Compositing 3D into Video in Maya and After Effects
In this tutorial we'll learn how to take the output from a motion tracker app into Maya, import a 3D model to light and render, then jump into After Effects to composite it with our original footage. Software required: Maya 2010 and After Effects CS4 and up for project files.
What you'll learn
In this tutorial we'll learn how to take the output from a motion tracker app into Maya, import a 3D model to light and render, then jump into After Effects to composite it with our original footage. We'll begin the tutorial by setting up our motion tracked scene by adding the original footage and aligning everything to make working easier. We'll then bring in our 3D object and learn how to place it in our scene. We'll then learn how to create ground geometry and match the lighting in our original shot. We'll then create multiple render passes and layers to make compositing much easier. After we render, we'll jump into After Effects and learn about such topics as shadow matching, color matte usage and various techniques to match our 3D render with our live action back-plate. The end result of this course will be a final color corrected shot of our 3D object in real life. This tutorial will illustrate an example of how to use Maya and After Effects together to integrate a 3D model into live-action footage. This will allow us to place our own 3D models into real environments easier. Software required: Maya 2010 and After Effects CS4 and up for project files.
Table of contents
- Setting Our Image Plane to Test Our Tracked Point Cloud 5m
- Locking Our Camera and Locators to the Grid 5m
- Importing Our Object and Integrating It into the Scene 5m
- Creating Ground Plane Geometry to Cast Shadows 7m
- Bringing in Our HDR Environment and Matching Lighting 10m
- Extending Our Ground Plane and Adding a Curb 8m
- Setting up Our Basic Color Layer and Passes 7m
- Creating a Ground and Object Ambient Occlusion Layer 9m
- Building Our Two Shadow Render Layers for Control 7m
- Creating a Color Matte Layer to Capture Different Pieces 7m
- Creating a Motion Vector Layer and Outputting It Correctly 4m
- Making Final Changes to Our Render Settings and Rendering 10m
- Importing Our Footage and Interpreting Our Images Correctly 4m
- Creating a Basic Composition Workflow 4m
- Matching Our Footage Shadows Using Our Shadow Mattes 7m
- Adding Shadows to the Sign Using Our Ground Layers 5m
- Applying Ambient Occlusion with Color Correction Techniques 5m
- Applying Our Ambient Occlusion to the Sign 3m
- Compositing Our Sign Color Passes 4m
- Using the Color Matte Pass to Create Individual Pieces 5m
- Color Correcting the Sign, Legs and Base Using Effects 8m
- Fixing the Sandbags by Replacing the Image and Heavy Cc 6m
- Creating a Film Look and Rendering Our Final Sequence 8m
About the author
Along with creating and recording training, he also used to manage the support team and work closely with the production development team at Digital-Tutors, now a Pluralsight company. He began his career working freelance and quickly realized that he wanted to find a company where he could use his talents to help people succeed in the CG industry. Chris has likely watched more Pluralsight creative training than anyone on the planet, and its evidenced by his Einstein-sized brain and encyclopedic... more