Ben's Comp Newsletter: Issue 059
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Hey,
This week's newsletter covers a variety of
topics -- I hope you discover something
useful to improve your workflow.
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MJ
Tang's fancy new tool helps you to
scatter one instance of geometry many times
across another piece of geometry. There are
so many real-world applications for this
tool, including creating fields of
foliage, scattering buildings in the
distance, or even randomly placing cards for
atmospheric elements in your scene!
MJ's demo
video shows off a few of the
useful features, such as auto-orientation
based off geometry normals, however, the
most useful feature has come in the v1.2
update, being density
map support.
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Seasoned DP's tend to like using lenses with
imperfect characteristics to add more
texture and interest to the scene they're
capturing. Unfortunately, this makes life as
a Compositor more difficult, as we have to
mimic said imperfections in our work. One
such artefact I'm seeing more frequently is
Cats Eye Bokeh, which we talked
about in Issue
039 of Ben's Comp Newsletter.
Simplistically, this phenomenon of bokeh
shapes distorting towards the edge of frame
happens when some light rays aiming
to enter the outer edges of a lens get
blocked by the barrel of said lens.
Earlier this year, Chris
Fryer put together what I
consider to be the best implementation of
defocusing your image with Cats Eye
Bokeh in Nuke -- a gizmo he calls
cfCatsEyeDefocus. Check out the demo
video here!
Additionally, this
is a great resource to learn more about
bokeh!
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Comp math basics & some neat history
behind it.
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Conrad
Olson has put together two
videos explaining the theory & math
behind premultiplication
and the over
operation. I appreciate the way he
explains these concepts using examples from
the optical compositing days, which provide
great context for why we do what we do.
Conrad also touches on a few links to check
out, which cover the history and birth of
VFX. Always worth revisiting for both a
refresher, and some entertainment:
These videos are a must-watch for students,
and are a great resource for more
experienced Compositors who would like to
help explain these concepts to their
less-experienced colleagues.
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The future of Netflix VFX (NetFX), and
Machine Learning.
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"If you haven't heard, Netflix is
developing a VFX platform called Netfx.
The Netfx platform aims to connect
globally distributed VFX artists to
their new in house studio, a cloud based
VFX facility, where artists work
directly on their productions."
Dexter
Davey has authored an opinion piece
on how Netflix, with their experience in
collecting and using massive datasets, could
start leading the charge to a
machine-learning-based VFX future.
Fascinating read -- one that will get you
thinking!
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Do you have something to
share?
If
you have any
feedback on how this
newsletter could
provide more value
to you or others, or
just want to share
your creations,
please reply to this
email -- I'd love to
hear it all!
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Thanks to my Patreon
Supporters.
This issue
of Ben's
Comp
Newsletter is
sponsored by
Keegen
Douglas.
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Aaron Bradford
Adam Kelway
Adrian Winter
Aman Arora
Anton Moss
Antonio Gabarrón
Attila Gasparetz
Ben Cecioni
Brent Veal
Christian Morin
Ciaran O Neachtain
Dan McCarthy
David Ventura
Eduardo Cardoso
Ed Englander
Federico
Gary Kelly
Hugo's Desk
Ian Failes
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Ivan Sorgente
Jan Stripek
Julien Laperdrix
Kim
Kris Janssens
Lee Watson
Matt
Micheal Liuyu
Michael Loithaler
MMM
Santosh Seshabhattar
Seth Weber
Shih Yi Peng
Stu Maschwitz
Suresh Pandi
Tiscar Coig
Vincent Desgrippes
William Towle
+ 2 Anonymous
others...
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If you get value from
reading Ben's Comp
Newsletter every other
week, please consider contributing via
Patreon to help keep it running!
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