Spirit Train

Introduction

Role:	Generalist
Produced:	JUN 2021
Project Type:	Individual Project
Location:	Escape Studios at Pearson College of London
Description:	​3DEqualizer, Maya, Substance Painter. Matchmove and Layout. Modelling and texturing of asset.​

​​"A technical challenge to integrate CG onto live-action footage with considerable motion blur and automatic camera parameters."

---

Objective

The intention for this project was to go back to the first assignment that was given during the first week at Escape; 'The introduction to Maya'. This assignment simply tasked us with creating a toy train using Maya.

• The individual project that I wanted to do this time intended to take this further. The project would involve modelling a toy train and integrating it into a live-action plate as realistically as possible. This included IBL lighting, textures, matchmove, etc.

• To test my ability at matchmoving, I intended to film plates using a camera that had automatic parameters rather than manual.

["Spirit Train", modelled by Ethen Dent]

---

Data Collection

I initially planned to film the plates using the Rear camera of a Samsung S9. However, this ended up being a technical issue during the matchmove process. Due to the fact that mobile phone cameras are designed to be incredibly easy to use, they have a lot of automatic parameters that the user does not need to control. Even with the option to turn these automatic parameters to manual, there still seems to be hidden parameters being automatically controlled. I attempted to solve the track but the quality was definitely not good enough. I opted to use a Canon Legria HFG25 instead. Still using automatic parameters, but not nearly as much as the Samsung S9.

Having to film plates multiple times though, gave me great chance to practice data collection since I haven't had chance to do that for the group projects (due to Covid-19).

---

Concept

Submission to 1st year, Introduction to Maya

The 'Spirit Train' as seen within the Nintendo title; 'The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks'

---

Modelling & Texturing

---

Matchmoving

Matchmoving proved to be the most difficult aspect to this project by far. Since the Canon Legria used automatic parameters, the track couldn't rely on static parameters to achieve an accurate result. It was necessary to utilise dynamic parameters to help achieve an accurate track.

In total, I was able to identify 3 parameters that required to be dynamic and the rest was calculated via parameter adjustment:

- Focal Length/Zoom

- Focus Distance

- Distortion

---

Compositing

Becoming knowledgeable of a compositing package was one of my weakest areas as a matchmove artist. Using the opportunity to take this project into Nuke allowed me to learn the lens distortion pipeline.

Additionally, I now know how to set up basic scripts for CG integration for compositors to use.

One technical issue that I did have however, was the use of motion blur. During one of the frames, the motion blur would ramp up drastically high without explanation. Unfortunately, I did not have time to find a fix to the issue and resorted to disabling the motion blur node before rendering.

---

What I've been listening to: