you can see on the right that it sets in the in the image much nicer, and looks far more natural. Well, as natural as burning stone can look, anyway. There is also a noticeable difference in the cast lighting that I faked on the ground under the fire.

Also keep in mind, that this can also be useful for energy effects, such as sparks, lightning, lasers, or even lightsaber blades.

I hope this little tip was helpful. Stay tuned for more.